uNivercii* o^ v;;'',!;'V,!i;i'li,,i';liiiiiiiim'i 3 1822 00580 0693 ■iili ^ilil 1 L UN SAN DrEGO J UNIVFRSITY OF CALirORNIA SAN UICCO 3 1822 00580 0693 Cer ?a PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SERIES IN ROMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES. No. 6 r THE LITERARY RELATIONS BETWEEN LA FONTAINE AND THE ''ASTREE" OF HONORE D' URFE WALTHER P. FISCHER a dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Department of Philosophy OF THE University of Pennsylvania IN partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy PHILADELPHIA, PA. DR. HUGO ALBERT RENNERT PROFESSOR OF ROM \NIC LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA I GRATEFULLY DEDICATE THIS VOLUME PREFACE. In the following study I propose to deal with the literary relations between Honore d'Urfe's famous pastoral novel Astree and La Fontaine. The subject naturally falls into two main parts. After a brief introduction on the Astree and its influence during the seventeenth century, I examine, first, the different short passages in which La Fontame himself refers to the Astree or its characters. Then fol- lows a detailed study of his " tragedie lyrique " Astree, and a discussion of a remark in Olivet's Histoire de I'Aca- demie Francaise, in which a direct influence of the Astree on La Fontaine is assumed. These chapters form what might be called the external evidence for the existence of literary relations between Urfe and La Fontaine. The second part comprises what we might correspond- ingly term internal evidence. In this are successively ex- amined the fables, the Contes and the novel Les amours de Psyche et de Cupid on, with occasional references to minor works, like the Songe de Vaux, and the leading ideas of these works are compared with Urfe's views on correspond- ing subjects. Thus, in the chapter on the fables, the more personal elements in our poets are discussed, especially their feeling for nature and their longing for a quiet life; under the heading of the Contes their theories on love are compared, and a special study is made of La fiancee du roi de Garbe, which I consider as a parody on certain motives of the pastoral and chivalrous romances. Les amours de Psyche, finally, offers an opportunity to study La Fon- taine's and Urfe's theories on the fine arts, and to point out a few noteworthy similarities in certain episodes. VI PREFACE In this second part, it has been difficult to draw a line between conscious borrowings and mere coincidences; Urfe himself points out, in his charming, old-fashioned style: " Bien souuent diuerses personnes tombent en vn mesme sujet, sur vne mesme conception." The question is further complicated by another fact to which perhaps suffi- cient attention is not always given, namely the very large part that preciosity plays in La Fontaine, especially in his minor works. It is here that the independent fabulist shows the influence of his age. This current of preciosity with its abundant development during the preceding two generations makes the task singularly complicated. There is always the danger of ascribing to the influence of one work of the beginning of the century what La Fontaine might have found among his contemporaries. Moreover, a good many of the ideas and theories discussed belong to the literary commonplaces and conventions of all ages and are especially frequent in Italian literature, so familiar to La Fontaine. These considerations led me to the form of presentation which is here finally adopted: that of a comparison rather than of a study of direct influence, and only in a few cases have I ventured to treat similarities as actual borrowings. By way of conclusion the results of the preceding com- parison were grouped chronologically. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligations to Dr. Jules Simon, of the University of Munich, who suggested the subject of this thesis and to whose constant interest in its completion I owe a great deal. From Professor Adolphe Cohn and Professor H. A. Todd, of Columbia Uni- versity, I also received most kindly aid while holding a Special Fellowship in Romance Languages at that Uni- versity. I am particularly indebted to Professor Hugo A. Rennert and Dr. J. P. Wickersham Crawford, of the Uni- PREFACE Vll versity of Pennsylvania, for their continued assistance and for many valuable suggestions and corrections, both in sub- stance and in form. Finally I wish to express my thanks to the library of Yale University, which most generously granted me the prolonged use of one of its complete editions of the Astree. CONTENTS PAGE Preface i CHAPTER I Introduction i The Astrie and its vogue in the seventeenth century. CHAPTER II La Fontaine's Allusions TO THE "Astree" 5 The Ballade des livres d' amour — The dissertation on the Astree in Les Amours de Psycht et de Cupidon—Tht ballad : Oti aim.e encor com,nie on aimait jadis - Contes : Les amis Rhnois and Le cas de conscience— The Ballet sur la Patx de Nimigue — The Epttre d, Htiet. CHAPTER III La Fontaine's Opera " Astree" i6 Its composition — Its plot compared with Urfe's novel — Its lit- erary merit. CHAPTER IV The Statement of the Abbe d'Olivet in his " Histoire de l' Academie Francaise " 33 CHAPTER V La Fontaine's Fables 27 The fable in the Astree— The real and the conventional shep- herd in La Fontaine's fables as compared with the Astree— The personal element : Les deux pigeons and the preface to the first part of the Astree— FeeWng for nature : independently expressed by each poet ; Urfe as a landscape painter ; nature in accord with human moods— Longing for quiet life ; identity of inspiration- Conclusion : the public of both the Astree and of the Fables not insensible to the charms of nature. X COXTENTS PAGE CHAPTER VI La Fontaine's "Contes" 58 Fundamental difference between the Contes and the Astree— A few commonp\a.ces— The FlancS:; du roi de G-'arZ-^ considered as a burlesque of chivalrous and pastoral romances. CHAPTER Vn " Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon " 73 Significance of the Cjpid and Psyche mj'th — La Fontaine's attitude toward t'e myth: the '"style galant " — Descriptions of art in PsychS and in the Astree : architecture and painting ; Urfe as an art critic and observer of nature ; the notion of color in La Fontaine and Urfe The description of physical beauty ; pas- sages of Psycht. Le Songe de Vaux and Clymine compared with parallel scenes ot the Astree— T\\t episode of the fisherman {PsychL book H) a reminiscence of the Astree, or an echo of Ariosto and Tasso ? — Minor similarities. CHAPTER VII Conclusion 95 Index 98 THE LITERARY RELATIONS BETWEEN LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTREE" OF HONORE D' URFK CHAPTER I. Introduction. The Astree and its Vogue in the Seventeenth Century. The severe critic Chapelain, in a letter addressed to " M. Gruterus, Moderateiir du College firasmien de Roter- dam ", who had asked him for advice concerning which novels he should read, praises Honore d'Urfe's famous pastoral novel in the following manner : " Nos modernes Fran(;ais se sont signales dans les romans en prose, & entre plusieurs, Monsieur d'Urfe, dans V Astree, laquelle a este le premier roman en ordre & le premier en merite propre a estre leu mesme par les sgavans." ^ Published in five instalments, from 1607-1628, the Astree became popular at once and enjoyed, perhaps, a greater success than any literary work in France had ever achieved. Considerably later in date than the chief Italian and Spanish pastorals, it could harbor in its ponderous vol- umes all the characteristics of its foreign predecessors, — the glow of passion of a Diana, as well as the divine serenity 1 Lettres de Chapelain, ed. Tamizy de Larroque, Paris, 1880, Vol. II, p. 542. It is noteworthy that in the Catalogue de tous les livres de feu M. Chape'ain (ed. C. Searles, Stanford University, 1912) not a single work of Urfe is listed. I 2 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E " of an Aminta. \\'ithal it was enriched with new, distinctive traits; erudite archeological details, contemporary gossip, and, above all, that one character which, to this very day, makes the Astree worth reading, Hylas, the unfaithful shepherd, the incarnation of the '' spirit that denies." Aside from its literary merit, the Astree, as has often been pointed out, was indeed a timely publication. After decades of disastrous civil warfare. Henry IV had suc- ceeded in pacifying the country; and it is certainly not by mere chance that Urfe gave his heroine the name of the goddess of peace : Astraea ! ^ And although war is not un- known in the idyllic valley of the Lignon and the shep- herds of the Forez, when necessary, bravely face the attacks of the enemy, the longing for peace and tranquillity — a commonplace in all pastorals — found an especially poetic expression in the Astree, and a decidedly sympathetic echo in the hearts of the readers of the time. The influence, direct or indirect, exerted by Urfe's novel on society and literature is a most fascinating chapter in the literary history of France during the seventeenth cen- tury. Mr. O. C. Reure. in his excellent book on the life and works of Honore d'Urfe, has given especial attention to this problem, and for all details the reader may be re- ferred to the vast amount of material collected by him.^ Let us only add another fact which well shows how deeply the fashionable world with its fickle tastes was affected by the novel: Somaize's Dictionnaire des Precieiix, published in 1660 under the strongest influence of later salons, in ^ In this connection a curious coincidence may be noted : as early as 1591 (the date of the dedicatory epis'le) an Italian poet, Giovanni Villi- franchi, had written an Astrea, favola pastorale. This second-rate pastoral, composed in avowed emulation of Tasso's Amitita, has no relation to Urfe's work. Cf. the edition of Venice, 1594. 2 La Vie et les CEuvres de Honore d'Urfe, Paris, 1910. See esp. chapters XV. and XVI., L'iuHuence and la fortune de I'Astree. INTRODUCTION 3 which Mile, de Scudery was the author most admired, still contains at least ten names or designations which come di- rectly from the Astree.^ In the literature of the seventeenth century, allusions to the Astrce and its principal characters are exceedingly fre- quent, especially among the minor authors.^ In the great classics such allusions are less numerous. Corneille refers to Urfe's novel only once, in a charming scene of the Suite du menteiir,^ while Boileau praises it in the dissertation which precedes his dialogue Les heros de roman.* Racine mentions the Astree merely incidentally,^ and Moliere, in the Bourgeois gentilhomme, alludes only to pastoral poetry in general. 1 They are : Belinda (= Astree, part I, book 10, p. 702, in the first general edition of 1632-33, to which we refer in all quotations for parts I-IV; for part V, we used the edition of 1647); Filonte (= Fih'nte in Astr., IV, 6, p. 500) ; Florice {Astr., II, 4, p. 223) ; Ligdamon (Astr., I, 3, p. 55, and I, 11, p. 769) ; Madonte (Astr., II, 6, p. 371) ; Rosenire (Astr., IV, 10, p. 998 = Rosanire) ; Sigismond (Astr., IV, 7, p. 610) ; Tircis (Astr., I, 7, p. 437) ; La bonne Deesse (passim) ; Pretresse d'un temple de vestalles (passim). Curiously enough, neither the Astree nor Urfe is mentioned by Somaize, and in the first Epostille, dealing with the precieux of Milet (= Lyons), we do not find a single name suggesting Urfe's pastoral. Cf. Dictionnaire. . . . ed. Livet, Paris, 1858, 2 vols. ' Cf. Reure, /. c. p. 282 and p. 306. ' Cf. W. Fischer, Corneille's allusion to the Astree in his "Suite du menteur," in Modern Language Notes, xxvii, p. 94. * Cf. Reure, /. c. p. 313; Les Heros de Roman, ed. Th. F. Crane, Boston, 1902, p. 166 fif. ^ In his Lettre a I'auteur des heresies imaginaires. He defends Des Marets against Nicole : " Ni M. d'Urf e, ni Corneille . . . n'etaient res- ponsables de la conduite de des Marets." From the inventory of Racine's library it appears that he possessed a complete edition of the Astree (cf. P. Bonnefon, La Bibliothcque de Racine in Rev. de I'Hist. Litt. de la France V, p. 184.) The copy, the first general edition of 1632-33, passed through several hands and is now in the possession of the Royal Library at Munich; volumes II and III bear Racine's signature. 4 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" La Fontaine is the only great poet of the period who visibly delights in evoking, time and again, reminiscences of the Astree. Although admiration does not necessarily mean influence or imitation, these frequent allusions lead us — a priori — to the assumption of a more or less intimate relation between the two authors, which we propose to ex- amine in the following pages. CHAPTER 11. La Fontaine's Allusions to the Astree. The Ba'Iade des Litres d' Amour — The Dissertation on the Astree in Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon — The Ballade: On aime eiicor comme on aimait jadis — Cones: Les Amis Rcmois and Le Cas de Conscience — The Ballet Sur la Paix de Nimcgue — The Lpitre d Huet. I. Among the passages in which La Fontaine refers to the Astree, the one occurring in the Ballade des livres d'amour (composed before 1665)^ is especially famous. It is La Fontaine's first homage to Urfe's genius (vv. 1-19) : Hier je mis, chez Chloris, en train de discourir Sur le fait des romans Alizon la sucree. " N'est-ce pas grand'pitie, dit-elle, de souffrir Que Ton meprise ainsi la Legende Doree, Tandisque les romans sont si chere denree? // laudrait beaucoup mieux qu'avec maint vers du temps De Messire Honore I'histoire fut brulce." — Oui pour vous, dit Cloris, qui passez cinquante ans : Moi, qui n'en ai que vingt, je pretends que I' Astree Fasse en nion cabinet encor que.que sejoiir; Car, pour vous decouvrir le fond de ma pensee, Je me plais aux livres d'amour. Cloris eut quelque tort de parler si crument; Non que Monsieur d'Urfe n'eut fait une a:uvre exquise: £tant petit garqon je lisais son roman, Et je le lis encore, ay ant la barbe grise.^ Aussi contre Alizon je faillis d'avoir prise Et sou ins haut et clair qu' Urfe, par-ci par-la, De prcceptes nioraux nous instruit a sa guise. ' Cf. H. Regnier's edition in the Grands £crivains de la France, Vol. IX, pp. 22 ff., and VIII, p. 300. All quotations refer to this standard edition. 2 La Fontaine was then only some forty years old. 5 6 LA FONTAIXE AND THE "ASTR£E" This passage is very important because of the criticism it contains of the Astree. Urfe's novel appears here as the " livre d'amour " par excellence ; its author, says La Fon- taine, " gives us moral instruction in his own way." In- deed, since the day of its appearance, the Astree has always been considered as the " breviaire de I'honneste amitie," and as the " breviaire de tons les courtisans." ^ It is rather amusing to see how La Fontaine in his ballad defends " haut et clair " the morality of the Astree, while in the preface to the collection in which the poem first ap- peared — the second reciieil of 1665 — he condemns it, im- plicit e, in his desperate attempt to defend the ethics of his own Contes: " Cette gaite des contes passe legerement: je craindrais plutot une douce melancolie, ou les romans les plus chastes et les plus modestes sont tres capables de nous plonger, et qui est une grande preparation pour I'amour." ^ ^ Cf. Reure, p. 185 and p. 276. The passage in which Urfe's " pre- ceptes moraux" are best expounded, is the preface to the second part: L'Authetir au Berger Celadon. He vigorously defends Celadon's old- fashioned conception of " aymer a la vieille Gauloise" and pretends " que ces bons vieux Gaulois estoient des personnes sans artifices . . . qui n'auoient point la parole differente du coeur." * This is exactly the fault which Ch. Perrault finds with the Astree : " On ne peut pas disconvenir que la lecture n'en soit dangereuse, par- ticulierement pour les jeunes personnes, qui deja portees d'elles-memes a gouster les charmes de I'amour, y sont encore entraisnees par les exemples qu'elles y voyent de cette passion, d'autant plus dangereuse qu'elle y est degagee de toutes sortes d'impuretez." Perrault, Les hommes illustres, Paris, 1696-1700, Vol. II, pp. 39-40; now reprinted in G. Michaut, Gtuvres poetiques choisies de Hon. d'Urfe, Paris, 1909. La Fontaine himself often returns to this thought. The daughters of the hospitable old man in Psyche are forbidden to read any kinu of " livres d'amour", " comme on !e faisait alors souvent " ; the success, however, is but indifferent, "la nature servant A' Astree (Gr. S.cr., VIII, p. 154). Cf. also Coupe enchantee {Contes, III, 4, vv. 118-119); L'anneau de H. Carvel {ibid., II. 12, vv. 9-13) ; Les Amis Remois (ibid.. Ill, 3, v. 40 ff.), and La Fontaine's first letter to his wife. LA FONTAINE'S ALLUSIONS TO THE "ASTR&E" j II. There is another passage which shows perhaps still more clearly La Fontaine's critical attitude towards the Astree. It occurs at the end of the first book of Les amours de Psyche et de Cupidon (1669), in the famous conversation of the four literary friends Polyphile (=La Fontaine), Acante (= Racine), Ariste (= Boileau), and Gelaste.^ The topic of the discussion is the question whether tragedy or comedy is the nobler, whether it is preferable to weep or to laugh. Acante and Ariste defend tragedy and tears, Gelaste is the advocate of comedy and laughter. Poly- phile, who is conscious of having mingled both elements in his story of Psyche, does not decide in favor of either proposition. Among other arguments, Gelaste advances against his friend the following one, which he takes from two of the principal characters of the Astree: Vous aimeriez mieux . . . ecouter Sylvandre faisant des plaintes, que d'entendre Hylas entretenant agreablement ses maitresses ? C'est un autre point, poursuivit Ariste ; mettez les choses, comme vous dites en pareil degre d'excellence, je vous repondrai la-dessus : Sylvandre, apres tout, pourrait faire de telles plaintes, que vous les prefereriez vous-meme, aux bons mots d'Hylas. Aux bons mots d'Hylas ! repartit Gelaste : pensez-vous bien a ce que vous dites ? Savez-vous quel homme c'est que I'Hylas de qui nous parlous? C'est le veritable heros de V Astree: c'est un homme plus necessaire dans le reman qu'une douzaine de Celadons. Avec cela, dit Ariste, s'il y en avait deux, ils vous ennuieraient ; et les autres, en quelque nombre qu'ils soient, ne vous ennuient point. - ^ It remains an open question whether Gelaste is Chapelle, as Mr. P. Mesnard thinks in his Vie de La Fontaine (Gr. £cr., I, p. XCI) or whether Moliere is intended, as the tradition goes. Cf. also G. Lafenestre, La Fontaine, Paris, 189S, who proposes a compromise (p. 81). * Gr. £cr., VIII, pp. 108-109. 8 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTRBE" The attitude assumed in this passage shows clearly that the period of uncritical admiration for the Astrce had passed, and that in circles in which real good taste reigned — and where was it more likely to reign than among our four friends? — readers had become conscious of certain shortcomings of the book.^ A first criticism is directed against Sylvandre's melan- choly complaints. This shepherd is one of the most im- portant characters in the story. The account of his birth is hidden in mystery; but he saw much of the world, and received his instruction " aux Vniuersitez des Massiliens en la Prouence des Romains." ^ It was in this classical school that he acquired his lofty and somewhat incongruous philosophy of love, fraught with platonic reminiscences and strangely blended with chivalrous conceptions of wo- man-worship. His mistress is fair Diane, and to her he addresses most of the complaints which Gelaste criticises. Perhaps Gelaste is aiming not so much at these complaints in Sylvandre's verses, however precieux they may be, but rather at his philosophy in general.^ In his ideal conceptions, Sylvandre is strictly opposed to Hylas, undoubtedly the wittiest character in the Astree, and probably the best impersonation of the " esprit gaulois " in that particular period of French literature.* He is a ' As early as 1627 Sorel, in his Berger Extravagant, had attacked the idealistic novel in general and the Astree in particular; however, in the Remarques, which he added later to his work, he practically re- tracted all that he had said. See Reure, pp. 308-310. * Cf. Astr., I, 8; Histoire de Sylvandre. and the entire fifth part. ^ Sylvandre's sonnets, stances and plaintes are numerous. For his philosophical discussions see, for inst. : Astr., I, 7, p. 423 flf. ; I, 10, p. 697 ff. * Hylas represents, on the one hand, the fickle Galaor-type of the Amadis novels, on the other, he continues the long tradition of the Antipeirarchismo as introduced into France especially by Du Bellay {cf. Vianey, Le Petrarchisme en France au 16^ siecle, Montpellier, 1909, p. 165 fT.). LA FONTAINE'S ALLUSIONS TO THE "ASTR£E" g Southerner, a native of the hot plains of the Camargue, and is the most unfaithful lover imaginable; one who has de- veloped his inconstancy into a regular system/ To us it seems that the oratorical contests between Hylas and Syl- vandre would be even more amusing, if they were not so insufferably long and were less frequently marred by mere quibbling.^ The fact that La Fontaine could here, in a novel of his own, insert this welcome dissertation on the Astree and presuppose a ready understanding and interest on the part of his readers, is additional evidence that the popularity of Urfe's pastoral was by no means at an end, in spite of the above-mentioned attacks by Sorel. If Hylas appears here as the principal character of the novel, it is not only signi- ficant for La Fontaine's conception of the Astree, but also for the public in general. Celadon's and Sylvandre's idealis- tic philosophy no longer appeals to the later generation; the witty negation of the principle in the person of Hylas, primarily intended as a comic foil for those lofty ideals, carries off the victory. HL La Fontaine also mentions the Astree in the ballad On aime encor comme on aimait jadis, which has an interesting history.^ Ouinault's opera Amadis (1684), in which the hero's faithful love was celebrated, had inspired the ro- mantic Madame Deshoulieres, in spite of her forty-six * Astr., I, 8; Hist, de Parthenope, Florice et Dorinde, and below, chapter VII, p. 21 ff. Hylas' story is told as an episode in the His- toires of Astr., I, 8; II, 4, and III, 7. ' Astr., I, 8, p. 509; II, 4, p. 213, and the scene of the " Douze tables des lois d' Amour ", II, 5, p. 326 ff. 3 Gr. tier., IX, p. 36 ff., and Walckenaer, H'xst. de la vie et des ou- vrages de La Fontaine, Paris, 1858, 4th ed., Vol. II, p. 51. lO LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" years and the fact that she was not, according to Somaize, " fort sensible a I'amour," ^ to write a melancholy ballad in which she contrasts the ideal love of the happy age of Amadis with her own time." Her arguments re- semble, in a general way, those which Urfe had advanced in the above-mentioned preface to the second part of the Astree. This pessimistic view of contemporary life called for a refutation; a literary quarrel ensued, which makes one think of the glorious days of the Jobelins and the Uranistes.* We need not therefore be surprised to find also that La Fontaine, who nodded less frequently than is generally be- lieved, and who was always interested in the topics of the day, entered the lists and challenged the peevish precieuse^ ^ Diet, des Prccieux, article Dioclee (Vol. I, p. 66, ed. Livet). * CEnvres choisies de Mme. et de Mile. Deshoulieres, London, 1780, p. 59- ' Among the contestants quoted by Walckenaer we find La Fare, the poet well known for his liaison with Mme. de la Sabliere. Since the poem in question: '' Au bon vieux tenis, Dieux! quels supplices . . ." certainly dates from 1684 or shortly afterwards, we have positive proof to refute the fable reported by several critics (e. g., the anony- mous edior of La Fare's works of 1808), that La Fare's poetic talent revealed itself only at the age of fifty or sixty. Born in 1644, he was forty years old when he wrote this particular poem, and there is no reason to believe that it was his first offense. Cf. F. Schwarzhaupt, Coulanges, Chaulieu und La Fare, Diss., Leipzig, 1908. * Walckenaer alleges as a reason for La Fontaine's animus toward Mme. Deshoulieres the hostility which she had repeatedly shown to his friend Racine. Perhaps La Fontaine had a further, more per- sonal reason: We see from Somaize's Dictionnaire (art. Dioclee and Leonce) that Mme. Deshoulieres presided over a circle in which the same Linieres who in 1674 so cruelly mocked at La Fontaine's opera Daphne, played an important part ; in fact, there seems to have been a time when the lady was actually in love with Linieres. In 1691, the latter still shows the same hostility in the chansons in which he ridi- cules La Fontaine's opera Astree. Perhaps these chansons were a late reply to La Fontaine's ballad against Linieres' pa roness, who, in her turn, had prcjbaljly had some share in Linieres' couplets against Daphn6. LA FONTAINE'S ALLUSIONS TO THE "ASTR£E" n Madame Deshoiilieres had begun her ballad with the words : A caution tous amans sont sujets. Cette maxime en ma tete est ecrite. La Fontaine bluntly replies, in the same metre and keeping the same rime scheme : Qu'a caution tous amants soient sujets, C'est une erreur qui les bons decredite. And he goes on, often refuting Mme. Deshoulieres, and showing especially that even jadis not all lovers were souniis, constants, discrets, as she pretended. He sums up his arguments, taking the Astree as their best illustration (vv. 28-36) : Quand Celadon au pays de Forets Etait prone comtne un aniant d'e'Ate, On vit Hylas, patron des indiscrets, En plein marchc tenir autre conduite. Bref, en tout temps, Amour eut a sa suite Sujets loyaux et sujets e'.ourdis; Or n'en est pas la coutume perdue: Comme autrefois la mode en est venue, On aime encor comme on aimait jadis. It is certainly not unintentional that La Fontaine ends with this reminiscence of the Astree. He wanted to re- mind the poetess, that even Urfe, her favorite author,^ did not represent love exclusively under its idealistic aspects. IV. But La Fontaine does not always defend his own age so vigorously. In the Contes we generally find the opposite ^ Mme. Deshoulieres' famous journey to the Forez in 1672 is related in CEuv. de Mine, et de Mile. Deshoulieres, Paris, 1768, Vol. I, Introd., p. XXIV. She also dramatized an episode of the Astree (II, n and 12) in her tragedy Genseric (1681). 12 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" point of view, and, like Urfe or Mme. Deshoulieres, he praises the good old times : Las ! ce n'est plus le siecle de nos peres ! he exclaims in the Quiproquo (v. yy), and in the Coupe enchantee he reflects (vv. 215-216) : Les gens d'alors etaient d'autres gens que les notres, On ne vivait pas comme on vit. He is not at a loss to give a reason for this change : Astree and Celadon were the last faithful lovers ; with their death True Love disappeared. For so he tells us in the Amis Reifiois {Contes III, 3; vv. 5052) : Amour est mort; le panvre compagnon Put enterre sur les bords du Lignon. Nous n'en avons ici ni vent ni voie. This is a facetious allusion to the " Tombeau de Celadon," visited, as we have seen, by Madame Deshoulieres and her friends — an allegoric cenotaph in which the grateful Fore- ziens perpetuated the memory of the Astree and their famous compatriot.^ In the introduction to the Cas de conscience {Contes IV, 4) we find another very amusing allusion to the Astree in a different connection. This passage is, moreover, important for the appreciation of La Fontaine's literary genius. It shows him as an artist fully conscious of his means, who feels that in many ways he is in opposition to current fashions and who criticises them in a playful man- ner. This critical attitude, however, never prevents him from following the conventions, whenever he deems them fit for his purpose. In our passage he mocks at the custom of giving highsounding names to the simplest things for * See Reure, pp. 352-353- LA FONTAINE'S ALLUSIONS TO THE "ASTR£E" 13 *' poetry's " sake. Besides his favorites, the nymphs and shepherdesses, two well-known figures of the Astree serve to illustrate his point (vv. 1-43) : Les gens du pays des fables Donnent ordinairement Noms et titres agreables Assez liberalement ; Cela ne leur coute guere : Tout leur est nymphe ou bergere, , Et deesse bien souvent. ... De ce privilege insigne Moi, faiseur de vers indigne, Je pourrais user aussi Dans les contes que void. Et s'il me plaisait de dire, Au lieu d'Anne, Sylvanire ^ Et pour messire Thomas Le grand druide Adamas^ Me mettrait-on a I'amende? Non; mais, tout considere, Le present conte demande Qu'on dise Anne et le cure. To complete this enumeration, we must not omit a few lines of the sixth entree of the Ballet sur la paix de Nimcgue en 16/8, which La Fontaine is supposed to have composed or at least thoroughly revised.^ It is a pastoral masquerade in which the shepherds and shepherdesses are compared to the blissful inhabitants of the Forez : 1 See Astr., IV, 4, Histoire de Silvanire. The same subject was treated by Urfe and, after him by Mairet, in a pastoral play. Cf. Reure, p. 335 flf. * The great druid Adamas is perhaps the most dignified and imposing character in the Astree. He is well versed in the mysteries of Celtic religion (Astr., II, 8, p. 580 ff.) and in platonic love (ib., 2, p. 135 ff.). 8 Gr. £cr., VIII, p. 402 H. and Walckenaer, Vol. I, p. 286. 14 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" Telles etaient jadis ces ilhistres bergcres Que le Lignon tenait si chcrcs; Tels etaient ces bergers qui le long de ses eaux Menaient leurs paisibles troupeaux, Et passaient dans leur jeux leurs plus belles annees. . . . Comme eux. . . . Nous chantons de I'amour les plaisirs et les peines; Et le divin Tircis ^ mele aussi quelquefois. Son teorbe divin aux accents de nos voix. V. As a fitting conclusion to this chapter we may add a passage from La Fontaine's Epitre a Huet — our poet's fam- ous manifesto in the Querelle des anciens et des modernes.'^ He frankly confesses that he sympathizes at heart with the old classics (vv. 33-34) : Je vois avec regret ces routes meprisees : Art et guides, tout est dans les Champs Elysees. But he is just toward the merits of the modern authors. What he admires of the literature of his own age, is cer- tainly most interesting: satire, tragedy, comedy and — pas- toral poetry, as the best representative of which he quotes again Urfe (vv. 85-86) : La France a la satire et le double theatre; Des bergcres d'Urfe chacun est idolatre. ■ Evidently Tircis, the melancholy shepherd of the Astree (cf. esp. I, i), is intended. 2 See Gr. £cr., IX, p. 200 ff. ; ib., I, pp. xvii-xviii and pp. cxlviii- cxlix, and Walckenaer, Vol. II, pp. 131-136. In his memoirs Huet gives an account of the origin of this friendship together with the his- tory of our fLp'itre: " Feliccm mihi tulit hie idem annus amicorum pro- ventum, etc." Cf. P. D Huetii Commentarius. . . Amstelodami, 1718, p. 315. If Huet remembers correctly that he first met La Fontaine in 1687, the date of the Hpitre, we must modify Walckenaer's statement (Vol. I, p. 266) that this friendship dates back to 1674. It is prob- able that the separate print of the conte "Les troqueurs" (on which Wahrkcnaer bases his assertion) was presented to the bishop by La I'ontainc at a later date. LA FONTAINE'S ALLUSIONS TO THE "ASTR£E" 15 To US the latter choice may now appear strange enough. Yet nothing could be more characteristic of the great vogue which pastoral poetry, and in particular the Astrce, still en- joyed, than this unexpected reference in such an important passage, in which a man of La Fontaine's cultivated taste deliberately contrasts the best works of the classics, and the best productions of his own age and country. CHAPTER III. La Fontaine's Opera Astree. Its Composition — Its Plot Compared with Urfe's Novel — Its Literary- Merit. The best proof of La Fontaine's predilection for the Astree is doubtless to be found in his opera libretto Astree, which he composed in 1691, at the age of seventy, long after the period during which Urfe's novel had been the chief source of many pastoral and romantic plays/ He attached great importance to this work and never left Paris while the rehearsals at the Acadeniie Royale de Miisique were going on.^ The music of the opera was composed by Pascal Colasse (1639-1709), an indifferent pupil and plagiator of Lulli, to whose lack of talent probably a great part of the failure must be attributed.^ The first public performance took ^ According to Reure, p. 290, this period ends in 1653, with Th. Cor- neille's dramatization of Sorel's Berger extravagant. Cf. the well- known statement of the Segraisiana (Amsterdam, 1722, p. 29), and E. Marron's singular theory on the Theatre de I'Astree in Rev. Inde- peudatite, 1845, Vol. 22, p. 223 tf. ' Cf. Lettre pour Mesdames d'Hervart, de Virville et de Gonvernei. Gr. £cr., IX, p. 461 ff. ^ On Colasse's strange personality see: Gr. £cr., I, pp. cxl-cxlii ; ibid.. VII, p. 507; Walckenaer, Vol. II, p. 246; more fully in Biogr. Gener., Paris, 1854, and in Fetis, Biogr Univ. des Musiciens. Paris, 1861, 2d. ed. The inferiority of Colasse as a musician is also attested by La Bruyere, Caractcres, ch. II, (ed. Servois and Rebelliau, Paris, 1908, 9th ed., p. 78) : " C** est un musicien . . . mais Lulli est Lulli." 16 LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTR£E" ly place on November 28, 169 1. It was practically a failure. The opera was represented only six times, and both libretto and music immediately became the object of many more or less witty couplets.^ II. If, in the following pages, a somewhat detailed compar- ison is attempted of the plot of La Fontaine's opera, or as he calls it, tragcdic lyriqiie, with the corresponding passages in Urfe's novel, we are well aware of the fact that such an undertaking may seem rather pedantic and scarcely worth while. Yet, however little importance may be attached to the comparison in itself, its interest increases perhaps, if we consider it in connection with La Fontaine's develop- ment as a poet. He had always loved the Astrce and had proclaimed its merits many a time. Is it not almost pathe- tic to find him now, really " ayant la barbe grise," return- ing to the favorite book of his younger days and seeking, in its adaptation for the stage, the dramatic success which had been his long-cherished ambition ? We can almost see him, carefully reading over certain parts of the novel * On Linieres' chansons and on the various anecdotes connected with La Fontaine's opera, see Gr. £icr., and Walckenaer, /. c, and the preceding chap'er, p. 20, n. 4. Rather significant is the second of two chansons composed by the Chevalier de Sain'-Gilles, La Fontaine's rival in the domain of the contc, after the failure of the opera: " Je laisse a son gre Celadon Se rafraichir dans le Lignon; J'avais resolu d' en medire, Mes amis m'en avoient prie: Mais qu'est-il besoin de satire, Quand le sujet est decrie? Certain fat inconnu, s'e ant mis sottement en tete que par ces mots de sujet dccric j'entendois le Roman de Celadon & d'Astrce, m'a- dressa la-dessus une Chanson tres-fade et tres-ridiculement injurieuse. Je lui fis cette reponse honnete," etc. (here follow two stanzas of very personal content). Cf. La Muse Mousquetaire, Paris, 1709, pp. 71-72. l8 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" for the hundredth time, trusting his memory for others, and freely inventing the rest. Prologue {w. i-ioi). The action of the Prologue takes place on the banks of the river Seine. In the background is Marly, a village near Versailles, where Louis XIV had a delightful residence. Spring has returned and has rejuvenated the earth, but at the same time the Fury of War has kindled her torch anew and has put the whole world in commotion. Only in the valley of the Seine the wisdom of a mighty king never allows the nymphs to be disturbed by an enemy. Apollo, driven out of his empire by Mars, his eternal adversary, has descended into this idyllic region and exhorts the chorus of the nymphs to join in his praise of Peace and Love, and to present the story of Celadon and Astree to their Parisian audience (v. 93 ff. ) : [Amour] recompensa quelques moments de peine Qu'eurent Astree et Celadon ; Faites voir aux bords de la Seine Les aventures du Lignon. Act I {vv. 102-^41). The scenery of the first act is the typical landscape of the Forez, made famous by Urfe's description, with the river Lignon winding its way through the fair plain, and with hamlets and woods on both banks. The time is so chosen as to allow the greatest display of scenic effect. It is New Year's day, " la fete du gui de I'an neuf," that famous ceremony of the Celtic religion, traces of which were still to be found among French country people in the latter part of the nineteenth century.^ ' See Gr. P^cr., VII, p. 536 and note i. Also Ducange, Vol. VII, art. A(jux\aneuj. In the Astree there are many allusions to these cere- monies, which are described in detail, Part III, 9, p. 807 ff. LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTR£E" 19 (Sc. i) Semire enters, the typical stage villain. An- other Richard III, he reveals his dark designs from the very beginning: " a thousand poisons " he has poured into Astree's bosom, in order to estrange her from Celadon and to gain her love himself. But his plans were not en- tirely successful : " even though Astree hate Celadon, will she therefore love Semire? But then he will at least be revenged!" After this monologue he withdraws, leaving the stage to Astree and Philis, her coniidcnte. (Sc. 2) Astree believes firmly that Celadon is unfaithful to her and shows Philis a letter which he has written to Aminte, her rival. Philis tries in vain to persuade her that the letter must be a forgery, but Astree knows better. With her own eyes she had seen how that very morning he em- braced the knees of Aminte, and though she has to admit that she herself commanded him to make love to the shepherdess in order to hide his real affections, she is con- vinced that he has gone too far, Aminte's charms have triumphed over her own. (Sc. 3) In order to learn Celadon's real intentions, Philis asks Hylas to feign love for Aminte and to coax her to tell her secret. (Sc. 4) Enter Celadon, dressed in a festive garb, ready for the celebration. He sees at once that his sweetheart is oppressed by sorrow and asks the reason. Astree will not listen to his protestations of love and accuses him of infidelity. Amazed, he wants to know the name of Astree's supposed rival, but without answering his question, the angry shepherdess commands him never to appear before her eyes again. Celadon announces his resolution to die, and predicts that she will soon regret her cruelty. (Sc. 5) He no sooner takes leave of her than she begins to be tormented by doubts. She calls him back, but alas, " il precipite ses pas et son cruel dessein," and she falls in a swoon. 20 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTREE" (Sc. 6) In the meanwhile the solemn procession of druids approaches; fauns, shepherds and shepherdesses fol- low — all the stereotyped characters which had formerly figured in the pastorals and have now found refuge in the pompous display of the opera. The chorus is singing cheer- fully, when suddenly a shepherd rushes in with the news that Celadon has been drowned in the river. (Sc. 7) Gen- eral consternation follows this announcement, and all flee to seek the body of the shepherd. (Sc. 8) Astree and Philis alone remain; Astree announces her resolve likewise to put an end to her life. Everyone familiar with the first few books of the Astree will recognize at once how closely La Fontaine has adhered to the story. His main sources are the famous opening scene of the novel, and the Histoire d' Astree et Philis (I, 4). Since it was necessary for La Fontaine to give some exposi- tion, he chose a monologue by Semire, the traitor, which answers the purpose quite well, but detracts at the very outset from that delightful pastoral setting which charms us in the novel. Semire, according to Astree I, 4 (p. 253). is a shepherd, " a la verite plein de plusieurs bonnes qualitez, s'il n'eust este le plus perfide & le plus cauteleux homme qui fust iamais." Astree accepts his attentions in order to disguise her love for Celadon, but when Semire discovers through a letter that she really loves Celadon, he thmks of revenge. Speculating on her jealousy, he makes her witness a rendez- vous between Celadon and Aminte, and she takes Celadon's protestations to her rival seriously, quite forgetting that he is only executing her orders.^ ' Later on the Semire of the novel repents of his crime and asks Aslree's forgiveness. In his speech to Philis (Astr., I, 4, p. 186 ff.) one may perhaps recognize a few ideas of his monologue in the opera: " Discrette Philis, i'aduoue, que le Ciel est iuste de me donner plus LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTR£E" 2I The forged letter which Astree shows to Philis does not figure in Urfe's novel. It was evidently suggested to La Fontaine by Astree's letter to Celadon, which is found by Semire.^ Similarly, Philis' device to find out Celadon's real intentions through Hylas is not found in the novel. La Fontaine probably introduced it merely to bring Hylas, decidedly the most popular character of the Astree, on the stage as soon as possible, for Philis' order is never carried out. A reminiscence of the novel is apparent in Astree's angry words (Sc. 2; V. 180 ff.) : II le prevoyait bien, le traitre, I'infidele; J'eus peine a I'obliger a feindre ses amours; II resista longtemps, je persistais toujours: Trouvait-il Aminte si belle? Je lisais dans ses yeux une secrete peur : L'ingrat avait raison de craindre pour son coeur. This corresponds closely to the account she gives in Astree d'enmiy qu'vn cocur nest capable de supporter: puis qu'encor ne peut-il esgaller son chastiment a mon offense, ayant este cause de faire roni- pre la plus belle & la plus entiere amitie qui ait iamais este. Mais afin que les Dieux ne me punissent point plus rigoureusement, distes a cette belle Bergere que ie demande pardon & a elle & aux cendres de Celadon, I'assurant que I'extreme affection a este la seule cause de ceste faute. . . ." For Semire's ultimate expiation see Astr., IV, 12, p. 142 1 ff. '^Astree, I, 4, p. 254. Cf. the above-mentioned (ch. I, p. 13 and note 2) passage in the Suite du menteur (IV, i, v. 1243), where Corneille makes a similar confusion concerning Semire's letter. 2 P. 208 : " Pour celer nostre amitie ie le priay, ou plustost ie le con- traignis de faire cas de toutes les Bergeres qui auroient quelque ap- parence de beaute, a fin que la recherche qu'il faisoit de moy fust plustost iugee commune que particuliere." He implores her on his knees to countermand her order: " Helas, le pauure Berger auoit bien raison d'en faire tant de difficult e: car il preuoyoit trap veritablemeptt que de Id procederoit la cause de sa mort" 22 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" The dramatic scene between Astree and Celadon faith- fully renders the beginning of the novel, although the dialogue hardly offers any important parallels, except for Astree's severe command (v. 261) : Va, perfide, va; garde toi D'oser jamais paraitre devant moi ! In the novel, Astree adds a restriction to her order : "Garde- toy bien de te iamais laisser voir a moy que ie ne te le commande." ^ To meet stage requirements, La Fontaine, in the last scenes recurs to the classic expedient of the messenger, v^'ho announces Celadon's death. In the novel. Celadon drowns himself immediately; Astree tries to save him, but faints and falls herself into the water. She is rescued by shepherds and pretends that Celadon lost his life in the attempt to save her. Act II (w. 342-588). The scene is changed : we are a few miles down the Lignon, at Isoure, in the gardens of Galatee, " princesse du Forez." (Sc. i) A short monologue of Galatee informs us that she is in love with a shepherd — Celadon, as we hear in her subsequent (Sc. 2) conversation with Leonide, her con- 1 This restriction, irrelevant for the opera, becomes quite important in the novel; cf. Astr., V, 6, p. 443, Leonide's scheme to cause Astree to command that Celadon should appear before her. Similarly, Astr., V, 2, p. 157. The good abbe Souchay, who in the first half of the i8th century reworked the Astree with more good-will than taste and intelligence, is less consistent. He shortens the original command: " Va loin d'ici, 6 le plus ingrat des hommes, et garde-toi de paroitre dcsormais en presence d'Astree!" But later, in the two episodes just mentioned, the original restriction reappears : " Va, perfide, ne parais plus devant moi que je ne te I'ordonne." See L'Astree de M. d'Urfe, Pastorale allrgorique, avec la cle. Nouvelle edition. Paris, 1733, Vol. I, p. 6, and Vol. 9, pp. 83 and 260. LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTREE" 23 adente. The waves had carried him ashore in that neigh- borhood, where he had been found half dead. Galatee, deceived by an oracle, sees in him the husband destined for her by the gods. Leonide tries in vain to dissuade her, a princess, from loving a simple shepherd. (Sc. 3) Celadon enters, pale and sighing over his sad destiny. Galatee approaches him with her sweetest manner and her prettiest verses, but Celadon persists in his gloomy mood which he politely ascribes to the terrible shock he received on falling into the river — a mere accident, as he pretends. (Sc. 4) Galatee retires, and Leonide, in order to divert his thoughts, tells him about the famous Fountain of True Love in a mysterious grotto at the foot of these gardens. She en- treats him to forget cruel Astree and to respond to Galatee's affection. But Celadon will not listen. He longs to be back in his " bocages," where he would erect a temple in honor of his beloved Astree. (Sc. 5) He has hardly pro- nounced these words, when the fairy Ismene appears, an- nouncing that all his sufferings will come to a happy end that very day. She works such enchantments that the gar- dens are changed into a forest in the midst of which rises a temple dedicated to Astree.^ (Sc. 6) All the former characters have disappeared. Astree and Philis enter, still searching for Celadon's body. They are greatly astonished to find a new temple in these familiar grounds. From the inscription they infer that this is the work of Celadon, whose soul, they believe, is still haunting the earth, awaiting funeral rites. (Sc. 7) Other shepherds arrive. A chorus of genii forbids profane hearts to approach. This temple is reserved for Astree alone. But while the whole assembly joins in a eulogy of her virtues, she stands aside, sad and silent. (Sc. 8) When the chorus * These scenic changes take place behind a " tourbillon de nuages ". 24 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" retires, she believes they flee from her, who has become the *' horreur de la contree " on account of her cruelty to Cela- don. In this second act we notice again a more or less skilful combination of several rather scattered episodes of Urfe's novel. The first part, which takes place in Galatee's garden, is taken mainly from Astrce, part I, books i, 2, and 5, while the scenes following the enchantment correspond to a long episode in Astree II, 5. In the dialogue between Galatee and Leonide two motives call for our special attention. The first is the strange oracle to which Galatee refers.^ In her replies. Leonide makes no attempt to refute this prophecy, nor is there any further allusion to it in the following scenes. La Fontaine could easily have omitted this incident, which only complicates the dialogue. But he was fond of oracles," and evidently counted upon an audience which still " savait son Astree " as well as he did himself. If we consult the novel, the allusion becomes clear at once. In the very beginning of the second book (part I), Urfe remarks that Galatee was deceived " par la tromperie de Climanthe qui feignant le deuin luy auoit predit que celuy qu'elle recontreroit ou elle trouua Celadon, deuoit estre son mary si elle ne vouloit estre la plus malheureuse personne du monde." ^ Through this ' V. 272 : Princesse, . . . voici votre destin : Une etoile ennemie. autant que favorable, Peut vous rendre en hymen heureuse ou miserable. Dans ce miroir regardez bien ces lieux : Vers le declin du jour il faudra vous y rendre; Celui qui s'offrira le premier a vos yeux Est I'epoux que le ciel vous ordonne de prendre. * See the dissertation on the proper qualities of oracles in the preface to Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon. • Astr., I, 2, p. 48, and ib., 5; Hist, de la tromperie de Climanthe, pp. 299-300. The oracle itself is very long; the following passage ccr- LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTR£E" 25 artifice Climanthe intended to win the affection of Galatee for his friend Polemas. The second motive which seems of importance, is char- acteristic of the development of the pastoral drama as a genre. Leonide objects to Celadon's low rank (v. 363) : Princesse, il est charmant, mais ce n'est qu'un berger. Galatee defends herself (v. 364) : Par les noeuds de I'hymen le sceptre et la houlette Se sont unis plus d'une fois. L'amour n'est plus amour des qu'il cherche en ce choix Une egalite si parfaite. La Fontaine therefore represents Celadon as a real shep- herd of low estate, ennobled only by the love he inspires in a princess — a romantic conception which we meet quite fre- quently in the later pastoral/ In the Astree conditions are somewhat different; we find there a peculiar compromise: Urfe's shepherds, as Galatee expresses it, " ne sont pas Bergers pour n'auoir de quoy viure autrement : mais pour s'acheter par ceste douce vie vn honneste repos." Thus the two elements of noble origin and of low actual condition responds to La Fontaine's text : " Vous auez vne influence infiniment mauuaise & vne autre la plus heureuse qu'on puisse desirer. ... La bonne est celle-ci que vous voyez dans ce miroir : Remarquez done bien ce lieu que ie vous ay fait voir. . . . Le iour ou la Lune sera au mesme estat qu'elle est auiourd'huy, enuiron cette mesme heure vn peu plus tost ou vn peu plus tard, vous trouuerez celuy que vous deuez aimer." ' See G. Rudolph, La pocsie pastorale dans le roman et sur la scene du /7c siccle, Altenburg, 1897, Progr., and J. Marsand, La pastorale dramatique en France, Paris, 1905 ; cf. p. 371, n. 2, the analysis of Mairet's Silvie, where a prince is in love with the shepherdess Silvia, with whom he is finally united. That this romantic conception has lost nothing of its charm even in our own days, is shown by the continued success of A. Rivoire's delightful play " // ctait une bergcre . . .," first performed at the Theatre Frangais April 7, 1905. 26 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" are given, and the poet may emphasize either one, according to his purpose.^ The " Fontaine de la Verite d'Amour " which Leonide describes (Sc. 4), is the most important of the miraculous contrivances of the Astrce. This fountain, says Urfe, was " a la verite merueilleuse : car par la force des en- chantements, I'Amant qui s'y regardoit, voyoit celle qu'il aymoit: que s'il estoit ayme d'elle, il s'y voyoit aupres : que si de fortune elle en aymoit un autre. I'autre y estoit repre- sents & non pas luy & par ce qu'elle decouuroit les trom- peries des Amans, on la nomma la Verite d'Amour." ^ But unfortunately, now (v. 446) : ' Cf. Leonide's remonstrances and Galatee's defense in Astr., I, 2, p. 53, the passage which La Fontaine evident!}' had in mind in the quoted vv. 363-367: "Mais, Madame, respondit Leonide, vous es'es si grande Nymphe, Dame apres Amasis (= Galatee's mother) de toutes ces belles contrees, aurez-vous le courage si abbattu que d'aymer vn homme nay du milieu du peuple? vn rustique? vn Berger? vn homme de rien? M'amie, repliqua Galathee, laissons ces iniures & vous ressouuenez qu'Enone se fit bien Bergere pour Paris, & que I'ayant perdu elle le regretta & pleura a chaudes larmes. . . . Mais que Celadon ne soit nay d'aussi bon sang que Paris, m'amie, vous n'auez point d'esprit si vous le dites : car ne sont-ils pas venus tous deux d'vne mesme origine ? " On the other hand, when Celadon ap- pears, Galatee pays him a compliment quite in accord with La Fon- taine's conception : " En quelque lieu que la vertu se trouue, elle merite d'estre aimee & honoree, aussi bien sous les habits des Bergers que sous la glorieuse pourpre des Roys." {lb., pp. 68-69.) Celadon then tells the story of his parents, and " Galathee ... en demeura plus satisfaicte qu'il ne se peut croire, pour auoir s^eu de quels ayeuls estoit descendu ce Berger qu'elle aymoit tant." ^ Astr., I, 2, p. 49. In I, 3 {Hist, de Silvie), pp. 156-157, a druid gives an elaborate philosophical explanation of the charm: "II faut que vous SQachiez que tout ainsi que les autres eaux representent les corps qui luy sont deuant, celle-cy represente les esprits. Or I'esprit qui n'est que la volonte, la memoire & le iugement, lorsqu'il aime, se transforme en la chose aymee : & c'est pourquoy lors que vous vous presentez icy, elle re<;oit la figure de vostre esprit. & non pas de vostre corps." Cf. Gr. S.cr., V, p. 88, the introduction to La coupe enchantee, where similar contrivances to discover true love are enum- erated. LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTR£E" On n'en approche plus ; deux monstres a I'entour Interdisent I'abord d'une source si belle. 27 According to the novel, this second enchantment was the revenge of Clidamant, a cavalier who had been jilted by Galatee's friend Silvie/ La Fontaine followed the novel also in making Leonide the advocate of Galatee's love for Celadon. He omitted, however, the very dramatic conflict of duty, love and jealousy in Leonide's heart. Urfe's Leonide has also fallen in love with Celadon, and makes a partial avowal of this to Galatee. The princess immediately becomes jealous of the rival; she reproves her, and Leonide, deeply offended, leaves the palace. It is only later that Galatee hears how generously Leonide had advanced the love of her mistress, in spite of her own affection for Celadon.' The appearance of the fairy Ismene belongs of course altogether to the realm of operatic effect, and has no coun- terpart in the novel. Similarly the following scenes (5-7) mainly serve the purpose of introducing an effective musical ensenible-movtment But La Fontaine has not invented them entirely. They correspond, as has been said above, to a long episode related in the fifth book of the second part of the Astrce: Silvandre had found in the woods a letter written by Celadon. Astree and the others are anxious to go and see the place. When they arrive, imagine their astonishment on finding the well-known spot changed into a rustic temple. Around a mighty oak smaller trees are bent together in a manner to form a perfect vault; within they find pictures, portraits and poetic inscriptions. Over the entrance they read : * Astr., I, 3, p. 157, Hist, de Sihie. ' * lb., I, 4, pp. 169-178. i 28 -^--i FONTAIXE AXD THE "ASTRCE" Loin, bien loin, profanes esprits; Qui n'est d'vn sainct amour espris En ce lieu sainct ne fasse entree : Voicy le bois ou chaque iour Vn coeur qui ne vit que d'Amour Adore la Deesse Astree.^ Astree, deeply affected by the sight of this temple which recalls such sweet recollections, requests that a cenotaph be erected to his memory. It is evident that the connection of this episode with La Fontaine's operatic display is very slight. Even the inscriptions on the temple are quite different, though La Fontaine's, with its overflowing tears, is very much in the style of L'rfe's poetry (v. 529) : C'est dans cette demeure Qu'un amant exile cherche en vain quelque paix. Que pour le prix des pleurs qu'il y verse a toute heure, Puisse Astree etre heureuse et n'en verser jamais.^ Act III {zi'. 589-737)- The stage represents the Fountain of True Love. (Sc. i) Astree has deceived Philis, her companion. Alone, she approaches the dangerous fountain. Overcome by grief and fatigue she sinks down beside the well, and a magic sleep closes her eyes. (Sc. 2) Celadon has followed her, as she was wandering through the woods. He now draws near to save her from the monsters, but he hurls * Charlotte Banti, L'Amyntas du Tassc et V Astree d'H. d'Urfe, Milan, 1895, p. 30, shows that the first verse is a translation of Tasso's " Lungi, ah lungi ite, profani ! ", the inscription of the " antro dell' Aurora" (Aminta atto I, v. 190). * The inscription, as given in the novel, evidently suggested to him the following verses of one of the genii (v. 541) : N'approchez point, profanes coeurs! Cost ici le temple d'Astree: Qu'aucun mortel en ce lieu n'ait entree, S'il ne sent de pures ardeurs. LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTRUE" 29 his shaft in vain: the weapon rebounds without effect; the animals are changed into stone. When, in his despair, the shepherd attempts to kill himself, his hand is restrained by an invisible power, and, like Astree, an irresistible sleep overcomes him. (Sc. 3) Enter Tircis and Hylas, expect- ing to witness the dissolution of the enchantment, as fore- told by the fairy Ismene. When they see the apparently lifeless forms of Astree and Celadon stretched out beside the fountain, they assume that the charm has been broken through their noble sacrifice and retire to call their com- panions. (Sc. 4) Astree and Celadon awake slowly. They first believe they are dreaming ; but soon the old love is re- awakened, and they sink into each other's arms. (Sc. 5) In the meantime Ismene informs Galatee of all that has happened, and without any grief or inner struggle the princess expresses her willingness to contribute to the union of the lovers. (Sc. 6) The chorus of shepherds appears, led by Hylas and Tircis, to witness the final tri- umph of Celadon's and Astree's love. They all hasten to the well, but Hylas, the sceptic, holds them back, lest the charm should reveal their infidelity.^ Finally Ismene invites her nymphs to join in a ballet, and a short divertissement in Italian ends the opera. The action of the third act is taken from the last four books of the fifth part of the Astree or the Conclusion, completed by Balthazar Baro, Urfe's secretary, from notes left by his master." It is hardly necessary to sum up the corresponding scenes in the novel, as the action is ^ This is probably a reminiscence of La coupe enchantee, in which Renauld similarly refuses to try the virtue of the cup. See Contes, IV, 4, vv. 365-377, and scene XVTII of ihe comedy La coupe en- chantee by Champsmesle-La Fontaine (1688). Cf. Gr. &cr., VII, p. 550, n. 2. ' See the Priuilege du Roy, which precedes the fifth part. 30 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" practically identical and the dialogue entirely independent of Baro's prose. La Fontaine simplified wherever he could, omitting especially all the incidents relating to Diane and Silvandre, whose fate, in the latter part of the novel, is so intimately connected with that of the protagonists. Only the denouement of the Conclusion is different. After the spell is broken, the shepherds approach the foun- tain, and behold! the water reflects the image of every one of them by the side of his sweetheart. Even Hylas is satis- fied; for instead of seeing the whole host of his past con- quests, he finds only Stelle, " qu'il aimoit alors veritable- ment." ^ Then the nuptials are celebrated, thus bringing the storj- to a close : Tous les Bergers & Bergeres reuindrent raconter a Lignon les triomphes qu'ils auoient emportez en la jouissance des faueurs qu'ils auoient si longtemps attendues, dont cette Riuiere se rendit si scauante qu'il semble encore aujourd'huy que dans son plus doux murmure elle ne parle d'autre chose que du repos de Celadox & de la felicite d'AsTREE. III. Summing up this comparison of La Fontaine's tragedie lyrique and Urfe's pastoral, we find, as the main feature of the former, the exceeding conciseness of the plot, brief sometimes at the expense of clearness and finer individuali- zation. Theoretically even unity of time is observed." The • Astr., V, 12, p. 951. * With La Fontaine's conciseness compare the prolixity of some of his predecessors : Marechal's L'inconstance d' Hylas, a pastoral tragi- comedy in five acts, represented in 1629 or 1630 and printed in 1635, introduces characters only known to the " fanatiques de I'Astree." Of huge dimensions is also Rayssiguier's " Tragicomcdie Pastorale. Ou les Amours d'Astrce et de Celadon sont meslces a celles de Diane, de Sihandre et de Paris, avec les inconstances d'Hylas," Paris, 1630. Cf. Marsand, La Pastorale dramatique, pp. 354-356 and 383, n. 2. LA FONTAINE'S OPERA "ASTREE" 31 best part of the libretto is no doubt the first act, in which the very conciseness of the situations produced scenes of real dramatic power. As to the different characters, Astree alone shows some traits of individuality, while Celadon's rather insignificant part is entirely in the style of the conventional operatic hero. Conventional also are all the other dramatis per- sonae.^ It remains to speak of the language of our opera. While La Fontaine, in his former attempts in the operatic genre, had strongly emphasized the lyrical element,' he abandons it here almost entirely, except for the prologue. Even cheerful Philis and the ever merry Hylas could hardly in- spire him, and the short lyrics of the chorus never rise above commonplaces. In a few passages, however, the great poet La Fontaine shows himself at his very best. The sensation of loneliness and fear is admirably expressed in the verses which Philis addresses to Astree, after the shepherds have retired (Act II, 8; v. 575 fif.) : Retirons nous aussi, quittons cette demeure; La peur m'y saisit a toute heure. II est tard, et chacun s'en retourne aux hameaux; L'ombre croit en tombant de nos prochains coteaux.^ Rejoignons ces bergers : deja la nuit s'avance, Dans ces lieux regne le silence. Bergers, attendez-nous. ... lis ne m'ecoutent pas. . . ' Cf. the severe judgment in N. Bonafous, Etude sur l' Astree et sur H. d'Urfe, Paris, 1846, p. 185. ' See, for instance, Daphne, act I, sc. 2. with the pretty songs of Clymene and Meroe, and, in the fragment of Galatee, act I, sc. i, Ti- mante's song. ' This is a reminiscence of Vergil, EcL, I, vv. 83-84. Et iam summa procul villarum culmina fulmant, Maioresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. Cf. Philemon et Baucis, vv. 93-94. and Gr. f£cr., VI, p. I57, n. 2. 32 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E' The entire elegy in which Astree prays to Celadon's be- loved shadow, is full of deep melancholy, resignation and repentance (Act III, i ; v. 599 ff.) : Chere ombre, je te suis. Adieu, rives cruelles; Adieu, soleil ; adieu, mes compagnes fideles : N'aimez point, ou tachez de bannir de I'amour Les soupgons, les depits, les injustes querelles. Celui que je regrette en a perdu le jour. But in spite of these beauties of detail, our preference will always be Urfe's novel rather than La Fontaine's dramatization. Let us however recall a circumstance which might explain perhaps many shortcomings of the opera: La Fontaine had to adapt his poetry not only to the re- quirements of musical treatment in general, but probably to very definite wishes of his composer; and the strange per- sonality of Colasse seems to confirm such a supposition. CHAPTER IV. The Statement of the Abbe D'Olivet in his Histoire de I' Academie Frangaise. The examination of La Fontaine's allusions to Urfe's novel, together with the study of the opera Astree, has shown how our fabulist, during the entire period of his literary activity, was indeed deeply affected by the charms of Urfe's pastoral. The passages adduced are no doubt of sufficient importance at least to offer strong external evidence of our assumption of more or less intimate literary relations between the two authors. A conclusive proof can, of course, only be furnished by a detailed examination and comparison between the different works of La Fontaine and the Astree, which will be attempted in the following chapters. Before proceeding to this "internal evidence," let us, how- ever, not forget a bit of very curious testimony, almost con- temporary with La Fontaine, which likewise seems to bear out our assumption. Pierre-Joseph Thoulier, abbe d'Olivet, (1682-1768), one of La Fontaine's earliest biogra- phers, makes the following statement in his account of La Fontaine's life, incorporated in his Histoire de I'Academie Frangaise : " Apres Marot et Rabelais, La Fontaine n'esti- mait rien tant que VAstree de M. d'Urfe. C'est d'ou il tirait ces images champetres, qui lui sont si familieres, et qui font toujours un si bel effet dans la poesie." ^ 1 Pellisson et Olivet, Hist, de I'Acad. fr. ed. Ch.-L. Livet, Paris, 1858, 2 vols. ; Cf. Vol, II, p. 306. 33 34 J-A FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" This assertion which seems to contradict most of our theories as to the originality of La Fontaine's creative genius, has, of course, not escaped the attention of literary- critics. Their attitude, however, is rather sceptical. Livet, for instance, in commenting upon this passage, practically rejects the assumption.^ M. P. Mesnard, in his Vie de La Fontaine, admits the possibility of a remote influence." More positive is AI. Reure when he says, referring evi- dently to Olivet's statement : " Urf e a peint la nature avec sincerite et avec exactitude ; chose assez rare, et qui le sera plus encore sous Louis XIV. Sous ce rapport, il n'a pas eu d'influence, si ce n'est probablement sur La Fontaine, qui s'etait nourri de YAstree, et qui sans doute en a tire quelques-unes de ses images champetres.^ The trustworthiness of Olivet's biography of La Fon- ^ Cf. I. c, p. 306, n. : " La Fontaine est un des rares poetes du temps de Louis XIV, qui semblent avoir peint la nature d'apres leurs im- pressions et non par une sterile imitation d'autrui. On a done lieu de s'etonner de cette assertion de I'abbe d'Olivet." * Gr. Ecr., Vol. I, pp. xx-xxi : " D'Olivet aurait du indiquer ces images champetres empruntees a VAstree; nous ne savons s'il I'aurait pu facilement. II faut peut-etre se con" enter de penser que dans ces imaginations ingenieuses, delicates et fleuries de d'Urfe, le penchant de La Fontaine vers les fictions, les douces reveries, la galanterie fine et son goijt pour les riants paysages ont trouve leur compte, et qu'a cette source son talent a puise, a defaut d'imitations directes, une nourriture appropriee." * Reure, p. 256. All the other critics consulted simply state that La Fontaine was particularly fond of the Astree, or that he found the subject of his opera in Urfe's novel. So Walckenaer, Vol. I, p. 21; Saint-Marc Girardin, Cours dc lift, dramat., Vol. Ill, p. 64; Villemain, Cours de litt. fr. au i8e s.. Vol. Ill, p. 357; Sainte-Beuve, Portr. Litt., Vol. I, p. 493, Appendice on La Fontaine ; Cans, du Lundi, Vol. Ill, p. 71, and esp. Vol. VII, p. 61 ; Lafenestre, La Fontaine, Paris, 1895, p. 15; B. Germa, L' Astree, sa composition, son influence, Paris-Tou- louse, 1904, p. 262. Important is also: E. Faguet's course on La Fon- taine in Rev. des Cours et des Confer., Vol. V, p. 602, where he draws a parallel between La Fontaine's Adonis and the Astree. THE STATEMENT OF THE ABBE D'OLIVET 3^ taine is a difficult matter to determine. Although his His- toire de I'Academie as a whole has been criticized rather severely, — and for good reasons/ it must be acknowledged that in the case of the notice on La Fontaine he did all he could to bring together material from the best possible sources. He was too young to have known La Fontaine personally, but he was intimate with several of La Fon- taine's best friends, like Maucroix, Boileau and Huet, some of whom also highly esteemed the Astree.^ Thus he was in a position to obtain reliable information as to many de- tails, and he repeatedly insists upon the fact that his article is " purement historique." ^ It is therefore permissible to assume that Olivet did not make his statement concerning La Fontaine's indebtedness to the Astree at random, but that he based it on some re- liable authority of which we are ignorant. If, on the other ^ See Livet's Introduction, Vol. I, p. xix ff., and Fournel's article on Olivet in the Noiivelle Biographic Generale. * Huet, for instance, was the first to examine the sources of the Astree critically. The Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris preserves the bishop's copy of the Astree (inv. Y^, 7036-7040), in which he care- fully noted all the parallel passages and borrowings which he had found in the novel. Most of these marginal notes correspond to motives which he afterward treated more fully in his Traite de I'Ori- gine des Romans. See also P. D. Huetii Comment, de rebus ad eum pertin. Amsterdam, 1718, p. 256, and Reure, p. 286, n. i. ' Cf. his letter to President Bouhier of Jan. 24, 1724, which throws an interesting light on the genesis of the notice (Livet, Vol. II, p. 406). There are but three insignificant errors in the article (all corrected by Walckenaer, Vol. II, p. 288, n. i). As to his anecdotes, many of them have been explained more or less plausibly by Walckenear, Vol. I, pp. 19-20, or more recently by G. Lafenestre, /. c, pp. 16-17, and E. Der- aine, Au Pays de Jean de La Fontaine, Paris, 1909, pp. 85-110: La Fon- taine et sa Feiiimc. In this connection, cf. also L. Salesse, Un coin de la Champagne et du Valois au lye s., Chateau-Thierry, 1894, and A. Albalat, Le Vrai La Fontaine, in Rev. Hebdomadaire, i8e annee, Vol. XI, pp. 179-187. Most of these recent publications are severely criticised by G. Michaut, La Fontaine I, Paris, 1913, pp. 41-50. 36 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" hand, the critics are so reserved in their opinion, they have good reasons for their attitude. OHvet's statement t^ misleading, as it goes too far in its wording, and they re- ferred the expression images champctres probably too ex- clusively to the fables. We shall see in our next chapter that the parallelism between the Fables and the Astree can be carried much further than might appear at first sight; but the identity of inspiration usually moves along more general lines. On the other hand, if we also take into con- sideration La Fontaine's minor works, like Psyche or the Songe de Vaux, where, as in the Astree, a sincere feeling for nature is combined with an agreeable, well-tempered preciosity, we shall find passages which actually seem to have their sources in his favorite novel. CHAPTER V. La Fontaine's Fables. The Fable in the Astree — The Real and the Conventional Shepherd in La Fontaine's Fables as compared with the Astree — The Personal Element: Les Deux Pigeons and the Preface to the First Part of the Astree — Feeling for Nature : Independently Expressed by each Poet; Urfe as a Landscape Painter; Nature in Accord with Human Moods — Longing for Quiet Life: Identity of Inspiration — Conclu- sion : The Public of Both the Astree and of the Fables not Insen- sible to the Charms of Nature. I. There seems to be an irreconcilable contrast between the genuine simplicity of La Fontaine's fables and the some- what artificial milieu of pastoral novels like the Astree. Yet on examining the question more closely, we discover, behind the difference in form and expression, more re- semblances in the fundamental inspiration than one might at first anticipate. In the whole Astree but one real fable is told. It is the old, old theme of " the mice, the cat and the bell," which occurs in a very pretty passage. Diane is discussing with her friends the question of marriages of convenience — a favorite theme with many novels of the time. She wisely warns her companions not to declaim too passionately against a social convention which they would refuse to dis- regard themselves : Encores que nous en recognoissions, & vous & moy, la verite, parce que par le commun consentiment de tous il est iuge autrement, ny vous ny moy ne voulons point estre la premiere Z7 38 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" a rompre cette glace. Et cela me fait ressouuenir du conseil des rats qui ressolurent que, pour leur seurete, il falloit at- tacher au col d'vn Chat qui les deuoroit vne sonette, afin de I'ouir quand il marcheroit : mais il ne s'en trouua point d'assez hardy dans toute la trouppe qui I'osast entreprendre.^ Diane's manner of proceeding is of the good old school: The speaker advances his opinion on a certain subject and then sums up his arguments in a little apologue which, be- cause of its epigrammatic brevity, does not fail to produce a great impression upon the hearers. The fable here is therefore merely a clever rhetorical artifice; the action itself and the way in which the story is told is of secondary importance. IL In the search for characteristic features which might link the Astrce with La Fontaine's fables, it is not very prob- able that we shall find them in epics like Les aniuiaux mala- des de la peste, or in dramas like Le chene et le roseau. We are more likely to meet with them, first of all, in fables of lesser fame, in passages in which a certain precieux tone prevails — precieux taken in the best sense of the word. There are two kinds of shepherds represented in La Fontaine's fables : The first are the real ones, at whose " conceptions " and " parolles " the author of the Astree would scoff, whom he would consider as " Bergers necessi- teux qui pour gagner leur vie conduisent les trouppaux aux ' Astr., Ill, 5, p. 409. It is unnecessary to recall the terrible cat, " nomme Rodilardus " which spreads havoc among the rats in La Fon- taine (Fab., II, 2). Very rarely short references to well-known fables occur in the Astree; cf. Celadon's reproaches to Sylvandre in Astr., V, 9. p. 677: " Vrayement, vous ne ressemblez pas mal a celuy qui apres auoir este receu pour compagnon au partage d'vn tresor, s'en voudroi* enfin rendre maistre, & chasser celuy qui luy auroit fait part de sa fortune." LA FONTAINE'S FABLES ^g pasturages." ^ But La Fontaine's full sympathy goes with them, and he carefully observes their life and all their pecu- liarities. They have common names, like Guillot or Pierrot, and are clad in rags. Their work is wearisome; only when the flocks and the dogs are dozing in the glaring mid- day sun, can they, too, enjoy a short rest. But then the wolf, their eternal enemy, overtakes them unawares and often gets the best of them. Their flocks are their pride and love; yet there is little sentimentality about them, for if they see a chance to make a better living, they take ad- vantage of it.^ On the other hand, w'e also have in the fables the con- ventional shepherd of the pastorals. For him the shepherd- costume is merely picturesque ; he attends to the flocks only when there is nothing else to do, and his name is always of Greek derivation. He appears almost exclusively in love idyls, with some fair shepherdess who shares all his re- finements. Thus ... La jalouse Amarylle 'Songeait a son Alcippe, et croyait de ses soins N'avoir que ses moutons et son chien pour temoins. Tircis qui I'appergut, se glisse entre les saules ; II entend la bergere adressant ces paroles Au doux Zephire, et le priant De les porter a son amant. . . .^ Is this not like countless scenes from the Astrcef Has not Messire d'Urfe told us all about the adventures of Celadon's parents, of jealous Amarylle and her valiant Alcippe?* And how often have w^e not surprised Laonice, Tircis' jilted sweetheart, or even the wise Sylvandre, * Preface to the first part: L'Authetir a la Bergere Astree. ^Cf. Fables, III, 3; IV, 2; X, 9; VI, i and 2; IX, 19; IV, 2. * Fab., II, I, Contre ceux qui out le gout difficile, v. 39 ff. * Astr., I, 2. 40 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" hidden behind bushes, overhearing the secrets of their lovers ? ^ Another scene in the Fables: Tircis and Amaranthe dis- cussing love — the eternal subject of shepherds. Hear how the knowing Tircis describes to innocent Amaranthe the dolce affanno : Ah ! si vous connaissiez, comme moi, certain mal Qui nous plait et qui nous enchante ! II n'est bien sous le del qui vous parut egal. . . .^ And in the Astree? The very children ^ philosophise like grown-up people upon the same inexhaustible theme; they display naive coquetry, like La Fontaine's couple, only the epigrammatic pointe is lacking. But the naivete of these precocious lovers in the Astree is artificial ; the style is precieux of the extreme kind, and these passages belong to those that have aged the quickest, while La Fontaine's delightful mockery with its discreetly precieux touches has lost nothing of its pristine charm. The evoking of pastoral souvenirs in this fable (ca. 1674) ^ Astr., I, 8, p. 567. * Fab., VIII, 13, V. 31 fif., Tircis et Amaranthe. 3 See Astr., Ill, 12, p. 1122 ff., where the children belong to the aris- tocracy. In Astr., IV, 3, p. 196 ff., the children are of simple peasant stock, but they talk in the same stilted manner. In Astr., V, 4, p. 279 ff.. Chevalier Clorian asks the seven-year-old Circene : " le m'es- tonne comme il est possible que ma petite maistresse ait besoin de se chauffer parce qu'elle est capable de faire brusler tout le monde." Also Vergil's Damon is a mere child when he falls in love with his Nisa : .'\ltcr ab undecimo turn me iam acceperat anno. (Eel., VIII, V. 39, and Gr. £cr.. Vol. II, p. 278, note 16.) Tircis' speech is partly an amplification of the exquisite verses in Aminta, I, 2: "A poco a poco nacque nel mio petto. . . ." Cf. A. Salza, Astusie e con- trasegne d'Amore nel Tasso e ne'suoi iniitatori, in Rass. Bibl. della Lett. Ital., XII, 1909, p. 135. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES 4 1 was especially appropriate, since the idyl is dedicated to a young precieuse, Mile, de Sillery, La Rochefoucauld's niece. She probably took the same delight in pastoral novels, as did the author of the Maximcs himself.^ The verses (45 fif.) : Se mire-t-on pres d'un rivage Ce n'est pas soi qu'on voit ; on ne voit qu'une image Qui sans cesse revient, et qui suit en tous lieux : Pour tout le reste on est sans yeux — very likely recalled to her mind the magic power of the Fontaine de la Verite d' Amour. Of a certain significance is the little pastoral picture which La Fontaine sketches in Les compagnons d'Ulysse (Fab. XII, i). One of the companions has been changed by Circe into a wolf, and Ulysses addresses to him the following remonstrance (v. 79 ff.) : Camarade, je suis confus Qu'une jeune et belle bergere Conte aux echos les appetits gloutons Qui t'ont fait manger ses moutons. Autrefois on t'eiit vu sauver la bergerie : Tu menais une honnete vie. The unexpected appearance of the bergere in this bitter satire on human nature is certainly a striking illustration of the fact that La Fontaine always and everywhere de- lights in evoking pastoral reminiscences. Neither here nor in any other of the quoted passages did he find them in his sources, and Tircis et Amarante is practically La Fontaine's own invention.^ * Cf. Dunlop, Hist, of Fiction, new edition by H. Wilson, London, 1906, Vol. II, p. 393. ' We refer here to Damon et Alcimadure (XII, 24), an imitation of the Pseudo-Theocritan idyl XXIII, where the Greek original again contains no pastoral suggestions. Here belongs also the musician 42 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" But one thing is important to note : La Fontaine, the poet of the natural, the enemy of all sham, realized the futility which is inherent in the pastoral genre after all, and he treated it accordingly, as a matter of secondary im- portance/ Usually, there is a good deal of irony, of good- natured raillery in these pastoral scenes of the conven- tional style. III. On the other hand, whenever La Fontaine feels that the pastoral romances express with sincerity a sentiment which he has himself at heart, he freely allows his genius to seek serious inspiration in them. \\'e firmly believe that several of the most admired passages of the Fables can be brought into rather close connection with his favorite pastoral romance, the Astree. However, it must always be borne in mind what La Fontaine himself says about his sources, especially the classic sources, in the often quoted lines of the Epitre a Huet (vv. 21-32) : Quelques imitateurs, sot betail, je I'avoue, Suivent en vrais moutons le pasteur de Mantoue ; J'en use d'au're sorte, et, me laissant guider, Souvent a marcher seul j'ose me hasarder. On me verra toujours pratiquer cet usage; Mon imitation n'est point un esclavage. Tircis in Les poissons et le herger qui joue de la flute (x, 10), and the little eclogue of unknown date {Gr. £cr., VIII, pp. 460-464) in which the opening lines recall the conflict between Astree and Celadon : Clymene : " Je ne veux plus aimer, j'en ai fait un serment : Lysis vient de louer en ma presence Aminte." • In Ceux qui out le gout difficile (II, i), for instance, he begins with an ornate description of an epic scene, the Trojan horse; then he " baisse «run ton", and the pastoral idyl follows. His model Phaedrus (IV, 7) depicts only an epic scene, the expedition of the Argonauts. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES ^^ Je ne prcnds que I'idee et les tours et les lois Que nos maitres suivaient cux-memes autrefois. Si d'ailleurs quelque endroit plein chez eux d'excellence Peut en'rer dans mes vers sans nulle violence, Je I'y transporte, et veux qu'il n'ait rien d'affecte, Tachant de rendrc mien cet air d'antiquite. The fable Les deux pigeons (IX, 2) is considered by Taine and Sainte-Beitve as the masterpiece of the free genre, of the poetic fable. ^ La Fontaine's source was Gaul- main's translation of the Livre des luniieres on la condiiite des rois, compose par le sage Pilpay, Indien.' Taine, as Mr. Regnier recalls in his Notice, compared La Fontaine's fable with the oriental version and found the latter " une litanie sententieuse qui ne laisse a I'auditeur aucune im- pression precise," ^ while La Fontaine's fable, to him, * Causeries du Lundi, XIII, p. 19. ^ Paris, 1644. Cf. Chauvin, Bib'.iogr. des Ouvr. Arabes ou relat. aux Arabes, Liege, i8g2, Vol. II, pp. 33-34 and 113-114, on the origin of Gaulmain's translation. He shows that our fable did not figure in the original Kalilah and Dininah, but was an addition of the Persian Anwdri, the version which Gaulmain translated. Benfey (Pantsrha- tantra, Vol. II, p. 528) makes clear its ultimate Indian, buddhistic origin. * Taine, perhaps, does not do full justice to the Livre des luniieres. The complain's of the lover do make us think of La Fontaine and are really touching: '" O cher compagnon ! vous n'avez jamais endure les fatigues des voyages, et ne savez pas ce que c'est d'etre dans les pays e; rangers. Le voyage est un arbre qui ne donne autre fruit que des inquietudes. . . . Le plaisir des voyages n'est agreable qu'avec les amis, et lorsqu'on est separe d'eux, on a double tourment, I'un de ressentir la douleur de la separation de ce qu'on aime, et I'autre d'en- durer les injures du temps. Ne quittez done point le lieu de votre repos et ne vous separez point de I'objet que vous aimez." The answer of the beloved one, on the contrary, is cold and deserves Taine's criti- cism. Taine's unfavorable judgment is in part, perhaps, due to the fact that he quoted not from the Lizre des luniieres which La Fon- taine used {cf. the text in Gr. £x:r., Ill, pp. 512-515), but from the Fables de Pilpay (1698), the second ed. of Gaulmain's Livre des lunii- eres, where the slightly different text is indeed somewhat prosaic. Cf. Taine, La Fontaine et ses fables, pp. 258-261. 44 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E " evokes Vergilian visions. He has in mind this touching lament of the dove (vv. 5-17) : .... Qu'allez-vous faire? Voulez-vous quitter votre frere? L' absence est le plus grand des maux : Non pas pour vous, cruel ! Au moins que les travaux, Les dangers, les soins de voyage, Changent un peu votre courage. Encor si la saison s'avangait davantage ! Attendez les zephirs : qui vous presse? un corbeau Tout a I'heure annongait malheur a quelque oiseau. Je ne songerai plus que rencontre funeste, Que faucons, que resaux. " Helas ! dirai-je, il pleut: " Mon frere a-t-il tout ce qu'il veut, "Bon souper, bon gite et le reste?" But to find a truly elegiac tone, we need not be reminded of Dido and Aeneas by Taine, nor of Tibullus by La Harpe.^ We find a remarkable instance of it in the very preface to the Astree : L'Autheur a la Bergere Astree. The gentle shepherdess has made up her mind to leave her friend, the author, and to seek adventures in the wide world. The '' autheur " rebukes her in these words: II n'y a done rien, ma Bergere, qui te puisse plus longuement arrester pres de moy? II te fasche, dis-tu, de demeurer plus long-temps prisionniere dans les recoins d'vn. solitaire cabinet, & de passer ainsi ton age inutilement. II ne sied pas bien, mon cher enfant, a vne fille bien nee de courre de cette sorte, & seroit plus a propos que te renfermant ou parmy les Vestales & Druydes, ou dans les murs priuez des affaires domestiques, tu laissasses doucement couler le reste de ta vie: car entre les filles celle-la doit estre la plus estimee dont on parle le moins." ^ Si tu s(;auois quelles sent les peines & difficultez ' La Harpe, Coiirs de IJtt. Dramat., Paris, 1821, Vol. VII, p. 153: " On croit entendre les soupirs de Tibulle." * Cf. Thucydides, book II, ch. 45: "■ M.FyaX7j 7} M^n ^r nv en' eTiaxiOTov hpiTJj^ irtpi f/ ipdyov iv rol^ hpatai k'Aeo^ y." LA FONTAINE'S FABLES . 4c qui se rencontrent le long clu chemin que tu entreprens, quels monstres horribles y vont attendant les passans pour les de- uorer, & combien il y en a eu peu qui ayent rapporte du contentement de semblable voyage, peut-estre t'arresterois-tu sagement, ou tu as este si loguement & doucement cherie. Mais ta jeunesse imprudente, & qui n'a point d'experience de ce que ie te dis, te figure peut-estre des gloires & des vanitez qui produisent ce desir. Ie voy bien qu'elle te dit que tu n'es pas si desagreable, ny d'vn visage si estrange, que tu ne puisses te faire aymer a ceux qui te verront . . . .Toutefois, puisque ta resolution est telle, & que si ie m'y oppose, tu me menaces d'vne prompte desobeissance, ressouuiens-toy pour le moins que ce n'est point par volonte, mais par souffrance que ie te le permets. The similarity is certainly striking. Not only is the situation exactly parallel, but the sentiments expressed are also the same: the impatience of the shepherdess, her un- rest, her curiosity remind us of La Fontaine's adventurous dove, and, likewise, the good advice of the author in one case, of the friend in the other, is identical. The peines & dMcnltez qui se rencontrent le long du chemin, the monstres horribles qui vont attendant les passans pour les deuorer — in La Fontaine become travaux, dangers, soins de voyage, faucons and reseaux. The complaints of the Au- theur are undeniably more akin to the melancholy utter- ances of La Fontaine's dove than the text he found in the Livre des liunieres} Indeed, the very circumstances in which the Astree and the Deux pigeons were written, seem to be identical. Urfe composed a large part of his novel in remembrance of the love of his youth; he is carried back in melancholy thoughts * I owe this interes'ing parallel to my teacher, Prof. Dr. Jules Simon, of the University of Munich, who first discovered the similarity and kindly allowed me to use his notes on the subject. 46 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" to the happy days spent on the banks of the Lignon; he recalls his turbulent life, his long waiting for the beloved one, and the final disenchantment And La Fontaine? In his life, too, love had played an important part — we need only recall his elegies, in which his mistresses figure in goodly number. But among these fugitive inclinations, there seems to have been one greater and deeper passion, which, having already passed his fiftieth year, he recalls in our fable. And again, pastoral reminiscences come to him ; he represents himself as a shepherd and his true-love becomes a shepherdess : J'ai quelquefois aime : je n'aurais pas alors Centre le Louvre et ses tresors, Centre le firmament et sa vou'ic celeste, Change les bois, change les lieux Honores par les pas, eclaires par les yeux De I'aimable et jeune Bergere Pour qui, sous le fils de Cythere, Je servis, engage par mes premiers serments. Thus we understand the tone of these exquisite verses which the abbe Gouillon found " trop hyperboliques, bons pour les £gle de Ronsard et de Voiture." ^ Indeed, the ^ He refers especially to the verse Honores par les pas. . . . The Astree contains several examples of this conceit. Thus in Celadon's Ressouvenir: Dega premierement reluit Le Soleil que mon coeur adore, Apportant auec luy le iour A ces campagnes qu'il honore. (stanza I, Astr., I, 12, p. 861 ff.), or in Silvandre's Monde d' Amour, St. 10: Le Soleil, c'est vostre ceil, sans lumiere seconde: Bel ceil, Soleil d'Amour, qui nous eclaire a tons; Que si I'autre Soleil donne la vie au Monde, Quel Amant peut nier de la tenir de vous? (Astr., II, 7, p. 54I-) LA FONTAINE'S FABLES 47 verses are precieux, but prccieiix of a kind which only La Fontaine could write, a poet who knew how to ennoble old, well-worn commonplaces, and to adapt them to the ex- pression of his sincerest emotions. IV. Besides this personal note in the expression of love, as we found it in the Deux pigeons, La Fontaine's feeling for nature, his longing for a restful life in the midst of its tranquil beauties, his often expressed desire to flee court life with its ambitions and its vicissitudes are often con- sidered as features which, among the lyric poets of the seventeenth century, belong almost exclusively to him.^ But the Astree repeatedly expresses similar feelings with sin- cerity and dignity, and again we are inclined to believe that La Fontaine found his inspiration not only in his own genius, but that he is indebted, to a certain extent, to several passages of the Astree. As to the feeling for nature in itself, the two poets are. of course, entirely original. Each one felt " the god with- in ", and expressed his sentiments according to his tempera- ment. This will clearly appear from a comparison of Urfe's landscape and pastoral scenery with the rustic scenes of La Fontaine's fables. ^ As his most important predecessor Racan is usually mentioned ; cf. Cans, du Lundi, tome VIII, p. 61. The intimate relations wh'ch link Racan on the one hand wi'h the Astree, on the other with La Fon- taine, have been studied by M. L. Arnould in his well-known thesis Racan, Paris, 1896, pp. 203 ff. and 523. Nevertheless, the author comes to the conclusion that Racan is "un isole au i-e siecle", and tha' he is not immediately connected with the general development of French poetry. Is it not permissible to assume a continuous current of poetic inspir- ation, which would lead from the Pleiade over the Astree to Racan and then to La Fon'aine — a filiation which M. Arnould himself impli- cite advocates in the passages quoted? 48 ^A FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" M. Doumic ^ sums up the characteristic feature of Urfe's landscapes in these words : " Ces descriptions sont un charme du livre : elles ont rendu celebre le modeste cours du Lignon. La nature telle que I'a depeinte d'Urfe, est tranquille, douce, sans grand relief ni couleurs tres vives, celebree moins en elle-meme et pour ses beautes que par rapport a I'homme et pour le calme d'esprit qu'elle favorise." The latter trait constitutes a characteristic difference be-' tween Urfe and La Fontaine. The latter, in many of the fables, is entirely modern in his attitude toward nature; he loves and describes its beauties for their own sake, prac- tically disregarding the sentimental relation to mankind. Thus in L'alouette et ses petits (IV, 22), with its vernal breezes and waving cornfields, and in the Discoiirs a M. le due de La Rochefoucaidd (X, 14), with the famous scene : Les lapins qui, sur la bruyere, L'oeil eveille, I'oreille au guet, S'egayaient et de thym parfumaient leur banquet. Thus finally in the Forct et le biicheron (XII, 14), where the trees have a human soul and sigh under the cruel blows of the axe. In the Astree, as M. Doumic tells us, we hardly find such plastic pictures, which seem to depict in a few strokes, the whole complexity of animal life." Yet Urfe also feels the beauty of nature, though the expression may be differ- * Histoire de la litt. franq., Paris, 1909, 26th ed., p. 291. * There is, however, one passage in the Astree which betrays Urfe's keen observation of the details of animal life, ihe description of the pictures in the grotto of Damon and Fortune {Astr., I, 11). For a full treatment of this very important passage, see below, ch. VII, p. 78 ff. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES 4q ent. The following description of a thick forest is per- haps not devoid of a certain picturesque element: Sur le penchant du vallon voisin, duquel ce petit ruisseau arrouse le pied, il s'esleue vn bocage espaissi branchc sur branche de diuerses feuilles dont les cheueux, n'ayans iamais este tondu par le fer a cause que le bois est dedie a Diane, s'entre-ombrageoient espandus I'vn sur I'autre, de sorte que mal aisement pouuoient ils estre percez du Soleil ny a son leuer, ny a son coucher, & par ainsi au plus haut du midy mesme, vne chiche lumiere d'vn iour blafard y palissoit d'or- dinaire.^ And that Urfe also admires a beautiful tree and the odd forms which nature sometimes assumes, appears from a passage like this : •Ce chesne veritablement est admirable, dit Adamas, luy (=Celadon) montrant vn grand chesne qui s'esleuoit d'vn seul tronc, & puis se separant en trois branches les reunissoit en haut & les resserroit sous vne mesme escorce." Urfe as a landscape painter is especially praiseworthy. Here he paints directly from nature, after the impressions he has received from familiar scenes, be it the romantic valley of Vaucluse, with its reminiscences of Petrarch, or medieval Paris with the " beau fleuue de la Seine ", or the vast panorama of Lyons, and its neighboring moun- tains.^ The most careful descriptions, however, are to be found in the many passages dedicated to his cherished plain of the Forez. One of these, the beautiful beginning of the first part, is well known through frequent quotation.* ' Astr., I. 5, p. 294. ' Astr., II, 8, p. 580. » See Astr., Ill, 3, pp. 215-221; ITT, 12, p. 1123, and II. 3, PP- I97-I99- * Reure, p. 3; also N. M. Bernardin, Morceaux Choisis du ly^ Steele, Paris, n. d., p. 157. 50 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" Quite interesting is the minute account of the geographical situation of Montverdun, in which even the exact measure- ments of the mountain are given/ Preferably, however, we quote the pretty description of the idyllic spot near the source of the Lignon, which is the dwelling place of the " Pasteur " Eleumon and the " sage Bergere " Ericanthe: Xon point trop Icing de la source de nostre gentil Lignon. ils ont vne demeure sur les bords de cette delectable riuiere qu'il semble que la Nature se soit pleue d'embellir de tout ce qui la pouuoit rendre agreable. Elle est posee sur vne colline qui luy donne une veue quoy qu'vn peu limitee. a cause des autres petites montagnes assez voisines, toutes fois si belle qu'il semble que ceux qui peignent des paisages ayent pris le patron sur la situation. Lignon prend son cours au bas de cette coste. que de pres d"vn coste & d'autre vont accom- pagnant, presque autant que la veue se peut estendre. les saussayes qui separent ces prez. & les petits fossez, par lesquels on desrobe les claires eaux de Lignon. semblent autant de petits ruisseaux qui vont abbreuuant ces belles prairies. Tout le penchant de la colline est couuert de I'ombrage de quantite d'arbres disposez en allees. par lesquelles on descend sans incommodite du Soleil ny de la descente. iusques sur I'agreable riuage de cette claire riuiere, que les fleurs presque en tout temps esmaillent de cent diuerses couleurs, les Rossignols qui semblent auoir choisi ce lieu pour leur demeure ordinaire, le peuplent de telle sorte. qu'on iugeroit, a ouyr les diuerses choeurs qui se respondent a la voix les vns aux autres. qu'ils ont abandonne tous les autres endroits de la contree pour a Tenuy venir chanter parmy ces arbres : & la Nature, a tant de graces n'ayant pas voulu estre auare de ce qui pouuoit embellir entierement ce lieu, y a fait sourdre tant de fontaines tout le long de ce penchant, qu'on dit qu'elles y sont conduites par artifice : bref, ce lieu est la delice & le plaisir de tous les hameaux voisins ou presque tant que le beau temps le per- ' Asir.. II, 8, p. 562. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES cj met, il y a ordinairement vn grand concours du peuple & mesme les iours qui sont particulierenient dediez a quclque resiouissance.^ Besides these detailed descriptions of definite scenery, we find many shorter scenes of a more pastoral character. When we read of Diane, " endormie a la fontaine des Sicomores ou la fraischeur de I'ombrage & le doiix gazouil- lement de I'onde I'auoient sur le haut du iour assoupie " ^ — do we not see, before our eyes, the whole quiet landscape of this happy Arcadia? Again, how pretty is the idyl of the cherry tree : Sylvandre invites the company to rest in a shady spot, " pour passer cette grande chaleur du Soleil " : II seroit impossible, respondit Syluandre, qu'en tout le bois on pust rencontrer vne place plus commode que celle de la source de ce petit ruisseau que vous voyez : car la fraischeur de I'ombre, & le doux murmure de I'eau qui coule parmy le grauier conuie chacun a s'y arrester. . . . D'abord chacun mit les mains dans la fontaine, & n'y eust celuy qui n'en prist dans la bouche pour se rafraischir, & puis choisissant les places les plus commodes, ils s'assirent tous a I'entour de cette belle source, hormis Siluandre, qui estant monte sur vn grand * Astr., IV, 6, pp. 506-507, Hist, de Delphire & de Dorisce. For other descriptions see Astr., II, 12, p. 880 (a tempest in the Mediter- ranean) ; Astr., Ill, 4, p. 341 (Forez, the ideal country) ; Astr., Ill, 6, p. 473 ff. (the Forez). Rather striking is the contrast to be found in the landscapes and descriptions of the Conclusioti, in which a de- cidedly precieux tone prevails, with metaphors and mythological reminiscences — a method used by Boccaccio several times in ihe Fiani- metta, and to be found also in the novels of Mile, de Scudery. Cf. Astr., V, 3, p. 236; ib., 7, p. 544; ib., 8, pp. 587 and 596-597; ib., 9, p. 694 ff. (the scene of Tircis and Laonice retiring to the woods). Fiam- metta, bilingual ed., Paris, 1609, begin, of book 6, p. 375a flf. Clelie, begin, of the novel. For other descriptions in Scudery's novels see Lotheissen, Gesch. der Franz. Lift, im 17. JJidt., part II. p. 253 (Vienna, 1897, 2d edition). * Astr., I, 6, p. 407. 52 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" cerisier, qui mesme leur faisoit vne partie de I'ombrage, leur iettoit en bas des branches chargees de fruits.^ But often enough the happiness of the shepherds is dis- turbed by sorrows and jealousies. They then retire into the woods to be alone with their grief, and surrounding Nature is often brought into relation with their moods. Thus " Laonice se mit dans le plus espais du bois pour se plaindre en toute liberte." " and Lycidas and others gain " le plus retire du bois, pour entretenir leur pensees." ^ Sylvandre passes a beautiful night under the starry sky, absorbed in thoughts of his beloved Diana. The descrip- tion of a moonlight night which then follows, is perhaps one of the finest passages in the whole novel, only slightly marred by two unnecessary sonnets : Sans y penser, Siluandre paruient en vn lieu du bois, ou les arbres, pour estre rares, luy laisserent voir la Lune. Elle auoit passe le plein de quelques iours, & ne laissoit toutesfois d'esclairer, de sorte que le Berger, oubliant toute autre dessein, se iette a genoux pour Fadorer. parce que la conformite de Diane & d'elle luy commandoit d'aimer cet Astre sur tous ceux qui paroissoient dans les Cieux . . . La Lune alors, comme si c'eust este pour le conuier a demeurer dauantage en ce lieu, sembla s'allumer d'vne nouuelle clarte ... * V. But the great gospel which the Astrce ever preaches, is the happiness of a quiet life in the peace of Nature, undis- turbed by deceitful ambitions. Here the very inspiration ^ Astr., 11, 4, p. 222. * Astr., I, 7, p. 474. * Astr., I, 7, pp. 474 and 479. * Astr., II, 2, pp. 128-133; the rest of the passage, still more charac- teristic, is quoted by Reure, p. 257. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES -3 of Urfe and of La Fontaine seems to meet, although, of course, the thought is a well-known commonplace in many literatures. The fables in which La Fontaine expresses this feeling have so often been commented upon, that the mere enum- eration of them, or the quotation of a few lines will suffice. There is first L'homme qui court apres la Fortune et I'homme qui I' attend dans son lit (VH. 12). Saint-Marc Girardin has called this fable " une arriere-pensee des Deux Pigeons". It has no known source; it grew, partly out of La Fontaine's inmost feelings, partly out of literary remin- iscences from Horace, Vergil, Racan,^ and — as we believe — the As tree : Qui ne court apres la Fortune? Je voudrais etre en lieu d'ou je puisse aisement Contempler la foule importune De ceux qui cherchent vainement Cette fille du sort de royaume en royaume, Fideles courtisans d'un volage fantome. Quand ils sont pres du bon moment, L'inconstante aussitot a leurs desirs echappe : Pauvres gens! je les plains; car on a pour les fous Plus de pitie que de courroux. And after pursuing the goddess of fortune in vain and returning disenchanted to his home, the man exclaims : Heureux qui vit chez soi, De regler ses desirs f aisant tout son emploi ! II ne sait que par ouir dire Ce que c'est que la cour, la mer, et ton empire, Fortune, qui nous fais passer devant les yeux Des dignites, des biens, que jusqu'au bout du monde On suit sans que I'effet aux promesses reponde. Desormais je ne bouge et ferai cent fois mieux. The same advice is given in the Astree : Celadon's father * See the parallels given in Gr. £cr., Vol. II, p. 160 ff. 54 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" Alcippe, at the instigation of his mistress Amarillis, had precipitated himself into the turbulent life of a warrior and a knight errant for seventeen long years. But he has met with many disappointments, and retires again to his modest home, obeying the voice of a good spirit: Mens-ga, Alcippe, quel est ton dessein? N'est-ce pas assez de viure heureux autant que Cloton fillera tes iours? Si cela est, ou penses-tu trouuer ce bien, sinon au repos? Le repos, ou peut-il estre que hors des affaires? Les affaires, comment peuuent-elles esloigner Tambition de la Cour, puis que la mesme felicite de I'ambition gist en la pluralite des affaires? N'as-tu point encore assez esprouue I'inconstance dent elles sont pleines? . . . Doncques, Alcippe, r'entre en toy-mesme, & te ressouuiens que tes peres & ayeuls ont este plus sages que toy, ne veuille point estre plus auise, mais plante vn cloud de diamant a la roue de ceste fortune, que tu as si souuent trouuee si muable, reuiens au lieu de ta naissance, laisse-la ceste pourpre & la change en tes premiers habits : que ceste lance soit changee en houlette, & ceste espee en coultre pour ouurir la terre, & non pas le flanc des hommes ! La tu trouueras chez toy le repos qu'en tant d'annees tu n'as iamais peu trouuer ailleurs.^ The latter part of this quotation is noteworthy in con- nection with another of La Fontaine's fables. Is not this the same advice which the shepherd follows in Le berger * Astr., I, 2, pp. 97-98. Cf. also Astr., II, 7, p. 492 : Leonide, " estant lassee du tracas de la Cour ", retires to her uncle Adamas. Astr., I, 12, p. 867 : Tircis, the melancholy shepherd, has left the " riues her- beuses de la glorieuse Seine ", and has found peace in the Forez. A splendid character is the " vieil Druyde "' in Astr., Ill, 6, p. 514 flF. : " Ce bon vieillard, en ses ieunes annees, auoit comme les autres suiuy les folles apparences du monde : mais ayant espreuue combien les pro- messes en estoient menteuses, il s'estoit retire de la frequentation des hommes, au sommet d'vn petit rocher qui estoit sur le bord du fleuue, & pour vacquer plus librement a la contemplation, s'estoit entierement deffait de tous les liens qu'il auoit eus de ses ancestres". LA FONTAINE'S FABLES cc et Ic roi (X, 9), when he is quite as disgusted with court life as is Alcippe? Wisely he had kept his Habit d'un gardeur de troupeaux, Petit chapeau, jupon, panneticre, houlette, Et, je pense, aussi sa musette. " Doux tresors, ce dit-il, chers gages qui jamais 'N'attirates sur vous I'envie et le mensonge, Je vous reprends : sortons de ces riches palais Comme Ton sortirait d'un songe." It is, perhaps, significant, in view of the passage quoted above from the Astree, that La Fontaine lets his shepherd retire to his former calling, while all the sources referred to by M. Regnier, have an entirely different denouement.'^ The Songe d'un habitant dii Mogol (XI, 4) with its epilogue inspired by Vergil, and the very last fable, Le jiige arhitre, I' hospitaller et le solitaire (XII, 25) com- mend again the amour de la retraite in preference to any other kind of life. If La Fontaine thus sums up, in a last apologue, his entire " philosophy of life ", Urfe favors us with a regular dissertation upon the subject. In a lively conversation, Florice, an aristocratic native of Lyons, de- fends the worldly, the chivalrous milieu, " I'esclat du pourpre, de la sole & de Tor," while her friend Circeine believes in the superiority of the pastoral life, " exempte de peine & de soucis qui tounnentent celles qui viuent dans nostre perpetuelle confusion." And the advocate of the pastoral life has the last word.^ ^ The warning of the consequences of ambition is a favorite theme with La Fontaine. See the Elegie a Fouquet (vv. 19-44) 5 the conte Joconde (I. i, v. 52 fif.) ; the speech of Hortesie in Songe de Vaux, fragm. 2; and the story of the fisherman in Psyche, book 2 (cf. below, ch. VII). * Astr., IV, 2, p. 88 ff., a conversation which recommends itself by its comparative brevity and its elegant style. In this connection we may mention Urfe's conception that love, among the shepherds, pro- duces the same fatal effects as docs ambition at court (ilhalame pour Mile, de Bourbon et le Prince de Coiiti, v. 32 tf. Astr , III, ID, p. 973. Later on this conception assumed the form of a m3i:h in ( ?)Bachaumont's Divorce de I'Amour et de I'Hymenee; see CEuzres de Chapelle et de Bachaumont, Paris, 1854, p. 268, and Gr. £cr., VIII, p. 453. ' Cf. above, ch. V, p. 46, n. i, and Astr., II, 5, pp. 336-338, Dialogue sur les yeux d'vn pourtraict. * Le diable de Papefiguicre, v. 4, and note. LA FONTAINE'S "CONTES" 6l the verses easily suggest the example of Leonide, " qui auoit resolu de changer I'Amour (:= for Celadon) en amitie," and Celidee's somewhat platonising definitions: "Fay ouy dire qu'on peut aimer en deux sortes : I'vne est selon la raison, I'autre selon le desir. Celle qui a pour reigle la raison, on me I'a nommee amitie honneste & vertueuse, & celle qui se laisse emporter a ses desirs, Amour." ^ III. But if there are no definite relations between the Contes and the Astree save these few commonplaces and the al- lusions mentioned above, we find one conte in which La Fontaine travesties the entire genre of pastoral and chival- rous romances with their marvelous adventures and their stereotyped precieux motives. It is the famous Fiancee du Roi de Garhe {Contes II, 14), freely imitated from the seventh novel of the second day of Boccaccio's Decameron. Many years ago, this novel was analyzed in an interest- ing essay by fimile Montegut." After a splendid charac- terization of the Italian genius in general and of Boccaccio's ^ Cf. Petit chien, vv. 516-517; Filles de Minee, v. 191 (also Elegies, V, V. 34 and note, and II, v. 68; Psyche, liv. II, Gr. £cr., VIII, p. 225). — Astr., I, II, p. 765, and Astr., II, 2, p. 103. — There is a curious expres- sion in the Contes, to which M. Regnier suggests no parallel : four times La Fontaine uses the adjective " defunt" in a comic sense, as the equivalent of "former": "defunt amant ", " defunte Tinette" and "defunt marquis". {Faucon, v. 198, and Richard Minutolo, v. 95; Troqueurs. v. in; Faucon. v. 95.) Similarly, Hylas repeatedly ad- dresses Philis as "ma feue' maistresse ", and she replies to " mon feu serviteur". (Astr., Ill, i, p. 51 ff. ; ib., II, p. 1042.) 2 See Revue des deux Mondes, 1868, tome 45, pp. 721-736; the article is reprinted in £. Montegut, Poctes et artistes d'ltalie, Paris, 1881, pp. 21-51. For Montegut's peculiar personality compare L. P. Betz, £. Montegut, ein frans. Verniitt'er der Weltlitteratur, in his Stud. z. vergl. Literaturgeschichte, Frankfurt a-AI., 1908, pp. 136-158. 62 ^A FONTAINE AND THE "ASTRRE" in particular/ Montegut applies his theories to the novel in question. To him, it represents the apogee of Boccaccio's art. It is by no means gay, he declares, containing as it does, one of the greatest tragic conflicts a human mind ever conceived; it is the tragedy of beauty. But most read- ers fail to appreciate this deep tragedy; for many, the heroine's name has become associated with all sorts of burlesque and tragicomical adventures. And Montegut continues : " Notre bon La Fontaine, pour comble de mal- heur, a pris cette histoire dans Boccaccio et en a fait un de ses contes lestes, grivois, qu'il fait si bien, en sorte que la seule Fiancee du roi de Garbe que Ton connaisse est celle de La Fontaine, et non celle de Boccaccio." " M. G. Lafenestre, in his monograph on La Fontaine, re- calls Montegut's essay. What he has to say about the two versions, is not very flattering to our fabulist : " On salt ce qui reste de cette conception passionnee de la Renaissance dans le recit adouci et desseche de La Fontaine: une suite d'episodes egrillards et de vulgaires polissonneries. C'est ainsi que, presque toujours, I'amour, sensuel ou tendre, la passion, brutale ou raffinee. qu'il a pu rencontrer chez ses modeles, se denaturent, pour etre acceptes de son auditoire, en galanteries faciles, et que la peinture des moeurs, des caracteres, des sentiments, souvent si vive dans les Novelle et dans les Fabliaux, s'efface presque completement chez lui, pour ne laisser place qu'a une action rapide et finement dialoguee." ^ ' According to him, this genius consists in the " union difficile, pres- que contre nature, et cependant presque toujours heureuse, de ce que I'antiquite et le moyen age eurent respectivement de plus original et de plus parliculierement characteristique." The antique, classic ele- ment is found in Boccaccio's form, which emphasizes the essential, the unchangeahle elements of nature, while the substance of his novels is a romantic picture of medieval life with all the luxury of details (/. c, pp. 29-30). * L. c, p. 42. » L. c, p. 138. LA FONTAINE'S "CONTES" 63 This criticism is certainly just for a good many of the contes, and, to a certain extent, it also holds true for our particular story. Boccaccio's novella is highly pathetic — a little gruesome perhaps in parts ;^ but in the last scene, where the heroine and the faithful Antigono impose so cleverly upon the good king, the classic tragedy of fate is relieved, one thinks, by a good comedy of situation. It is in this gay ending that La Fontaine's justification lies, and in which he found inspiration for his somewhat radical changes. Let us not be mistaken about this point. La Fontaine had a very keen critical appreciation of the works of other writers as well as of his own." He understood Boccaccio perfectly, and in this special case, he was certainly aware of the underlying tragedy. How else can we explain the in- troductory verses, in which he practically excuses himself for the free treatment of his source?^ The comical tone of this very excuse must not deceive us. La Fontaine felt * See, for instance, the episode of the duke of Athens who kills the prince of Morea : " Per che, di pid caldo desio accesosi, non spaventato dal ricente peccato da lui commesso, con le mani ancor sanguinose, allato se corico. . . . (ed. P. Fanfani, Florence, 1904, Vol. I, p. 150). ' See, for instance, the comedy Clymene, in which he characterizes so well the style of Horace, Marot, Malherbe and Voiture. •II n'est rien qu'on ne conte en diverses faqons: On abuse du vrai comme on fait de la feinte; Je le soufifre aux recits qui passent pour chansons; Chacun y met du sien sans scrupule et sans crainte; Mais aux evenements de qui la verite Importe a la posterite, Tels abus meritent censure. Le fait d'Alaciel est d'une autre nature. Je me suis ecarte de mon original : On en pourra gloser ; on pourra me mecroire; Tout cela n'est pas un grand mal : Alaciel et sa memoire Ne sauraient guere perdre a tout cc changement. 64 l-A FONTAINE AND THE "ASTREE" that he had changed the principal character of his model in a way he had never done before. He reahzed that some explanation was needed, and naturally he framed his ex- cuse in a style to meet the case. But in what does this radical change consist? The an- swer, it seems to me. is this : La Fontaine turned Boccaccio's " histoire tragique " with its gloomy details into a frank burlesque of countless romances of adventure, impartially parodying both chivalrous and pastoral precieux motives. La Fontaine's attitude toward preciosity is most inter- esting. In spite of the fact that, primarily, he will always remain for us the poet of the Fables, the independent ob- server of nature, he did not escape all the influences, liter- ary and other^vise, around him. On the contrary, like Moliere, his first thought is to please the public,^ and if the public taste is inclined toward preciosity, he will also fol- low that current. Thus he delights in discreetly adding precieux touches to a good many of the fables ; " thus he pays a lavish tribute to preciosity in the Songe de Vaux and in Les amours de Psyche et de Cupidon. But his in- dividuality appears even when hampered by conventions. His ver\' appas, traits, roses, fleurs and lis of his helles and cruelles, of his ohjets, nymphes and bergeres have almost always something original ; and the new note which they contain makes us forget the banality of these well-worn ornaments. To a certain extent this is also true of the Contes. La Fontaine brought these old stories " up to date." as it were. Even in those in which he professedly uses "le vieux langage." we find, every now and then, a little precieux touch which at once makes them appear modem to his audience. Through the difference of surroundings, ' Cf. Preface to Psyche: " Mon principal but est de plaire: pour en venir la, je considere le goiJt du siecle." ' Cf. above, ch. V, pp. 39-42, and p. 46. LA FONTAINE'S "CONTES" 65 however, these same precieux expressions assume a some- what different shade in their significance — they become burlesque.^ M. Lanson, with his accustomed soHdity of criticism, has well shown the real nature of the burlesque genre." He explains how the precieux and the burlesque note are often to be found in one and the same author, how they are de- rived, ultimately, from the same sources : " Le burlesque n'est pas un genre de reaction . . . L'heroique,^ le precieux, le burlesque sont trois etats du meme gout, trois styles du meme art; I'heroique et le burlesque sont encore du precieux, et . . . le burlesque n'est autre chose que la forme plaisante du precieux. Si le burlesque est souvent la parodie du fin ou du grand, cette parodie n'est que gaie sans malice, et surtout sans intention critique, sans opposition rcelle de goijt." We may apply this word for word to the case of the Fiancee du roi de Garbe : La Fontaine, likewise, had no sarcastic, no satirical intention, though he himself is highly amused by the comic effect he produces. • Cf. Richard Miniitolo (Coiit., I, 2), vv. 3, 7, 39-40, 102, 1^2-123; also L'oraison de Saint Julien (Cont., II, 5), vv. 270-274 and Le MagniUque (Cont., IV, is), vv. 109-114. We recall here the famous condemnation of Malherbe's precieux followers in the Epitre a Huet., vv. 54-56: . . . Ses {= Malherbe's) traits ont perdu quiconque I'a suivi. Son trop d'esprit s'epand en trop de belles choses : Tous meiaux y sont or, toutes fleurs y sont roses. In this connection see P. Toldo, La Fontaine et Molicre in Rev. d'Hist. Litt. de la France XVIII (1911), esp. the "digression", p. 743 ff, and his article Come il La Fontaine s'ispirasse al Boccaccio (in Studii dedicati a F. Torraca, Naples, 1912); Cf. also F. Brunetiere, Etudes Critiques, vol. VII, pp. 56-58. * Cf. £tudes sur les rapports de la litt. franq. et de la litt. esp. an I7e siccle (1600-1660) in Rev. d'Hist. Litt. de la France, III (1S96), p. 321 flf. 3 This concepiion of the heroic, a poetical genre to vi'hich La Fon- taine confessed himself several times (in the advertissements to Adonis and the Songe de Vaux), is equally noteworthy. 66 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" A brief outline of the conte will illustrate our point more clearly. After the proem, a brief summary of the story/ we are formally introduced to the heroine Alaciel. La Fontaine, as he often does, refers to the shepherdess, as the best personification of a loving female creature (v. 50) : La belle aimait deja; mais on n'en savait rien : Filles de sang royal ne se declarent gueres ; Tout se passe en leur cosur : cela les f ache bien, Car elles sont de chair ainsi que les bergeres. The party has hardly set out for Garbe, when the rom- ance of adventure begins." The ship is attacked by pirates, commanded by " Grifonio, le gigantesque." A homeric battle ensues — a parody on the usual marvelous achieve- ments of the knights. Only the majestic alexandrine is able to describe Hispal's valor worthily (v. 75) : * In Gr. Ecr., IV, p. 397, n. 2, we find a note to the effect that Boc- caccio, in his summary, speaks erroneously of the " mani di nove huo- mini " through which Alaciel passed. This is said to be true only if we count the fiance as the ninth. As a matter of fact, Boccaccio re- lates nine adventures; the future husband would be the tenth suitor. La Fontaine actually omitted one adventure,— another illustration that the " longs ouvrages " really " font peur " to our poet. Here is the list of the adventures in both versions: La Fontaine: (i) Hispal (vv. 54-319), (2) Le chef de I'escorte (320-357), (3) Le corsaire, lieuten- ant de Grifonio (358-401), (4) Le seigneur du chateau (402-503), (5) L'ami du seigneur (504-531), (6) Le " conteur de fleurettes " (532- 611), (7) Le chevalier errant (612-710), (8) Son neveu (711-727). Boccaccio: (i) Pericone di Visalgo (the effect of wine; see La Fon- taine, 4), (2) Marato, fratello di Pericone, (3) I due giovani padroni della nave, (4) II prenze della Morea, (5) II duca d'Atene, (6) Con- stantino, figliuolo deir imperatore di Constantinopoli, (7) Osbech, re de'Turchi, (8) Antonio, famigliare d'Osbech, (9) II mercante cipriancv (8-9, the episode so highly admired by Montegut, suggested, perhaps, to La Fontaine his 7-8.). * The Notice of Gr. tier, suggests many parallel stories, to which one might add an episode in Astrce, TV, 11, where Ligdamon, in order ta establish his identity, flees with Amerine. LA FONTAINE'S "CONTES" 67 Hispal en un moment se vit environne; Maint corsaire sentit son bras determine : De ses yeux il sortait des eclairs et des flammes. . . Comme Grifonio passait d'un bord a I'autre, Un pied sur le navire, un sur celui d'Hispal, Le heros d'un revers coupe en deux I'anima! : Part du tronc tombe en I'eau, disant sa patenotre, En reniant Mahom, Jupin et Tervagant, Avec maint autre dieu non moins extravagant, Part demeure sur pied en la meme posture. On aurait ri de I'aventure, Si la belle avec lui n'ciit tombe dedans I'eau. But Hispal and Alaciel reach the shore safely; they buy a castle, and the " heures du berger " are at liberty to begin. No chivalrous or pastoral romance ever had a better setting for its love scenes (v. 194) : Ce chateau, dit I'histoire. avait un pare fort grand ; Ce pare, un bois ; ce bois, de beaux ombrages ; Sous ces ombrages nos amants Passaient d'agreables moments. . . . Or au fond-de ce bois un certain antre etait Sourd et muet et d'amoureuse affaire; Sombre surtout : la nature semblait L'avoir mis la non pour autre mystere. Hispal declares his love in an ardent speech, and the poet continues (v. 225) : Hispal haranguait de fagon Qu'il aurait echaufife les marbres, Tandis qu' Alaciel, a I'aide d'un poingon, Faisait semblant d'ecrire sur les arbres. Mais I'Amour faisait la rever A d'autre chose qu'a graver Des characteres sur I'ecorce. This passage is particularly noteworthy. Here we have a parody on two motives which have become commonplaces in lyric poetry, and especially in all pastoral fiction, from 68 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" the Greek and Roman eclogues to the Diana and the Astree. One of them is the device of animating dead ob- jects, stone, rocks, trees, even flames and daggers, and to contrast their hypothetical pity with the cruelty of the be- loved one.^ The other motive is the old device of lovers, to write on trees and to carve their names or monograms, symbolically interlaced, upon the bark." In the meanwhile, the happiness of Hispal and Alaciel continues. La Fontaine now introduces another favorite motive of the pastorals, really a development of the one first mentioned: the surrounding objects become the silent but faithful witnesses of the idyl. The inscriptions on the trees, at the same time, have considerably increased in number (v. 268) : L'antre ne les vit seul de ces douceurs jouir; Rien ne compte a 1' amour que la premiere peine. Si les arbres parlaient, il ferait bel ouir Ceux de ce bois ; car la foret n'est pleine Que des monuments amoureux Qu'Hispal nous a laisses, glorieux de sa proie. 1 We meet, for example, in the Astree. stereotyped phrases like : " Celion vesquit de cette sorte (= separated from Belinde) plusieurs iours ; durant lesquels il faisoit pitie mesme aux rochers " {Astr., I, 10. P- 730). In Astr., V. n, p. 1324, there occurs a passage, betraying, perhaps Baro's less skilful hand, which shows to what abuses these invocations lead : Astree has been seized by Polemas' brutal soldiers ; Celadon runs after the abductors, " criant ou plustost hurlant, & de- mandant secours aux Dieux, aux hommes, aux animaux, a la riviere de Lignon, aux arbres, aux rochers, & bref a toutes les choses qu'il rencontroit ou qui luy venoient en la pensee." — For similar exaggera- tions in Montemayor's Diana and especially in Sidney's Arcadia see H. A. Rennert, The Spanish Pastoral Romances, Philadelphia, 1912, pp. 37-39- * Of this feature, again, we find a pretty instance in the Astree. In the Histoire de Chi'.deric, de Silviane et d'Andrimarte {Astr., Ill, 12, pp. 1124-1125), the whole process is minutely described: Silviane, a young girl, has flirted for some time \yith young Andrimarte; while playing together, she carves her name on the bark of a willow-tree, and he puts Lbove it: "I'AYME". LA FONTAINE'S " CONTES " 6^ On y verrait ecrit : " Ici pama de joie Des mortels le plus heureux; La mourut un amant sur le sein de sa dame; En cet endroit, mille baisers de flamme Furent donnes et mille autres rendus. Le pare dirait beaucoup ; le chateau beaucoup plus, Si chateaux avaient une langue.^ In the second adventure again, the parody is obvious. Hispal's successor is a fiery youth who wants to take Alaciel's heart by storm. At first she does not listen to his protestations of love (v. 331) : Temoigner en tel cas un peu de dcsespoir Est quelquefois une bonne recette. C'est ce que fait notre homme: il forme le dessin De se laisser mourir de f aim ; Car de poignarder, la chose est trop tot faite. On n'a pas le temps d'en venir Au repentir. Everyone knows with what a readiness the jilted heroes ^This literary convention also is often represented in the Astree. Let us quote but one instance where the mannerism is apparent. In the above-mentioned passage {cf. p. €8, n. i; Astr., IV, 11, p. 1322) we have the scene in which Polemas' soldiers are hidden in the woods, awaiting a chance to seize Astree and Celadon. The poet pathetically exclaims : " O que si ces arbres eussent peu se plaindre, qu'ils eussent auec beaucoup de raison regrette le changement qu'ils voyaient, car eux qui n'estoient autrefois que de douces cachettes de quelques honnestes larcins d'Amour, & n'auoient accoustume que d'ouyr les ardentes plaintes, les petites quereles & agreables paix des Amants, ou leur amoureuses entreprises, estoient maintenant vne retraitte de \oleurs & de rauisseurs inhumains." Other parallels may be found in Lau- monier, Ronsard, pocte lyrique, Paris, 1909, where the history of all these poetic conventions is recorded (pp. 430-466). See also E. Roy, Les premiers cercles frangais an 17^ Steele: Math. Regnier et Giiido- baldo della Rovere, in Rev. d'Hist. Lift, de la Fr., IV (1897). This article is interesting, as it shows that even a poet like Regnier did not free himself of precieux conventions. La Fontaine himself used these same motives several times without any burlesque intention, as in Adonis, v. 136 ff., and Psyche, book II, Gr. £cr., VIII, pp. 152-153. and note 3. To the parallel passages there suggested we would add Cela- don's very precieux " Ressouuenir," Astr., I, 12, p. 861 ff. 70 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E' of pastoral and chivalrous novels fling themselves into the arms of death — from which they are, however, saved with astonishing regularity.^ It is needless to say that in His- pal's case likewise the suicide is not carried out: Alaciel yields from motives of pure humanity. In the following adventures, the parody on chivalrous or pastoral motives is abandoned. Only with the seventh lover, a knight errant of the weakest sort, the take-off be- comes again evident (v. 617) : Un jour, entre autres, que la belle Dans un bois dormait a I'ecart, II s'y rencontrait par hasard Un chevalier errant, grand chercheur d'aventures, De ces sortes de gens que sur des palefrois Les belles suivaient autrefois. Et passaient pour chastes et pures. Celui-ci qui donnait a ses desirs essor, Comme faisait jadis Rogel ^ et Galaor,^ N'eut vu la princesse endormie Que de prendre un baiser il forma le dessin : Tout pret a faire choix de la bouche ou du sein, II etait sur le point d'en passer son envie, Quand tout a coup il se souvint Des lois de la chevalerie. A ce penser il se retint, Priant toutefois dans son ame Toutes les puissances d'amour Qu'il put courir en ce sejour Quelque aventure avec la dame. ' Celadon, for instance, leaps into the Lignon, only to be rescued, a few miles below, by beautiful nymphs {Astr., I, i) ; Sylvandre is just about to throw himself into a deep abyss, when Celadon proposes to him a nobler death, namely, to allow themselves to be torn to pieces by the wild animals of the Fontaine de la Verite d'Amour — a device which ultimately saves them again {Astr., V, 7, p. 574 fif.). Compare also Aininta, act V, Elpino's account of Aminta's rescue. 2 The ed. of the Gr. flcr. refers here to Ruggiero of the Orlando Furioso, canto Vil, st. 28 fif. ■'' Galaor is Amadis' brother, in whom many see the prototype of Urfes Ilylas. LA FONTAINE'S "CONTES" yi Alaciel awakes, and " en deux mots " the stranger zon- fesses to her " I'ardeur qui I'embrasait ". She tells him her sad story, not mentioning, of course, the six lovers. He swears to bring her back to her parents, paying her first a nice precieux compliment,^ and ending then quite explicitly — the burlesque proceeding by contrast (v. 663) : Pourvu qu' Amour me prete vie, Vous les verrez, dit-il. C'est seulement a vous D'apporter remede a vos coups, Et consentir que mon ardeur s'appaise : Si j'en mourais (a vos bontes ne plaise!) Vous demeureriez seul ; et, pour vous parler franc, Je tiens ce service assez grand Pour me flatter d'une esperance De recompense. In this scene all the incidents are narrated in a burlesque manner. The lady must needs be asleep in the woods, when the knight errant surprises her. His valiant profession, his knightly honor, his gallant behavior are treated with like irony. Especially the ardent desire to kiss the sleep- ing beauty is a stereotyped feature. La Fontaine uses it with much grace in Psyche, in the comedy Clymene, and especially in the seventh fragment of the Songe de Vaux.^ Tired by his unusually long efforts. La Fontaine hurries to a rapid denouement. After the eighth adventure, the princess is happily restored to her father. Before closing, the poet does not omit, however, an occasion to pay a final compliment to his mondaine public, representing the ele- IV. 639: Je ne suis geant ni sauvage Mais chevalier errant, qui rend graces aux Dieux D' avoir trouve dans ce bocage Ce qu'a peine on pourrait rencontrer dans les Cieux. * For the relation of these passages to the Astree, see below, ch. VII, p. 84 ff. 72 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" gant salons of fine society as the mysterious temples, where- in the God Cupid is eagerly worshipped; there it was, ac- cording to the statement of the inventive " gouvemeur," that Alaciel took refuge in a convent/ 'V. 751: Hispal etant parti, Madame incontinent Pour fuir I'oisivete, principe de tout vice, iResolut de vaquer nuit et jour au service D'un dieu qui chez ces gens' a beaucoup de credit. Je ne vous aurais jamais dit Tous ses temples et ses chapelles, Nommes pour la plupart alcoves et ruelles. La les gens pour idole ont un certain oiseau Qui dans ses portraits est fort beau, Quoiqu'il n'ait des plumes qu'aux ailes. Au contraire des autres dieux, Qu'on ne sert que quand on est vieux. La jeunesse lui sacrifie. The idea was probably suggested to La Fontaine by Boccaccio, who makes Alaciel also talk of a " monastero di donne secondo la lor legge religiosa", to which she was led by her protectors. CHAPTER VII. " Les Amours De Psyche Et De Cupidon." Significance of the Cupid and Psyche Myth — La Fontaine's Attitude toward the Myth : the " Style galant " — Descriptions of Art in Psyche and in the Astree: Architecture and Painting; Urfe as an Art Critic and Observer of Nature; the Notion of Color in La Fon- taine and Urfe — The Description of Physical Beauty; Passages of Psyche, Le Songe de Vaux, and Clymene Compared with Parallel Scenes of the Astree — The Episode of the Fisherman {Psyche, Book II) a Reminiscence of the Astree. or an Echo of Ariosto and Tasso? — Minor similarities. The novel Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon (1669) is generally considered as a work in which La Fontaine was not very happily inspired, in spite of certain beauties of detail. M. Hemon even thinks that our fabulist " only half understood this graceful and profound myth of Cupid and Psyche," ^ which, strangely enough, has been handed down to us only as an episode in Apuleius' Metamorphoses.' Even nowadays scholars by no means agree as to the interpretation of the Cupid and Psyche legend. While it was believed for a long time that the nucleus of the myth is an Indo-European popular tale which later on was merged, perhaps by Apuleius himself, into an allegory re- ' F. Hemon, Cours de Littcrature. IV; La Fontaine, Paris, 1890, p. 17. ^ Metamorphoseon, lib. IV, cap. 28, lib. VI, cap. 24. The references in the following are to the edition of O. Jahn, Apulei Psyche et Ciipido, Leipsic, 1905, 5th ed. 73 74 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR6E" lating to the soul/ the most recent hypothesis considers Cupid and Psyche as the primitive characters of a myth cen- tering in Boeotian Demeter mysteries, to which certain folklore motives were added.' La Fontaine was probably but little concerned about the ultimate origin or significance of the myth, and we should not blame him for ignoring a problem which perhaps never will be definitely settled. He only considered his immediate model, and this model, we feel sure, he did not " only half- understand," but he was guided in his appreciation by that fine taste for classic beauty which Pintrel and Maucroix had developed in him.^ In the noteworthy preface to the novel, which, after the Epitre a Huet reveals him best as a consciously creating artist, he clearly explains his attitude toward Apuleius and the reasons which induced him to deviate in certain respects from his model. He calls Apu- leius' story " un conte qui est plein de merveilleux a la verite, mais d'un merveilleux accompagne de badineries et propre a amuser des enfants " — no inadequate definition of Apuleius' manner, in which indeed the supernatural sub- ject matter, — the fairy-tale motives, — are treated with all the niaiserie and juggling of words of a decadent period. ' Cf. Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte Roms, Vol. II, Leipsic, 1905, 5th ed., p. 439; Teuffel, Hist, of Roman Literature. Transl. by G. Warr, London, 1892, Vol. II, p. 241. Also Regnier's Notice (Gr. £cr., Vol. VIII, p. 3 ff.) relegates the myth to the " fables milesiennes ", and so does Sainte-Beuve, Nouv. Lundis, II, 436. See also Menghini's mas- terly introduction to Francesco Bracciolini's Psiche (Scelta di ciirio- sita lett., Bologna, 1889), in which the entire "cycle" is examined. * Cf. Handbuch d. klass. Altertumswissenschaften, O. Gruppe, Griech. Mythol. und Religionsgeschichte, Vol. II, p. 870 ff., Munich, 1906. •'' Besides well-known examples like Philemon et Baucis, we recall the fragment of the tragedy Achille, which contains several powerful scenes (act I, sc. 5; act II, sc. 3, beginning), and an interesting passage on the beauties of Livy, in his letter to Maucroix of Oc ober 26, 1693, recently i)ublished in Rev. d'Hist. Litt. de la France, XVIII, pp. 443- 445. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" 75 11. In modernising a myth, transmitted in such a peculiar form, La Fontaine must have been somewhat perplexed as to the style which he was to adopt. The ordinary fairy- tale appeared too simple ; the novel was not ornate enough, and the epic poem too much so.^ He was therefore obliged to seek a new form, which, to a certain extent, should combine harmoniously all the different elements suggested by the model, and which, at the same time, should find favor with the public, and more especially with the salon of the duchess of Bouillon, to whom the work is dedi- cated. After some hesitation, he arrives at the conclusion that " dans un conte comme celui-ci, . . . il a fallu chercher du galant et de la plaisanterie." And he adds: " Ouand il ne I'aurait pas fallu, mon inclination m'y portait, et peut- etre y suis-je tombe en beaucoup d'endroits contre la raison et la bienseance." ^ This confession is important from our point of view. Gallantry, in its literary expression, is closely related to preciosity; in fact, it may be considered as the natural de- velopment of preciosity in the fashionable circles of the latter part of the seventeenth century.^ La Fontaine him- 1 Cf. Preface, Gr. £rr., VIII, p. 19. The latter point is important as it implies a criticism of Marini who embodied the myth in the fourth canto of his pompous Adone. H. Erdmann (Molicre's Psyche im Vergleich zu den ihr vorangehenden Bearheitungen der Psyche- Sage, Diss. Koenigsberg, 1892, p. 31) states that certain traits of La Fontaine's novel hark back to the Italian epic; but nothing justifies this assertion, the more so as Marini keeps very closely to the Latin text, which he sometimes renders literally. Also the allegoria by Lorenzo Scoto, which precedes the canto, is practically a literal trans- lation of Fulgentius' allegoric interpretation. Compare the text of Fulgentius as given by Jahn, /. c, pp. 75-76. ' L. c, p. 20. 3 For an interesting definition of gallantry as opposed to sentimen- tality, see K. Vossler's review of G. Reynier's Le roman sentimental ^6 LA FOXTAIXE AXD THE "ASTR£E" self had already given two typical examples of that light, dallying galant st}de in the third and fourth fragment of the Songe de J^aux, namely in the Aventiire d'un saiimon et d'un esturgeon and in the stor}- of the dying swan. To the modern reader even these short fragments may appear some- what artificial ; in a long novel, like Psyche, the peculiar mannerism inherent to the genre cannot fail to strike him, in parts at least, unfavorably. If Psyche, therefore, hardly seems a success in the eyes of the modern critics, the rea- son is not La Fontaine's misunderstanding of the subject matter, but the exaggeration of the method employed. It is the failure of a carefully planned experiment. The contemporaries, however, were pleased : the novel had two editions in one year, and Moliere, together with Corneille, brought it on the stage in the following year (1670), as the " comedie-ballet " Psyche.' Thus La Fontaine's novel bears — a priori — a certain re- semblance to the Astree, the style of which, in many re- spects, may also be called gaJant. and it is quite natural that we should find especially frequent points of contact be- tween La Fontaine and Urfe." both as to the inspiration in general and to definite reminiscences.^ avant I'Astree. Paris, 1908, in Litbl. fuer germ. u. roman. Philol.. 1910. No. 12. Cf. also La Fontaine's preface to the second collection of the Contes (1665). where rondeaux, metamorphoses, and bouts-rimes ar-e called " galanteries qui sont hors de mode." Gr. £cr., IV. p. 9 and note. 1 Gabriel Gueret asserts in his Promenade de Saint-Cloud (Paris, 1721, quoted by Walckenaer, Vol. I, p. 221): "La Psyche n'a pas eu tout le succes qu'il (= La Fontaine) s'en promettait, et Barbin (=the editor) commence a regretter les cinq cents ecus qu'il en a donnes." This testimony is refuted by M. Mesnard in Gr. £cr., I, p. xcvii. * Taine, who does not like Psyche, describes it as '" une pastorale de courtisans modernes. habilles a la grecque." Cf. 1. c, p. 40. * In order to put the comparison on a broader basis, some account will be taken of La Fontaine's minor works, as far as they furnish similar material, especially of the Songe de Vaux. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHS: ET DE CUPIDON" y^ III. Among these resemblances, attention may be called to a point of technique, which Psyche shares, not with the Astree in particular, but with all the novels of the same style, namely the introduction of episodes which have no immediate connection with the main action. La Fontaine indulges in this device when, in the second book, in speak- ing of the temple of Venus, he relates the story of Myrtis and Megano. This story is of La Fontaine's own inven- tion, — at least so he himself declares in the preface. It illustrates the thought, so dear to La Fontaine, of "la grace, plus belle encore que la beaute." If we turn to the passages in which La Fontaine en- larged considerably upon his model, w^e are attracted, first of all, by the description of Cupid's palace at the begin- ning of the first book. This passage gives us an opportun- ity to discuss the respective relation of our two authors to the fine arts. What Apuleius describes, with profusion of gold, ivory and precious stones, in a short chapter (V, i), is de- veloped by La Fontaine into a regular episode, embellished by several passages in verse. He conjures up before us a magnificent fairy palace in the style of Louis XIV, with Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and even composite columns, a princely residence of porphyry and marble, containing all the riches which the plastic or graphic arts ever produced. The adjoining gardens are also laid out in the style of Louis XIV. and are described in a long poetic passage in which naiads, satyrs, nymphs and zephirs play a prominent part. In the framework of Psyche, La Fontaine had already de- scribed, more or less ex officio, the marvels of Versailles and the grotto of Thetys, and a few years before, in the Songe de Vaiix, he had depicted Fouquet's splendid residence. 78 J^A FONTAINE AND THE "ASTREE" That he could introduce into our episode another descrip- tion of art, though of a more fantastic kind, reveals once more that very pronounced taste of the seventeenth cen- tury for pompous display of the fine arts. But La Fon- taine's fairy palace has still another significance : in seven- teenth-century style, it represents the old convention of art descriptions which w^e find so frequently in epics and novels of all times. In the Astree this trait is often represented. In the very beginning we have the description of the palace of Isoure and its treasures. Among other " peintures escla- tantes . . . Ton voyoit le petit Cupidon qui caressoit Venus, auec la blessure, sur I'espaule, de la lampe de la curieuse Psiche." ^ Sometimes Urfe gives more than descriptions in general terms. He is a real connoisseur in the art of painting, a critic whose judgment has been formed by the best specimens of Italian art. And he displays that knowledge with a certain complaisance, especially in the description of the six pictures which represent the tragic story of Damon and Fortune in the grotto which bears their names. ^ We have had occasion to remark that the pastoral milieu in the Astree is sometimes a little artificial. Not so in these pictures. Here we find a keen observation of animal life, worthy of the animal painters of the early Renaissance, of a Pisanello or a Paolo Uccello. To give but one example: Regardez a main gauche comme ces brebis paissent, voyez les vnes couchees a rombre, les autres qui se leschent la iambe, les autres comme estonnees qui regardent ces deux Beliers qui ' Astr., I, 2, p. 60. Cf. also the house of Adamas with its splendid gallery, Astr., Ill, 3, p. 125 ff. For longer quotations see H. Koerting, Gesclnchte d. frz. Romans im 17. Jhdt., Oppeln und Leipzig, 1891, 2d. ed., t. I, p. 107. * Astr., I, II, p. 798, Histoire de Damon et de Fortune. " LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" 79 se viennent heurter de toute leur force. Prenez garde au tour que cestuy-ci fait du col : car il baisse la teste, en sorte que I'autre I'attaquant, rencontre seulement ses cornes: mais le raccourcissement du dos de I'autre est bien aussi artificiel: car la nature qui luy apprend que la vertu vnie a plus de force, le fait tellement resserrer en vn monceau, qu'il semble presque rond. Le deuoir mesme des chiens n'y est pas oublie, qui pour s'opposer aux courses des loups, se tiennent sur les aisles du coste du bois. Et semble qu'ils se soient mis comme trois sentinelles, sur des lieux relevez, afin de voir plus loing, ou, comme ie pense, afin de se voir I'vn I'autre, & se secourir en la necessite. Mais considerez la soigneuse industrie du peintre: Au lieu que les chiens qui dorment sans soucy, ont accoustume de se mettre en rond, & bien souuent se cachent la teste sous les pattes, presque pour se derober la clarte, ceux qui sont peints ici sont couchez d'vne autre sorte, pour montrer qu'ils ne dorment pas, mais reposent seulement, car ils sont couchez sur les quatre pieds, & ont le nez tout le long des iambes de deuant, tenans tousiours les yeux ouuerts aussi curieusement qu'vn homme sqauroit faire.^ This is even more than a technical description. The speaker is interested in the scenes themselves; he enjoys the combat between the two rams and is delighted with the intelligence displayed by the dogs. And thus, once more, we have an illustration of the attitude of the early seven- teenth century toward nature. Urfe's contemporaries cer- tainly observed and enjoyed its charms as much as the modern individual, only they did not describe them in such detail. But in a picture, nature becomes art, and it is the critic's place to observe whether the artist has well rendered nature. While Urfe thus revels in detailed descriptions of art, and parades his technical knowledge, La Fontaine wrote the 1 L. c., pp. 800-801, Tableau premier. 8o LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" episode in Psyche probably mainly as a concession to the public taste. To be sure, he is also attracted toward fine art by his own temperament. In his letters to his wife. which were written largely for the amusement of Mile, de La Fontaine's Academic^ he describes palaces and pictures with real taste. But at the same time we hear interesting confessions. The pompous profuseness of ornamentation, which he seems to admire in Psyche, is in fact loathsome to him. In one of these letters w^e read concerning the chateau of Richelieu: "II y a tant d'or qu'a la fin je m'en ennuyai. Jugez ce que peuvent faire les grands seigneurs, et quelle misere c'est d'etre riche : il a f allu qu'on ait invente les chambres de stuc ou la magnificence se cache sous une apparence de simplicite." ^ In the same letter he confesses his ignorance in technical matters of architec- ture:^ he himself never gives details concerning the technique, and frequently refers to a book where such com- ment may be found. But he wittily glosses upon the sub- jects of several pictures, and it is easy to recognize the future La Fontaine of the Fables in remarks like the fol- lowing: " Panni les autres statues qui ont la leur apparte- ment et leurs niches, I'Apollon et le Bacchus apportent le prix au gout des savants ; ce fut toutefois Mercure que je considerais davantage a cause de ces hirondelles qui sont si simples que de lui confier leurs petits, tout larron qu'il est." " 1 For an excellent interpretation of La Fontaine's letters to his wife, see G. Michaut, La Fontaine, vol. I, Paris, 1913. p. 161 ff. » The fifth letter to his wife, of September 12th, 1663; Gr. £cr., IX, p. 269. He also hates too much regularity; concerning the chateau of Blois he writes : " II a ete bati a plusieurs reprises . . . toutes ces trois pieces ne font, Dieu merci, nulle symmetrie." (3d letter to his wife.) Cf. also Lafenestre, p. 61. ' " Vous savez mon ignorance en matiere d'architecture. et que je n'ai rien dit sur Vaux que sur des memoires." (lb., p. 259.) * lb., p. 263. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" 8l If we take into account this commendable aversion to pompons display, we understand why the one hundred and thirty-two alexandrines which the author of Psyche de- votes to the detailed description of the grotto of Thetys are sometimes so bare of poetic enthusiasm, and why both the splendor of the fairy palace and, later on, the magnificence of the temple of Venus ^ leave the reader rather cold. Finally, in this discussion of art, a last point should be noted, which bears on the notion of color in the seventeenth century. While in the passage quoted from Urfe we had occasion to admire his keen observation of animal life and his knowledge of technique in general, it is a curious fact that he leaves the coloring of the pictures almost out of consideration. He speaks only of chiaroscuro {Tab. IV), and, in a few instances {Tab. Ill and IV), mentions sun- light effects, or depicts a night scene {Tab. IV). But he always uses general and vague expressions, and never gives any characteristic color." La Fontaine also, when dealing with the art of painting, has but little to say about coloring. In fact, the whole passage in the Songe de Vaiix in which the Muse Appel- lanire praises her art, is rather conventional. All we hear concerning color are these lines : A de simples couleurs, mon art plein de magie Sait donner du relief, de I'ame, de la vie : Ce n'est rien qu'une toile et Ton croit voir des corps. 1 Psyche, book II. pp. 187-188. 2 While we admire the " dessin " of these paintings with M. Germa, who devotes a whole chapter to Urfe's Digressions sur I'Art (/. c, p. 179 flf.), we must be less enthusiastic about the "coloris". Also what Germa says concerning the influence of the Astree on Poussin and Claude Lorrain. who passed nearly their whole lives under Italian skies, and on Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard, who found their in- spiration in their own milieu, is hardly based upon actual facts. 82 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" Pompous mythological scenes seem to be the main subject of painting; landscape is hardly hinted at: Que la porte du Ciel se ferme ou qu'elle s'ouvre, Que le soleil nous quitte ou qu'il vienne nous voir, Qu'il forme un beau matin, qu'il nous montre un beau soir, J'en sais representer les images brillantesi I) ^ La Fontaine is here altogether the child of his time. In ]Moliere's famous epistle to Mignard, the painter of the frescos in the cupola of the Val-de-Grace chapel, we find a very similar formula in regard to color : Et quel est ce pouvoir qu'au bout du doigt tu portes, Qui sait faire a nos yeux vivre les choses mortes, Et d'un peu de melange et de bruns et de clairs Rendre esprit la couleur, et les pierres des chairs P^ This again is nothing but chiaroscuro. 1 Songe de Vaux, fragm. II, Gr. Ecr., VIII, pp. 254-255. Without reference to the art of painting, La Fontaine often reveals his sus- ceptibility to the beauty of color. So in a letter to the Duchess of Bouillon {Gr. £cr., IX, p. 387), where he decries Descartes' theory ■' qu'il n'3' a point de couleurs au monde ". See also the introductory verses to Adonis, and the beautiful description of a sunset at the con- clusion of Psyche. ' On this epistle see Reinach, The Story of Art throughout the Ages, Transl. by F. SimmoJids, New York, 1904, p. 250, and the commentary by the painter Guerin in Augier's ed. of Moliere, Paris, 1825, Vol. IX. Until the middle of the i8th century, the question of coloring seems to have been treated in literature as a matter of secondary importance. Diderot, in his Salons, though generally more concerned about the sub- ject represented than about the technique, already begins to consider color with some care, as may be seen from his criticisms of Vanloo's Graces and Chaste Susanne, and Fragonard's Absence des peres et meres niise en profit and Groupe d'Enfants dans le Ciel. It is the merit of the romanticists and their forerunners to have introduced the element of color more abundantly, until in our days color was re- placed, in its turn, by the "nuance"'. There are. of course, individual exceptions. Ronsard, for instance, so modern in many respects, pos- sesses a vivid feeling for beauty of color; see his 24th elegy to Genevre and the curious poem Les peintures d'un paysage ; ed. P. Blanchemain, tome IV, pp. 313 and 410. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" 83 IV. But — retoiirnons a Psyche! Besides these digressions on art, there is a second motive by which the reader of La Fontaine's fairy-tale is reminded of older novels in the style of the Astree; it is the conventional description of physical beauty. This old tradition, which we find in x\puleius in a late classic form, had been used very discreetly by the early Italian poets, and especially by Petrarch.^ At the same time the more sensuous conception of the Renaissance was foreshadowed by Boccaccio," until Ariosto, with his vivid portraits of Alcina, Angelica and Olympia,^ finally became the acknowledged model of the later French schools, in particular that of Ronsard.* Upon this long tradition Urfe's numerous descriptions of feminine beauty are founded,^ * Compare the canzoni " Si c dehile . . ." and " Nel dolce tempo. . ." * See, e. g., Decani., V, i ; Description of Efigenia. » Orl. Fur., VII, st. 10-16; XI, st. 65-71. * Cf. Laumonier, Ronsard, pocte lyrique, Paris, 1909, p. 501 ff. He refers to numerous other parallel passages. See also J. Vianey, L'Arl- oste et la Plciade, in Bullet. Ital., Oct., 1901, and Le Pctrarchisme en France au 17 e S., Montpellier, 1909, p. 137 ff. * The passages in question are Astr.. I, 5, p. 293, the description of Galatee, which is typical : " le desiray . . . que vous eussiez veu . . . cette belle dont les cheveux au gre du vent s'alloient rescrepans en ondes n'estans couuerts que d'vn chappeau de Verueine, ce bras nud, & ceste iambe blanche comme I'albastre, le tout gras et poly, en sorte qu'il n'y auoit point d'apparences d'os, la greue longue & droicte, & le pied petit & mignard qui faisoit honte a ceux de Tetis." The latter trait comes directly from Ronsard's 6legie a Janet : " Portrais-luy de Thetis — 'Les pieds estroits et les talons petits." Also the Ode a la Fontaine Bellerine may have inspired Urfe. Further Astr., II, 8, p. 596 ff., the most important passage (cf. below, p. 14) and the three rather suggestive scenes in which Celadon, disguised as the druidess Alexis, witnesses the "leves" and the "couches" of his sweetheart: Astr., Ill, 10, p. 939; ib.. p. 1025, and Astr., IV. i, p. 52. Note also 84 ^^-i FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" and they, in their turn, at least in two instances, were per- haps not without influence on La Fontaine. Two examples of this tradition occur in Psyche. One of them was suggested by Apuleius' description of sleeping Cupid, with his golden curls and his " soft feathers shed about his shoulders like shining flowers." ^ Similarly La Fontaine in a very prccicux poem, gives a systematic des- cription of the god, and in a passage in prose describes his attitude during his fatal sleep. This example illustrates how La Fontaine, throughout the novel, endeavors to adapt his mythology " a I'usage des ruelles," as AL Hemon puts it. The second instance, which occurs at the end of the second book, is more interesting from our point of view ; it has no counterpart in Apuleius. Psyche, blackened by the " vapeur fuligineuse " of the supposed cosmetic which she had brought back from the Nether World,, has retired to a cavern in a thick forest. There she is spied out by Cupid : Un jour Psyche s'etait endormie a I'entree de sa caverne. Elle etait couchee sur le cote, le visage tourne vers la terre, son mouchoir dessus, et encore un bras sur le mouchoir, pour plus grande precaution, pour s'empecher plus assurement d'etre vue. Si elle edt pu s'envelopper de tenebres, elle I'aurait fait. L'autre bras etait couche le long de la cuisse ; il n'avait plus la meme rondeur qu'autrefois; ... la delicatesse et la blancheur Hylas' description of Chryseide in the chariot (Astr., Ill, 7, p. 593), and his curious dissertation on the ideal of beauty in different coun- tries (Astr., IV, 2, p. 124) ; Thorante's admiring comment upon Del- phire (Astr., IV, 6, p. 508), and Dorinde's description of her pictur- esque attire as a huntress (Astr., IV, 7, p. 649). Examples of ugliness are the "chevalier More" (Astr., I, 6, p. 408). and the witch Man- drague. " le laid en perfection" (Astr., I, 11, 3e tab.). ' A p. Met., V, p. 22, and Gr. £cr., VIII, p. 102. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" g^ y etaient toujours. L'Amour Tapperqut de loin. II sentit un tressaillement qui lui dit que cette personne etait Psyche. Plus il approchait et plus il se confirmait dans ce sentiment ; car quelle autre qu'elle aurait une taille si bien formee? Quand il se trouva assez pres pour considerer le bras et la main, il n'en douta plus. . . . Un amant que nos romanciers auraient fait, serait demeure deux heures a considerer I'objet de sa passion sans I'oser toucher ni seulement interrompre son som- meil : I'Amour s'y prit d'une autre maniere. II s'agenouilla d'abord aupres de Psyche et lui souleva une main, laquelle il etendit sur la sienne ; puis, usant de I'autorite d'un Dieu et de celle d'un mari, il y imprima deux baisers . . . dont la chaleur lui faisait connaitre que c'etait un veritable baiser d'amour, et non un baiser de simple galanterie.^ We may compare this passage with an episode in the Astree, in which Celadon surprises his sweetheart sleeping in the woods — one of the prettiest scenes in the whole novel." The author, usually hidden in objectivity, shows here a frank sympathy for his poor hero ; the style is at its very best : Tout a coup Celadon apperceut Astree. Elle auoit vn mouschoir dessus les yeux qui luy cachoit vne partie du visage, vn bras sous la teste, & l autre estendu le long de la cuisse, & le cottillon vn pen retrousse par mesgarde, ne cachoit pas en- tierement la beaute de la iambe : & d'autant que son corps de iuppe la serroit vn peu, elle s'estoit delassee, & n'auoit rien sur le sein qu'vn mouschoir de reseul, au trailers duquel la blan- cheur de sa gorge paroissoit merueilleusement ; du bras qu'elle auoit sous la teste, on voyoit la manche anallee iusques sous le coude, permettant ainsi la veue d'vn bras blanc & potele, dont les veines pour la delicatesse de la peau par leur couleur bleue 1 Gr. £cr., VIII, pp. 220-221. ^Astree, II, 8, p. 596 ff. 86 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" descouuroient leurs diuers passages.^ Et quoy que de cette main elle tint sa coiffure qui la nuict s'estoit destachee, si est- ce que pour la serrer trop negligemment, vne partie de ses cheveux s'estoit esparse sur la joue, & I'autre prise a quelques ronces qui estoient voisines. O I quelle veue f ut celle-cy pour Celadon ! II fut tellement surpris, qu'il demeura immobile sans poulx, & sans haleine, & n'y auoit en luy autre signe de vie que le battcment du coeiir, & la veue qui sembloit estre attachee sur ce beau visage. ]Mais il luy aduint lors comme a ces personnes qui ont longuement demeure dans les profondes tenebres. & qui sont tout a coup portees aux plus clairs rayons du Soleil : car tout ainsi qu'elles demeurent esblouyes par trop de clarte, de mesme pour auoir trop de contentement, il n'en pouuoit iouyr d'vn seul, les ayant eus tout a coup & venant de quitter I'obscurite de ses desplaisirs. Quelque temps apres, ayant repris vn peu plus de force, il commengoit de considerer ce qu'il voyoit, tantost regardant ce visage ayme, tantost le sein, de qui les thresors ne luy auoient iamais este si des- couuerts, & sans se pouuoir saouler de considerer toutes ces beautez, il eust voulu comme vn nouuel Argus, auoir le corps tout couuert d'yeux.^ Now a struggle begins in the soul of Celadon, who is mindful of Astree's command never to appear before her eyes again. Sophistically he beguiles his conscience : Elle ne m'a pas commande de ne la voir point: car des lors ie me fusse priue de mes yeux, mais seulement que ie ne me fisse point voir a elle.^ » Cf. Orl. Fur., VII, st. 15: Mostran le braccia sua misura giusta; E la Candida man spessa si vede Lunghetta alquanto e di larghezza angusta, Dove ne nodo appar, ne vena eccede. * Cf. Orl. Fur., VII, st. 14: " Non potria altre parti veder Argo ", and Asir., IV, I, p. 54: Ses yeux desiroient que tout Celadon fut comme un autre Argus, couuert de diuerses yeux, pour mieux pouuoir con- templer tant de parfaites raretez. * Cf above, ch. Ill, p. 22, n. i. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDON" 8" Finally he writes a letter which he deftly tries to remit to her: II se remet sur vn genouil, & s'approchant de sa belle main no peust s'empescher de la luy baiser, puis auangant la iambe, & trainant I'autre doucement, luy mit sa lettre dans le sein, & transporte d'amour ne se peut garder d'accompagner sa main de sa bouche. O perdu berger! quel fut alors le transport qui en te relevant te porta iusques a sa bouche. II fut tel enfin qu'oubliant presque la crainte qu'il auoit eue de I'esueiller, il appuya de sorte dessus, que la Bergere donna signe de s'esueiller, & commengoit d'ouurir les yeux lors qu'il s'estoit a peine releue. The only thing left to poor Celadon is to withdraw as quickly as possible. If we consider this charming episode side by side with the passage quoted from the second book of Psyche, a striking resemblance appears at once, as far as the situa- tion is concerned. Especially the kiss on the ami occurs in both scenes. If Urfe, unlike La Fontaine, says nothing about its *' chaleur," he mentions this detail in a later pas- sage, in which Sylvandre kisses Diana's hand, " ce qu'il fit auec tant de contentement & de transport, que la Bergere cogneut bien (si elle ne I'auoit point fait encore) que ce n'estoit point vn baiser qui procedast d'vne feinte affec- tion." ^ While La Fontaine in the passage quoted mocks at novel- ists who would have their heroes stand in awe before their ladyloves for hours, we find this very trait in the seventh fragment of the Songe de Vaux. La Fontaine introduces himself as Acanthe, staring for a long time at the sleeping Aminte (= the duchess of Bouillon) and not daring to awake her : Dans la plus large de ces allees, j'apperqois de loin une * Astr., Ill, 9, p. 891. 88 ^^ FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" nymphe. ce me semblait, couchee sous iin arbre, en la posture d'une personne qui dort . . . Quand je fus assez pres de ce rare objet pour le reconnaitre, je trouvai que c'etait Aminte, sur qui le Sommeil avait repandu le plus doux charme de ses pavots. Certes, mon etonnement ne fut pas petit, mais ma joie fut encore plus grande. Cette belle nymphe etait couchee sur des plantes de violettes ; sa tcte a demi penchee sur un de ses bras, et I'autre ctendii le long de sa jupe. Ses manches. qui s'etaient un pen retroussces par la situation que le sommeil lui avait fait prendre, me decouvraient a moitie ces bras si polis. Je ne sus a laquelle de leurs beautes donner I'avantage, a leur forme ou a leur blancheur, bienque cette derniere fit lioiite a I'albdtre. Ce ne fut pas le seul tresor que je decouvris en cette merveilleuse personne. Les Zephirs avaient detourne de dessus son sein une partie du linomple qui le couvrait, et s'y jouaient quelquefois parmis les ondes de ses cheveux. Quelquesfois aussi, comme ils eussent voulu m'obliger, ils les repoussaient. . . . En vain j'emploierais tout ce qu'il y a de lis et de roses; en vain je chercherais des comparaisons jusques dans les astres : tout cela est faible et ne peut repre- senter qu'imparfaitement les charmes de cette beaute divine. Je les considerai longtemps avec des transports qui ne peuvent s'imaginer que par ceux qui aiment.^ Then a struggle begins in Acanthe's heart : he would like to kiss her, but dares not, lest he might offend her; finally the song of a nightingale awakens Aminte. In this scene everything recalls the episode of the As- tree. The action is practically alike in both ; the sleeping attitude of Astrce and Aminte is the same, and even a few details in the expression are identical.^ But La Fontaine adds to Urfe's figures of speech a certain hyperbolism of comparison, in which he had already indulged in Clymene, ' Gr. flcr., VIII, p. 285 ff. ' Compare the passages in italics with our quotations from Astr., II, 8, p. 596 ff., and Astr., I, 5, p. 293, given above, pp. 85 and 83, n. 5. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHU ET DE CUFIDOX" 89 in an almost parallel scene/ This graceful abuse of pre- ciosity produces a discreetly comical effect; but it has as little satirical intention as the broad burlesque which we found in the Fiancee. ' V. Besides these descriptions of art and of physical beauty, the two motives which connect Psyche with the tradition of earlier novels in the genre of the Astree, we find another scene which bears a most striking resemblance to an inci- dent in Urfe's pastoral. It is the long episode of Psyche's stay with the old fisherman, which has no counterpart in Apuleius. It is difficult, however, to come to any definite conclusion as to La Fontaine's indebtedness. We shall see that Urfe himself goes back to two Italian sources, Ariosto and Tasso, both great favorites of La Fontaine, from whom he might well have drawn directly. His own statement that it is " un episode de moi," ^ may be disregarded, as he makes the same assertion concerning the description of the Nether World, which is largely imitated from the classics. This interesting episode of the Astree* runs as follows: ^ V. 587 ff. See Gr. £cr., VII, p. 178, where the two scenes are com- pared. 2 Besides the passages quoted from Psyche, Songe de Vaux and Cly- mene, one may also compare the description of the beauty of Venus in Adonis (v. 67 ff.) and of the "bergere"' in the Fleuve Scamandre {C antes, V, 2, v. 47 ff.). For a comical parallel between Amarante and the spring, see the letter to Vergier of June 4, 1688 {Gr. &cr., IX, p. 424 ff.) ; similarly the lamentabile carmen in the letter to the prince of Conti of July, 1689 {Gr. £cr., IX, p. 427 ff.). Occasional short comparisons like "bras d'ivoire", etc., occur frequently. See L'Ermite Contes, V, 15) v. 160, and note, in Gr. £cr., IV, p. 477. ' Preface to Psyche, Gr. Ecr., VIII, p. 21 and note 2. * Astr., IV, 7, pp. 750-760, in the Hist, de Dorinde, du Roy Gonde- baut & du Prince Sigismond. 90 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" Dorinde, in her flight from Lyons to the Forez, seeks her way through terrible woods, in the dark night, frightened at the least noise or gust of wind. As the second night ao- proaches, she sees a little hut with a thatched roof and boldly enters. Here she finds an old man, surrounded by six little children to whom he is distributing milk for their evening meal. The children approach Dorinde without fear and heartily invite her to share their frugal meal. The old man repeats the invitation and offers her shelter for the night. Seeing her distress, he tries, in a long speech, to comfort her and to inspire her with con- fidence in the good gods. He gives her his own bed and accommodates himself on the straw with the children. The next day he leads her by rough sidepaths to the near Forez. and from a mountain shows her " ceste delectable plaine. le plus beau lieu de I'Europe." She thanks him kindly, and on departing, gives him one of her rings. ^ The corresponding scene in Psyche occurs at the begin- * M. Germa first pointed out that the direct source for this episode is Ariosto's Orl. Fur., XIX, st. 23 ff. (Germa, /. c, p. 119) : Angelica, during her wanderings, finds shelter in the " assai buona e bella stanza " oi the " cortese pastor ''. and presents him, on leaving his hospitable house, with the precious bracelet Orlando had given to her. But Urfe has enlarged upon his model considerably. While in Ariosto Angelica's love to Medoro takes our principal interest, and the shep- herd and his wife are only secondary figures, the kind old man in the Astree assumes the important character of Dorinde's adviser and con- soler. Pio Rajna (Fonti dell'Orl. Fur., Florence, 1876, p. 172) shows that Angelica's pastoral adventure must be considered as one of the sources for a similar episode in Tasso's Ger. Lib., VII, st. 1-22 : On her wanderings Erminia is likewise received by a " pietoso pastor " and his "antica moglie". Urfe also certainly knew this passage. La Fontaine shows a great similarity with Tasso's version in two details : both his " vieillard " and Tasso's shepherd formerly occupied positions at royal courts — though of very different rank; both Psyche and Er- minia's sorrows are vented in touching complaints and " cut into a thousand trees". The latter trait, besides being a commonplace, also occurs in Ariosto. I "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHS ET DE CUPIDON" gi ning of the second book/ Psyche, fleeing before the spies of Venus, asks help and shelter from an old fisherman, whose forehead is full of wrinkles " dont la plus jeune etait presque aussi ancienne que le deluge." A difficult path leads to the old man's domicile, a natural grotto in the rocks. In this cavern he lives with his two grand- daughters, young shepherdesses of remarkable beauty. Psyche, tired by her wanderings, reposes on the couch of the daughters and afterwards has a long conversation with the old man, who tells her his life-story and consoles her as best he can. Psyche tarries a whole week with her friendly hosts; then they leave the place together, as the old man wants to settle for the rest of his life in a near town. Psyche urges him to accept her gown studded with precious stones as a dowry for the girls, but he proudly refuses. There are two points especially which justify a parallel between the two scenes, in spite of the possibility that both authors drew independently from the aforesaid Italian sources. The first is the general resemblance in the situa- tion : a poor maiden, persecuted by a powerful enemy, finds shelter and consolation in the hut of a wise, hospitable old man, who, quite alone, takes care of his little children or grandchildren. Second, we have the sympathetic figure of La Fontaine's fisherman. He resembles not only Urfe's worthy old man, but personifies, in a less dignified fashion, all the characters of the Astrec who have retired from the tunnoil of life to the quietness of solitude. Once our fisher- man was also engaged in worldly affairs, being the first philosopher of the king. He had only one daughter who, on the sudden death of her very jealous husband, is left alone with two little children. In order to spare her the persecutions of importunate suitors, her father flees with ' Gr. tcr., VIII, pp. 136-164. 92 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" her into a desert; but even there they cannot find the peace they long for. Finally Philosophy herself appears to the old man in a dream and reveals to him, in a wilderness al- most inaccessible, the cavern in the rocks. Thither he re- tires with his grandchildren and his daughter, who dies soon afterwards, and there he lives happily ever after. This recalls at once Alcippe, Celadon's father, who in like man- ner follows the voice of a good spirit and retires to the simple pastoral life.^ But while the subject matter of the two episodes shows such a great resemblance, their style is entirely different. Urfe's scene is channing in its simplicity; it depicts an idyl such as the author may often have seen in his native country.^ On the contrary, the tone of La Fontaine's episode, in spite of some very amusing and characteristic details, is a little artificial. This appears especially in the story of the fisher- man. Even the longing for quietude, which elsewhere in- spires La Fontaine with his loftiest lines, is treated here in a style of badinage and is intentionally blended with comic motives, like that of the importunate suitors. VL Besides these main points of similarity, there is a last theme in La Fontaine's episode which represents a famous convention of the pastoral novel and especially of the Astree: the lengthy conversations on questions of love. Following this tradition. La Fontaine introduces the amus- ing conversation of the two shepherdesses, who discuss the ' Cf. above, ch. V, p. 54. * This idyl may be considered as representing the tendency toward a more realistic kind of novel, of which Guillaume Coste had already given an example in his Bergeries de Vesper (1618). Cf. W. Kuech- ler's article in Arch. f. d. Stud. d. Neuer. Spr., Bd. 27 (Neue Serie), p. 115 ff. "LES AMOURS DE PSYCHE ET DE CUPIDOX" 93 difficult problem : what is a lover ? Psyche overhears the conversation and explains to them the " passion dont les peines memes sont des plaisirs." She also gives them good advice, and virtuous Sylvandre had no cause to be ashamed of it : " Ce que vous avez a faire est de bien choisir, et de bien choisir une fois pour toutes : une fille qui n'aime qu'en un endroit ^ ne saurait etre blamee, pourvu que I'honnetete, la discretion, la prudence soient conductrices de cette af- faire, et pourvu qu'on garde les bornes " — only here Syl- vandre would protest : " c'est-a-dire qu'on f asse semblant d'en garden" " While Psyche here follows more or less in Sylvandre's footsteps, she altogether opposes his arguments in a later passage. After having lost her beauty, she herself dis- suades Cupid from loving her any longer. For she is not like " la plupart des femmes [qui] prennent le Ciel a temoin quand cela arrive : elles disent qu'on doit les aimer pour elles, et non pas pour le plaisir de les voir; qu'elles n'ont point d'obligation a ceux qui cherchent seulement a se satisfaire; que cette sorte de passion qui n'a pour objet que ce qui touche les sens ne doit point entrer dans une belle ame, et est indigne qu'on y reponde : c'est aimer comme aiment les animaux, au lieu qu'il faudrait aimer comme les esprits detaches du corps." ^ This reminds us indeed of many an argument between Hylas and Sylvandre. The latter continuously holds " que ce n'est pas le corps qui aime, mais I'ame ...,"* " que la nature nous a seulement donne les sens pour instrumens par lesquels nostre ame receuant les especes des choses vient a 1(7/. Urfe's second " loy d'amour ". "Qu'il (^le parfait Amant) n'aime iamais qu'en vn lieu." Astr., II, 5, p. 326. » Gr. £cr., VIII, p. 158. ' Ibid., p. 224. I * Astr., II, 6, p. 474. C)4 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR£E" leur connoissance, mais nullement pour compagnons de ses plaisirs & felicitez, comme trop incapables d'vn si grand bien . . . " ^ But Hylas declares all this for " fables auec lesquelles les femmes endorment les moins rusez." ^ With surprising sophistry he shows that not only he is a constant lover, but that all who continue to love a " sujet " who has lost her beauty are guilty of inconstancy: "Pour n'estre inconstant, il faut aimer tousiours & en tous lieux la beaute, & lors qu'elle se separe de quelque sujet. on s'en doit de mesme separer d'amitie, de peur de n'aimer le contraire de cette beaute." ^ 1 Astr.. II, I, pp. 19-20. ' Astr., II, 6, p. 472. One easily recognizes in these theories Platonic ideas which still linger through the Astree. The votaries of Venus Pandemos seek the body rather than the soul, while Uranian love in- spires man with pure affection, exempting him from wantonness and libertinism ; cf. Banquet, Pausanias' speech, and A. Lefranc, Le Pla- tonisme en France au i6e S., in Rev d'Hist. Litt. de la Fr., Vol. Ill (1896). ' Astr., II, 4, p. 224. La Rochefoucauld went still a step further in his Maxime 175, defining love as " une inconstance perpetuelle qui fait que notre coeur s'attache successivement a toutes les qualites de la personne que nous aimons." CHAPTER VIII. Conclusion. If, in summing up the preceding chapters, we consider the question of La Fontaine's Hterary relations to the Astree from a chronological point of view, we find that these relations are specially close, both in substance and form, in La Fontaine's earlier works. In proportion as he becomes more and more conscious of his own genius, similarities in form cease almost completely, while the sub- stance, the " message " of the Astree remains an ever favorite theme with our poet. In detail : Besides his translation of Terence's Eunuchus (published in 1654), the Ronsard-inspired elegies ' and the beautiful Adonis with its passionate " heroic " style — both of uncertain date, — nothing of La Fontaine's poetic activ- ity can be traced with certainty before the year 1658 or thereabouts, when he was received at Vaux. At that time we find him imitating a certain scene of the Astree in the Songe de Vaux and in Clymene. In 1665 and 1666 the first and second parts of the Contes appear, in which other literary currents predominate, although, as we tried to show by the example of the Fiancee du Roi de Garbe, pastoral and chivalrous motives are always present to the poet's mind. At this time also we have to place the preliminary ^ Though these elegies (II-V) contain certain autobiographical de- tails (cf. Gr. £cr., I, p. xli-xlii), they seem to be in parts a very free imitation of Ronsard's elegies III and IV (=^Discours amoureux de Genevre, CEuvres de Ronsard, ed. Blanchemain, Vol. IV, pp. 220-238). 95 g6 LA FONTAINE AND THE "ASTR6E" Studies to Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon, interrupted by the publication of the first part of the Fables (1668), which furnished us but Httle material. In 1669 the comple- tion of Psyche crowns La Fontaine's conscious efforts to adapt his genius to the long novel in the style of the Astree, and in Psyche wq found what may be considered our most important evidence of relationship between the two authors. But while Psyche, on one hand, marks the culminating point of Urfe's " direct influence " on La Fontaine (if we dare use this bold expression), it is also the last work to show definite borrowings from him. if we except the opera Astree as a matter of course, and the Deux Pigeons as a still doubtful parallel. From now on. La Fontaine is quite sure of his means; he becomes more and more independent; his creative power is growing, and with the second collec- tion of fables (1678-1679) he reaches the height of his art. But the apprenticeship of the past is not forgotten. Time and again he recurs to the familiar motives of the old novels, now treating them with delightful irony, now finding in them inspiration for his very masterpieces. Needless to say that also in his " incorrigibles rechutes dans le peche des contes " ^ and in his voluminous occasional poetry which connects him, as M. Lanson remarks," with the great number of minor fashionable poets of his time, playful allusions to his favorite pastoral or more or less unconscious reminiscences of its well-known themes occur quite frequently. For the year 1690 or 1691 we have to assume a re-reading — at least in parts — of the Astree, pre- ceding the composition of his opera, and in 1693 follows the last book of the fables, which in its sublime epilogue, Le juge arbitre, riiospitalier et le solitaire, sums up again • Gr. fi/cr., I, p. cxii. » Hist, de la Lilt. I^ranc, Paris, 1903, 8th cd., p. 558. CONCLUSION cfy what we have found to be the real gospel of both La Fon- taine and the Astrce, " ramour de la retraite " : Cette legon sera la fin de ces ouvrages. Puisse-t-elle etre utile aux siecles a venir! Je la presente aux rois, je la propose aux sages: Par ou saurais-je mieux finir? INDEX NB: All references to La Fontaine's works have been grouped under "LA FONTAINE", and all quoied characters of the Astree are listed under "URFE". Albalat, 35 Amadis, 8, 9, 10, 70 Aminta, i, 2, 40, 70 Apuleius, 72,, 74, 77, 83, 84, 89 Arcadia, 68 Arnould d'Andilly, 57 Arnould, L., 47 Ariosto, 83, 89, 90 Bachaumont, 57, 60 Banti, 28 Barbin, y6 Baro, 29, 68 Benfey, 43 Bernardin, N.-M., 49 Betz, L. P., 61 Blanchemain, 82, 95 Boccaccio, 51, 61 ff., 72, 83 Boileau, 3, 7, 35 Bonafous, 31 Bonnefon, 3 Boucher, 81 Bouhier, 35 Bouillon, duchess of, 75, 82, 87 Bracciolini, 74 Brunetiere, 65 Champsmesle, 29 Chapelain, i Chapelle. 7, 57, 60 Chaulieu, 10, 57 Chauvin, 43 Colasse, 16, 32 Corneille, 3, 21, 76 Coste, Guillaume, 92 Coulanges, 10 Deraine, 35 Descartes, 82 Deshoulieres, Mme. de, 9 ff., 12, 57 Des Marets, 3 Diana, i, 68 Diderot, 82 Doumic, 48, 56 Du Bellay, 8 Ducange, 18 Dunlop, 41 Erdmann, 75 Faguet, 34 Fanfani, 63 Fetis, 16 Fiametta, 51 Fischer, 3 Fournel, 35 Fragonard, 81, 82 Friedlaender, 74 Fulgentius, 75 Gaulmain, 43 Germa, 34, 81, 90 Ceriisalemme Liberate, 90 99 lOO INDEX Gouillon, 46 Gruppe, 74 Gueret, 76 Guerin, 82 Hemon, 73, 84 Henry IV, 2 Horace, 53, 63 Huet, 14 ff., 35, 42, 65, 74 Jahn, 73, 75 Janet, 83 Koerting, H., 78 Kuechler, 92 La Bruyere, 16 La Fare, 10 Lafenestre, 7, 34, 35, 62, 80 La Fontaine, I : Fables (gen- eral), 36, 37-57, 58, 96 L'Alouette et ses petits (IV, 22), 48 Les Animaux malades de la peste (VII, I), 38 Le Berger et la mer (IV, 2), 39 Le Berger et le roi (X, 9), 39, 54, 55 Le Berger et son troupeau (IX, 19), 39 Le Berger qui joue de la flute (X, 10), 42 Le Chene et le roseau (I, 22), 38 Les Compagnons d'Ulysse (XII, i), 41 Le Conseil tenu par les rats (II, 2), 38 Centre ceux qui ont le goiit difficile (II, i), 39, 42 Damon et Alcimadure (X, 24), 41 Les Deux Pigeons (IX, 2), 42- 47, 53, 96 Discours a M. de La Rochefou- cauld (X, 14), 48 La Foret et le biicheron (XII, 14), 48 L'Homme qui court apres la Fortune (VII, 2), 53 Le Juge arbitre, I'hospitalier et le solitaire (XII, 25), 55, 96 Le Lion et le chasseur (VI, 2), 39 Le Loup devenu berger (III, 3), 39 Le Patre et le lion (VI, i), 39 Le Songe d'un habitant du Mogol (XI, 4), 55 Tircis et Amaranthe (VIII. 13), 40, 41 La Fontaine, II : Contes (gen- eral), 6, 58 ff., 76, 95 Les Amis Remois (III, 3), 6, 12 L'Anneau de Hans Carvel (II, 12), 6 Le Cas de conscience (IV, 4), 12 La Coupe enchantee (III, 4), 6, 12, 26, 29 Le Diable de la Papefiguiere (IV. 5), 60 Le Diable a I'enfer (IV, 9), 60 L'Ermite (V, 15), 89 Le Faucon (III, 5), 61 A Femme avare galant escroc (II. 9), 60 La Fiancee du roi de Garbe (II. 14), 61 ff., 95 Le Fleuve Scamandre (V, 2), 89 Joconde (I, i), 55, 59 Le Magnifique (IV, 15), 65 Nicaise (III, 7), 59 L'Oraison de St.-Julien (II, 5), 65 Pate d'anguille (IV, 11), 59 Le Petit Chien (III, 13), 61 Le Quiproquo (V, 8), 12 INDEX lOI Richard Minutolo (I, 2), 61, 65 Les Troqueurs (IV, 3), 14, 60, 61 La Fontaine, III: Miscellaneous Psyche, 6, 7 ff., 24, 36, 55, 61, 64, 69, 71, 73-94, 96 Le Songe de Vaux, 36, 55, 64, 65, 71, 76, 77, 81, 82, 87, 89, 95 Adonis, 34, 65, 69, 82, 95 Z^j F:7/^j de Minee, 61 Philemon et Baucis, 31, 74 Ballade des livres d'amour, 5 ff. Ballade: On aime encor comme on aimait jadis, 9 ff. Ballet sur la paix de Nimcgue, 23 ff. Eclogue, 42 Elegies, 44, 55, 61, 95 Achille, 74 Clymcne, 71, 88, 89, 95 L'Eunuque, 95 Operas : Astree, 16 ff., 96 Daphne, 10, 31 Galatee, 31 Epitre a Huet, 14 ff., 42, 65, 74 a Mme. de Fontange, 60 fipithalame pour Mile, de Bour- bon et le Prince de Conti, 60 Letters to his wife, 6, 80 Letter to the Duchess of Bouil- lon, 82 to Mmes. d'Hervart, de Virville et de Gouvernet, i5 to Maucroix, 74 to the Prince of Conti, 89 to Vergier, 89 La Fontaine, Mile, de, 80 La Harpe, 44 Lanson, 65, 96 La Rochefoucauld, 41, 48, 94 Laumonier, 68, 83 Lefranc, 94 Linieres, 10, 17 Livet, 3, 10, 33, 34, 35 Lorraine, Claude, 81 Lotheissen, 51 Louis XIV., 18. 77 LuUi, 16 Mairet, 13, 25 Malherbe, 63, 65 Marechal, 30 Marini, 75 Marot, 33, 63 Marsand, 25, 30 Marron, 16 Maucroix, 35, 57, 74 Menghini, 74 Mesnard, 7, 34, 76 Michaut, 6, 35, 80 Mignard, 82 Moliere, 3, 7, 64, 65, 75, 76, 82 Montegut, 61 ff. Montemayor, 68 Nicole, 3 Olivet (abbe d'), 33 ff., 36 Orlando Furioso, 70, 83, 86, go Ovid, 59 Pellisson, 33 Petrarch, 49, 60, 83 Perrault, Charles, 6 Phaedrus, 42 Pi 1 pay, 43 Pintrel, 74 Pisanello, 78 Poussin, 81 Quinault, 9 Rabelais, 33 Racan. 47, 53, 57 Racine, 3, 7, 10, S7 Rajna, 90 102 INDEX Rayssiguier, 30 Rebelliau, 16 Regnier, Henri, 5, 43, 74 Regnier, Mathurin, O9 Rennert, 68 •Reure, 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 16, 34, 35, 49, 52 Reinach, 82 Reynier, 75 Rivoire, 25 Ronsard, 46, 69, 82, 83, 95 Rovere, Guidobalda della, 69 Roy, 69 Rudolph, 25 Sabliere, Mme. de la, 10 Saint-Amand, 57 Sainte-Beuve, 34, 43, 57, 74 Saint-Gilles, 17 Saint-Marc Girardin, 34, 53 Salesse, 35 Salza, 40 Schwarzhaupt, 10 Scoto, Lorenzo, 75 Scudery, Mile, de, 2, 51 Searles, i Servois, 16 Sevigne, Mme. de, 57 Sidney, 68 Sillery, Mile, de, 41 Simmonds, 82 Simon, Dr. Jules, 45 Somaize, 2, 3, lO Sorel, 8, 9, 16 Souchay, 22 Taine, 43 ff., 76 Tamizy de Larroque, i Tasso, 2, 28, 40, 89, 90 Terence, 95 Teuffel, 74 Thoulier, see Olivet. Thucydides, 44 Tibullus, 44 Toldo, 65 Torraca, 65 Uccello, Paolo, 78 URf£— ASTR£E: Adamas, 13, 49, 54, 78 Alcippe, 39, 54, 55, 92 Alexis, 83 Amarylle, 39, 54 Amerine, 66 Aminte, 19 ff. Andrimarte, 68 Astree, 18 ff.. 39, 44 ff., 68, 69, 85 ff. Belinde, 2, 68 Celadon, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18 ff., 38, 39, 46, 53, 55, 68, 69, 70, 83. 85 ff., 92 Celidee, 61 Celion, 68 Childeric, 68 Chryseide, 84 Circeine, 40, 55 Clidamant, 27 Climanthe, 24, 25 Clorian, 40 Damon, 48, 78 ff. Daphnide, 58 Delie, 58 Delphire. 51, 84 Diane, 8, 30, 37, 38, 51, 52, 87 Dorinde, 9, 60, 84, 89 ff. Dorisee, 51 Eleumon, 50 £r;canthe, 50 Filinte, 3 Fleurial, 58 Florice, 3, 9, 55 Fortune, 48, 78 ff. Galatee, 22 ff., 58, 83 Genseric, 11 Gondebaut, 89 Hylas, I, 7 ff-, II, 19 ff-, 58, 59. 68, 70, 84, 93 I ♦ INDEX 103 Laonice, 39, 51, 52 Leonidc, 22 ff., 54, 61 Lcrindas, 58 Ligdamon, 66 Lycidas, 52 Madonte, 3 Mandrague, 84 Paris, 30 Parthenope, 9 Philandre, 58 Philis, 19 ff., 61 Polemas, 25, 68, 69 Rosanire, 3 Semire, 19 ff. Sigismond, 3, 89 Silvanire, 13 Silviane, 68 Silvie, 26, 2y Stelle, 30 Sylvandre, 7 ff., 27, 38, 39, 46, SI, 52, 59, 70, 87, 93, 94 Thorante, 84 Tircis, 3, 14, 29, 39, 51, 54 Vanloo, 82 Vergil, 31, 40, 53 Vianey, 8, 83 Villemain, 34 Villifranchi, 2 Voiture, 46, 63 Vossler, 75 Walckenaer, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 34, 35, 76 Warr, 74 Watteau, 81 Wilson, H., 41 Publications of the University of Pennsylvania Series in Romanic Languages and Literatures No. I. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF CHRISTOBAL SUAREZ DE FIGUEROA. By J. P. Wickebsham Crawford, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1907. 8vo, paper, 159 pp. Price $1.25, net. No. 2. WAS FERNANDO DE HERRERA A GREEK SCHOLAR ? By R. M. Beach, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1908. Svo, paper, 49 pp. Price $0.50, net. No. 3. FRANCISCO DE LA CUEVA Y SILVA. TRAJEDIA DE NARCISO. Edited from the autograph manuscript together with other unpublished poems, by J. P. Wickersham Craw- ford, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1909. Svo, paper, 78 pp. Price $1.00, net. No. 4. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF CHRISTOBAL DE CAS- TELLEJO, THE LAST OF THE NATIONALISTS IN CAS- TILIAN POETRY. By Clara Leonora Nicolay, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1910. Svo, paper, 126 pp. Price $1.25, net. No. 5. LA ESPANOLA DE FLORENCIA [6 BURLAS VERAS, Y AMOR INVENCIONERO]. COMEDIA FAMOSA DE CALDE- RON DE LA BARCA. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by S. L. Millard Rosenberg, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1911. Svo, cloth, xlii j-132 pp. Price $1.25, net. No. 6. THE LITERARY RELATIONS BETWEEN LA FON- TAINE AND THE "ASTREE" OF HONORE d'URFE. By Walther p. Fischer, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1913. Svo, paper, x f 103 pp. Price $1.00, net. Extra Series No. i. THE SPANISH PASTORAL ROMANCES. By Hugo A. Rennert, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1912. Svo, cloth, 206 pp. Price $1.50, net. Extra Series No. 2. LAS BURLAS VERAS. COMEDIA FA- MOSA DE LOPE DE VEGA CARPIO. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by S. L. Millard Rosenberg, Ph.D. Philadelphia, 1912. Svo, cloth, xlii+94 PP. With four fac-similes. Price $1.00, net. Copies of these books may be obtained by addressing The Department of Romanic Languages and Literatures College Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. f UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 871 585 6 i