A HISTORY OF FRENCH LITERATURE BY CHARLES WOODWARD HUTSON Professor of Modern Languages in the University of Mississippi, Author of The Beginnings of Civilization, Out of a Besieged City, etc. NEW YORK: WM. L. ALLISON COMPANY PUBLISHERS. Copyright, 1889, BY CHAKLES WOODWABD HUTSON. POLITICAL CHRONOLOGY OF FRANCE. HOUSE OF CAPET. Hugh the Great, 987- 996 Robert the Sage, 996-1031 Henry I., 1031-1060 Philip I., . _ 1060-1108 Louis VI., . / . . . 1108-1137 Louis VIL, 1137-1180 Philip Augustus, 1180-1223 Louis VIIL, . 1223-1226 Louis IX. (St. Louis), 1226-1270 Philip III., 1270-1285 Philip IV. (The Fair), 1285-1314 Louis X., 1314-1316 Philip V 1316-1322 Charles IV., 1322-1328 HOUSE OF VALOIS. Philip VI 1328-1350 John the Good, ........ 1350-1364 Charles V., 1364-1380 Charles VI., 1380-1422 Charles VIL, 1422-1461 Louis XT 1461-1483 Charles VIII., 1483-1498 3 FRENCH LITERATURE. i. GENERAL SKETCH: TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1789. THE French language is one of those languages of the great Aryan family which grew up in South- ern Europe from the old Latin stock. It did not spring from the Latir of literature, but from that Lingua Romano, rusvet spoken in the later days of the Roman Empii3, with various dialectic pecu- liarities, over all th? outlying provinces. In Gaul this tongue of the p >] iulace had already been mod- ified by the Keltic >j>eech which it displaced, as in Spain by the Kel i^erian. In the closing period of Roman history had been further modified by the Teutonic dialects brought in by the Western Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks. The in- fluence of the Goths, however, was slight and tran- sient, as they ultimately established their power on the southern side of the Pyrenees. The influence of the Burgundians was confined to the regions about the Rhine. The Franks mastered the country at just that critical period which enabled their ruler to combine the waning civilization of the Empire and the moral vigor of the young Christian Church with the energy of a fresh race, and so to continue the traditions and the prestige of the old Roman Em- pire into the new order of things. Their adher- ence, too, to the Athannsian creed gave them an advantage over other Teutonic races, who had embraced the Arian doctrines, in enabling them 5 6 To the Revolution of 1789. to harmonize better with the old Eoman world into which they had penetrated. When first taking their place in history, they were divided into two well-marked groups the Salian Franks and the Eipuarian Franks. The Sa- lians, at the close of the fourth century, were spread over Holland and the Low Countries. The Ripu- arians had settled on both sides of the Rhine as I'ar up as the Main. Both groups were at that time of thoroughly Teutonic blood and speech, except that the Belgian part of the race may have had some trace of Keltic origin. By the time of Charles the Great, crowned Em- peror at Rome in the year 800, the dominion of the Franks had greatly increased, and that wise and warlike prince so extended his rule as to embrace under his sway all the West of Europe. His realm included the whole of ancient Gaul, the greater part of Germany, Spain as far as the Ebro, and that part of Italy still known as Lombard} 7 . This Kaiser Karl, it must be remembered, was in blood and speech a Teutonic prince, though, from his having in later ages become a special hero of French romance under the name of Charlemagne, he is apt to be regarded by ordinary readers of his- tory as the founder of the French monarchy, which is far from being the true conception of his place in history. The truth is, there was no France as yet, and the country of the Franks stretched across what are now northern France and central Ger- many, taking in the countries now known as Bel- gium and Holland. At the close of one of his wars with the Saxons, Charles transported vast numbers of them into northern Gaul, and settled them there. The Em- peror Julian, ages before, had done the same thing with the Alternant These transplantations greatly increased the Teutonic element in the race which afterwards came to be known as the French. With grafts from such various Germanic stocks as the To the Devolution of 1789. 7 Gothic, Burgundian, Frank, Saxon, and Allemanic, together with the Scandinavian branch of the Teu- tonic family in the persons of the Normans, who forced a settlement in the north of Gaul in the time of Charles the Simple, it is no wonder that we find the French language far richer in Teutonic words than any other of the Romanic tongues. There are in them all about nine hundred words of Teutonic origin; about three hundred are common to them all ; while French has four hundred and fifty not found in the others. The French monarchy and the French people really have their historical beginning with the crowning at Rheims of Hugues Capet. Count of Paris, as King of the French, in the year 987. The Franks of the West were then formally sepa- rated from the Franks of the East, who remained an integral part of the German Kingdom. During the previous century, however that is, from the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887 there had been a practical severance of the West Franks from the East Franks. The men of Latin Francia, dwelling between the Loire and the Seine, and struggling for life and land with the Norman pirates with little aid from their nominal lords in the German land, were growing steadily into a sense of their separate identity. Before the close of that century of isolation and conflict, they were speak- ing their dialect of the Romanic speech, and were aware that it was something different from Ger- man. South of the Loire, another, though kindred Ro- manic tongue was spoken. This was Proven9al. The rulers in that land were the Dukes of Aqui- taine and Gascony and the Counts of Toulouse and Barcelona, who were really independent princes, with but a slight bond of allegiance to the neigh- boring kings. Its advanced position in the re- newed march of progress, after the period of con- fusion which the fall of Roman civilization brought 8 To the Revolution of 1789. upon Europe, is finely described in these words of Macaulay : " That country, singularly favored by nature, was, in the twelfth century, the most flourishing and civilized part of Western Europe. It was in nowise a part of France. It had a distinct political existence, a distinct national character, distinct usuages, and a distinct speech. The soil was fruitful and well cultivated ; and amidst the cornfields and vineyards arose many rich cities, each of which was a little republic ; and many stately castles, each of which contained a miniature of an imperial court. It was there that the spirit of chivalry first laid aside its terrors, first took a humane and graceful form, first appeared as the inseparable associate of art and lit- erature, of courtesy and love. The other vernacular dia- lects which, since the fifth century, had sprung up in the ancient provinces of the Roman Empire, were still rude and imperfect. The sweet Tuscan, the rich and ener- getic English, were abandoned to artisans and shepherds. No clerk had ever condescended to use such barbarous jargon for the teaching of science, for the recording of great events, or for the painting of life and manners. But the language of Provence was already the language of the learned and polite, and was employed by numer- ous writers, studious of all the arts of composition and versification. A literature rich in ballads, in war-songs, in satire, and, above all, in amatory poetry, amused the leisure of the knights and ladies whose fortified mansions adorned the banks of the Rhone and Garonne." For many generations this land of culture re- mained a mark for the ambition of the kings rul- ing at Paris ; and it was only by slow encroach- ments, by a long series of conquests, marriages, treaties, and crusades against so-called heretics, that they gradually extended their supremacy over the south. Equally slow was .the growth of the French language to the mastery of all the lands in which it ultimately became the national speech Provence and Languedoc in the south, Bretague in the west. To the Devolution of 1789. 9 Of the two forms of modified Latin which sprang up in Gaul, that which in the end became French was long in imminent danger of being overweighted and absorbed by its rival. The immediate parent of French was the Roman Wallon or Langue d 1 Oil, spoken in the north. The tongue used in the south, the Provengal or Langue (TOc, in itself far softer and more poetical, was, as has been said, long the vehicle of art and culture. It was the instru- ment of Troubadour song, the natural language of the new spirit of chivalry. The political fortunes of the kings of the Cape- tian line, the extension of the northern speech into England by the conquest of William the Norman, the deadly blow dealt to the development of the south by the persecutions of the Albigenses, all tended to exalt the Langue d 1 Oil and to crush the vitality of the Langue (TOc. French literature proper did not begin, then, until the French language had fairly ousted its powerful rival of the south, though there were imi- tators of the Troubadours among those who used the northern speech before the Troubadours had altogether ceased to sing. When the art of the Troubadours began to decay, the university of Paris was already at a high pitch of celebrity, and the establishment of the Sorbonne soon added to its glory. The fame of these institutions attracted scholars from all nations, and the native language began to assume greater elegance under the light of learning thus held up in the capital of the French people. Throughout the twelfth century and in the early part of the thirteenth, the Trouveres produced a great number of Lays, some on real, some on imag- inary subjects. The Fabliaux and some of the early chronicles also belong to this period. In the thirteenth century was begun by Guillaume de Lorris, and finished in the fourteenth by Jean de Meung, that Roman >le la AVv. which Chaucer trans- 10 French Literature. lated into English among his first essays in the poetic art. It was a great favorite in France, and long exerted an influence upon the taste and art of many writers. In that great age, the fourteenth century, when Italy was blossoming into so rich a glory of art and letters, and England was producing her Chaucer, Froissart began French prose in those luminous chronicles in which he described the great wars of Edward with France, wars which he partly wit- nessed, and in which he may be almost said to have shared. Froissart was on the English side, rather than the French, in these wars ; but it must be re- membered that he was a subject of Philippa of Hainault, Edward's queen, and that French was the court language in England still, and the Plantagenet princes were not yet English, whatever their island people may have been. Prose chronicles, it should be said, had been written by De Joinville under the last of the Crusading Kings, as well as by Ville- hardoin under the first Latin Emperor of Constan- tinople. But, admirable as these works are from some points of view, they are like the lispings of childhood when compared with the lifelike and many-colored narrative of Froissart ; so that French prose may be truly said to begin with him, as En- glish poetry begins with Chaucer. Next to Froissart comes the historian, Philippe de Comines, who wrote in the fifteenth century and opens the way to the study of the philosophy of history. With Francis I. and his brilliant sister, Marguerite of Navarre, French literature took a powerful impulse forward. Francis himself, with all his faults, was fond of art and of books. The revival of letters had quickened the human mind everywhere in western Europe; and there were many eminent writers in France, both in sympathy with the court and hostile to it on account of its attitude towards the Reformers. Rabelais satirized all parties. Amyot translated the ancients and fos- To the Revolution of 1789. 11 tered a sort of heathen republic in the minds of men. Montaigne observed the stir of parties tran- quilly, and had doubts and scruples about them all. Ronsard initiated the imitation of the excellences of the ancients in poetry, and carried the age with him into a great stretch of pedantic purism. Calvin, driven from France, established in Geneva a sort of pastoral theocracy, and formulated doctrine and government there for a large section of the Re- formed. Queen Marguerite displayed in her writ- ings that curious contrast, so often to be observed in the writers of this age, between the religious side and the artistic side of human nature. One of her books, the Miroir de Tame Pecheresse, a work of religious devotion, had the honor of being con- demned by the Sorbonne for its Reforming tone. Another, the Heptameron des Nouvelles, an imita- tation of Boccaccio's Decameron, goes even further than that pleasant book in the license of some of Its tales. I have mentioned the efforts of Ronsard to im- prison the forms of the language and literature within the narrow limits of rigid rules drawn from the best writers among the ancients. Rabelais, thorough scholar though he w r as, was bitterly op- posed to this exclusive homage to the ancients and submission to their authority; and, though the classical school gained the day for the time and produced at a later period the polished but artifi- cial gems of Corneille and Racine, the spirit of modern French literature is more in unison with the free and riotous fancy of Rabelais than with the stiff and measured march of the school that followed Ronsard's lead. Rabelais, as a humorist, still holds a high place in the literature of the world, and ranks as a great prose Aristophanes. His fantastical romance of Gargantua is a long series of satirical exposures of all the follies and vices of his day, It is, however, often so foul in its language and licentious in its 12 French Literature. exuberant flow of high spirits, that it is not a book to be placed within reach of every comer. Dimi- try's Three Good Giants strips it of this soiled ves- ture. Of all the writers of the sixteenth century that have come down to us, Montaigne continues to be the best known, the most read, and the most dearly loved. The secret of this immortality, aside from his merits as a thinker, lies in the wonderful way in which he has impressed his individuality upon his works. Every reader of the essays of Michel de Montangne feels that he knows the man person- ally, and that he is a lovable man to know. One element, moreover, of their charm for us, and a high and honorable trait in the character of Mon- taigne, is the spirit of tolerance, of true charity of judgment, which the Essays breathe. This feature in the man's character is the more wonderful, in that it was wholly alien to the spirit of his age c To these attractions, he adds the charm of an ex- ceedingly clear, sweet, and flowing style, and a reflective temper peculiarly pleasing to the reader of leisure. Bulwer-Lytton, in one of his own admirable essays, calls him the Horace of Essayists, " an ap- pellation," says he, " which appears to me appro- priate, not only from the subjective and personal expression of his genius, but from his genial amenity ; from his harmonious combination of sportiveness and earnestness; and, above all, from the full attainment of that highest rank in the sub- jective order of intellect, when the author in the mirror of his individual interior life, glasses the world around and without him, and, not losing his own identity, yet identifies himself with infinite varieties of mankind." The French language owes much to the inimitably easy style of the old Gas- con country-gentleman. The establishment of the Academic Francaise, under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu, formed a To the Revolution of 1789. 13 nucleus for the clustering of French literary genius of every order. Kichelieu's bad taste and literary jealousies for he was himself a writer do not seem to have hindered the development of real genius ; and his patronage of bad poets acted as a stimulus upon the good, and gave them the advan- tage of a foil to set off their own excellence. It was enough that the atmosphere should be literary ; genius had a climate to flourish in. Corneille now appeared to grace the language with his classic tragedies, and his single comedy, the promise and foretaste of Moliere's rich fruitage. Drawing inspiration from Seneca and the Latin his- torians on the one hand, and from the Spanish drama on the other, Corneille gave to the French stage its earlier notemarks of dignity of style and declamatory grandeur of sentiment, too often swell- ing into bombast in his imitators. We find in our English literature the faults of the French tragic school carried almost, to unconscious caricature in the extravagance of TDryden's and Nat. Lee's stilted heroes and heroines. Corneille's finest plays are Le (7/, Horace, Cinna, and Polyeucte. To these must be added his amusing comedy, Le Menteur. The next literary period, the age of Louis XIV., for which Eichelieu's policy paved the way and pre- pared the splendors emphatically the Augustan age of French literature abounds in great writers of every kind. The place of Corneille in the tragic world of dramatic literature was fully filled by Racine, whc was to the elder poet what Sophocles was to oEschylus. Phe'dre, that admirable play of passion, was indeed drawn from the Phedra of Euripides; but the sober evenness and moderation of Racine's genius bring him into closer relationship with Sophocles. While Racine was enriching the lan- guage with powerful tragedies, first on profane themes thrilled through with human love placed in pathetic situations, and in later days on Biblical 14 French Literature. subjects carefully kept free from that passion wliicli had kept alive interest in his earlier pieces, the prince of comedy was amusing court and city with his witty ridicule of all the whims and oddities of the day. Moliere carried comedy of the purely laughable and fun-moving order to its highest per- fection. At the same time, being himself a capital actor and one of the ablest stage-managers that ever lived, as well as dearly beloved by his fellow comedians, he created the celebrated Comedie Fran- $aise, to this day the living transmitter of all the traditions and prestige of the French theatre in its best days. Moliere was thus not only the author whose works we can all read and enjoy, but the power, acting through the coming centuries, by which the art of the player is kept from decline. The stage showed brightest; but there was scarcely a department of literary art which did not at this time shine with a rich effulgence of light. Pascal, in his Lettres Provinciates and his Pensees, enriched the literature with keen reasoning and profound thinking, expressed in the tersest and neatest of styles. Descartes employed the lan- guage with great force and skill in the domain of speculative research, though much of his meta- physics was expressed in Latin. Bossuet, Bourda- loue, Massillon, and Fiddlier preached in it eloquent sermons and impressive funeral discourses. Fn- elon used it in a variety of ways ; for education in his romance of Telemaque and in some special treatises ; for controversial writings, in which he measured swords with Bossuet; for philosophical disquisition ; and for pulpit oratory. La Fontaine produced in it his amusing but somewhat improper Contes and his exquisite Fables; Boileau, his pleasant Satires and Epitres, and his comic epic, Lutrin. La Eochefoucauld and La Bruyere put it to a new service in their epigrammatic Sentences and Caracttres. Letters, such as those of Madame de Sevigne' ; and Memoirs, such as those of Cardi* To the Revolution of 1789. 15 nal de Retz and Madame de Stael, and, towards the close of the long reign of Louis XIV., those of the Due de St. Simon, make a peculiar part of French literature, distinctive indeed, as no other literature possesses so many, so unreserved, and so ably written private records of individuals and families. This age was followed by the one immediately preceding that great rising of the oppressed com- mons of France, known as the first French Revolu- tion. It was characterized by a singular passion, in court circles and among the literary men of the day, for skepticism in the moral and religious field of thought, and a speculative furore for fraternity, liberty, and equality, in the political and social sphere. The leaders of thought, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Buffon, were all deeply imbued in different ways with the spirit of the age, and did much to bring about the tremendous results of the next century. Montesquieu, in his Lettres Persanes, satirized the life of his day, religious, political, social, and literary. In his Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur et de la Decadence des JRomains, he threw out many admirable suggestions toward the study of the true philosophy of history. In his Esprit des Lois, he ably investigated the principles which lie at the foundation of organized society. The supporters of civil liberty in every land owe a debt to Montesquieu for the impulse which he gave to studies into its nature and principles. Voltaire has a bad name with serious persons. But, with all his faults, he was a great light in French literature and an able worker in the cause of human progress. He laughed down many abuses. So universal was his genius, though never of an exalted type, and so great his versatility, that it would be useless in a brief sketch like this to so much as name the many fields of literature 16 French Literature. in which he shone. His long warfare with existing institutions went far to destroy the faith of his contemporaries in them, and helped to pave the way for the great Eevolution. What Montesquieu did by acute speculative thought and Voltaire by keenest ridicule, Eousseau did by sentiment. Never was work more filled with impassioned sentiment than Eousseau's Con- fessions. His whole charm lay in this appeal to the sensuous part of our nature. His philosoph- ical notions and socialistic opinions are worth- less ; but they chimed in with the growing beliefs of his day, and there was therefore great practical power in his Contrat Social, feeble as its whole system of sociology is to thinkers of our time. Buffon's contribution to the destructive ideas by which the writers of this period prepared the way for the Eevolution, was not important. He was, from that point of view, only one among the deis- tical scientists of his time. But, in a literary light, he was a noble figure of the age. His Histoire naturelle, faulty enough considered as a scientific work, popularized the study of nature by the beauty of its style and the charm of its method. His style is noble and eloquent, and his love for nature sometimes exalts the language of his descriptions to true sublimity. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's lovely little prose- idyll Paul et Virginie, serves as a stepping-stone between Eousseau and Chateaubriand. It has the tenderness of sentiment which the impassioned Jean- Jacques had brought into fashion, and at the same time the devotion to wild nature which Cha- teaubriand was to enter upon in the next genera- tion with such enthusiasm. His Chaumiere in- dienne and Voyage a V Isle de France exhibit the same characteristics. Helve'tius, materialistic philosopher; Diderot and d'Alembert, the encyclopedists ; Condillac, the metaphysician; Crebillon, the dramatist; bis son, To the Revolution of 1789. 17 Crebillon, the indecent romancer; Beaumarchais, the brilliant writer of comedy and unconscious herald of the Revolution; and Le Sage, the creator of Gil Bias, all belong to this period. Le Sage, in permanence of literary fame, is by far its greatest name. The others are marked names, and their works are much talked about ; Le Sage is read. Only sections of the reading public read here and there a work of Voltaire or Rous- seau. Everybody reads Gil Bias, if not in the original, at least in translated form. Eminently original and thoroughly French, though borrowed in a general way from the Spanish picaresco ro- mances, it holds its own even with modern readers, not only from its entertaining vivacity, wit, and humor, but because it is so true to human nature in all time. To use the words of Bulwer-Lytton, in his Essay on Knovjledye of the World: " The knowledge of life it illustrates is so vast, that, in substance, it remains to this day the epitome of the modern world. Amid all the mutations of external manners, all varying fashions of costume, stand forth in immortal freshness its large types of civilized human nature. Its author is equally remarkable for variety of character, formed by the great world, and for accurate insight into the most general springs of action by which they who live in the great world are moved. Thus he is as truthful to this age as he was to his own." We have now reached the eve of the French Revolution of 1789. With that tremendous event, all changes in the world of French thought and feel- ing. The old disappears in blood. The classic taste in literature vanishes with the pomp of the ancien regime ; laws and letters for awhile yield to arms, and at the next breathing-place French literature assumes a new phase. 2 18 French Literature. II. SINCE THE REVOLUTION OF 1789. BEAUMARCHAIS, the author of those witty come- dies, Le Barbier de Seville and Le Mariaye de Fi- garo, was the immediate precursor of the Kevolu- tion of 1789. He it was who, by bitterly satiriz- ing in his famous Memoir es the infamous Parlement Maupeou, showed the poison that was sapping the very life-blood of national existence. He it was who gave the finishing stroke in the war of the wits against the already tottering edifice of absolu- tism in France. Voltaire had broken the spell of religion such as that age knew it a superstition or a hypocrisy. Rousseau, in passionately advocating the rights of man, had dimmed the prestige of birth and rank. Beaumarchais, in lifting the veil, with unrivaled skill as a pleader of his cause, from the court that was bribed to wrong him, revealed the utter cor- ruption that was poisoning the fountains of justice, and opened the eyes of the people to the fact that their last safeguard against tyranny was gone. His brilliant attack excited the admiration of Yoltaire, whose pen had often served the same cause and had been dipped in the same gall. Villemain lavishes his eulogies upon the art of Beaumarchais' forensic eloquence : " That art of filling with venom things the most inno- cent, of mingling with a seemingly simple narrative lit- tle calumnies, of lying with grace, of insulting with an air of candor, of being ironical, biting, pitiless, of plung- ing the point of sarcasm into the wound already made, then of appearing serious, conscientious, reserved, and eoon after of barking on a full cry of bad passions all for Since the Revolution of 1789. 19 the good of the good cause, of interesting self-love, of amusing malice, of flattering envy, of exciting fear, of rendering the judge an object of suspicion to the audi- ence and the audience terrible to the judge; that art of humiliating and of attracting, of threatening and of im- ploring; that art, above all, of causing his adversaries to be so laughed at that one begins to believe that people so ridiculous can never be in the right ; in fine, all that ar- senal of malice and of eloquence, of wit and of passion, of reason and of invective, this is what makes up some part of the Memoirs of Beaumarchais ! " The same potent spirit of irony flamed triumph- antly through the scenes of his brilliant comedies. The age demanded tremendous negation of every force that held authority in the land, for all were supporting tyranny and oppression and misrule. In all the literature of the day this destructive philosophy found a vent; but it was especially potent on the stage. In tragedy, there were inces- sant tirades against fanaticism. In comedy, there were as ceaseless utterances in favor of equality. In the comedies of Beaumarchais, the fire burned more fiercely and with a brighter and more beauti- ful blaze than elsewhere. His Figaro has been said to have given the signal and the programme of the Revolution. He is the representative of the superior intelligence that finds itself in a state of social inferiority. He shows the disaccord of or- ganized society, the unhappy contrast of capacity and condition. It was madness in the government of the day to have permitted the representation of a piece which brought the light of genius to bear upon such inequalities. The strange thing about it all is that the ruling class felt vaguely what \vas corning, and yet made no provision for the evil days. Louis XV. said, "It will last my time." No effort was made to reform the stale. The Parlement which was the judicial body in Fr.mce held stoutly to its privi- leges ; the court continued its abuses; the clergy 20 French Literature. kept up the spirit of intolerance ; the nobles abated not one jot of their outrageous claims ; the king held firmly to the traditions of arbitrary power. At last the storm burst, and all was swept away the whole order of things that belonged to the France of Louis XV. In the whirl of tragic events, there was no room for literature. Men do not create art when the house is tumbling down upon their heads. The reign of the guillotine was not propitious to the growth of taste. Anarchy led to the Empire ; but the first Empire was one long series of wars, and what literary workers there were, were either in opposition or ready at a moment's warning to take that position. Mad- ame de Stae'l was of the first class ; Chateaubriand, of the second. They were the first of the romantic school in France. Kousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre had given the impulse and had some share in fur- nishing them with the keynote of those prose- poems by which they are best known. But it was they who first fairly introduced their countrymen to new ideas and made them take an interest in a world outside of France. Madame de Stae'l studied Germany, and wrote a book about it. ISAllemagne showed the new influence and the new tendency. Like the Germans Goethe and the rest she went to Italy, too, for inspiration ; and the new romantic spirit, revealed in her Corinne, fed its nascent iervors on the still smouldering incense of the old classic and mediaeval art. Chateaubriand, singular compound of reformed skeptic and of a politician oscillating between re- publicanism and legitimacy, drew a fresh source of inspiration from his travels in America, where he was especially impressed by the wild forests still haunted by bird and beast alone and the mighty river down the long course of which La Salle had lately made his lonesome way. These and the relics of a civilization found among that singular Since the Revolution of 1789. 21 tribe, the Natchez, seem to have greatly struck his imagination. His Atala, his Genie du Christ- ianisme, his Les Martyrs, prompted by the wonders he had seen and by the enthusiasm which Christian heroism produced in his susceptible spirit, exer- cised a powerful influence, though not a permanent one, upon the age. His little pamphlet, De Bona- parte et des Bourbons, was declared by Louis XVIII. to be worth an army of 100,000 men in favor of the royalist party. Yet he had been an embassador in Napoleon's service, until the murder of the Due d'Enghien. Nor did Chateaubriand remain the staunch royalist he must have felt himself to be at the time he produced the pamphlet so much ex- tolled by the Bourbon prince. In his last political work, he sets forth as his political creed : " I am a Bourbouist in honor, a Monarchist on grounds of rational conviction; but in natural character and disposition, I am still a Republi- can." He was a brilliant and effective writer, of warm imagination ami fine powers of description ; but in all that he has written there is a want of a sound philosophic basis. He lacks depth and solidity, and reminds us of wine that has a fine sparkle and pleasant flavor, but is deficient in that quality which connoisseurs style "body." There is in his literary merits and demerits a marked resemblance to Lamartine, or, to speak more justly, it should be said that Lamartine resembles him. After the Napoleonic age carne the romantic re- vival, with an especially brilliant luxuriance in the outgrowth of fiction and of comedy. We shall find the withering influence of Voltairean unbelief and the sensual influence of Rousseau's sentiment- alism, like two noxious plants flowered into full bloom, both impressing themselves still upon a large portion of this later literature. The gay songs of Beranger, that went to the heart of a people naturally joyous, had the effect, 22 French Literature. during the dull period of the Eestoration, of restor- ing that easy temper and fondness for amusement which the horrors of the Reign of Terror and the ceaseless conscriptions of the Emperor had for so long a time made impossible to the French. Btranger was thus, all unconsciously, the cause of a return to the old passion for the stage, although the pleas- ure of the Parisians in that form of amusement had never wholly lapsed. "The stage in France," says M. Franeisque Sarcey, " is a national and especially a Parisian pleasure. Mo- liere, Reynard, Beaumarchais, Voltaire, Scribe, and many other less celebrated dramatic authors were born within sight of the walls of Paris. Everybody in Paris is fond of the play, and is a good judge of it. Even at the present moment, when this passion is not so strong as it used to be, many a young man will go without his dinner in order to treat himself to the play. How many will stand for three or four hours together at the doors of a theatre, in the midst of rain or snow, to see the piece that has ca,ught the taste of the public ! Everything that re- lates to dramatic literature is warmly discussed, and there is not a woman, however imperfectly educated she may otherwise be, who is not capable of giving expression to her opinions on theatrical matters, witli a knowledge of the subject sometimes astonishing. Every soil has its own peculiar virtues ; in the same way every nation has its own peculiar aptitude. The passion of the French is the stage." Napoleon loved the theatre, and, while his jeal- ousy of public discussion had an injurious effect upon the development of literature under the Em- pire, he fostered the great company that was proud of calling itself La Maison de Moltire I mean, the famous Comedie Fran^aise with aid from the pub- lic treasury. The social changes brought about by the Revo- lution furnished the stage with a new audience. The Court was no longer the arbiter of taste. For some time after the Restoration, the bourgeois pub- lic passed judgment upon the pieces represented Since the Revolution of 178$. 1'6 and the actors who played in them. "They were called," says M. Sarcey, "the habitues because they went to the theatre every night; and when the nc- tor, entering on the scene, perceived those long rows of bald and shining heads, on which the chandelier shed its rays, he was seized with a slight trembling. I saw the last remnants of this circle in my youth : to-day they have entered into the category of fos- sils." These solid old citizens of Paris were tenacious of the past ; they clung to tradition, and retarded the advancement of dramatic literature. Aided by such an audience, the superb acting of Rachel alone kept up the classic stage, in opposition as it was to the tastes and aspirations of the younger genera- tion. The revolt of the romantic school against the fetters of classicism began about the year 1830 The spirit of revolution was astir then, but the classic drama still continued to hold the old House of Moliere. It was obly after the Revolution of 18-18 that the new romantic school fairly succeeded in overcoming the prejudice of the public in favor of the classic drama, and gained a footing even on the stage of the Theatre Fran^aise. Of these who won distinction in dramatic composition in these later days I can mention here only the names of Boursault, Regnard, Legrand, Lemercier, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Scribe, Alfred de Vigny, Al- fred de Musset, and Octave Feuillet. Some of these merit and will receive fuller mention. But the greatest development of modern French literature has been in the form of fiction. Espe- cially in romantic fiction has this development taken place, for the French have a gift in that direc- tion. They have never yet been excelled in the construction of the plot, they have a fine feeling for sentiment, they are keen observers of life and manners, they have a wholesome horror of weary- ing the reader by serious digressions, they are care- 24: French Literature. ful and patient in their workmanship, and they pay great attention to style. If there is a philosophy at the bottom of their pictures of life, they are far too artistic to bring it to the front. If they describe minutely, they take the greatest pains that the descriptions shall be picturesque or else amusing. There is little of that humor which, in English literature at its best, blends philosophic reflection with feeling, in so sub- tle a way that oftentimes the smile and the tear are almost equally ready to come at the waving of the enchanter's wand. But there is, in the place of hu- mor, a sparkling wit, an engaging vivacity, q, charming archness, that one finds rarely in English writers. There is not much real appreciation of country scenery one of the sweetest traits in the art of English genius except in George Sand (Madame Dudevant) and a few others. But the life of cities, and especially of Paris, is made as familiar to us as if we had grown up amid the same scenes ; and there is no literature which can excel the French in these realistic pictures. Alexandre Dumas, the elder, the most prolific of them all, is also the most dashing and vivacious of these romancers a Murat among story-tellers. He is also one of the most entertaining, and is per- haps the best known in this country, having myri- ads of readers everywhere. The catalogue of his writings numbers several hundreds of volumes, and they all belong to the type of the sensational romance. Most of them deal with past times, and profess to be historical novels, though they are true neither to character nor to fact. Yery many of them were written in a sort of literary partnership by men who found it pay them better to publish under Dumas' name than under their own. Dumas supervised them and gave them the final stamp of his own rapid and readable style. But his real masterpieces were unquestionably -wholly his own Since the Revolution of 17S9. 25 work. Such were Les Trois Mousquetaires, Le Comte de Monte- Cristo, and his inimitable books of travel. Eugene Sue takes rank with Dumas as of the sensational school. He excelled in intricate and ingeniously complicated plots His energetic movement kept up the interest of the reader at every stage of the action, He especially under- stood the art of contrast, and by the use of power- ful dramatic situations urged the mind of the reader to intense excitement. Nothing could remove the spell until the last page was reached, and then there remained long hovering over the imagination, weird phantoms and wild visions, that mesmerized the spirit into a longing for the renewal of the feverish intoxication. There was peril for young minds in this over-heating of the brain, and at the same time Sue's political and social ideas were eminently dangerous. It is likely that the crude philosophy of Communism owes not a little to the deep impressions made on the lower classes by the propagandism of immature minds that had fed on the unwholesome thought fermenting in Les Mysteres de Paris, Le Juif Errant, and Mathilde. Equally sensational, and in a really insane way at times, but widely different in personal pride, in intensity of conviction, and in style, from Dumas and Sue is Victor Hugo. The author of Notre Dame de Paris, of Quatre-vinyit-treize, of Les Mis- erables, with a wild and lyrical style, sometimes ab- surdly oracular, sometimes epigrammatic, some- times as fantastic as that of Carlyle, has produced remarkable pictures pictures, it is true, of a life rather ideal than real, but still pictures of what might be true. He is a poet always, whether writing in verse or in prose, and as a poet he is a fine manifestation of the Gothic type as distin- guished from the classical. Hugo rejects form, and puts his faith in the idea he would express : hence the frequent uncouthness of his form and the cloudi- 26 French Literature, ness of the idea. He represents a French type at the very antipodes in its remoteness from that type represented by Kacine or Moliere, or even by Vol- taire and Le Sage. Balzac gives us another type. He is the pro- found analyst of the human heart, the subtle searcher into its follies, its frailties, its whimsies, its passions, but morbid and bitter in the effects he produces. He is perhaps best known by his Le Pere Goriot, La Peau de Chagrin, and Eugenie Orandet. There was greater variety in Madame Dudevant. She wrote at first in conjunction with Jules Sandeau and from him adopted part of his name, so as to be .Known in literature as George Sand. Full of poetic fancy, gifted with a graceful and lucid style, impassioned in her own nature, and yet versatile enough to escape the monotony of passion per- haps through the largeness of her sympathies she charmed and entertained many different classes of readers. Her Indiana and her Jacques were ro- mances of the passions. Her La Petite Fadette, La Mare d*Auteuil, and Nanette were simple, touching country-stories, almost pastorals. Others of her numerous works were Lelia, Mauprat, Andre, Consuelo, and Flammarande. The story of her life is a curious one, and there is an especial interest in the account of her relations with Alfred de "Musset, that unhappy poet whose rich fancy and melodious utterance unluckily charmed her for awhile and entrapped him into an ill-assorted, as well as unlaw- ful, union. Madame Dudevant's life was immoral, and so were her earlier books ; but the ferment in her genius seems to have worked off in the course of time, and left pure wine. Paul de Kock, though making no insidious attacks on morality, won the reputation of an auda- cious tempter of the young into the paths of sin. He certainly is not clean, yet there is a hearty jovialty about him, a robust vitality, that makea Since the Revolution of 1789. 27 him a far less dangerous sinner than are those sen- timental novelists who suggest immoral thoughts, or preach an immoral creed, without venturing to name the sin toward which they cluster. He was a prolific writer, both of novels and of vaudevilles. His son, Henri, has written novels of the same order. To these romancers must be added a few others of note. There is Edmond About, in his later years almost wholly devoted to journalism and politics, but whose Tolla, Le Roi des Montagues, Germaine, Uhomme a Voreille cassee and Le Cos de M. Guerin have won him no mean name among writers of fiction. His works, fictitious and politi- cal, are marked by 'trench ant sarcasm and fine irony, as well as by original surprises. There are Ernest Feydeau, the author of Fanny, a novel of thoroughly maudlin sentimentality; and Flaubert, whose Madame Bovary is a romance of the grossly physiological type ; and Adolphe Belot, whose Femme de Feu is also a picture of sensual passion. I should name too Jules Sandeau, to whom we owe a fresher and sweeter strain in his charming romance of Madeline. Then, there are Soulie and Souvestre and Me"ry: Alphonse Karr and Paul Feval ; the younger Dumas, Murger, and de Mire- court; de Stendhal, and Chevalier. To these may be added Charles de Bernard, Prosper Merime'e, Jules Claretie, Theophile Gautier, and those literary partners, Erckmann-Chatrian, who have done so much for the delineation of Alsatian life. Then, there are fimile Gaboriau, who imitated Poe in his minuteness of detail and ingenious literary puzzles ; Jules Verne, who struck out the new line of calling the wonders of science to the aid of fiction, and who seems exhaustless in the department he has created ; and Daudet and Zola, who agree in their cynical realism and contempt for decency, though Zola seems to revel in the filth of all that misery, vice, and crime which he depicts with so repulsive 28 French Literature. a minuteness, while Daudet has the art to turn his gaze away from the utterly unclean. The animated pictures of Eussian life, painted by the lady who calls herself Henry Greville, furnish a pleasant relief to all this vile prostitution of art. Of the poets, Beranger, often styled the Burns of France, the greatest of her song- writers ; and Lamartine, most sentimental of sentimentalists, belong to the period of the Eestoration. Victor Hugo ranks high as lyric poet, as well as among the dramatists and romancers. De Vigny and De Musset have left their mark on the poetry of French literature, both being singers of melody and power. Sainte-Beuve's reputation rests chiefly upon his admirable criticisms, but he also sought to win fame among the poets of the romantic school. Baudelaire was emphatically the poet of unrighteousness and of despair, admiring Poe, translating and imitating him, and producing the kind of poetry that lust, opium, and hunger might combine with a certain lurid style of genius to form. Yet, in the case of poor Baudelaire, absinthe may have painted all those effects which I have imagined three potent demons to be responsible for. Of the critics the most eminent in modern times have been Sainte-Beuve, Armand de Pontmartin, and Jules Janin, in the field of French literature. Henri Blaze is the chief critic and historian of German literature ; and of English literature H. A. Taine is confessedly the best historian of literature in any language. The authors of histories of French literature, either for certain periods or for the whole of its extent, have been numerous. Some of them have discoursed only on the Latin literature produced in Gaul, and yet have called their works Discourses on French Literature. The greatest names among the writers of this class, and of that which gave some account of French litera- ture proper, are Littre, Villemain, Geruzez, Demo- Since the Revolution of 1789. 29 geot, Vinet, Nettement, Albert, Charpentier, Cart, Marque, Nisard, and Sainte-Beuve. The historians must be mentioned with equal brevity. They are Barante, the author of UHistoire des Dncs de Bouryogne; Guizot, the author of IjHistoire de la Civilization en Europe and the History of France; Thierry, the author of UHis- toire de la Conquete de TAngleterre par les Normans ; Lamartine, the author of ISHistoire des Girondins ; Michelet, the author of UHistoire de France; to- gether with Thiers, Martin, Delord, Lanfrey, Lenor- mant, and a great many more. In metaphysics, the chief names are Victor Cousin, Jouffroy, Janet, Lacour, Laugel, and Vera. In Christian morality and ecclesiastical dogma, the most eminent writers are Lamennais, with his memorable Sur r Indifference en Mature de Re- l.i'jinn and the very different Paroles d" 1 unCroyant; Laccrdaire; Montalembert, and Dupanloup. In political philosophy, there are Chevalier, De Toc- queville, and Bonald. In philology and archaeol- ogy, the great names are Champollion, De Sacy, Kenan, Rernusat, Littre, Bida, and Gaston Paris. In socialistic propagandism, there are three great visionaries, Comte, St. Simon, and Fourier. In the sciences, the French have won high distinction in that world-literature, which utters itself in every civilized tongue. Among the great names are those of Cuvier, the father of anatomy ; Ampere and Arago, distinguished in so many sciences; La Place, Gay Lussac, and Lcgendre. In the rapid enumeration just made, there have necessarily been omitted the names of many writers who have a world-wide reputation. Such, for instance, are Saintine, the author of that charm- ing tale of prison-life, Picciola; Laboulaye, a most versatile and excellent writer; Madame Craven, the author of several tender and thoughtful romances of deep, religious tone; and Madam de Segur, whose fairy tales are fresh and sparkling. 30 French Literature. It is pleasant to be able to say, in closing this brief review of recent French literature, that the turbid stream of unbridled passion, which, like the rushing torrent from the mountain, swept away with the primness of the classic fountain and mimic lake their limpid purity too, has begun to exhaust its force and seems to be depositing its sediment and gradually clearing. The strange and offensive phenomenon of a Zola stirring up the marsh-mud at the bottom serves only to mark more strongly the general change for the better. Decency will yet come back to cleanse the French imagination. Lays of Irouvbres. 31 III. LAYS OF THE TEOUVERES. HAVING given a general outline of French liter- ature, from the earliest utterances of the race in a language wHch they realized to be something dif- ferent from broken Latin, down to the writings of our own day, I now turn back to invite your closer attention to single periods, or even, in some in- stances, to individual writers of marked eminence. First, then, let us look more closely into the earliest literature of the French. The provengal literature, though the prelude to that of the Trouveres of the North, cannot fairly be classed as a par> of French literature, since both in language and in sentiment it is more nearly allied to the Italian and the Spanish. Properly speak- ing, it stands apart as an independent literature, from which all its neighbors drew inspiration ; the Suabian Minnesingers coming nearest to it in spirit and form. I have already given a general account of the origin of the French language, and shall not here pause to describe in detail its gradual development. It was still in a crude and formative condition in the twelfth century when those lays were produced which the spirit of chivalry gave birth to. The youth of great races always passes through the stage called the Heroic Age, and we find the same general characteristics in all races at this stage, whether we read of the Achaians in the lays of Ilorner, or of the Persians in those of Firdausi, or of the Burgundians in the Nibeluntj Lay. But the chivalry of the Christian races of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was characterized by one 32 French Literature. feature which is found, in so marked a degree, in only one other race their great rivals and adver- saries, the Arabians after they had received the faith of Islam. This striking feature, this power- ful element, was the enthusiasm of religion. It was religious fervor, blended with the passion for war, which gave rise to the Crusades, whether against the Moslem in Spain or the Moslem in the Holy Land or the Moslem in Egypt and at Tunis ; and the Crusades in turn exalted the passions which led to their inception. From these enthusiasms sprang the inspiration to song the popular song of the twelfth century. Human love soon came in to form an element in this popular poetry, and completed the type of the chivalric lay. Those of the earlier type, in which love has no share, or but a slight one, are called Lays of Ex- ploits (Chansons de Geste)', while those of the later type are known by the general name of The Cycle of the Round Table (Le Cycle de la Table ronde). The Lays of Exploits were sung by the Trou- veres, as Homer's lays had been sung in the isles of Greece or in the Hellenic cities by the Rhapso- dists. They were of two classes, the first drawing its subjects from traditional history of the Teutonic races, the second from the greatly transmuted facts of antiquity related by monkish historians. The Cycle of the Round Table had its origin in Breton legends transformed by Teutonic influences. The finest of the heroic poems cluster around the already mythical figure of the Frankish Karl. The great leaders, under whom the armies led to battle by him saved the Christian races of the West from conquest by unbelievers, very soon be- came mythical heroes. Roland, around whom the most romantic legends gathered, is named but once in authentic history. It is only casually that the chronicler Eginharcl mentions him, as Warden of trie March of Britanny, in the brief passage which Lays of the Trouvtres. 33 he devotes to that skirmish in which the Paladin fell. Yet, when three centuries had passed by, it was Roland and his fatal fall at Roncevaux that formed the theme of Taillefer's battle chant as he rode forth from the Norman line at Hastings and met the Saxon van with the stirring words of defiant song ringing from his lips. The slaughter of the Frankish emperor's rear-guard in that famous pass of the Pyrenees, the treason of Ganelon, and the heroic deaths of Roland and his comrades formed the earliest subjects of epic and ballad in all the literatures of the Romance races. The Frankish epic of Roland (Chanson de Roland] is the noblest of those early lays. It is a poem of more than four thousand lines in length. It covers events which transpired in the course of a few days. It shows no trace of clas- sical influence. It differs from the Spanish ballads in that it is not lyrioal, but truly epical in form and tone. Yet it is probably a growth from a number of ballads common to the folk-song of the Frankish race, welded by some artistic hand into unity. The poem may be briefly outlined thus: Charles sits on his golden throne, judging his host, under a pine. The paladins all around him are busy with the game of chess. As they are thus engaged, Blancandrin comes in as envoy from Marsile, sultan of the infidels, with offers of peace and treaty. Marsile promises to give hostages and to follow the emperor to his court at Aachen. Roland exhorts Charles to refuse to negotiate with miscreants who had once slain his envoys. Gan- elon, Roland's stepfather, fiercely engages in the discussion, and there is soon a hot altercation be- tween the two barons. The emperor imposes silence, and decides to send an envoy to Marsile. Ganelon, in spite of his un- willingness, is chosen. Feeling deeply aggrieved, he begins in his heart to plot treason even while he 3 34: French Literature. rides away with Blancandrin. When he reaches the camp of the enemy, he cries aloud to Marsile : "Be thou baptized, oh King : to Aachen shaltthou be taken, and there shalt thou be judged, and there shalt thou die in shame and mean estate." At these insulting words, Marsile lays his hand on his spear. But he controls himself, and waits for Ganelon to produce Charles's letter. Marsile reads it, and the envoy, who is nowhere described as lacking in courage, sets his back against a tree and half draws his sword. Even the Saracens say of him, " A noble baron is this." Marsile finds the letter gentler than the bearing of the envoy, speaks him fair, and offers him, in true Homeric style, a gift of sable skins. He asks Ganelon, " When will Charles the Old be weary of war ? " " Never," answers Ganelon, " while his nephew Eoland and the Peers are on ground." He next advises Marsile to send tribute and host- ages, and at the same time to lay an ambush in the passes of the Pyrenees. After this evil counsel, he swears to treason on the relics in the hilt of his sword, and returns to Charles, bringing with him the keys of Saragossa, as well as hostages and tribute from the sultan. On the eve of his homeward march, Charles has an evil dream. In the vision he sees Ganelon seizing his spear in the pass of the mountains. He awakes, weeping at the omen of disaster. But the warning is without effect. He yields to the suggestion of Ganelon, that the rear-guard should be assigned to Eoland, along with Evriard de Rousillon, Turpin, and Oliver. Breaking up camp, the army crosses black rocks and dark valleys, shedding tears when at last they come in sight of Gascony, "at memory of their fiefs and fields and of their little ones and gentle wives." While the host is thus melted to tender feelings at the thought of their nearness to their homes, the rear-guard begin to note the advance of the Sara- Lays of the Trouvbres. 35 cens. " We shall have battle," says Oliver, as he hears the sounds of an approaching army. " God grant it," cries Eoland ; " never let bad ballad be sung of us." Oliver begins to express his suspicion of Gan- elou's treason. But Koland stops him. Then Oli- ver urges him to use his magic horn, the Olifant (horn of elephant's tusk), to bring Charles and the main army to their aid. But Roland refuses. "In sweet France," he cries, " I would lose my fame." The Saracen host comes on. Bishop Turpin ab- solves the Christians, though leaves and grass are the only creatures of God that can serve for the sa- cramental elements. Then the Franks cry, "Mount Joie," and address themselves to battle. Marsile's nephew, Aelroth, rides along the Saracen line, shouting taunts to the Christians. The two hosts rush together in fierce onset. Roland drives his lance through Aelroth's breastplate and breast. Oliver hurls down Faus- seron, " lord of the land of Datban and Abiron." Turpin slays King Corsablyx. Fighting furiously with spear and battle-axe, the Franks for a time seem to be driving back the en- emy. Siglorel, another chief of the heathen, "the enchanter whom Jupiter had led through hell," falls before the charge of the knights. Lances are broken and cast aside. The knights draw their swords ; Oliver, his bright blade Haute- claire; Roland, that famous brand Durandal. They cut their way through the dense masses of the enemy. But the heathens are re-enforced, the Christians are now few in number. Roland thinks it time to wind his horn. But Oliver mocks him with the question : " Wilt thou not lose thy fame in sweet France? Ah, never now shalt thou lie in the arms of Aide, my sister." * But Turpin interposes. *The lady Aide, liere referred to, dies at the news of Roland's death ; aud this is the only love-note in the poem. 36 French Literature. "Nay, sound," says he. "We shall have burial at our friends' hands, and shall not be the spoil of wolves." Then Roland blows till blood starts from his mouth ; and the echo of that dread horn winds through the passes of the mountain and rings above the tempest of wind and the thunder and the grand moans of nature at the hero's death. Charles hears the death-blast, and knows at once that his nephew is in great need. At once he divines Ganelon's treason, and lie hands him over to the cooks and camp-followers to be bound and tormented. But the worn-out remnant of the rear-guard are too hard-pressed to be saved at this late hour. "The black folk, that have nothing white save the teeth," fall on the weary knights in vastly su- perior numbers. Never shall the knights see again "the land of France, that very sweet country." Oliver is wounded to the death by the hand of the Caliph, but cuts him down at the same time. Oliver, whose eyas are dimmed by blood and the nearness of death, strikes out so blindly that he smites Roland on the crest. "My lord companion, do you this of purpose?" asks Roland. "Not so, for I hear thee, but thee not, friend Roland, God help thee," cries Oliver. Roland forgives the blow, and at that word they bow to each other in knightly courtesy. Roland's horse being slain, and he almost exhausted, he gathers the bodies of the peers in a circle around the dying Turpin. The bishop crosses his fair white hands, and cries that they shall all meet soon among the Holy Innocents. Roland now speaks the praise of Oliver over that knight's dead body, and lays himself down on the green grass. He tries to break the blade of his good sword Durandal, lest it fall into the hands of the Saracens. He strikes ten blows on the hard rock, but they fail to snap the steel. Then he cries: " Ah, Durandal, how clear thouart and bright that Lays of the Trouv^res. 37 shinest as the sun. With thee have I conquered lands and domains for Charles of the white beard. Yea, now for thee have I sorrow and heaviness, and would die sooner than see thee in pagan hands. Holv thou art, and lovely; in thy golden hilt is store of relics. How many kingdoms have I taken with thee, wherein Charles now rules." Then, casting down his sword and horn, he throws himself over them on the green grass under a pine. He turns his face to Spain, and many things come into his mind sweet France, and the Barons of his house, and Charles his lord. Weeping and groan- ing heavily at the thought of these, he stretches out to God the glove of his right hand. Saint Gabriel takes it from his grasp. And as his spirit leaves the body, it is borne to Paradise by Saint Michael of the Sea. The poem, however, does not end with this tragic picture. The overthrow of the Saracens and the punishment of Ganelon must be described. The sun stands still for Charles, while the Paynim host, calling on Termagaunt their god, are driven back to Saragossa. In Saragossa Marsile, furious at defeat, beats his image of Apollo and casts the idol of Mahomet into a ditch. At the era of this poem, the Chris- tians evidently had a very vague conception of the religion of Iskim. Next day, the final battle is fought. Charles and his Franks fight all day. " Clear is the moon and flaming are the stars," when Charles marches into Saragossa. There is no obstacle to the army's re- turn this time. But, when the Franks come back to Aachen without Roland, Aide " of the golden hair and the bright face" falls dead at Charles's feet. The grey king, musing alone, says, " My God, how painful is my life !" And so ends the "Geste'' that Turoldus made. It comes nearer to being a great national epic than any poem the French have ever produced since. 88 French Literature. But, being essentially a Frankish lay, it could not wholly win the sympathies of the composite race formed by the blending of Franks with Komanized Kelts and Basques. Yet, Homer's great epics glorified, in the Achai- ans, a ruling aristocratic race with much the same position in relation to other Hellenic races as that held by the Franks towards some at least of the subject races over whom, they held feudal sway. Possibly, had there been no revival of ancient learning in Western Europe, the great Chanson de Roland might have taken somewhat the place in French literature which the Iliad held in that of Hellas. This poem stands almost alone in its spirit of loyalty to the Empire. The other poems relating to Charles and his family manifest that tendency to independence on the part of the great barons which was essentially the temper of feudalism. These lays are very numerous. One of them, Ogier de Danois, would seem by its name to link the Frarik- ish Emperor with the Scandinavians. But modern criticism has traced in the title Danois Ogier's ori- gin from the forest of Ardeene. Hence this pala- din of Charlemagne was not a Dane, but a Frank. In this story the game of chess figures mor prominently than in the Lay of Eoland, for the hostility of Ogier to the Emperor is caused by the killing of his son Caudouin (Baldwin) at a game with the son of Charlemagne who, enraged at being beaten, dashes the heavy chess-board of gold and ivory at his adversary's head. Escaping to Pavia, the offended vassal performs wonderful acts of prowess in the war that ensues between Charles and Didier, King of the Lombards, in whose service he fights his former master. Later, he is once more in the service of Charles, now in sore need of his stalwart arm. The Em- peror has been even forced to yield his son to Oierg's vengeance, which, checked by heavenly in- Lays of the Trouveres. 39 terference, lias taken the mild form of a furious blow with the fist which has rolled the murderer in the dust. Broiefort, the hero's old charger, is brought forward from among the pack-animals of a convent, rejuvenated at sight of his master and the apparel of war, and soon returns from the field with Ogier on his back, victorious over the Saracens. Turold is the name assigned to the author of the Lay of Roland, while Eaimbert of Paris is accred- ited with the authorship of the Lay of Ogier. Turold is placed by scholars in the eleventh cen- tury, and Raimbert in the twelfth. But there are poems of fire and invention, which must have been written in the interval between these lays of Turold and Raimbert. These Chan- sons de Geste are The Crowning of Louis (Le Cou- ronnement de Louis), The Wagon of Nimes (Le Charrois de Nimes}, The Capture of Orange (La Prise d'Oranye), The Vow of Nivien (Le Vceu de Vivien), and the Battle of Aleschans (Le Bataille d 1 Aleschans). These poems all relate to the same hero, Guill- aume of the Short Nose, or, as he is also called, of the Iron Arm ; and their scenes are laid in the time of Louis the Easy-Natured, son- of Charlemagne. Aleschans is JElisei Campi, the cemetery of Aries. Among other famous lays are the Lay of the Lorraines (Chanson des Lorrains), by Jean of Flagy ; Raoul de Cambrai, the author of which is unknown; and the Four Sons of Aymon (Quatre Fils Aymori), by Huon of Villeneuve. "We now reach lays that treat of real events. The Lay of Antioch ( Chansom d'Antioche) is one of these. It was composed by Richard the Pilgrim at the time of the taking of Jerusalem by the cru- saders, and at the end of the twelfth centurv was rewritten by Graindor of Douai. It is regarded as more faithful history than the Latin chronicles of 40 French Literature. the same events by such writers as "William of Tyre. About the same time, the Romance of Alex- ander (Roman d'Alexandre] was produced by Lam- bert the Short, of Chateaudun, and Alexander of Bernai. This lay differed from the earlier lays in two respects : it went to antiquity for its subject, and it was peculiar in the structure of its verse. The elder chanson had employed a loose verse of ten or eleven syllables, with a strong time-beat about the middle of each line. This romaunt em- ployed, with great regularity, the verse of twelve syllables, with the strong time-beat exactly in the middle, so that each run of sounds up to the breath- ing comprised invariably six syllables, or at any rate three distinct time-beats. It was the use of this measure in the Lay of Alexander, which gave rise to the name Alexandrine. The basis alone of this poem is antique, the col- oring is of the age in which it was produced. The manners and the spirit of the age of chivalry are infused into it throughout. The real Alexander would have recognized neither himself nor his surroundings. The lays about Arthur and the Round Table Knights are based on legends the Bretons brought from their island home six centuries before. Wace, the Anglo-Norman, worked them into his Romance of Brute (Roman de Brut). But the Trouvere, Chrestien of Troyes, first gave them really poetic form. His Tristan was written in a verse of eight syllables with alternating rhymes. Aime* of Varennes used the same verse in his Florimont. The taste for marvels and for amorous incidents passed from the lays of the Bretons to those of the Franks. Thus we find the sorceries of Maugis playing a great part in the Four Sons of Aymon ; and the gallantries of Witikind's queen, in Jeaa Borel's Lay of the Saxons. Lays of the Trouvdres. 41 The romance of Parthenope shares this new spirit. The hero, Parthenope of Blois, valiant and lovable, reverses the old myth of Cupid and Psyche : By the light of a lamp he indiscreetly views his unknown mistress, the fairy Melior, Empress of Constantinople ; and loses her by his fatal curiosity. But deep repentance, deeds of prowess, and con- stant devotion win her back to him ; and he ends by reigning openly in that palace into which he had once secretly penetrated. Singularly enough, nearly about the time of the production of this lay, a French-speaking prince, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, did mount the throne of Constantinople, as the first Latin Emperor of the Byzantine empire. Among other highly imagina- tive romances of this kind may be named Flore et Blanche- Fleur, Violette, and the Chastelain de Coucy. A work of far greater interest than any fairy tale in verse was the outcome of the historic inci- dents just rr.ontioned in connection with the lay of Parthenope. Vlns was the first of the Chronicles, the earliest work in French prose. Induced by the Venetians to help them take Zara, the leaders of the fourth Crusade had been prayed while there by young Alexis, son of Isaac II., Emperor of Constantinople, to aid him against his usurping uncle by whom his father had been deposed and blinded. The Crusaders agreed, restored the rightful Emperor, and then failing to get the reward promised by Alexis, returned to Constantinople, seized and sacked the city, and made Baldwin Emperor. This striking and dramatic series of events was witnessed and afterwards related by Geoffrey de Villelmrdouin (1150-1213) in his Conquete de Con- stantinople. This is a work of liigh merit. A mil- itary leader, a man of the world, a negotiator of treaties, he was qualified to record events of which he knew the hidden springs, and of which he had 42 French Literature. seen the stirring and picturesque scenes enacted before him. His account is in keeping with these qualifica- tions. He writes simply, soberly, with force, stat- ing briefly what is of importance and leaving out all that is irrelevant. Not a few single passages, isolated from their context, stand out as complete pictures. Such, for instance, is the account of the negotiations of the Crusaders at Venice to procure transports and to secure the concurrence of the re- public. Such is that which describes the emotion of the Crusaders at the sight of Constantinople, so beautiful and grand a city as it seemed to those simple Western warriors, and so capable of defence. Such is the scene of the re-instatement of the blind Emperor, where the blind old warrior Doge Dan- dolo also figures, a scene vividly described from our old chronicler by the younger Bulwer-Lytton in English verse. So far, we have had before us the serious side of the age of chivalry. There was also a humorous side, in which fables played their part, and in which the true folk-lore multiplied its satirical fancies. Before, however, we turn aside from the Lays, let me mention one charming work of the Trou- veres, which seems to have been born of the de- light felt by its author in the beautiful valleys of Provence, where he lays the scene of his story. This work is Aitcassin et Nicollette, an idyllic song- story, the story being told in prose, with songs in- terspersed through it. Competent scholars regard it as a work of the twelfth century, though the Trouvere who wrote it has caught from his sojourn in the land of the Albigenses a tone of satire in regard to priests and things clerical that was char- acteristic of a later age among his countrymen. Alexandre Bida, philologist and artist, has put it into modern French and daintily illustrated it; and we have it in English under the title, " The Lovers Lays of the Trouv^res. 43 of Provence." It is a fragrant little flower of ro- mance handed down to us through the centuries as fre.sh as when it first bloomed in that wild time. I shall close this chapter with brief mention of some of the Chansons de Geste not yet referred to. Among these are Berthe aux grands pieds by Adenes le Hoi, embodying legends of Charles the Great's mother; Jean de Lanson, Huon de Bor- deaux, Acquin, Aspremont, Fierabras, Otinel, Guy de Bourgogne, Prise de Pampelune, Macaire, Doon de Mayence, Guy de Nanteuil, all relating the ex- ploits of Charles and his Paladins. 44: French Literature. IV. THE FABLIAUX AND THE CHRONICLES. STUDENTS of folk-lore have shown that the "beast-fable" is a common inheritance of the Aryan races ; and it has been ascertained that it has nowhere reached so high a degree of poetical development as among the Franks. They handed down this taste to both the German and the French branches of their race. It is worthy of notice, in passing, that a remark- ably similar series of fables- has existed among the descendents of the Africans brought to this country as slaves, from the time of their importation to the present day. The children of our country are now familiar with many of them through the publica- tion of Harris's Uncle Remus ; but they have for generations been the delight of the young people brought up on our Southern plantations, to whom they were related by the old " rnaumers " in that rich dialect which so admirably brought out their native numor. Reynard the Fox is the chief of these stories, as they existed among the Franks ; and it seems to have first appeared, in the Latin tongue, in the Netherlands. These Latin poems belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries. About the begin- ning of the twelfth century appeared Isengrirnua, of which the wolf is the hero; and, a little later, Reinardus, relating the rogueries of the fox. Both of these works were by Flemish ecclesiastics. A little later still, the fable passed over into German literature. In French literature, it can be traced back only to the beginning of the thirteenth century. But it TJt& Fabliaux and the Chronicles. 45 soon became immensely popular, and great num- bers of poems were devoted to the adventures of Reynard. Through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it formed a favorite vehicle for satire both in France and Germany. The general plan of all these animal-epics is the same. Noble the Lion is emperor or king, with his court, palace, and all the insignia of royalty. Keynard the Fox is a crafty baron dwelling in a castle called Malpertuis. Isengrin the Wolf is his uncle an uncle upon whom he plays off malicious tricks, just as in the comedies scampish nephews were wont to do. Their wives too bear names. The spouse of Reynard is Emmeline, that of Isengrin is Hersent. Church and State are both satirized in these poems, sometimes merrily, sometimes bitterly ; and they are valuable for the light they cast on the social condition of the people in the middle ages. They are mostly written in verses of eight sylla- bles, with rhyming couplets. These " beast-fables " belong to the general class called Fabliaux. This term comprehends a great variety of short metrical tales, intended for recita- tion. They were often of the nature of mock- heroics, but were sometimes serious. One of the rnerry ones, the Vilian Mire, furnished Moliere with the plot of his Hedecin malgrZ lui. Others, also ingenious and witty, are Saint Pierre et le Jongleur, the Trois Bossus, and the Vair Palefroi. The story of this last runs thus: A young knight, courteous, brave, and of fine person, lacking money but possessing an excellent horse or palfrey, has for neighbor an old lord, father of a daughter of great beauty. The two young people have seen and loved each other. The lover in vain asks for the hand of the lady. The father is polite, but in- timates that the aspirant's estate is too slender. The lady counsels her lover to apply to an old un- cle of his, to whom he is sole heir, for aid in satis- 46 French Literature. fying the father. The uncle promises, but woos for himself, and is accepted by the father. The young lover, returning from a tournament, learns the treason only through the request made for his beautiful palfrey, to be used in the procession which is to conduct the bride to the chapel. He sends him, in spite of his grief and anger. Now, the pal- frey was wanted for the bride's especial use. Dur- ing the ride, which takes place before day-dawn, the palfrey turns down a familiar path in the forest, and gallops home before he is missed from the cavalcade. A chaplain is at hand, and the lovers are united before the two old men find their way to the manor-house of the young knight. The author of this graceful little fabliau is Huon le Roy. Other abler composers of fabliaux and contes were Jean de Boves, Henri Piancelle, and Rutebeuf. The taste spread to other lands ; and these metrical tales appeared, sometimes in the form of prose, sometimes in that of verse, in the works of master- spirits. Boccaccio in his Decameron, and Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, drew largely from these old fabliaux. There were also legends of miracles, performed by the saints and especially by the Virgin. One of these, by Gautier de Coinsy, Prior of Yic-sur-Aisme, relates how the Virgin contended and conquered in a tourney under the form of a knight who had been so deeply engaged in performing his orisons in one of her chapels as to let the hour of combat pass by unobserved. During this period, when both the epic lay and the mock-epic fabliau were so enthusiastically cul- tivated, many circumstances concurred to extend and ennoble the French language. The Normans had carried it, a few generations before, to Sicily, Southern Italy, and England. The Crusaders, with leaders like Godfrey of BuiHon, Robert of Nor- mandy, the Sicilian Normans, Bohemond and Tan- The Fabliau's and the Chronicles. 47 cred, Hugh ofVermandois, Louis Phillippe Auguste of France, Richard of England, Baldwin of Flanders, and other French-speaking captains, had carried it in successive generations to the shores of the Levant and to Jerusalem itself. In the East all the nations of the West came to be known for centuries by the comprehensive term of Franks, and the mixed jargon in which all nego- tiations were conducted between Christians and Moslems was called Lingua Franca. While Louis IX. Saint Louis was conducting his disastrous crusades, was protecting the mendicant orders, was trying in every way to bring back the spirit of his age to the ardors and the simple faith of the earlier crusading times, the great love-alle- gory of the Middle Ages was produced. Guilluame of Lorris takes a vast host of abstract qualities, quickens them into life in forms like those of the characters that Buiiyan in a later age peopled his Pilg rim's Progress with, and creates the famous Roman^de la Rose, the great Book of Love for the centuries just before the Renaissance, as Ovid's Art of Love had been for former genera- tions. The work of Guilluame of Lorris was left unfinished, and, forty years later, was continued in a very different tone by Jean of Meung. But, before we note the differences which the last part of the Roman de la Rose, when compared with the first, shows between the spirit, temper, and motive of Jean of Meung and those of his pre- decessor, it will be necessary to mention a remark- able prose work. This is the chronicle of the Sire de Joinville (1222-1318), who accompanied Saint Louis in the first of his expeditions, knew him thoroughly, and loved him as man and as master, lie relates the exploits of his king, recites his con- versations and opinions, opens to us fully that sin- gularly enthusiastic nature crowned monk and yet valiant knight. He does not concur in aJl the views of his master, much as he admires him ; and, 48 French, Literature. when Louis sets out on his second crusade, the good seneschal thinks that his five wounds received at Massora, his captivity of several months, all that he has suffered of hunger, thirst, fever, and the plague, will honorably excuse him from the new enterprise. This chronicle of de Joinville has great merit as a picture of the times and as a lifelike portraiture of one of the most singular characters in history. There are in it, also, vivid descriptions by an eye- witness of most dramatic historical scenes. We hardly leave the period of the Crusades, when we find France greatly changed. Thought had been enlarged by freer intercourse with Eome, by contact with the splendid though effete civiliza- tion of the Byzantine Empire, by a nearer acquain- tance with the then brilliant civilization of the Saracens, by the return of travellers from the mag- nificent empire of the Mogul Khans. The political and social situation had undergone a change at home. The number of petty fief's had been greatly diminished by their sale or merger for the equip- ment of the barons wh'o had gone on the Crusades. The great lords became greater than ever, and held larger courts. The towns had increased their wealth and gained greater municipal privileges. The historian of Civilization in Europe, Guizot, sums up the results of the Crusades in these words : " On the one hand, the extension of ideas and the emancipation of thought ; on the other, a general enlargement of the social sphere, and the opening of a wider field for every sort of activity: they produced, at the same time, more individual freedom and more political unity. They tended to the independence of man and the centralization of society/' It was amid this new order of society that Jean of Meung finished the poem left incomplete by Guillaume of Lorris, Le Roman de la Rose. He did so at the invitation of his king, Philip the The Fabliaux and the Chronicles. 49 Fair, that prince of cunning policy. The whole spirit of the poem was changed in the continuation. From a dreamy and metaphysical allegory of love and the ladies, it became a vast political satire and a social diatribe as well. The bitter poet scourges avarice, idleness and hypocrisy, having an especial grudge against those pests of the age, the mendi- cant monks, "tramps" in the name of religion. The same spirit of hostility to the abuses of the Church, clothed in the same form of allegory, in which all the personages and places are virtues and vices, is exhibited in a renovation of the "beast- fable" by Jacquemart Gelee. This fabliau is enti- tled Renart le Nouvel. Another poet, contemporary with, these, Franqois of Rues, attacks the Pope and the order of the Templars, making Fauvel the Mare the type of luxury and ambition, as Gelee had made Reynard the Fox the type of bad faith. At this time, when poetry in France had degen- erated into violent. satire, disfigured by the uncouth forms of abstract qualities in masquerade, Italy was moving steadily toward a brighter light of learning than the old dark lantern of scholasticism could furnish. A taste had sprung up for the study of the older Latin literature. The Civil Law of the Roman empire, too, had been eagerly studied from the time of the twelfth century. That great Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, had produced his Divina Commedia. There was an awakening be- yond the Alps, which was to bear fruit later all over Europe. But France was destined to pass through the throes of a great agony, before she could find leisure to profit by the new quickening of the human mind. She had now to meet the trials of the Hun- dred Years' "War. These long wars filled up the last half of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries. We have nothing to do here with those shining names, Crecy, Poitiers, Azin- 4 50 French Literature. court ; with the gallant knights, Edward the Black Prince, Sir "Walter de Manny, Gaston de Foix, Ber- trand du Guesclin ; or with that figure, the bright- est and purest, surely, in all history, Jeanne Dare, the Maid of Orleans. Our business is with what came after ; for this time of convulsion was of ne- cessity sterile in literary effort, except for two wit- nesses of phases of the struggle and to some ex- tent partakers in it, Jean Froissart the chronicler, and Eustache Deschamps the poet. Froissart, the son of a painter of escutcheons, was born at Valenciennes in 1337. He was destined for tke Church, and so received a better education than the knights and princes with whom he after- wards lived so much. His passion for poetry, for courtly society, for knightly deeds, took him to other lands, after inciting him to relate such events of the wars of his time as he could find material for. On finishing the first part of his Chronicles, which he began when only twenty years of age, he went to the brilliant court of Edward III. of Eng- land, where he became a great favorite with the Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who made him her secretary. He also visited Scotland, as the guest of King David Bruce. In 1366, he went with the Black Prince to Bordeaux. Later, he accompanied the Duke of Clarence to Italy; and, there, it is be- lieved that he had Chaucer and Petrarca for fellow- guests at the marriage of the duke with the daugh- ter of Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. On Philippa's death, Froissart left England. He was afterwards private secretary to the Duke of Bra- bant, on whose death he p ntered the service of Guy, Count of Blois, and, continuing his Chronicles, made a journey to the court of Gaston Phoebus, Count de Foix, to hear from the Bearnese and Gas- con knights the tales of their feats during the great wars. He made other journeys, especially a visit to the English court of Richard II., where he was nobly welcomed. He died in 1410 at Chimay, The Fabliaux and the Chronicles. 51 where he held a canonry. He was certainly a born narrator, and cannot be surpassed for ease, unaf- fected simplicity, warmth and variety of coloring. " In certain narratives of battle," says Villemain, " Froissart is truly Homeric. One could not describe with greater force the shock of those masses of mail-clad men that dash together. Arrived in the castle of Gaston de Foix, you see there in life-like colors the life of leis- ure, the dainty delights, the festivals: they could not be painted with more grace. Pass with the Chronicler into Spain : the boldness of Henry of Transtamare, the gen- ius of the Black Prince are before you. Come back with him to France : the wisdom of Charles V., his activity, his able and restorative administration, are described with a care and a seriousness which seem for a time to set aside the natural gaiety of Froissart. Great events, familiar anecdotes, characteristics of different nations, English, Flemings, French all are mingled and succeed one another without confusion ; and never are the colors of the historian alike, though he is always unaffected, natural, full of his stibject." His Chronicles were, in the next age, continued by Monstrelet, but in very inferior style. As to the part taken by Froissart, one in these days is apt to imagine, simply because he spoke and wrote in French, that he was unpatriotic in showing more decided sympathy in the great struggle with the kings and nobles of England than with those of France. But, it must be remembered, that those kings were of the house of Anjou, spoke French, and laid claim to the throne of France, having in their veins fully as much of the French blood-rojal as any prince of the house of Valois; that those barons of England were of Norman and Aquitanian descent ; that the English queen, who protected and rewarded Froissart, was like himself a Fleming, as Hainault was then subject to Flan- ders ; and that the Angevin princes ruled by just right of inheritance nianv fair lauds in which French 52 French Literature. was the native tongue, and were followed to battle by many French knights. The struggle was at first a struggle of dynasties, and not of nationalities. It was not till the time of Henry V. that it could be called a conflict between England and France. But Froissart was to the men of his own day something more than a chronicler. He was also a poet, and a voluminous one. He tells the story of his youthful love, which was a devotion after the manner of the Provengal poets, in a lay of some four thousand lines, interspersed with ballades virelays, and rondeaux. The poem is styled Trettie de TEspinette Amoureuse, and is full of all manner of prettinesses. But unreal as it all is, there is in it the noble ideal of faith in honor, virtue, loyalty the belief in love as the great elevator and purifier. So, in the great chronicler, we find also one of the last of the Trouveres, or even of the Troubadours, for both theme and treatment are more in their mood than in that of the poets of the North. There was another poet of this age, who has come down to us with that title, and whose mission it was to sing of those events which Froissart chroni- cled. This was Eustache Deschamps, soldier and magistrate, and hater of the English. His verse has many tones, serious, lofty, tender, satirical. It has also the varying forms of ballade, rondeau, lay. It was in this age, too, when war was desolating the land and was aided in its dread task by the plague called the Black Death and by the frightful atrocities of that rising of the peasants called the Jacquerie, that as a singular contrast the table-song and the vaudeville came first into being. Olivier Basselin improvised such songs for the Norman wine-bibbers two centuries before they appeared in print, modernized somewhat in language, but with the same thoughts and the same rhythm. There is a fine lyrical swing about them, which has given them vitality, and has caused their rhythm to be reproduced in many a modern chant. This old The Fabliaux and the Chronicles. 58 singir of drinking-songs, Olivier Basselin, was not only the father of the modern vaudeville, but that species of composition actually takes its name from him that is, from the name of the region where he composed his songs, the Valley of the Vire, for the vaudeville was originally called Vau-de- Vire. Under Charles V. of France, who encouraged the study of the classics, there were three authors deserving at least brief mention. These were Christine de Pisan, one of the most learned women of her age; Jean Gerson, the ecclesiastic once believed to have been the true Thomas a Kempis; and Alain Char tier, poet and patriot. Christine wrote the life of Charles V., under the title, Livre des fails et bonnes moeurs du roi Charles V. Gerson, besides a vast number of Latin works which he composed in his numerous controversies, wrote in French some strong remonstrances to King Charles in behalf of the University, of which he was Chancellor. Alain Chartier, a short time after the fatal battle of Agincourt, wrote his Livre des quatre Dames, a poem in which he takes occa- sion to reproach those who fled from that lost field. His most striking work is his Quadriloye invectif^ a patriatic manifesto, put forth between the defeat at Agincourt and the deliverance of Orleans by the Maiden. It is a noble appeal, full of hope and en- couragement. It was Jeanne Dare who answered it in the name of France and of the God, who, as she firmly believed, sent her to lead the armies of France ; and, though she perished herself, she saved her beloved France. The old lays of exploits had now passed away with the decay of chivalry. The latest of them were two poems, one of them reciting the adven- tures of a purely imaginary hero, Baldwin of Sebourg, whom the Trouvere invents as a scion of the house of the Counts of Flanders ; the other, written by Cuvelier, a short time after the death of 54: French Literature. Du Guesclin, and narrating the history of that Breton hero. A little later, we find the heroic lays transformed into prose romances, and the fabliaux into prose novels. Among these latter was the famous col- lection, called the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles, some tales of which and these among the most licentious are ascribed to the Dauphin, who afterwards mounted the throne as Louis XI. But the most remarkable literary productions, perhaps, of this age were the fiery sermons of the popular preachers, Olivier Maillard and Michel Menot, both of them Franciscan friars. They used familiar comparisons, popular proverbs, piquant al- lusions to passing events, biting personalities, satir- ical anecdotes and fables; apostrophized with with- ering irony and startling vehemence great Church dignitaries; attacked the great lords and ladies; and even rebuked the king. Besides this dramatic preaching, stirring the peo- ple to repentance Wickliffe in England and IIuss in Bohemia had just preceded Menot and Maillard, and Savonarola in Italy was their contemporary the Church was authorizing at this time the per- formance of those Mystery and Miracle plays, of which in our times the Ober-Ammergau Passion- play is a solitary survival. A celebrated fraternity, called the Confrerie de la Passion, founded in Paris in 1350, had the mo- nopoly for the performance of these. They were very long and occupied, each of them, several days. The most celebrated of them, the Mystery of the Passion, contains more than sixty thousand verses, and its representation took up several weeks. The brothers Grebau and Jean Michel of Angers were the most notable composers of these religious dramas. Serious at first, these performances after a time degenerated ; and farce and ribaldry were mingled with them, until by the middle of the sixteenth The Fabliaux and the Chronicles. 55 century they fell into great disrepute. They were at last prohibited, as a public scandal, by the Parle- ment of Paris in 1548. Meanwhile, however, that taste for allegory, which had shown itself so prodigally in the Romance of the Rose, also ventured upon the stage, and the en- tertainment given by the Mystery Plays was some- times varied by the performance of Morality Plays, in which the virtues and vices took the place of the Biblical characters. The fabliaux also invaded the stage, being there transformed into farces, very licentious for the most part. Some that were comparatively free from such grossnesses as disfigured the majority, were still immoral in their tone, as setting forth the triumph of roguery. They are, however, amusing ; and the most famous of them, Maitre Pathelin, is really a masterpiece of its kind. Besides this purely popular literature, we find on the eve of the Renaissance three writers of greater literary pretensions, one of them, however, as pop- ular as the preachers and the composers of Mystery Plays. Fran9ois Villon is the immediate successor of the author of Pathelin. Charles d'Orldans is the representative of the old poetry of chivalry. Phillippe de Comines is the real successor of Frois- sart, whose spirit Monstrelet could not reproduce. Charles d'Orle'ans, the near kinsmen of Louis XI., and himself the father of a king, though cru- elly used by that wily and wicked prince who is so vividly painted for us in the Quentin Dumvard of Sir Walter Scott, is an isolated flower of tender and exalted sentiment. He does not belong to his age, but to the elder times, and he is in his nature almost a twin- brother of that good King Eene, the last of the independent Dukes of Anjou and the last of the Proven9al poets, whom Scott describes for us in his Au^e of Geierstein. Indeed, these princes resemble each other, not only in their pas- sion for poetry anota(/e is much better than your psalms;" Bertaut, who survives in virtue of two short but exquisite pas- sages of sweet melancholy. Desportes would not have come down to posterity, had his fame de- pended upon those psalms of which Malherbe spoke so slightingly. It was to his earlier pieces, his love-songs, that he owed his reputation; and Henri de Guise was humming one of them but a short time before he fell at Blois under the dagger of the Valois prince. Of Bertaut's little pearls, one, though bright, is so small that it may well be strung here: " Felicite passee Qui ne peux revenir, Tourraent de ma pens^e, Que n'ai-je en te perdant perdu le souvenir!" Sainte-Beuve says of this, that the mothers of his generation knew it still and sang it. Gamier, the dramatist, though of some merit, has had the same fate of remaining little more than a name on the roll-call of French poets. Another of the same school was the Norman, Yauquelin de la Fresnaye, a pastoral poet of some grace and delicacy, a satirist and imitator of Hor- ace's moral epistles of some seriousness and eleva- tion of tone. This group of would-be reformers, with Ronsard at their head, though over-doing their work, were a benefit to the literature and especially the poetry of France. The minds of richest culture, whose The Renaissance. f*9 store of Greek and Latin made them inclined to despair of expressing themselves in the rude mother-tongue, were encouraged by the popularity of Ronsard and his fellows to engage in the task of polishing it. Such an c&ort could not fail in the end to enrich and ennoble the language. French Literature, VI. FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO RICHELIEU. THE massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day was the most violent feature of a struggle, partly political and partly religious, which made France a battle- field for more than a quarter of a century. Torn by contending factions, amid the horrors of a dynastic and religious war, she was retarded in her development, and, in the end, was stripped of many of the best elements of national prosperity. It was the news of this horrible massacre which crushed the last hope for his country of her ablest and most impartial statesman, the Chancellor, Michel de 1'Hopital. It was his firm opposition to the scheme of the Cardinal de' Lorraine for the es- tablishment of the Inquisition in France that alone saved his country from that curse. The States- General had not met for eighty years. Eelying on the support of the moderate Catholics, the Chan- cellor convoked that body, and addressed it in a discourse which deserves to hold a conspicuous place in the literature of his country as a model of eloquence, of equity, and of statesmanlike pru- dence. He declares there the great principle that religious belief cannot be coerced by force, but must be won by persuasion. "Gentleness," said he, " will avail more than rigor. Let us do away with those diabolical words names of party, fac- tion, and sedition Lutherans, Huguenots, Papists. Let us not change our name of Christians." After his retirement to his manor of Vignay, when the civil war had broken out, he addressed to the king a remarkable memoir, in which he warmly pleaded the cause of the Reformed, and showed that From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 71 the only remedy for the evils that threatened the State, was to satisfy the rightful claims of a party too strong for the royalists to hope to destroy it. Geruzez closes his account of the life and labors of this eminent man, after large citations from his able state- papers, with these words: "His high intelligence and the purity of his heart put him, not outside, but above the parties of his time; the firmness of his character kept him there. The law of the Athenians against those citizens who held aloof from the conflict of parties would not have reached him. As long as it was possible, he remained in the arena and gave it law. Too clear of vision, too virtuous, to follow any of the banners spread abroad by the factions, he raised his own, and around that flag he called all that were right-minded, all that had hearts devoted to the pub- lic welfare. He knew how to consummate the alliance of politics and morals. He displayed the ability of a statesman, without ever having recourse to perfidy. He was altogether calm and inflexible." L' Hopital had stood up, in the heat of the con- test between mutually hating factions, impartial and independent. There were others, whom the heated atmosphere of conflict affected with as strong a disgust for the violence of extremes, but who did not, like the Chancellor, stand in the breach. Their mission was to philosophize, since they did not find a field in which to act. Of this number was Mon- taigne's friend, fitienne de la Boetie, formed by his studies of Greek and Roman literature into an en- thusiastic republican. His doctrines were set forth in his discourse De la Servitude volontaire, a very youthful but impassioned and eloquent rhapsody in the cause of liberty. By the side of La Boetie in this labor of love, though of an earlier day, was Jacques Amyot, whose share in the task of kindling the passion for freedom was the translation of Plutarch. Both La Boetie and Michel de Montaigne imbibed not a lit- 72 French Literature. tie of their love for antiquity from Amyot. How much Montaigne admired him may be seen from his express declaration : " I give the palm to Jacques Amyot above all the writers of his time for fresh- ness and purity of language." Montaigne himself is the prince of doubters, op- posing to the fanaticisms of his time a steady front of calm, good-natured questioning. The old Gascon country-gentleman is to this day a favorite with men who know and care nothing abouth the disor- ders of his time against which his half-pagan phi- losophy was reasoned out to fortify his own spirit. What is the secret of his charm ? Bulwer-Lytton says, that it is his admirable knowledge of the world, his knowledge of the human heart and of his own heart. Others say, it is his easy, good- natured, familiar tone, taking the reader, as it were, into his confidence, and making him feel almost as if he were holding conference with himself, all his wisdom being what Blackstone describes the Com- mon-Law to be, " the perfection of common-sense." Others say, it is the Horatian mixture of sound sense and sprightly wit and honest sentiment, nei- ther too high nor too low for the better sort of mankind. Perhaps it is all these, and the added fact that he has stamped his individuality so strongly upon his Essays, that we feel that we know him better than we do many with whom we are thrown almost daily. It is his style, his clear, fresh, nat- ural style, that has done this. He really has noth- ing to tell us, that we do not know already, and better than he or any man of his century could know it. But the inimitable manner in which he says what he has to say, is the charm by which he holds us. It is just the same with Horace. No revolution of taste, no new discoveries can put these men out of their rightful place among the small se- lect band loved in every age by the reflective class of readers as personal friends. To his free discursive style the language owes a From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 73 great debt. Had he been merely a devotee of the classics, like Ronsard, or had he been as utterly lawless in the use of provincialisms and the Aris- tophanic coinage of new words, as was Rabelais, he might have contributed far less to the language. But his judicious importation of new terms, by good derivation from the Latin, was in the main accepted by his contemporaries and his successors. Le Clerc gives words so common as gratitude, enfantillaye, diversion, and enjoue, as among the very many in- troduced by Montaigne. Several of those named by Le Clerc as not ultimately received into the language, have become good English. Such are condiment, equanimite, improvidence, inanite. A story is told by his contemporary, fitienne Pasquier, in one of his letters, which illustrates the confidence Montaigne had in the excellence of his French, however sprinkled it might be with oc- casional Gasconisras. The two friends were walk- ing together in the court of the Chateau de Blois, during the session there of the States-General in 1588, when during their talk on literary matters Pasquier observed that there was many a trace of Gascon speech in the Essays. " As he would not believe me," says Pasquier, " I took him to my room, where I had his book, and there pointed out to him many words which are familiar, not to Frenchmen, but only to Gascons, as un patenostre, un debte, un recontre; and such phrases asces ouvrages sentent a Vhuile or a la lampe. Especially I showed him that he used the word jouir altogether after the fashion of Gascony, and not according to the practice of our Frencn tongue, as la santt que je j'ouis jusques d present, Tamitie est jmiie a mesure qu'elle est desiree, la vraie solitude sepeut jouir au milieu des villes, &c. Many other phrases did I point out to him, not only with regard to this word, but to many others also. And I imagined that he would order all these things to be corrected in the next then forthcoming edition of his book. But 74 French Literature. not only did he do nothing of the sort, but when it came to pass that he was overtaken by death, his adopted daughter caused everything to be printed exactly as it stood, and in her preliminary letter told us that his widow had sent her the MS. in the condition in which he had intended that it should appear." Excellent adopted daughter ! She certainly under- stood Montaigne much better than did his worthy but somewhat pedantic friend. Montaigne was proud of being a Gascon, and liked to keep the Gascon flavor about his French. The purists would take all destinctive flavors out of every noble and highly individual style, if they could have their way. But the greatest merit of Montaigne a merit which he shares with the Chancellor de 1'Hopital was the spirit of tolerance. Toleration of the opinions of others was the key-note of his whole system of thought. It is an amazing fact in the history of that age of bitter intolerance that two such men as the Chancellor and the Gascon philoso- pher should have been able to keep their rninds so pure from all taint of this most contagious of dis- eases. That they did so uniformly and courageously is more to their credit than any other excellence that can be found in the career or the writings of either of them. Like de 1'Hopital, Montaigne's place in the dissensions of his time was that of mediator between the contending parties, and he kept up friendly relations with men of all creeds. That he was unable to keep that impartially inquir- ing tendency of his mind, which expressed itself in his favorite motto, Que sais-je? , out of the sphere of religious dogma, is certain. But he was far from being a professed unbeliever, and died in the act of painfully raising himself in bed to receive the last rites of his Church. It remains to make some brief mention of his personal history. He was of English extraction, From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 75 which may account for that tinge of humor, which is so unlike anything French, that pervades his es- says. His real family name was Eyquem, the surname, de Montaigne, being taken from the little manor of Montaigne in the department of the Dordogne, which he inherited. His father, whose memory he greatly revered and of whom he speaks as often and as fondly as Horace does of his, brought him up very carefully, having special instructors for him, and suffering him to speak only Latin from his earliest years. One of his masters was the famous scholar, George Buchanan. He received in 1554 the appointment of Counsellor to the Parliament of Bordeaux, and was in the reigns of Francis II. and Charles IX. a follower of the court in several cities. But, having in 1570 succeeded to his inheritance, he gave up his appointment, retired to his chateau, and devoted himself to his books and his writings, varying this occupation by travels for his health in Germany and Italy, where he studied men and manners. Twice serving as Mayor of Bordeaux, after his return from his travels, he continued to write his Essays of which five editions were pub- lished during his lifetime until his death in 1592, in the sixtieth year of his age. We have already seen something of Pasquier, in his interview with Montaigne at Blois. He was a friend worthy of the sincere and thoughtful Gascon gentleman. His studies in the early history of his country were made to bear fruit in his Recherches ; and his Lettres, from which the passage lately quoted was taken, are still of value as containing the testimony of an acute and observing witness on many important facts in the history of his times. He bore no ignoble part in the events of a period in which there were so many ignoble characters and so many unworthy deeds. He deserves credit, too, for raising his voice, along with the President Claude Fauchet, against the universal depreciation 76 French Literature. of the older literature of the country, of which Ron- sard had set the fashion. A man of considerable learning and member of a family of famous printers and publishers, Henri Estienne, took just the opposite course in his Apol- ogie pour Herodole. He wrote, besides, two works still read by philologists, his Precellence du Lan- gage francais, and the Dialogues du frangais ital- ianise. His father published the French Bible of 1545. Among the writers of the sixteenth century must also be mentioned Jean Bodin, the author of the Republique, and Charron, the author of the Sagesse. As both these writers were mere imitators, any de- tailed criticism of them would be waste of time. It is quite otherwise with Francois de La None, the hardy and able soldier, the soul of honor,, be- loved by the Huguenots and respected by the Cath- olics, who called him the '"Protestant Bayard." His impartial spirit and love of justice are as man- ifest in his Discours politiques et militaires, com- posed during his five years' imprisonment, as in his conduct through the course of a most eventful life. Nervous, energetic, and rhetorical in his style, like De 1'Hopital, he resembles him also in his thought. Both were just and high-minded men, though of different creeds. Opposed to La Noue, we have the equally gallant soldier, the equally able narrator, but bitter Cath- olic leader, Blaise de Montluc, of whose Commen- taires Henri of Navarre, Huguenot chief as he was, said, that it was la Bible des capitaines. The religious and dynastic wars of this period were accompanied by furious party pamphlets and by the atrocious sermons of the preachers of the League, inciting to assassination men, at a later day, disavowed with horror by Bossuet, in the name of the Church. These rancorous productions of party-spirit were scathingly rebuked by the famous Satyre Menippee, a work composed by a number of From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 77 writers, at the head of whom were the canons, Pierre Le Boy and Claude Gillot. During that con- ference in which Henri IV. went through the form of conversion from the Huguenot faith to the Cath- olic, in the year 1593, these canons, with Florent Chrestien, Nicolas Rapin, the learned Passerat, and the profound jurisconsult, Pierre Pithou, sot about their congenial task of confounding the extremists. It is by a comedy in which the bitter Swiftian irony plays the greatest part, that they accomplish their object, of laughing down the zealots. At the same time that these satirists were utter- ing their eloquent prose, there came forward an- other satirist, the poet Mathurin Regnier. He, however, attacked the manners and morals of the time, without meddling with affairs of State. With fine passages, and abounding in clearly drawn and vigorous pictures, choice in his language, though capricious and irregular in the movement of his thought, he is a powerful but unequal poet. To the same period belongs Malherbe, whom French critics exalt as a master in good taste and as rather a moulder of French verse into careful propriety than as a profound thinker or an impas- sioned singer. The ode to Marie de Medici s on the happy success of her regency is signalized as the most finished of Malherbe's works. He was more critic than poet, and had pupils to whom he gave oral lessons in the art of poetry, among them Honorat cle Bueil, Marquis de Racan, and the Pres- ident Maynard. Boileau and La Fontaine, in the next age, give high praise to Malherbe and Racau. Demogeot, after commenting on their faults, sums up his criticism by declaring their merits. "Mal- herbe," he says, "introduced into the loftier class of literary work the element of truth, Maynard dexterity (finesse], Racan grace and sentiment." The interminably drawn-out pastoral of Honore* d'Urfe, the Astree, imitated from the Diana of Montemayor, so immensely popular in that age 78 French Literature. and long after, brought into vogue the affected and highly sophisticated shepherds and shepherdesses, that held so large a place in the literature, first of Italy and Spain, and then of both France and Eng- land. Racan followed this lead in his Bergeries, but without attaining the success, or indeed the merit, of d'Urfe. A pastoral drama, such as the Beryeries, by putting into action on the stage the unrealities of conventional shepherds, naturally brought out in strong relief the absurdity of the whole conception. Yet there are in this long- winded, five-act play some fine lines of true poetry, breathing a heartfelt love of the country. Maynard had a more nervous and pointed style, and, disappointed in his hopes of court-favor, launched one sonnet at Eichelieu which is so good as to be numbered among the few that rank as really excellent. Among the wild poets of the court, who, like Maynard, produced some immodest pieces, was one, who was so imprudent as to make enemies of men capable of making his sins against morality a pre- text for persecuting him. This was The'ophile Viaud. For a collection, called the Parnasse satirique to which Maynard was one of the con- tributors Yiaud was burned in effigy on the Place de Grre~ve. In his prison, however, he wrote de- fenses of himself, which give him high rank as a prose writer. As a poet, and especially as author of the tragedy of Pyrame et Thisbe, he falls into the vices of Spanish hyperbole and Italian con- ceits. We reach now a writer, whose influence upon French prose has been very great. Balzac has been called the Malherbe of prose; but he was something more than this. It is true that he laid great stress on cadence, on har- mony, on purity of style, on choice and propriety of diction, on pleasing the ear while enlightening the mind. But he was also capable of lofty and no- From the Renaissance to Richelieu. < 9 ble thought. Still, he did not possess a sufficiently powerful mind, with force and compass of thought and unity of design enough, to round and complete a master- work. Tiiere is no big heart behind that bright intelligence of his, to concentrate its rajs and flash them into a steady stream of light or warm them into a burning fire. Yet there is fine and glowing rhetoric, especially in the Socrate chre- l>' n, and strong polemical argument in the Entre- tiens a Menandre. His great merit, indeed, is rhetorical skill; and the language owes him much in point of style. It is also his fault, as with Dry- den and Macaulay among English writers, for Dry- den's prose is like Macaulay's in respect to this same monotony of brilliant and pointed finish. In Guez de Balzac we have the note-mark of the polish of the seventeenth century. At the close of the century was to form, like mutually attracted atoms that move into crystallized shape, that clus- ter of men of genius which constituted the golden age of French literature. Balzac is therefore a no- table figure of the period. He is, moreover, as Geruzez says, the link and the mediator between the hotel Rambouillet and the Academic francaise. Madame de Rambouillet, the " Arthenice " x)f that affected coterie, whose pedantries were so easily caricatured by Moliere, and whose influence was yet so wholesome in removing filthy conversation from the language of society, looked up to Balzac as to an oracle. Equally was he so .regarded by Richelieu's newly-founded Society of the Learned. The dainty marquise and her friends, the fine ladies called les Precieuses, shunning the camp-vul- garized court of Henri IY., in their efforts to main- tain a pure-thinking and pure-speaking society, did succeed in giving elegance, delicacy, arid grace to the spoken tongue. They even did some service to morals in forcing vice, out of a new-born shame, to pay virtue the homage of abstaining from ex- pressing itself openly. 80 French Literature. The first glory of the Hotel Ramlouillet began with the mother of the charming marquise, Julie Savelli, wife of the Marquis Jean de Vivonne, Ital- ian by birth, and the child of a higher civilization in point of manners than France had yet reached. Her daughter, Catherine de Yivonne, who became the Marquise de Eambouillet, inherited the winning Florentine sparkle of the mother and the peculiar sweetness of the southern manner. She was well versed, too, in the rich literatures of Italy and Spain. Demogeot, in citing the testimony of Talle- mant des Eeaux to the charms of this queen of society, remarks that Tallemant can find only one fault iu her, and that is an excessive delicacy in language ; to which he adds : " And when one reads Tallemant, one cannot help recognizing the fact that this ' fault ' is but one virtue the more." Her influence on literature, however, aside from her high regard for decency in thought and lan- guage, was not good. Her preferences for foreign models tended to encourage bad taste, the artificial Marini being then the guiding star in Italian litera- ture, and equally dangerous models in another direction attracting French imitators towards Span- ish literature. Inflated language was the mark of weakness borne by the Spanish ; perpetual effort at wit and point, that exhibited by the Italian. The most brilliant period of the Hotel Eam- bouillet was from the death' of Malherbe to that of Voiture from 1628 to 1648. It owed much of its fame to the wit and grace of one of the Marquise's daughters, the celebrated Julie d'Angennes. Around the brilliant mother and daughter were gathered at those famous sessions, called the ruelles in that day as later they were called salons, a daz- zling band of women, fair and witty and high-born. There were the Princesse de Conde, the last of Henri IV.'s passions, that witty Charlotte de Mont- morency, whose husband had to hurry her away from the fascinated eyes of the old Bearnesej From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 81 Mademoiselle du Vigeau, the great Condi's first love ; Mademoiselle de Bourbon, afterwards the famous Madame de Longueville ; Richelieu's niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon ; that mistress of cookery as well as of gallantry, the Marquise de Sable; Madame de la Vergne ; the Corntesse de Fiesque ; the Comtesse de Saint-Martin ; the Duchesse de Chevreuse ; the young and brilliant Marquise de Sevigne ; the Comtesse de Maure ; and that tawny- tressed Mademoiselle Paulet, whose locks and leonine spirit won her the sobriquet of " Lioness." Quite as select were the masculine visitors, includ- ing the Condes, the Contis, the La Rochefoucaulds, the Bussys, the Grammonts, to whom were added such literary men as Chapelain, Conrart, Cotin, Pelisson, Segrais, Benserade, and, in the later days, Corneille himself. In paying his court to the "adorable Julie," Montausier devised a graceful tribute, which brought all the poets together in an act of homage to the young lady of the house of Rambouillet. On the 1st of January, 1641, she found on her toilette, in waking up, deux cahiers de velin, exactly alike, each leaf of which contained a picture of a lovely flower, painted in, miniature by Robert, and under it a madrigal composed by one of the poets. Chapelain, Godeau, Colletat, Scudery, Desmarest, and Corneille were among the nineteen who wrote the verses for the twenty-nine flowers of this Guir- lande de Julie. This delicate and intellectual style of compliment was characteristic of the whole order of intercourse between the sexes in that elegant mansion. The lofty spirit and noble sentiments of Corneille's heroes and heroines were born there ; the fine lan- guage and even its over-strained stateliness, were born there, too. But no man can be monk, or woman nun, with- out narrowing the whole nature ; no society can isolate itself without suffering the penalty of be- 82 French Literature. coming conventional in its ideas and frivolous in its productions. This fate came to the Rambouillet circle ; and the affectations it fell into were of course greatly exaggerated by the circles that imi- tated it, especially those in the provinces. It was the absurdities of these imitators that Molire after- wards ridiculed in his Precieuses ridicules. The real Precieuses may be said to have disbanded when Julie followed her husband, the Due de Mon- tausier, in 1648, to his governorship of Saintonge. It was also the date of Vincent Yoiture's death. Voiture had been the special mouth-piece, in prose and in verse, of this spirited little society of purists. Euphuist in grain, he lavishes his wit in prodigal display, playing with, words and ideas alike, seeking far-fetched congruities and contrasts, jesting and trifling pleasantly, sometimes with really charming fancy, and yet not making too much of his diverting trifles. He was, however, something more than a mere literary man, for, with true political foresight, he was among the first to appre- ciate the policy of Eichelieu, and early became his staunch supporter. A friend of Voiture's and a writer in the same light and pleasant vein, was Sarrasin, the author of the Testament de Goulu, the Ballade d*Eulever, the Ode sur la lataille de Lens. He was capable of stronger things, and won fame as a good prose writer in his Siege de Dunkerque. But Sarrasin belonged to the circle of Mademoiselle de Scudery, which was a sort of subdivision of that of the Hotel Ram- bouillet, almost a secession from it, mere authors being covertly a little laughed at by the great lady who presided there. But when we have reached Balzac, the Marquise de Rambouillet, Mademoiselle de Scudery, Yoiture, and Sarrasin, we have fairly touched upon the beginning of Eichelieu's influence in the literary sphere ; and this influence, with its far-reaching effects, must give us a new starting point. From the Renaissance to Richelieu. 83 One valuable part, however, of tlie literature of Henri IV.'s time must be mentioned, before we take up the writers of Richelieu's period. To the beginning of the seventeenth century must be as- signed those instructive and entertaining memoirs of men who took part in the affairs of the troubled period which coincides in the main with the closing years of the sixteenth century ; and who have so admirably painted for us the manners, opinions, style, and minute historical details of their time. The best of these memoirs are those of that bitter partisan of the League, the Vicomte Jean de Ta- vannes ; those of Henri IV.'s great minister, Maxi- milien de Bethune, Marquis de Rosny and Due de Sully; those of Henri's tutor, Pierre Palma Cayet; those of Pierre de Lestoile ; those of Henri's first wife, Marguerite of France ; those of the staunch Huguenot captains, Agrippa d'Aubigne' and Du Plessis-Mornay, the " Pope of the Huguenots." To these must be added the memoirs of Brantome, the greatest anecdote-teller of them all, the most amus- ing, and personally the least worthy. Matthieu, too, should be mentioned, as the author of several histories of events in his own times. All of these writers are grouped, in one way or another, about the person of Henri of Navarre. De Thou, who belongs to the same time, and whose History has great qualities, unfortunately wrote in Latin, and has therefore no claim to a place in French litera- ture. Among the other memoirs of from 1555 to 1650, are those of Guillaume de Saulx-Tavannes, Antoine des Puget, Jean de Mergey, Philippe Hurault, Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Boivin du Villars, Charles de Valois, and Nicolas de Neufville. They furnish ample material for the thorough study of their period, and contribute largely to the making up of a true history of France. Demogeot warmly praises the style and matter of Du Plessis-Moruay. 84 French Literature. " The language of Mornay," he says, " resembles his costume : it is still d la Coligny. It is the old language of the 16th century with its archaisms and its labored constructions. But all the energy, all the masculine pride of his soul flashes forth every moment from the cloud. His style is admirable in firmness and nobleness. Deeply read and learned, with the sap of antiquity quickening his intellect, made wiser to understand the past by his experience in affairs, the vigor of his discourse recalls that of the speeches in Thucydides. Writer and soldier, his written thought shines and smites like a sword." From Rididied, U\ Louis XIV. VII. FBOM RICHELIEU TO LOUIS XTV. THE taste for poetry which led Maecenas to per- ;->etrate bad verses did not, fortunately, expend itself solely in that direction. The same propensity in the great statesman who ruled France for so many years during a most critical period, was also allied to a happy appreciation of the importance of linking his career with the names and works of great men of letters. It was his misfortune that he was not al- ways able to distinguish between mere men of let- ters and men of genius. Still, his influence on French literature was beneficial. The establish- ment of the Academic Francaise, for the mainte- nance of the purity' of the language and the eleva- tion of literary men to an order in the State, was one of the most remarkable of the Cardinal de Richelieu's achievements. To this glory, he added another. This was the stimulus his patronage gave to the dramatic art. Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, made bishop of Lugon by Henri IV., first attracted attention to his genius for affairs by the very able speech which he made as the representative of the clergy at the meeting of the States-General in 1614. The court became eager to secure the services of such a man. Attached to the service of the queen, Marie de Medici, he remained at court until the fall of the Concini ministry. In his retirement from public affairs, which lasted for seven years, he produced a number of theological works, of no extraordinary merit. The queen-mother, resum- ing her influence at court, Richelieu was raised to the dignity of Cardinal and became Prime Minister. 815 French Literature* The great work which he accomplished of unifying France, of strengthening the monarchy into actual absolutism, and of making his country the greatest power in Europe, we have nothing to do with here. It is only of his share in the literary progress of France that I shall speak. Of his own works, the cor- respondence, and the accounts of his administration entitled the Succincte narration des (jrandes actions du roi, and the Testament politiqug, are all stamped with the seal of his great political and administra- tive genius. His Memoires, though full of tedious passages and displays of bad taste, have great value as material for history. The work of ruling a great state and carrying on difficult negotiations with foreign powers was not enough for his active spirit ; even the added task of compiling memoirs did not fill all his leisure. He found time for attempts at purely literary work. " What do you think I take the greatest pleasure in doing?" he asked one day of Bois-Eobert. " Monseigneur," was the courtier's reply, "it is in making the happiness of France." " Not at all," said the Cardinal, " it is in making verses." He loved to invent plots for plays, which he would put into the hands of his poets to be worked out. Sometimes he would furnish whole scenes, sometimes a number of lines. His poets, Bois- Robert, Colletet, L'Etoile, Eotron, and Corneille, were known by the name of The Cardinal's Brigade. He cut out their work for them, assigning an act to each. Pelisson tells us that Mirame, which ap- peared as the work of Des Marets, was wholly the Cardinal's. He had built, expressly for its repre- sentation, a magnificent hall in the Palais-Cardinal. The same authority assures us that he wrote no less than five hundred verses of the Grande Pas- torale. The numerous tragedies and pastorals put upon the stage of the Hdtel Marais by that rapid impro- viser of plays, Alexandre Hardy he wrote over From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 87 six hundred had kept tlie taste of the public for these entertainments from flagging, and had also trained actors who were to be fit instruments for expressing the genius of Corneille. Theophile de Yiau, Racan, De Bourron, Bore'e, De La Croix, Pichou, Du Cros, Rayssiguier, Gom- bault, and Mairet, followed with various pieces which made the theatre still more popular and at the same time elevated the taste of the public. Still, there was among scholars a felt want of order and law in the French drama, and it was largely this demand for authority over the new develop- ment of literature which led to the founding of the Academic Franraise. Ch apelain was foremost among these reformers. He strongly represented to Riche- lieu the necessity for the observance of the three unities of time, place, and action, laid down by Aristotle. Richelieu was delighted with the coun- sel, gave Chapelain full authority over his poets, and promised him a pension of a thousand crowns as dramatic critic. Mairet wrote his Sophonisbe in accordance with this regulation. It was the first play in the French classic style. There was a warm but short struggle between the favorers of the free drama, such as Spain and England recognized, and the regulated drama, which became the form respected by the great mas- ters of the French theatre. The public, the actors, and most of the authors preferred the free drama. But the Cardinal was too strong for them. On the very eve of great public affairs, in 1635, when France was about to engage in the Thirty Years' War, shutting himself up with his Brigade, the five poets, Richelieu dictated his plots to them, and set them to work. Colletet especially worked to his liking; but he was dissatisfied with Corneille, and withdrew his favor from him. Des Marets took his place. One of Des Marets' pieces, the Vision- naires, long held the reputation of being the finest comedy in the language. 88 French Literature. But the withdrawal of the Cardinal's favor from Corneille was the emancipation of a great poet. He could never have produced his grand works under the tutelage of another. Pierre Corneille was born at Eouen in 1606. His father being an advocate, he was intended for the same profession ; but the bent of his genius drove him to dramatic composition. His earlier pieces, Mlite, performed with success in 1629, Clitandre, La Veuve, La G-alerie du Palais, La Suivante, and La Place Royale, secured him popular favor, but gave little indication of his really great qualities. Neither did the ftfedee, written in imitation of Seneca, reveal his true power. Meanwhile, he had earned Kichelieu's ill-will by his audacity, it is said, in altering the plan of a comedy which the Cardinal had suggested to him. Giving his attention to the study of Spanish litera- ture, he now produced the Cid, and enjoyed his first great triumph. The public were wholly unprepared for this intensity of passion, this outburst of thril- ling poetry. There was an eager enthusiasm kindled for the poet's new creations, and Chimene and Eodrigue seized the hearts of all as if by storm. The impassioned love of the South, which is so sweet and fresh and always young the same that charms us in Romeo and Juliet ; heroic sentiment, worthy of Spain's chivalry ; tragic woe that wrings the heart, stirred every soul and forced the convic- tion on the nation that a great poet had arisen for France. But the triumph of the poet did not deliver him from the envy of Eichelieu. Chapelain was detailed to draw up a damnatory criticism which the reluctant Academy was to be induced to publish as its own decision. Mairet and Scuderi were arrayed against the offending poet. But Chapelain, who is chiefly memorable as having butchered poor Jeanne Dare over again in his La Pucelle, was not the man to stand before a giant like Corneille, now that he wag From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 89 beginning to know himself. Nor was Scude'ri, whose fatal facility was of the sort that Horace laughs at in a poet of his day, and whose Lyyda- mon and U Amour tyrannique and Alaric, and other such improvisations have long since been dead, if indeed they can be said to have ever lived. Nor was Mairet, though there was some merit in that Sophonisbe, which the Cid had cast into the shade. The GUI appeared in 1636, and, in spite of the jealousy of Richelieu's poets and the enforced cold- ness of the Academy, was soon so popular with the public, that "beautiful as the Cid" became a proverb. His detractors having accused him of plagiarizing the best parts of the Cid from Guillem de Castro, Corneille now set himself the task of writing his Horace, on the hint furnished by Livy's brief story of the Horatii and Curiatii, no dramatist having yet made use of the legend. By some French critics Horace is regarded as the most vigorous and -the most original effort of Cor- neille's genius. The characters of Sabine and Camille are as finely contrasted in this play as those of Horace and Curiace, and the situations are very moving, while the whole action of the piece is powerfully wrought out. But the elder Horace is as vigorously drawn as any of the characters brought into immediate action, and the famous qii'il mourutf the words regarded as of highest sublimity in the whole range of French literature, proceed from the stern lips of this proud .Roman father. His next Koman play, Cinna, is considered by others among the French critics as Coraei lie's mas- terpiece. The impersonation in this piece of the spirit of liberty is fimilie, the ward of Augustus, but the beloved of Pompey's grandson. The scene of the conspiracy, that in which the Emperor de- liberates whether he shall retire from his exalted post or hold it against all assaults, the heroic par- don granted to the conspirators, are noble efforts of the poet, in whom majesty of action and dignity of 90 French Literature. sentiment found their best expression. But there is an inconsistency forced both on the plot and on the characters of the conspirators by the favorable turn of events which prevents that which was throughout most tragical in its spirit and prepara- tion from turning out a tragedy at all. Corneille's next play was Polyeucte, a tragedy of Christian martyrdom. The hero and Pauline, the heroine, draw the deepest sympathy from every hearer or reader. No picture could be more pa- thetic than that of these lovers giving up all, in the bloom of their youth and the joy of their love, at the call of duty. In his next play, Corneille had the boldness to fill the air of his stage with the glory of a dead hero, the play, Pompee, bearing the name of the great Eoman, but not presenting him in person. " The dead Pompey," says Geruzez, "fills the whole scene. He lives again in the virile face of Cornelia. It is to satisfy his angry manes that the infamous Ptolemy perishes, and the last words of his widow promise against Ca3sar himself a thrilling ven- geance." It was a strong conception, but it is marred in the execution by an excess of declama- tion and emphasis in the language put into the mouths of the chief characters. The turgid rhet- oric of Lucan makes him a peculiarly dangerous author to draw one's inspiration from; and with Corneille he was a great favorite. Corneille produced these masterpieces in the course of six years. He was now the acknowl- edged master in the domain of tragedy. There was no one to compete with him. Mai ret had done nothing better than the Sophonisbe. Du Kyer had in his Scevole brought out some of that same fine old Eoman tone of heroic spirit, which Corneille loved to make the stage ring with; but Du Byer could not hope to rival the "noblest Roman of them all." Tristan had touched a chord of pathos in his Marianne, but not so thrilling in its notes of From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 91 tender yet heroic anguish as that which the Chris- tian martyrs in. Polyeucte had moved the hearts of men with. Rotrou, Corneille's staunch friend, had not yet produced anything of marked value, though destined in after years to keep some hold on the memory by his Venceslas and his Saint- Genest. Cornille was thus alone, at a great height above his contemporaries, in the sphere of tragedy. He now surprised every one with a brilliant success in comedy. As in the case of his first great triumph in tragedy, he had drawn his inspiration from Spain, so was it now in the case of his comic masterpiece, the Menteur. Dorante, that exquisite liar who gives name to the comedy, is a masterly creation. There is an easy grace and a naturalness in Corneille's merri- ment, which strike us as really wonderful when we contrast these traits with the grandeur of thought and tone which is the dominant characteristic of his nobler tragedies. To these great successes in tragedy and comedy, Corneille added some essays in the domain of the opera, in his Andromede, the Toison d*or, and Psyche. Among his later tragedies, Rodogune, Heraclius, and Nicomede are not without merit, though bear- ing some traces of carelessness in style. These plays also furnish examples of some of those qual- ities which, though not so marked in Corneille as his grand diction and elevated tone, are eminently traits of genius. I refer to his variety of means and motive, of characterization and plot. He is no shoemaker with one last, no painter with one color. If taxed, however unjustly, with plagairism from Spanish authors, no one could venture to charge him with copying himself. As to the tone of his works, it is true that, in his great plays, he has given expression to but one side of human nature, the heroic. But to how many varieties of the heroic has he given expression, and 92 French Literature. in how many varying situations has he set the heroic before us ! And, if it be complained that after all it is a monotony of heroism, it is surely glory enough for one writer that he has so nobly portrayed the dignity of the human soul. Evil times coming upon France during the regency of Anne of Austria, Corneille seems to have been affected by the general feebleness of the political conflict around him. He produced works greatly inferior to his Polyeucte during this period, ceased after a time to produce at all, and lived to see Racine take his place in popular estimation. He died in 1684. While the dramatic genius of Corneille was adding noble treasures to the literature of France, the philosophical speculations of Des Cartes, the physical studies of Gassendi, arid the theological controversies of the Jansenists were dividing into different camps the reflecting minds of the age. As the principal works of Gassendi and Des Cartes were in Latin, we have nothing to do with them here, except to say that both denied the authority of Aristotle, and proclaimed the emptiness of the scholastic philosophy, though differing widely from each other in the views with which they sought to replace the old system of thought. Des Cartes, however, in his Discours de la Methode, which ap- peared shortly after the Cid, brings himself within our scope, as a producer in the mother-tongue. The fundamental principle of his thought, as there set forth, is to know himself in order that he may arrive at the knowledge of Grod and of nature. He pursues his speculations in clear and simple lan- guage, severely simple and direct. The Jansenist controversy led to the persecution of the Port Royalists, and thia to the brilliant de- fence of that school of religious belief by Pascal. It wik) "be fitting, therefore, as an introduction to Pascal's literary career, to give a brief account of Port Royal. From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 93 Port Royal, sometimes called Port Royal des Champs, was in its beginning a convent about nine miles south of Versailles, attached to the Benedict- ine order, and founded in 1204. In the course of time, its discipline, like that of many other such establishments, had become greatly relaxed. About the year 1608, Marie-Angelique Arnauld becoming Abbess, reformed its discipline and gave it such fame that many noble ladies began to reside in the neighborhood, to share in its earnest devotions. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Antoine Arnauld, a learned doctor of the Sorbonne. accom- panied by three of the famous Lemaistre family, as well as by several other men of learning and purity, took up his residence there. His mother, his sister the Abbess, five other sisters, and six of his nieces were already members of the establishment. The Arnaulds, the Lemaistres, Nicole, and the Abbe de Saint-Cyran, living near the convent, cultivating their little gardens, teaching the young, and com- posing valuable wo*ks, soon won for Port Royal the reputation of being a school of virtue and learning. Racine was one of the pupils of this school of puri- tans in the bosom of the Church of Rome. Pascal, whose sister and niece were members of the con- vent, numbered himself as in spirit one of the little fraternity outside its walls, though his work and life were elsewhere. For many years Port Royal had the highest renown and success as a useful institution. But, long before its arbitrary and cruel destruction in 1710, its troubles began, in the condemnation by the Sorbonne, under the influence of the Jesuits, of Saint-Cyran and then of Arnauld, as adherents of the Jansenist school of religious belief. Pascal now took the field in defence of Arnaukf, producing his famous Lettres ecrites a un Provincial. The first, second, and third of these letters are de- voted to proving the identity of his friend's doc- trine with that of St. Augustine. The others, how- 94: French Literature. ever, are those which caught the attention of the public and won him the fame of stinging and withering irony which still clings to his name. In these he attacks the system of casuistry expounded by the great Jesuit doctors, and holds the order up to ridicule as masters in sophistry and teachers of immorality. " The Provincial Letters " I quote from a paper in one of the English reviews " are, on the whole, the most brilliant collection of con- troversial letters extant. They have not the rounded finish, the concentration, the red-hot touches of sarcasm, and the brief and occasional bursts of invective darkening into sublimity which distinguish the letters ofJunius. Nor have they the profound asides of reflection, or the impatient power of passion, or the masses of poetical imagery to be found in Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord, and Letters on a Regicide Peace ; but they excel these and all epistolary writings in dexterity of argument, in power of irony, in light, hurrying, scorching satire, a ' fire running along the ground,' in grace of motion, and in Attic salt and Attic eloquence of style." Geruzez well remarks that the charm and power of this work of Pascal's, even with the readers of our own time, lie quite apart from the original dis- pute, that no one cares now about the rights of the discussion on the nature of grace, but that we can all appreciate and enjoy the masterly appeal in behalf of truth against error, which the eloquent genius of Pascal, passing beyond the particular thesis he has set himself to defend, utters in passage after passage of transcendent beauty. As to the j ustice of all his charges against the Jesuits, it is not my province to decide that question, any more than in the case of his bitter onslaught on the memory of Montaigne as a teacher of skepticism. Blaise Pascal, born in 1623, was, like his friends, the Arnaulds, from Auvergne. As a mere boy he distinguished himself by his amazing proficiency in From Richelieu to Lords XIV. 95 mathematics, and in early youth as an experimenter in physics. His intercourse with the distinguished Jausenist preacher, the Abbe Guillebert, early led him to join the ascetic school of which he later became the ablest defender. The Provinciales, as his famous letters are sometimes called, were writ- ten under the pseudonym of Louis de Montalte. His other great work, the Pensees sur la Religion, was left unfinished ; but, even in their incomplete shape, these fragmentary efforts to construct a body of thought strong enough to cope with the argu- ments of atheists have excited the admiration of every generation of readers. The battering-ram Pascal brings to bear against the stronghold of atheism is framed of negations that confront and crush the negations of human pride. He, the brightest and acutest ef men in pure intellectual force and subtlety, communes with himself, pushes his thought back to its utmost bounds, sees and marks the inexorable limitations, and forces his mind to gaze into the impenetrable beyond, until it shrinks back, aghast and appalled at the narrowness of its range and the boundlessness and immensity of what stretches beyond its grasp. It is thus that he abases the human intellect and step by step proves its littleness and the futility of its efforts to penetrate the mystery that surrounds us. Bringing his mathematics to bear upon the matter in and around man, and forcing the imagination to compass what it can of the infinitely great and the infinitely small, he drives proud reason, beaten from all its shelters, to plead to faith for help. Pascal's wretched health prevented him from grouping these wondrous Sibylline leaves into a harmonious whole, and he died at the early age of thirty-nine, in Paris, in the year 1662. His friends, those Christian mystics who made up the Port Eoyal school, deserve some special mention. Antoine Arnauld was one of twenty noble children of a famous lawyer. Jansenist, 96 French Literature. heart and soul, be joined Nicole in writing a mas- sive treatise on La, Perpetuite de la Foi. Afterwards when an exile among Protestant fellow-exiles, he assailed them in his Apologie des Cathotiques. Nicole was Arnauld's faithful auxiliary. When not compelled by the ardor of his friends to engage in controversy, he pleased his own peaceful nature by composing his Essais de Morale. Antoine Le- maistre, son of one of the sisters of Araauld; his brother, Lemaistre de Saci, translator of the Bible ; Claude Lancelot, one of Kacine's instructors; to- gether with De Pontis, Du Fosse, and Fontaine, were all scholarly men, engaged in the production of grammars and text-books on logic, besides their other works. Between the death of Kichelieu and the personal reign of Louis XIV. that is, during the period of Cardinal Mazarin's struggle with the leaders of the Fronde and the years of his final triumph no great literary event occurred, besides the publica- tion of Pascal's great controversial work. There was nothing about the court of Anne of Austria to encourage literature, nothing in the nature of Mazarin to evoke genius. Even the great soul of Corneille seemed to shrink, and the works he put forth at this time are not those by which posterity knows him. What really belong to this period are the inter- minable romances of Mademoiselle de Scuderi, in which history and passion are alike falsified; and the sonnets and madrigals and abortive epics of an age of artificial taste. But, laughable as the char- acters and conversations of these long narratives are to readers of our day, Madeleine de Scuderi, holds an important place in the history of literature, as the founder of the heroic romance. It is true, she had fore-runners, but her stories were greatly su- perior in many ways to theirs, and may be said to have established that class of work as having a just claim to a recognized place in literature. From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 97 The pastoral romance of D'urfe was, in the nature of things, succeeded by the heroic. To translations from the old Greek romances and the Spanish was added, in the days of the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici, the Endymion of Gom- bault, who in that strange idyllic romance allegor- ized the favor with which the Queen-Regent her- self looked upon him. After Gombault came Gom- berville or, to give him the benefit of his name and titles in full, Marin Le Roy, Sieur de Gorn- berville et du Parc-aux-Chevaux who, between 1621 and 1651, published La Caritee, Polexandre, La Cytheree, and Le Jeune Alcidiane. Polexandre is considered the best. There was still, however, an air of fairyland about the prose romance. It was Gautier de Costes, Seigneur de La Calprenede, who was to give it more likeness to actual life. He was on duty at court as a young guardsman when the public had the first hint of his story-telling powers. It was in the time of Anne of Austria, and this queen complaining that her maids of honor were tardy in their service, one of them excused herself and com- panions by saying that there was in the first hall a gentleman whom one could never tire of listen- ing to. The queen had La Calprenede summoned to her presence, and prayed him to tell her one of those tales he told so well. The young Gascon promptly complied with the request, the Queen was delighted, and a pension was at once given him. He who could please a queen naturally felt that it would be easy for him to please the public. Ac- cordingly he set to work, and it was not long be- fore his teeming brain poured forth ten volumes of a romance, the scene of which is laid in Persia during the time of Alexander. This is his Cassandre. There is no local color, no historic reality, but we are treated to a long series of romantic loves, tre- mendous combats, magnificent tourneys, the carry- ing-ofF of princesses by ardent but respectful lovers, 7 98 French Literature. and all manner of exciting incidents. The charac- ters, it is true, are not people of the time of Alex- ander, but they are real for all that, and they talk well. La Calprenede wrote another, the Cleopatre, which occupied twelve volumes; and he began a Pharamond, of which he printed only seven vol- umes. Pierre de Vaumoriere, the author of the Grand Stipion, afterwards finished it with five more volumes. Madeleine de Scuderi came to Paris with her brave but amusingly boastful brother, George, in 1630. She, though more sensible than he, was also vain of a supposed family grandeur in the past. Demogeot remarks : " She used always to say, 'Since the downfall of our house'; you would have said that she was speaking of the overthrow of the Greek Empire. She was tall, thin, and dark, with a very long face. Madame Cornuel used to say that Providence had made that girl sweat ink, since she was to spread so much of it on paper. For a long time her brother kept up the most amusingly jealous practices about her. Some- times he shut her up entirely, and would suffer no one to see her. She was not able to see whom she wished even when forty years old. Madeleine took all this treatment with a good grace. Perhaps she was flattered by it." This brother and sister were really very much attached to each other, and it was to the advantage of their literary work that they were evidently always living a romance in imagination before they undertook to write one. Madeleine herself wrote under cover of her brother's name. George was a dramatic author. Madeleine published Ibrahim, her first book, in 1635. It was no advance on Gomberville, and did not reach the merit of La Calprenede. But her study of the refined manners and lofty thought of the Hotel Rambouillet, to which she was admitted, gave her something real to paint. In her Artam&ne, ou le grand Cyrus and From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 99 CUlie, under the disguise of Persians and Romans, she, to their great delight, painted the haunters of the ruelles of "Cleomire," as she styled the brilliant Marquise in the seventh volume of the Cyrus. If Madame de Sevigne reproached herself, and to no purpose too, for pouring over La Calprenede's books, Madeleine de Scuderi's were to waste far more time. They became the rage everywhere. In England, we find old Samuel Pepys scolding his wife and grumbling at her in his secret diary for her devotion to them. There is, in truth, much in the writings of this dark-skinned old maid, of which a woman even in this age might well be proud. To us, indeed, her stories are tiresome, prolix, unnatural. But, besides her admirable por- traiture of the choicest society of her own time, she has some noble passages on the true place of woman in society, some just and judicious reflec- tions that have their value even now. Her style, too, is flexible and flowing, with a grace and deli- cacy about it from time to time which mark the woman to whose ears the easy conversation of the Rambouillet circle was familiar. Chapelain's farcical epic, La Pucelle, I have al- ready mentioned in passing. Another epic of the sort that " neither gods nor men can abide," was the Clovis of Desmarets, Richelieu's favorite. An- other was the Moise sauve of Saint- Amant, who, however, had some merit. Another was the Saint Louis of the Pere Lemoyne, like the others full of passages marked by wretched taste. Amid the light literature of burlesque verse, slashing lampoons, and bitter satires, provoked by the war of the Fronde, were the letters of the doc- tor Guy-Patin against Cardinal Mazarin, which are still of some value as unconscious contributions to contemporary history, as they were written solely for private eyes. Mazarin, who did not con- cern himself for literature, had but one defender among literary men a man who did not like to 100 French Literature. think with other men. This was Cyrano de Ber- gerac. In -his Leltre aux frondevrs, he makes an especial butt of Paul Scarron, the burlesque assailant of Mazarin. Poor Scarron, with liis deformed and suffering body travesty was natural to him. The Erieide travestie is not a great work, in any sense of the word, but there is seme fun in it. The trouble is that one grows very tired of rending long in a caricature spun out to so inordinate a length. But Scarron does better work in his Roman coinique and his Nouvelles. His comedies also were amusing, and the young King enjoyed them so much that he had one of them, UHeritier ridicule, performed three times in one day. It was the widow of this poor old pain-tortured merry- maker for the young prince, Fran9oise d'Aubigne, who was to be in after days the secretly wedded wife and the nurse of the worn-out King, under the name of Madame de Maintenon. But, before we begin with Louis XIV. and Moilere, the special glory of his age, a few words must be said of Mazarin's solitary defender, the fore-runner of Moliere, Fontenelle, and Voltaire, and a great admirer of the philosopher Des Cartes. Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, one of those big Gascons, to whom France has owed some of its most characteristic types of wit, was born in the same year with Moliere, 1620. From his single comedy, Le Pedant Joue, Moliere, who had been his schoolmate and friend, borrowed largely when he came to write Les Fourberies de Scapin. It was the earliest prose-comedy in the language, and has at least the merits of great exuberance of mirth and much lively action. Had Bergerac not died at the age of thirty-five, he might have given the lit- erature another writer of comedy, not perhaps worthy to be placed beside Moliere, but at all events ranking just below him. He had pre- riously written his single tragedy, La Mort d'Agrip- From Richelieu to Louis XIV. 101 pine, in which the "unities" are very carefully observed. His really great works, however, were his Histoire cwnique des Estats et Empires de la Lune, and his Estats et Empires du Soleil, both of which were in 1687 translated into English by A. Lovell, and are said to have influenced Swift in his production of Grulliver's Travels. These really able and most entertaining satires are not, however, so cynical as those of Swift. De Bergerac's life-* was even better than his books; for, though wild and dissipated at his first coming to Paris, and engaged because of his great strength and courage in numerous duels never, however, as principal, the seconds in those days fighting for their principals along with them he became before his death a thoroughly noble and unselfish character. He served also in the army, as well as in duels for his friends, was shot through the body at the siege of Mousson, and at that of Arras was pierced in the neck. Indeed, he died from the results of his wounds. His friend and old school- mate, Le Bret, published his works after his death, prefixing a sketch of his career. De Bergerac died in 1655. Two years after his birth, appeared a comic ro- mance, which deserves some mention. This was the Histoire comique de Francion, a book immensely popular in its day. The author was Charles Sorel, Sieur de Sauvigny, a fast friend of the satirical Doctor Guy-Patin, Mazarin's inveterate enemy. His book was a strong protest against the affecta- tions and the "King Cambyses's vein" of the pre- cieuse school of writers. In 1628, when the Astree was at the height of its popularity, he returned to the charge with a clever and piquant parody of that romance, entitled the Berger extravagant. Later still, when the Grand Cyrus appeared, full of care- ful portraitures of the great people of the court and the frequenters of Madame de Kambouillet's ruelles; Sorel put forth his Descriptwn de Vile des 102 French Literature. portraitures, making fun of the passion for sketch- ing pen-and-ink portraits which had seized the grandees and their imitators. The personal reign of Louis XIV. begins with Mazarin's death in 1661. Before that event, Cor- neille's greatest works had been produced and the French drama was an established fact. Pascal had put forth his masterpiece of irony and of acute reasoning. D'Urfe, Gombault, Gomberville, La Calprenede and Madeleine Scude'ii had inaugurated imaginative fiction. Sorel, De Bergerac and Scar- ron had presented life and manners as looked at from the comic and satirical side. Madame de Eambouillet and her friends had purified conversa- tion, and elevated the tone of society, besides cul- tivating in the higher circles a taste for literary skill. France, under the rule of Eichelieu, and to some extent even under that of Mazarin, was pre- paring for the days of peace and courtly leisure which under the Great King were to shine with more than ordinary brightness in many forms of literature. The Memoirs which belong to the time of Eiche- lieu, are those of ' Lavieuyille, of Henri de Eohan, of the mare'chal d'Estres, of Pont-Chartrain, of De*agent, of Bassompiere (who wrote his in the Bas- tile), of Monglat, of Conrart and of the Cardinal himself. Moti&rc. 108 VIII. MOLIERE. MOLIERE is the great master of comedy for modern literature, as Aristophanes was for the ancient. He is more than this: he is more purely a comic writer than any other great master in the history of literature. For, there are flashes of ex- quisite poety in Aristophanes, while in Moliere all is pure comedy. His business is to make you laugh, and he does it. There are other writers, both of the ancient and the modern world, whose works are purely comic, Plautus and Terence in Latin, Goldoni in Italian, Beauinarchais in French, Sheri- dan in English ; but Moliere excels them all in the power of producing laughter. " Of all the French dramatists," says Bulwer-Lytton, "he is the only one whose genius is as conspicuous to foreign nations as it is to his own. Like Shakespeare, he is for all time and for all races. A piercing observer of the society around him, he selects from that society types the least socially conventional. His very men of fashion are never out of fashion. Where most he excels all that is left to us of the comedy of the ancients is where his in- vention most escapes from its influence, and reveals those truths of a poetry almost tragic, which lie half in light, half in shadow, on the serious side of humor. Here, the comedy of the Misanthrope is without a rival as to con- ception of character and delicacy of treatment, though in point of dramatic construction and vigor of style the Tartuffe has been held to surpass it, ' The exposition of Tartiiffe,' says Goethe, is without its equal ; it is the grandest and best of its kind ; ' ' But, without lingering to trace generalities, let us sketch as rapidly as possible the career of this great 104 French Literature. literary artist and unfold, as we go, the methods of his work and the qualities it exhibits. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, whom the world knows as Moliere, was born in Paris, on the 15th January, 1622. His father was an upholsterer, and the son was brought up with the view of succeeding him in the business. His grandfather, however, had a great fondness for the theatre, and used to take him often to see the play. He soon grew into a passion for studies of a more intellectual order than those needed to qualify him for carrying on his father's business. Aided by the support of his grandfather, he gained permission from his father to devote him- self to such studies at the College of Clermont, superintended by the Jesuits. Here he not only received a scholarly education, but formed associa- tions of great value to him in after life. Among his schoolfellows and warm friends was the Prince Armand de Conti, brother of the great Conde. By the intervention of Chapelle, his attached friend, he was also able to take lessons from the philosopher Gasseudi. The teachings of Gassendi bore fruit in two directions. We find traces of Gassendi's in- structions in the Femmes Savantes and elsewhere among the plays of Moliere, while a more immedi- ate result of this philosopher's influence was Moliere's undertaking to translate Lucretius, which he did partly in verse and partly in prose. This manuscript has, however, been lost. Among other schoolmates of Moliere were Bernier the traveler, Hesnault the poet and satirist of the minister Col- bert, and Cyrano de Bergerac the fore-runner of Swift in the character of Gulliver. Moliere's first employment on leaving college was the place his father had held of valet-de- chambre-tapissier to the king. In virtue of this office he followed the court to Narbonne. But this position was so distasteful to him, that he turned away from it to the study of the law. His old passion for the theatre, however, drew him away Moliere. 105 me IAU, and in 1645 he is to be found in Paris at the head of a troop of actors, of whom he soon formed a permanent company. A story is told of his first teacher's coming to dissuade him from the life of an actor, and of Mo- liere's so eloquently exalting that profession in his defence of it as to induce the old man to join his company and play those parts called lesperes nobles. His friend, the Prince de Conti, also tried to dis- suade him, offering him a place at court, but he pleaded with him in vain. His vocation emphati- cally called him. In going upon the stage, the young comedian abandoned his paternal name of Poquelin and adopted that of Moliere. So, in a later age, did young Arouet take the surname of Voltaire. Performing at first in the faubourgs of Paris, and then in the provinces, his company led the life of strolling players; nor is anything known of the plays produced in those early days by Moliere, beyond the names of some of them. For twelve years, only an occasional glimpse can be caught of him in the records of the time. During all this time of preliminary training, besides what his sharp eye caught of men and manners, he must have read much. For, his works show a thorough knowledge of Plautus and Terence and of the Italian and Spanish comedies. But, at last, his old schoolfellow, Prince Armand de Conti, sent for him to give representations at the palace. The king does not seem to have been present on the first occasion; and Moliere's players had been patronized for some time by the Prince de Conti, the Due d'Epernon, and Philippe d'Or- leans, before Louis XIV. perceived the merit ot the young comedian. The performance of the Docteur Amonreux took the monarch's fancy, and he author- ized Moliere to establish his company in Paris and to perform at the Theatre du Petit -Bourbon, alternntely with the Italian comedians. 106 French Literature. Moli&re had meanwhile been going through some of those love-experiences which he has so largely painted in his plays. Like Goldoni, he had some unfortunate haps in his affairs of the heart, and, like him, he drew on his own personal experience for some of the situations in his comedies. His first passion, which was for an actress named Mad- eleine Bejart, gave way to a deep and unreturned devotion to another member of his company, Mademoiselle Duparc, a heartless beauty, a wor- shiper of rank, and a despiser of the comedian's humble social position. This scorn of one to whom he had poured out his whole heart filled Moliere with profound sadness. His solace was the devoted friendship of Mad- emoiselle de Brie, who loved him with the same hopeless passion with which he had been inspired by Mademoiselle Duparc. She became, under his teaching and with the motive of pleasing him and doing his genius honor, an accomplished actress and a great favorite with the public. She is described as " tall, slender, and graceful ; noble in her car- riage, and natural in all her attitudes, with some- thing particularly delicate in her face and features, which rendered her most fitting for the part of an ingenue. Her eyes possessed a peculiar charm, derived from their mingled expression of candor and tenderness. She was more intelligent than witty, and had not a shadow of coquetry." She had the quickness to perceive the deep melan- choly which oppressed Moliere under his calm ex- terior, won him over to confide in her, and consoled him so sweetly that in process of time he was wholly cured of his passion for Mademoiselle Duparc. More than this he had yielded to the charm of his sweet consoler, and was now in love with her. For several years they were very happy in their mutual love, though for some unknown reason they did not marry; and, in the end, Moliere's heart was won away from her by Moliere. 107 Armande Bejart, a younger sister of that Madeleine Bejart for whom Moliere had felt so warm a passion before. This attractive but worthless coquette, witty and gifced as an actress, completely stole away the dramatist's heart. Mademoiselle de Brie, seeing his total subjection to the charms of the younger woman, sadly resigned herself to the painful sepa- ration. Moliere, at the age of forty-one, married the young girl, more than twenty years younger than himself. Mademoiselle de Brie continued to be his faithful friend, and after his death it was her greatest pleasure to play those parts he had created for her. She kept her youthful appearance to the last, and on one occasion when at sixty she thought it unfitting for her to play the part of a girl of six- teen and gave up to another the part of Agnes in the Ecole des Femmes, the audience insisted so loudly on her resuming it that the manager was forced to send for her. It would have been well for Moliere had he re- mained faithful to this faithful woman. His infatu- ation was punished by the most shameless infidelity on the part of the frail creature whom he had so foolishly married. As an actress she brought all the unprincipled gallants of the court to her feet. About three years after the marriage, a violent (|'iarrel ended in their separation for some six or seven years. During all this time they met con- stantly in the theatre, playing in the same pieces. Some of his best plays many of them founded on the misfortunes of husbands were produced at this time. In the Afisanthrope, which was espe- cially a revelation of his own troubles, Armande played CelimZne, Mademoiselle de Brie, Eliante, and Moli&re, Akeste. It is said that one night Eliante was eo captivating that the dramatist quite forgot his griefs as a betrayed husband in the re- turn of his old tenderness for the first love. His health failing for a time, Mademoiselle de Brie 108 French Literature. watched over him with all the devotion his wife ought to have shown. But a piece of double treachery destroyed the small share of happiness Moliere was now enjoying. Baron, the finest actor of his day, brought up by Moliere and hitherto hated and persecuted by Armande, while acting the part of Cupid in the ballet of Psyche, produced conjointly by Moliere and Corneille, looked so handsome that he changed Psyche's sentiments from hatred to love. Forget- ting the gratitude he owed to Moliere, Baron re- turned this sudden passion. What was worse, the worthless wife was so lovely a Psyche, that Moliere sank once more under her spells. They were reconciled; but Moliere was soon forced to admrff her utter worthlessness, and was more unhappy than ever. His health declined, and soon gave way altogether. While these troubles of the heart were going on, works of wonderful variety and unrivaled humor were pouring from his prolific brain. LEtourdi and Le Depit Amoureux he wrote during the five years of his happy life with Mademoiselle de Brie, before his marriage. Then came Les Prtyieuses Ridicules, produced to satirize the absurdities and affectations of those who were imitating the literary coterie that gathered at the Hotel Rambouillet. This was caught at directly as heralding the coming of a new era in comedy. At its first repre- sentation, an old man cried : " Courage, Moliere I voila la veritable comediel " Menage, the critic, said to Chapelain, the poet, as they were going out of the theatre together: "Henceforth (as St. Eemi said to Clovis) we must burn what we have wor- shiped and worship what we have burned." This was in 1659. The next year, appeared Sganarelle, and, the next, .Uficole des Mar is, partly founded on the Adelphi of Terence, with Don Garde de Navarre and Les Fdcheux. After his marriage he wrote LEcole des Femmes Moltire. 109 and La Critique de Tecole des Femmes. Then came the Impromptu de Versailles, Le Manage Force, and La Princesse d 1 Elide. It was in this last piece that his wife captivated the courtiers and brought dishonor upon her husband. Between 1665 and 1672, he produced Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre, L* Amour Medecin, Le Misanthrope, Le Medecin malgrt lui, Melicerte, Le Sicilian ou V Amour Peintre, Tartuffe, Amphitryon, Les Amans Magni- fiques, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Les Fourberies de Scapin, and Psyche. Tartuffe, his masterpiece in the opinion of most critics, was written in 1664, but was not played publicly until 1669, as its performance was prohib- ited, the Jesuits making strenuous efforts to pre- vent its representation. It proved a grand success when brought at last before the public. "The truth, the variety, the contrast of the characters, the exquisite art shown in the management of the incidents, the abundance of the sentiments, and the wonderful alternatiors of feeling laughter, anger, indignation, tenderness, make this," says one of his critics, " truly a masterpiece." " Tartuffe," says Bulwer-Lytton, " is not a comic character he is almost tragic, for he creates terror ; the interest he gives to the play is, in our vague consciousness of a power, intense, secret, and unscru- pulous." Marmontel calls attention to the fact that " not one of the principal personages in the Tartuffe is comic in himself. They all become comic by their opposition." In 1672 Moliere produced Les Femmes Savantes. The Academie Franqaise now offered him a chair in that learned body, on condition that he would no longer appear as an actor. He declined, although Boileau and his other friends urged him to accept. " The Academy," said he to Boileau, " is rich enough. It has Corneille, Racine, yourself, and many other great writers. I am but a comedian, and I will not insult a profession I like, however 110 French Literature. humble it may be, by abandoning it after having followed it for twenty -five years. My honor will not allow me to do so." The truth was, he felt himself near his end, and had probably the true workman's wish to die at his work. He wrote but two other plays, La Comtesse d 1 Escarbagnas and the Afalade Imaginairt; the most popular of all his pieces, this last. It was written in February, 1673. On the 17th day of the month, while playing the part of Argan in the fourth representation of the play, and while pro- nouncing the juro in the last scene, lie burst a blood-vessel. Baron took him home ; and, before his wife, whom he incessantly called for, could be brought to his bedside, he died. As he died in a state of excommunication, the cure of St. Eustache refused him Christian burial. His widow applied to the Archbishop of Paris, and, on his refusal, to the King ; but the selfishness and superstition of that monarch made him receive her with marked coldness, though Moliere while alive and able to amuse had been so great a favorite with him. Still, he wrote to the Archbishop, desiring him to permit burial of some sort in consecrated ground. "It was decided that & handful of earth should be granted, but that the body should be carried immediately to the burying ground, and not remain in the church. On the 21st of February, accord- ingly, the coffin was transported at night, by two ecclesiastics, to the cemetery of St. Joseph in the Rue Montmartre, followed by more than two hun- dred persons, each carrying a torch." In 1792, his remains were removed, and again in 1817. They were placed then in Pere-la-Chaise, after having received the honors of high mass in the church of St. Germaine des Pres. His plays may be divided into four groups ; first, the pieces with, music and dancing interspersed among the parts, pastorals or masques like those of Ben Jonson ; secondly, farces and pasquinades ; Afoliere. Ill thirdly, comedies of the simpler type; and fourthly, the more complex comedies, where ridicule takes the form of satire rather than that of caricature. Tli3 striking features of Moliere's genius, the more salient qualities of his art, are the merriment that oozes at every pore, as it were, from his intel- lectually joyous nature, the fertility of invention he displays, his variety of situations, his facility of production, his ease, grace, and harmony of versifi- cation, and his readiness to catch at every fresh incident or suggested character. An instance of this mercurial quickness is given in the history of that fine satirical comedy, Les Fdcheux ; " At the first representation the scene of the chasseur was wanting. After the performance, Louis XIV., ad- dressing himself to Moliere and pointing with his finger to Monsieur de Soyecourt, the Grand Veneur, said, * There is an original you have not yet copied.' The next day the incomparable scene of Eraste and Dorante was added to the piece ; and it is amusing enough that Mon- sieur de Soyecourt himself should have been the very per- son to furnish Moliere with all the technical terms so skilfully employed by him in that dialogue." The pastoral of Melicerte is a fragment Moliere being hurried by the impatience of the King, and never finishing it. Had it been completed, it would have taken high rank as a piece in the man- ner of Theocritus, of Tasso in his Aminta> and of Guarini in his Pastor Fido. The farces are drawn mainly in motive and man- ner from the Italian and Spanish dramatic litera- ture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which the amusing and clever valets play so prom- inent a part. Such pieces are Les Fourberies de Scapin, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, La Comtesse d? Escarbagnas, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, Le Medecin Malgre lui, George Dandin, Le Sicilien, L* Amour Medecin, Le Mariage Force, Sganarelle, and Les Precieuses Ridicules, The Harlequin and Pantaloon 112 French Literature. of tlie Italian stage, representing impuatJA. ji ness and stupid credulity, recur again and again in these pieces, and by their constant contrast give rise to ludicrous scenes and awaken laughter in the audience. As in the case of the Arlecchino and the Pantaleone, the same names are used for the same types of character in different plays and different situations. Moliere's names for tiiem are generally Mascarille and Sganarelle, though occasionally the tricky valet bears a different name, as in the case of Scapin. These characters were borrowed, though in the hands of Moliere they grew into creations in which comic wit by the force of a rich imagination allied itself with the very poetry of merriment. But in his soubrettes Moliere was wholly original. The clear, sharp wit of the French woman, so much in- sisted on by Taine, in his contest between the English and the French feminine character, sug- gested to the great comic artist this expansion of the comic field. He was the first to put on the stage this type, and to this day the name of Les Servantes de Moliere is the technical term for this class of stage-characters. Keen perception, rough matter-of-fact common-sense, hard-headed direct- ness, and a simplicity in no way related to stupid- ity, are their traits. Such is Nicole, the faithful servant of Monsieur Jourdain. Of the comedies proper, the Ecole des Maris, the $cole des Femmes, the Etourdi, the Avare, Don Garde de Navarre, the Depit Amoureux, and the Malade Imaginaire may be named as the chief. In these we generally find his Mascarille and Sgana- relle still figuring, but it is as wholly subordinate characters. The sensible servante is in them all, under various names. Another character appears, he who is styled by the French the Raisonneur, and who represents the judgment of the intelligent and cultivated part of the community. In the $cole d" Maris, Ariste has this part to represent j 113 in the ficole dot, Femmes, Chrysalde ; in the Afalade Imayinaire, Beralde. But it is in the complex comedies, as I have ventured to call them, that Moliere reaches his highest excellence. In Don Juan, Les Femmes Savantes, Le Tartuffe, and Le Misanthrope, we find him exalting comedy into a philosophy of human nature, a philosophy that laughs only because it holds it to be wiser to laugh than to weep, but which looks too profoundly into the human heart not to see the darker side of its folly. The slighter characters that people his other pieces pass out of sight or make but a little show in these higher manifestations of his now mature genius. For the first time characters of a really complex structure take their places on the stage, creations such as Don Juan, the abhorrer of cant, pushed by his cli- max of infamy into the very gulf of hypocrisy he had always scoffed at; such as Tartuffe, the ser- pent-like hypocrite, of hypocrites; such as Al- ceste, the Misanthrope, wnose resentment against his fellowmen springs from the revolt of an enthu- siastic, generous, and truthful spirit against the hollowness of society around him. Moliere's style, always clear and direct, rises with the strongly conceived characters and the energetic movement of the plot in these plays. He writes poetry both tender and strong in almost every line. It is, however, the poetry of reasoned sentiment, not the instinctive lyrical burst of song into which Aristophanes rises so naturally. Penetrating into the basis of his genius by study- ing him in these plays where he is at his best, we may confidently say that a warm and loving heart, enlightened by sound judgment and working in the interests of truth through the form of comedy, is the power that gives unity and vitality to Mo- liere's productions. There is, of course, much more in his genius than this, an exquisite sense of the ludicrous, wonderful powers of observation, 3 114 French Literature. a fine perception of the proprieties of social life, the large miscellaneous information which seems to be a special gift with great poets, tact in the selection of harmonious traits and effective contrasts, the en- thusiasm of the satirist, timed and moderated by the judgment of one who knew well king, court, and people, and many other qualities of the master in his art. It took many splendid qualities to make a Moliere, but at the bottom of them all and rising through them all was the good heart. Racine. 115 IX, RACINE. CORXEILLE had taken Koman stories for his subjects and Latin literature for inspiration. Kacine was a good Greek scholar, and went to tlte higher literature for models. Corneille, influenced partly by the tone of the Spanish drama, which he studied early in his career and to which he owed the con- ception of his Cid, introduced into French dramatic literature that grand and stately declamation which is its main characteristic. Racine kept up this tradition, but gave to his verse greater harmony and grace. There is a singularly close resemblance between the relation borne by Racine to Corueille and that borne by Pope to Dryden, even though Pope utterly lacked the dramatic element. Pope, like Racine, was more polished and "correct." Dryden, like Corneille, had more native force and vigor. The resemblance is borne out by the fur- ther facts, that Dryden drew much of his dramatic inspiration from the Spanish literature; and that Dryden translated Virgil, while ^Pope selected Homer for his great experiment in translation. They ought indeed to have exchanged their parts, for the genius of Corneille and of Dryden had far more affinity with the glowing energy of the Hel- lenic mind than with the cold and orderly move- ment of the Roman. So much for the general place which Racine occupies in French literature. Let us now take a rapid survey of his life and works. Jean Racine was born at Ferte* Milon, on the 21st December, 1639, of a respectable family. Losing both his parents at the age of four, sent by 116 French Literature. his maternal grandfather to the college of Beauvais, going to Port Koyal at the age of sixteen and remaining there three years, he finished his train- ing for life at tl^e college d'Harcourt. His characteristic tendencies showed themselves first during his residence at Port Eoyal, the famous seat of mysticism in France. His grandmother and his aunt Agnes were recluses there, and the youth was much beloved by the austere heads of that singular institution, for he was a quick and eager student and of an ardent and affectionate disposition. But his passion for poetry and romance greatly shocked those grave masters, religious zealots as they were. It was all very well so long as he showed that able scholar, Claude Lancelot, his understanding and appreciation of Euripides and Sophocles. But, when he was caught devouring Bishop Heliodorus's Byzantine romance, The Loves of Ttieagenes and Chariclea, the worthy sacristan snatched the volume from his hands and threw it into the fire. A second copy underwent the same fate ; but the third young Jean brought himself to the ascetic master, saying : u You may put this in the fire too, for now I have it all by heart." This little story is valuable, as indicating charac- ter. It shows the eager bent of his mind toward art, the sweetness of his temper, and the resolute- ness of his wiU. It also indicates the natural revolt of youth and warm blood against the spirit of as- ceticism. Good men who unhappily lack imagina- tion are still to be found setting their faces against the healthy instincts of nature, under the delusion that joy and sin are nearly related. His first literary venture, being coupled with the adroitness of the born courtier, was a success. On the marriage of the young king with the Spanish Infanta, he wrote an ode called La Nymphe de la Seine, which struck the fancy of Chapelain, favorite poet of the court, who recommended it to the notice of the minister, Colbert. Racine received a purse Racine. 117 of a hundred louis, and afterward a pension of six hundred livres. But, in spite of this invitation given him by fortune to adopt the career of court-poet, his uncle, who held a high ecclesiastical position at Uzes in Languedoc, put before him such strong induce- ments to wait for Church-preferment, that he yielded and went to live with his kinsman. Systematic theology, however, proved to the born poet as dry a study, as the ascetic habits of Port Royal had been uncomfortable practice. He returned to Paris. There, with Boileau and La Fontaine already his friends, he began his dramatic career. His first acted tragedy was Les Frtres Ennemis, played in 166-i. It is founded on that stern story set forth by the great dramatists of Athens in the Seven Against T/iebes and the Antigone, the fatal struggle between Eteocles and Polynikes. But, able as 'the play was, the representation of hot and furious hatred did^not suit well Racine's essentially tender spirit. If was the influence of Corneille which dominated over this first offering to the stage. His next piece, Alexandre, gave too ample evi- dence of the natural leaning of Racine's mind toward the exhibition of tender passion rather than vehement action. Corneille, to whom he read it before representation, told him: "I judge by this play that your talent is eminently poetic, not dra- matic." Even Boileau, his devoted friend and counsellor, did not scruple to criticise severely the transformation of the splendid conqueror into a love-sick and languishing young Frenchman. About this time his relations with the Church obtained him the presentation to the priory of Epinay ; but, his claim being disputed, a lawsuit followed, which he afterward found useful in fur- nishing material for his comedy of the Plaideurs. Hardly was he free from the entanglements of the law, when he became involved in a quarrel 118 French Literature. with the Port Royal community. Soic from a letter of remonstrance on the life he was leading, written him by his aunt, he took offence at a pas- sage in a criticism of the Jansenist of Port Royal. Pierre Nicole, on Desmaret's worthless work on the Apocalypse, in which criticism the composition of novels and plays was discredited as irreligious and prejudicial to morality. Taking Nicole's cen- sure as specially designed for him, so lately rebuked by his Port Royalist aunt, he made a hot and able reply to it. To this Nicole made no retort, but the cudgels were taken up by three others of the Port Royal community. Racine prepared a second letter, but Boileau, his staunch friend, dissuaded him from publishing it, saying: "This letter will do honor to your ability, but not to your heart. You bitterly attack here men of great merit, to whom you owe no little of what you are." Boileau's warm, frank friendship was through life verv useful to Racine, and Racine repaid it with unceasing trust and fervent gratitude. He said to Boileau on his death-bed : " I look upon it as a happiness to die before you." He owed much more to Boileau than this moder- ating touch of the satirist on his shoulder when he was in the act of charging down upon the instruc- tors of his youth. For Boileau was his able and calm censor and critic, and to his judicious counsel he owed that spirit of careful selection which made his language so pure and at the same time so rich. It is true, there are other charms about Racine which native genius alone could form, but to the constant watchfulness of Boileau over his style was due some share even in that intellectual lucidity, that exquisite delicacy of feeling which the clean style so well expressed. The first work which exhibited these high quali- ties and the further gifts of orderly plot, consistent characterization, and general fidelity to the man- ners of the age portrayed, was the Andro?naque } Racine. 119 which appeared in 1667. This was Racine's first marked success, and it was the advent upon the stage of the tragedy founded upon love. Corneille had painted moral grandeur. Racine painted now the heart's alternate transports and agonies, exciting a pathetic interest which moved even more deeply and universally than the lofty themes of the elder dramatist. In the Hermione of this play, that great actress, Mademoiselle Champmesle for whom he afterwards created the character of Phodre, made her first appearance. Racine's next play was suggested by the amuse- ment he had afforded his friends, Boileau, La Fon- taine, Chapelle, and Furetiere, at an entertainment, by his description of the trial which had put an end to his project of taking holy orders. His re- cital produced such merriment, that they insisted upon his making a comedy of the incidents he had described. Thus was produced the Plaideurs. The plot of the comedy runs thus : Monsieur Perrin Daudin, a judge in Lower Normandy, is so much in love with his profession that he has condemned his cock to be beheaded for not waking him up one morn- ing early enough, accusing the poor bird of having been bribed to this act of negligence. His son, Leander, convinced that he has a veritable craze, persuades the porter, Petit Jean, to keep him con- fined to the house and to let no law-pleadings come near him. He escapes, however, out of the window, but is secured again by his son, his secre- tary, and Petit Jean ; and Leander now consults with the secretary about delivering a letter in disguise to Isabelle, daughter to Chicaneau, a client as crazy as the judge. At this point Chicaneau enters, and is soon joined by the Countess Pimbesche. Both are anxious to consult the judge. The lady is very litigious, has been at law forthirty years, and yet com- plains that there now remain to her only four or five trifling cases, one against her husband, one against her 120 French Literature. father, one against her children, buo has ample provision made for her, " but," she asks, " what is life without Law ? " Chicaneau also tells his grievances, beginning with the rolling of an ass's colt in his meadow fifteen or twenty years back. Suit upon suit, appeal upon appeal, had followed, until on his finally losing his cause, he was condemned to pay six thousand francs. They try to console each other, but end in a quarrel and mutual insults, which give rise to a new law-suit. Meanwhile Leander's emissary, in the disguise of a sheriff's officer, has contrived to deliver the note to Isabelle. Her father, coming in as she is read- ing it, asks what it is. She tears it up, saying it is a summons. The messenger behaves so as to get a beating from old Chicaneau, and begs him to go on with further injuries, as the action he will be able to bring will save him and his four small children from want for the rest of their lives. Chicaneau, alarmed, gets his daughter to write an apology, which she words so as to make it a full consent to her marriage with Leander. Judge Daudin, shut up in the house, now appears on the roof, and from that elevated position holds a consultation with his clients in the street. Re- moved from the house-roof, he holds forth to his audience through the grating of his cellar. At last, his son puts before him a case of a thoroughly domestic character. The dog, Citron, has abstracted a capon. Petit Jean prosecutes the case, the secre- tary defends, Leander plays audience. Petit Jean, not skilled in legal technicalities, although a prompter has on that account been assigned him, constantly makes blunders. The secretary's plead- ing wanders off to Aristotle, Pythagoras, the Corinthians, and finally to the creation of the world. "Ah !" cries the poor judge, who has in vain been trying to bring him to the point, "pass on to x Ti/rannus before him in Greek, while he gave it out to them in ready and eloquent French, llis only fault^was a tendency to 126 French Literature. severe and satirical treatment of those who attacked him. His skill in depicting the tender passions, his grace and purity of style, his facility and the ex- quisite felicity of his easy-flowing verse, his com- parative freedom from that monotonously declama- tory rhetoric which disfigures French tragedy, his masterly clearness, furnish reasons enough for the high place which is universally conceded him by his countrymen. Jnder Louis XIV. 127 X. UNDEE LOUIS XIV. LA FONTAINE said, " Moli&re is my man ; " and there was indeed the same vein of rich humor in them both, though developed in different directions. They were staunch friends through life, and they lie at this day near each other in Pere la Chaise. Geruzez says of La Fontaine's genius, " it is the flower of Gallic wit with a perfume of antiquity. He recalls Phcedrus and Horace, but he is also a result of Villon and Rabelais. In him we find blended all that is most exquisite in classic anti- quity and in the Middle Ages, and that without a trace of effort, so that he reproduces the charm of a double tradition with the air of perfect orig- inality." Jean de La Fontaine was born at Chateau-Thierry, in Champagne, in 1621. He was idle in his youth, but became a great reader when he had once dis- covered his taste for poetry. Though selfish and immoral, there was a child- like good-nature about his manner which seems to have had a singular charm for many of his most distinguished contemporaries ; and Moliere, Boileau, Racine, and Fenelon were all fond of him. He died at Paris in 1695. His earlier works were Tales and Novels in Verse (Contes et Nouvelles en Vers). But he is chiefly known by his Select Fables in Verse (Fables Choisies inises en Vers). The style of La Fontaine is inimitable in its arch sim- plicity, its merry, childlike malice, its air of cool, sardonic effrontery. His very immoralities seem like the irresponsible pranks of a Puck. 128 French Literature. His narrative is limpid in ease and grace, and he enters into the story with such zest as to give it a marvelously lifelike naturalness. His fables are such witty satires on humanity, that they have always been a delight to all ages and classes ot readers. Imagine Chaucer, in one of his merry moods, passed by some process of transmigration into the pungent spirit of Heine, and the result of the trans- fusion would be just such a delicious sub-acid frmt as La Fontaine makes among the dainties of litera- ture. In treating of the literary splendor of the age of Louis XIV., I have taken the great masters of tragedy and of comedy separately, and first after them, as was just, I have named the great fabulist, whom many French critics consider so unique as to have no true analogue in any other literature. To these must now be added a cluster of writers whose relations to one another were peculiar. There is the Due de La Rochefoucauld, whose name calls upon that of Madame de Sevigne and that of Madame de La Fayette. There is also that Paul de Gondi, who became the famous Cardinal de Retz and was the friend of Madame de Se'vigne', Corneille, Moliere, and Boileau, as well as the author of most valuable and entertaining Memoires. Both La Rochefoucauld and the Cardinal were formed, as thinkers and political writers, by their share in the troubles of the Fronde. Fran9ois, Due de La Rochefoucauld and Prince de Marsillac, was born in 1613. When the tumult- uous scenes of the Fronde were over, he gave himself up to literary pursuits, and composed his Memoires and also his better known work, called Reflections or Moral Sentences and Maxims (Reflex- ions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales), a work in which the bitter experiences he bad had of human selfishness and duplicity in a period of great dis- order and corruption only too strongly pointed his epigrammatic observations. It is to him that we Under Lows XIV. 129 owe that striking definition of hypocrisy, as " the homage that vice renders to virtue." It is to him, too, unfortunately, that we owe many a pithy maxim of Macchiavellian heartlessness, emphasiz- ing the folly of putting faith in man. He was a keen observer, but he had a wretched world to observe in the days of the Fronde. It was but natural then, that he should take the narrow view of life and trace all the springs of human action to the low motive of self-love. Setting out from this philosophic basis, most of his maxims, though often brilliant, witty, and amusingly tart, are thoroughly cynical. With all these Macchiavellian spurts of venom against human nature, La Rochefoucauld, according to the testimony of the best among his contempo- raries, was in his own character singularly chival- rous, high-minded, and honorable. One of his biog- raphers said of him, " He gave the example of all the virtues of which he would seem to deny the existence." He ridicules bravery as a madness. Yet in more than one hard-fought battle he showed all the splendid courage of his race. He says that men "in the adversity of their best friends always find something that does not displease them," and, again, " we have always sufficient strength to bear the ills of another." Yet this man, who sneered at friendship, was a devoted friend to those he loved; and of this proclaimer of man's innate selfishness, Madame de Sevigne' tells us, that in his last painful illness, he thought more of others than of himself. Cardinal de Retz, in his Memoires, tes- tifies that, in all the relations of private life, he was the honestest man of his age. This contrast between La Rochefoucauld's charac- ter and his writings is worth noting, as a warning to every man to look into his own heart as Mon- taigne did. as well as into that of his neighbor, for in this instance the hearts into which the brilliant duke looked wer far meaner than his own, and 9 130 French Literature, the reflections they caused him to make worked incalculable injury to his country. Voltaire tells 'is, that the book which most contributed to form the taste of the French nation was these very Max- ims of La Eochefoucauld ; and thousands of ob- serving historical-critics concur in assuring us that this taste for brilliant mockery of man's nature, this spirit of disbelief in virtue, had more to do with bringing on the great Eevolution than any other one thing. In that time of horror La Roche- foucauld's descendant perished. One of La Rochefoucauld's dearest friends was Madame de La Fayette (1623-1693), a woman of charming wit and irreproachable character. Be- fore knowing La Rochefoucauld, she had already written Za'ide, a romance of pure imagination. In her later work, La Princesse de C&ves, she mingled with the fiction a large share of the life around her. The scene is laid in the time of Henri II., but it is really the court of Louis XIV. that appears under thin disguises. Madame de Montespan is painted in the character of the Duchesse de Yalentinois. The Duchesse D'0rle*ans appears masquerading as the young Queen of Scotland, Fran9ois II.'s wife. La Fayette is masked as the Prince de Cleves, and La Rochefoucauld as the Due de Nemours. Guizot says: "This delicate, elegant, and virtuous tale, with its pure and refined style, enchanted the court, which recognized itself at its best and painted under its brightest aspect." The Princesse de Cloves had a great success. It was a new order of romance. While the court and characters of Louis XIV. have been transferred to the days of Henri II. and Francois II., the historical events of the earlier time have been kept unchanged, and there is a tone of truth and nature about the work which gives it a high place as an artistic creation. Another friend of the brilliant duke's was that Madame de Sevigne', whose letters are the most famous in the world. She was herself famous in Under Louis XIV. . 131 her day, without reference to those letters on which her fame now rests. Sbe was full of charm ; lively, tender, sympathetic, witty, good, perfectly natural and unaffected, she kept many friends and made no enemies. One of her critics says of her, that so happy, pure, and sensible was her nature, Menage and Chapelain could instruct her without making her pedantic, the Hotel Rambouillet could enrich her code of propriety with maxims of social manners without spoiling her clearness of perception, the friendship of Port Royal could be assured her with- out her sharing in the austerity of that school, and she could even undergo the slanders of Bussy- Rabutin without losing her fair fame or her good temper. Madame de La Fayette said that her wit really dazzled the eyes. One can well believe even this apparent extravagance, so charmingly does her love of fun bubble up and sparkle as it runs over every here and there in her letters, and her eyes seem to dance with delight as she sketches with felicitous touches some absurd scene that she has witnessed and laughed at merrily. She must have been a refreshing companion, so unquenchable was her gayety, and so buoyant her spirits. In her letters there is endless variety, sparkling wit, ani- mated narrative, arch humor, keen observation, warmth of feeling, force and weight of reflection. She is never tedious ; whatever her subject, she is always entertaining. She was independent, too, and never ceased to let fall thoughts that were little in accordance with the air of that abject court in which despotism had become firmly seated in the person of Louis XIV. Her faithfulness to old ties was shown in her never- concealed attachment to the Arnaulds, her prefer- ence for Corneille when Racine had become the popular idol, her constant kindness to Cardinal de Retz. It is from a letter of hers to her daughter in 1672, that we learn how the literary men of the day gathered around the old hero of the Fronde 132 French Literature. in spite of his political disgrace. ' Jorneille," says she, " has read him a piece which will be played shortly, and which recalls the ancients. Moliere will read him Saturday his Trissotrin, which is a very merry thing. Despreaux [Boileau] will give him his Lutrin and his Art of Poetry. There is all one can do to please him." Before we tarn to De Retz, it will be well for me to gather in a brief paragraph the principle facts of this gifted woman's life. Marie de Rabutin- Chantal (1626-1696) was born at Paris. She was the only daughter of Celse-Benigne de Rabntin, Baron du Chantal, and his wife, Marie de Coulanges. Left early an orphan, she was brought up by the abbe de Coulanges, her mother's brother. Menage taught her Latin, Italian, and Spanish; Chapelain also assisted in training her mind. At eighteen she was married to the Marquis Henri de Sevigne, of an ancient family of Brittany. He was not a good husband in any way, but she was not long troubled with him, as in about seven years after their union he was killed in a duel. She now devoted herself to the education of her son and daughter. When she at last returned to Paris, the most distinguished men of the day paid their court to her ; but she steadily declined all offers of marriage. Her affec- tion for her daughter seems to have been her strongest passion. This daughter having married the Comte de Grignan, Governor of Provence, was obliged to part from her mother. It is to this separation that we owe that unrivaled series of letters, which gives us so faithful a picture of court, capital, and provincial life in that remarkable age. The loving mother died of small-pox, while on a visit to her daughter at the Chateau de Grignan. At the time Madame de Sevigne wrote that letter in which she related how Corneille, Moliere, and Boileau were joining in the effort to entertain the fallen statesman, Cardinal de Retz had given him- self up to literary recreations. He had begun those Under Louis XIV. .133 Memoires, which recount the events and depict the characters of the Fronde. Paul de Gondi (1614-1679) was not meant by nature for an ecclesiastic. The traditions and rules of a great family forced him into orders, that he might be bishop of Paris in the place of a brother who had died. It was to no purpose that he fought duels, carried off an heiress, conspired against Kichelieu ; he had to abide by his vocation. But he devoted himself to politics, aspired to be the chief of a party, conducted the intrigues of the Fronde, and had finally to succumb to the growing strength of the monarchy. His Memoires are full of admirable reflections based on his experience in politics. They abound also in finely drawn por- traits of the characters of his time. Having now given some account of the chief literary lights of the age of Louis XIV., I have reached the point where it is fitting to bring forward the great critic of that period, whose satires were to lay down the principles of good taste and to cast ridicule upon the writers who violated them. This was Boileau, who, while his genius bears some resemblance to that of Horace, has on the whole more points of affinity with Pope. Nicolas Boileau-Despre'aux (1636-1711) was born at Paris. He tried law and theology in suc- cession, but finally gave himself up wholly to litera- ture. His works were the Satires, the Epttres, the Art poetique, and Lutrin. In the first, he declared war on all bad writers, and especially covered with ridicule the taste for Spanish emphasis, Italian concetti and plays on words, the sentimental jargon of the precieuses, and the buffoonery and license which were defacing literature at the beginning of his career, when Chapelain was still the leading court poet and Scarron the favorite writer of comedy. Boileau, as a poet, lacks freshness, grace, and joyousness. But he makes up for these deficiencies 134: French Literature. by good sense, pure taste, and the propriety, force, and correctness of Ins style. The Epistles are superior to the Satires. Their versification is stronger, sweeter, and more flexible. The Art of Poetry is based on Horace's work of the same name. It summed up the laws of poetry, and in- deed of good writing in general, for that generation, and formed the literary creed of the seventeenth century. It is expressed in easy and elegant verses. Boileau, less gifted than Corneille, Moliere Kacine, and La Fontaine, possessing neither cre- ative imagination nor lyrical enthusiasm, and lack- ing also deep sensibility, was useful to his more gifted friends in curbing their exuberance and di- recting their taste. His Lutrin, a comic epic in six cantos, may be compared with Pope's similar effort, The Rape of the Lock, by many considered the most charming of his poems. Boileau's letters are also of great value, twenty of them having been addressed to Racine, and all of them giving much information about the liter- ary history of the time. Their chief value, how- ever, consists in the confirmation they furnish of the high character which his contemporaries give of Boileau. We see by these letters, how pure, generous, and high-minded, how impulsive and warm-hearted this keen satirist was. When, on the death of the minister Colbert, orders were given to stop Corneille's pension, Boileau flew to the king, made an earnest remonstrance against the ungenerous course of the government, and threatened to resign his own pension, if Corneille's were not restored. He was just as bold in his de- nunciation of the persecution directed against the nuns of Port Royal and the noble Arnauld. He helped his friends out of pecuniary embarrassments, reconciled some who had quarreled, gave good ad- vice to Racine, nnd was on friendly terms with the most opposite parties. Among those whom Boileau satirized more se- Under Louis XIV. 135 verelv than, in the judgment of some later critics, their faults deserved were Br^beuf and Quinault. Brebeuf had some ability. His Pharsale is still considered the most faithful translation of Lucan's historical epic. His religious poetry, too, is praised by Geruzez. As for Quinault, his rivalry with Racine had something to do with the rigor of Boileau's criticism. His Aslarte was a tragedy of great merit. His comedies, Les Rivales and La Mere Coquette, still hold their place in collections illustrative of French Comedy. His great operas, Armide, Atys, and others, set to music by Lully, were the productions of a master in that style of dramatic production. His rank, according to mod- ern critics, is just below that of the most eminent dramatists. His skill lies in softening hearts, en- chanting the imagination, delighting the ear with the melody of his verse. Voltaire even goes so far as to claim for him a place by the side of the great masters. Brebeuf lived from 1618 to 1661; Quinault, from 1637" to 1688. A successor to the Countess de La Fayette as romancer and to Moliere as dramatist was Jean Fran9ois Regnard (1655-1709), who traveled exten- sively in early life. In Italy he met the Eloise whom he celebrates in his novel La Provenqale. Taken by Algerine pirates, he passed two years in Constantinople as a captive. As a dramatist his rank is very high. His best plays are Le Joueur, Les Folies, and Le Legataire universel. He also wrote an account of his travels. Another group that helped greatly to give lustre to the age of Louis XIV. was that of the great preachers. The Church at no period of French history showed such splendor of eloquence as in this reign. Churchmen of great intellectual power had before this time found in politics a tempting sphere for activity. But the instinct of monarch- ical prudence now kept them out of this field, in which Richelieu, Mazarin, and De Retz had so long 136 French Literature. displayed their abilities. The result was the trans- fer of all the ability in the Church to the more legitimate domain of pulpit eloquence. It was largely to this change in the social conditions that France owed the magnificent prose of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fenelon, and Massilon. In the order of time, as well as in that of genius, Bossuet holds the first place. Jacques Benigne Bossuet (1627-170-i) was born at Dijon. Profoundly versed in theology, trained in the philosophy of Des Cartes, disputant against the Protestants, main agent in securing the freedom of the Gallican Church from the aggressions of the Papal See, opponent of Fenelon in the controversy about the Quietists, author of a great number of polemical writings, and of a universal history down to the time of Charlemagne, his life was one of ceaseless activity. His master-pieces, however, were his funeral sermons on the decease of great personages, and these have always been held to be magnificent specimens of pulpit eloquence. Bourdaloue was of the school of Bossuet, and the abbe Maury said of him that he was one of the fin- est of Bossuet's works. Louis Bourdaloue (1632- 1704) was born at Bourges. Like Bossuet, he was in character sound and true to the core, and his elo- quence was such as to make men forget how great had been that of his brilliant predecessor. Madame de Sevigne' said that she went to hear him more eagerly than she attended the grand festivals of the court, though she leaned to the school of Port Eoyal, and Bourdaloue was of the Society of Jesus. Yet he had recourse to none of the means of attrac- tion furnished by impassioned declamation or ornate language. His style was simple and direct. Clear reasoning and perfect order in the arrange- ment of his thoughts formed his principal charm. Voltaire styles Bossuet and Fenelon the Eagle and the Swan. In treating of Bossuet, I have al- ready mentioned, in passing, the contest between Under Louis XIV. 137 the Eagle and the Swan. Let us see what a close observer, whose memoirs were not published unti 7 many years after liis death, has to tell us of thi; Swan, and try to seize the secret of his charm : " That prelate," says the Due de St. Simon, " was a tall thin man, well-made, pale, with a large nose, eyes whose fire and intelligence shot out like a torrent, and a countenance the like of which I have never seen any- where and which no one who had once seen it could ever forget. In it were gathered all things, and the contraries it expressed were not at war with one another. There was in it gravity and gallantry, seriousness and gaiety ; it had a trace equally of the doctor, the bishop, and the great lord ; what was diffused over it and over his whole person, was refinement, wit, the graces, delicacy, and, above all, nobility. It required an effort to cease gazing upon him. One could not leave him, nor resist him, nor fail to seek him again. It is this gift, so rare and which he had in so high a degree, which kept all his friends so attached to him throughout his life, in spite of his fall, and which, when they were scattered, drew them together again to talk of him, to regret him, long for him, hold themselves more and more attached to him, with the love of the Jews for Jerusalem, and to sigh for his return and hope always, as that unhappy people still expect and sigh for the Messiah." Such a picture reveals to us a man of singular lovableness, and is the best answer to the cvnical philosophy of the good Due de La Rocnefou- cauld. The longing of Fenelon's friends for his return, of which St. Simon speaks, was never to be grati- fied. He died in exile from the court, being re- stricted to the limits of his diocese of Cambrai. Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon (1651- 1715) was born in the chateau Fenelon, province of Pe'rigord. To beginners in the study of French he is generally well known as the author of Telemaque, that classical romance, which he wrote for the in- struction of Louis's grandson, the young Duke of 138 French Literature. Burgundy, in the duties of a prince to his people. He was fond of this work of education, and his first publication was a treatise on the Education of Girls. As to the Telemaque, Macaulay has well observed that, low as its place may be in the list of prose epics or of works on politics and morals, it is, when we consider the spirit of the age in which it was written, one of the most original works that have ever appeared. " No person," Macaulay goes on to say, " will do justice to Fe'nelon, who does not constantly bear in inind that Telemachus was written in an age and nation in which bold and independent thinkers stared to hear that twenty mil- lions of human beings did not exist for the gratification of one. That work is commonly considered as a school book, very fit for children, because its style is easy and it morality blameless ; but unworthy of the attention of statesmen and philosophers. We can distinguish in it, if we are not greatly mistaken, the first faint dawn of a long and splendid day of intellectual light, the dim promise of a great deliverance, the undeveloped germ of the charter and of the code." Louis himself, at least, seems to have felt in- stinctively the danger of such sentiments to absolute monarchy, for Fenelon's final fall from court-favor was due to the publication of Telemaque from a copy stolen by a servant. Fenelon had outlived the results of his contest with Bossuet about the doctrines of Madame Guyon and her followers, the Quietists. He had submitted to the decision of Rome against him, and the storm had blown over. But the appearance of Telemaque roused the jealous king's hottest anger. He looked on the book as a satire on his court. Sesostris was Louis himself; Calypso, Madame de Montespan ; Protesilaus, the minister Louvois ; Eucharis, Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Younger than Fenelon, and resembling nim some- Under Louis XIV. what in independence of thought, Massillon come* on the stage of public fame as the immediate suc- cessor of Bourdaloue in renown for pulpit-oratorj. Bourdaloue, when he heard of his first brilliant efforts, quoted from Scripture the passage: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663-1742) was born at Hieres. Like Bourdaloue, he aimed to influence his hearers by naturalness of style and impressive- ness of manner. Louis XIV. gave a striking criti- cism of his peculiar power as a preacher, when he said that in hearing other preachers lie felt satisfied with them, but in hearing Massillon he felt dissatis- fied with himself. Physically as well as mentally he was well qualified for his vocation, having an imposing majesty in his manner, a penetrating voice, and great animation in his delivery when he reached the more impassioned passages of his sermons. The name of Massillon closes the list of the great preachers of this age. Fenelou did not preach as often as Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Massillon ; but his few sermons were of great merit. There were others, Mascaron, Flechier, La Rue, and Cheminais, who, beside any less shining examples of pulpit- oratory, would have borne the name and fame of great orators. There were, also, among the Protestants, Claude, Beausobre, and Saurin, whose learning and eloquence were recognized even by their opponents. Esprit Flechier (1632-1710), besideshis deservedly high reputation as a preacher, merits especial honor for his gentleness to the Protestants, when, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he used hii authority as Bishop of Nismes in the spirit of tolera- tion, conciliation, and charity. In philosophy, this period produced Malebranche as the successor of Des Cartes, and La Bruyere as its moralist. Nicolas Malebranche (1631-1715) was born at Paris. His great work was his De la Recherche de 140 French Literature. la Verite, or The Search after Truth, in which h built up a system of mystic idealism. In his view, God is the place of spirits, as space is the place of bodies; the human soul lives in Him, and from Him draws its life and light, and according to its purity of origin from this source does it see the essence of truth. Whatever may be said of the metaphysics of Malebranche, the critics are agreed in commending his style as precise, luminous, and flexible. Jean de La Bruyere's fame rests upon a single work, "The Characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, with the Characters or the Morals of this Age" (Les Caracteres de Theophraste, traduits du Grec, avec les Caracteres ou les Mceurs de ce Siecle), in which he gives delicate and subtle deline- ations of the characters of the men and women of his day. He was born at Dourdan, in Normandy, in 1639, and died in 1696. The scholars of the period were Baluze, Monfau- con, Mabillon, Tillemont, and Ducange. The his- torians were Pellisson, author of the Histoire de Louis XIV., Mezerai, author of the Histoire de France; Perefixe, author of the Histoire de Henri IV; Maimbourg, who wrote accounts of the Cru- sades and of the League; Varillas; Saint-Re'al; Daniel; Dorldans; Rapin Thoyras; Vertot; the Comte de Boulainvilliers ; and the Abbe" Fleury. It was in this age also, that Pierre Bayle (1647- 1706) put forth his remarkable Dictionnaire His- torique et Critique. It had been preceded by Louis Moreri's similar work, and also by Thomas Cor- neille's Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences. Bayle had passed from Protestantism to Romanism and then back again to Protestantism ; had written many controversial works, mainly in advocacy of the principles of toleration; had become a professor of philosophy in Rotterdam, and had there become involved in controversies with leading Protestant writers, especially with the theologian, Jurieu. He Under Lout's XIV. lii was an independent thinker, and the uncompromis- ing bigotry of tbe rival Churches with which lie had to deal led him to skepticism. His style is clear, but he indulges in endless digressions. His Dictionary, being proscribed in Holland and France, naturally obtained a wide circulation in both coun- tries. It has had a great influence on the literature and philosophy of Europe. Bayle's private char- acter was excellent. During the latter years of this reign, the Due de Saint-Simon was secretly writing his Memoires. But, as he continued his observations into the next reign, the consideration of them will be more fit- tingly taken up in another part of this sketch. Here should be mentioned Montfleury (1640- 1685), the son of an actor and himself a famous actor, as well as author of several comedies, La Femme Jv.ije et Partie, La Fille Capitaine, and L'Ecole du Jaloux. La Fontaine, too, as a writer of comedy, deserves a. separate mention. Le Flo- rentin, a little piece written to sting Lulli, who had rejected an opera of his in favor of Quinault's Alceste, was his only comedy that took a perma- nent place on the French stage. Boursault (1658 1701) had a great success with his Le Hercure yalant, Esope a la cour, and fisope a la ville. His Les Mots d la mode makes fun of words newly brought in by fashion. Baron (1655-1729) has been mentioned in the sketch of Moliere. He wrote comedies with less ability than he played them. Of seven, the Homme d bonne fortune alone has kept the stage. 142 French Literature. XL UNDEE LOUIS XV. Before taking a final leave of the age of Louis XIV., it will be well to mention briefly a few writers, not heretofore named, who properly belong to it : Charles Perrault (1628-1703) is chiefly known now by his exquisite Fairy Tales. He was, how- ever, the author of many other and more serious works. His famous controversy with Boileau, on the respective merits of the ancients and moderns, originated in a poem which he read before his fellow Academicians, entitled Le Sibcle de Louis le Grand or The Age of Louis the Great, in which he con- tended that modern authors were greater than the most eminent of the Greek and Roman writers. He seconded this poetical claim for the moderns by the publication of a learned treatise, entitled Par- allele des Ancients et des Modernes, or Parallel be- tween the Ancients and Moderns. Boileau at- tacked him and his propositions in his Reflections on ^LoTLg\rms, (Reflexions sur Longin\ to which Per- rault replied by his Defence of Women (Apologie des Femmes). This controversy led Perrault to make a special study of his contemporaries, which induced him to write his Hommes Illustres du Sttcle de Louis XIV., or Illustrious Men of the Age of Louis XIV. This work contains two hundred critical biographies. The silly controversy about the merits of the ancients and moderns, having passed over into England and engaged the pens of Temple, Boyle, Bentley, Atterbury, and others, finally gave us Swift's Battle of the Books. In his old age Perrault produced the charming Under Louis XV. 143 Contes des Fees, which he was stimulated to write by the delight inspired in himself and his little friends by the Neapolitan tales of Signer Basile's Pentamerone. Bluebeard, The Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Riquet with the Tuft, and Little Red Hiding Hood are among these pleasant creations, or rather revivals of old folk-lore. Another author of pleasing fairy-tales was the Comtesse d'Aunoy (1650-1705), to whom we owe The Yellow Dwarf, The White Cat, and Cherry and Fair Star. Her sentimental novels, Hippolyte and Comte de Dug las have passed into oblivion, and her historical memoirs are not considered trust- worthy. Along with these should be mentioned Madame Villeneuve's Conies Marines, published in 1740, in which appeare.d the charming story of Beauty and the Beast. Two oriental scholars, D'Herbelot and Galland, deserve mention as aiding in the delightful task of entertaining the young? Barthelemy d'Herbelot (1625-1 695) was professor of Syriac in the College of France. His Biblio- thZque Orientale, or Eastern Library, was published after his death by Galland. This work contained a great store of information about the manners and customs and legends of the Arabians, Persians, and Turks, from which writers fond of the marvelous drew their material for a vast number of oriental tales. Among these may be mentioned the Persian Tales, of Petit de la Croix, and Gueullette's Tartar Tales, Chinese Tales, and Mongol Tales. But by far the richest collection was Galland's translation of the famous Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Antoine Galland (1646-1715) was a distinguished orientalist and numismatist. Accompanying the French ambassador, Nointel, to Constantinople, he made some travel in the East, and, after twice again visiting those lands, he became professor of Arabic in the College of France. Besides his great trans- lation, he wrote several works on the East and on 144 French Literature. numismatics, a collection of Eastern sayings, and The Indian Tales and Fables of Bidpai and Lok- man. The wonderful tales of the Thousand and one Nights were at first thought to be the invention of Galland's own genius, in spite of his assertion that they were translated from the Arabic. But it has long ago been well ascertained that they are genu- ine Arabian tales, though probably originating from various sources, Indian, Persian, Arabian, and even perhaps, in some cases, Greek. The Baron de Sacy's opinion as to the origin of the book is thus stated : "It appears to me that it was originally written in Syria, and in the vulgar dialect ; that it was never com- pleted by its author; that, subsequently, imitators en- deavored to perfect the work, either by the insertion of novels already known, but which formed no part of the original collection, or by composing some themselves, with more or less talent, whence arise the great varia- tions observable among the different MSS. of the collec- tion ; that the inserted tales were added at different periods, and perhaps in different countries, but chiefly in Egypt ; and, lastly, that the only thing which can be affirmed, with much appearance of probability, in regard to the time when the work was composed, is that it is not very old, as its language proves, but still that, when it was brought out, the use of tobacco and coffee was un- known, since no mention of either is made in the work." Louis the Great left behind him a widow who did not long survive him. This remarkable woman, Francoise D'Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719), born in a prison; grand -daughter of the great Huguenot captain, and destined to be the greatest enemy of the Huguenots ; glad to escape from poverty by marrying at the age of sixteen the crippled Scarron ; in her widowhood rearing the children of Louis XIV. by his mistress Madame de Montespan ; fascinating the monarch and becoming his wife because she would not be his mistress; Under Louis XV. 145 unhappy in the midst of splendor and power this singular child or varying fortunes and of a charac- ter in which good and evil were curiously mingled, belongs to literature through her letters, published in nine volumes nearly half a century after death. They are written with much skill and evince in- tellectual powers of no common order, but differ from most French letters in being serious and reflective. The Rtine de Golconde, or Queen of Golconda, of the Chevalier de Boufflers (1644-1711) ought to be mentioned, as well as his Lettres a sa Afore, as grace- fully written and pleasing. He was also the author of many little pieces of gay poetry. David Augustin Drueys (1640-1733) renovated the old farce of Patelin, and also, in conjunction with Jean Palaprat, produced two works, Le Grand- eur and Le Muet. When Louis XIV. died (1715), his great-grand- son came to the throne with the title of Louis XV.; but the government was for seven years conducted by Philippe, Due D'Orleans, as Regent. The Car- dinal Dubois, who had been Philippe's tutor and had corrupted his character, became prime minis- ter. France was brought to the verge of ruin by the Regent's folly in authorizing the financial schemes of John Law, the Scottish adventurer. The de- bauchery which the Regent had made fashiona- ble continued to characterize the court of the King after he began his personal reign. Ruled in succes- sion by Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, Louis engaged in inglorious wars, made bad alliances and humiliating treaties of peace, coerced the Parlements, exhausted the resources of the country to enrich vile favorites, and left his grand- son, Louis XVI., a heritage of hatred which kept steadily gathering into the storm which was to sweep away all the old institutions of the land. To this dissolute period belongs the poet, Jean- Baptiste Rousseau (1670-1741), who must not be 10 146 French Literature. confounded with the sentimental Jean Jacques. He produced religious poems and licentious epigrams with the same facility. He belonged to a school which is traceable to Chapelle, the father of French epicurean poetry. Chapelle (1626-1684), the con- temporary of Moliere, Racine, and Boileau, indoc- trinated into the taste for voluptuous song the Abbe* de Chaulieu and the Marquis de la Fare, and these led J. B. Eousseau astray. Chaulieu (1639-1720) became a veritable pagan in sentiment, and was called the Anacreon of the Temple. There is much charm in his poems. La Fare (1644-1712) was inferior as a poet to Chau- lieu, but he wrote Memoir es, of which historians have gladly availed themselves. J. B. Rousseau, who followed these poets in their epicurean vein, produced also fine odes of admir- able harmony, and was the introducer of the can- tata into French literature. He also attempted the opera, but was driven from this field by the successes of Danchet, La Motte, and Fontenelle. Madame Dacier, the learned lady of this age who edited so many classical works, had a hot contro- versy with La Motte on the merits of Homer; and La Motte is better remembered by the wit which he displayed in this controversy than by his poetry. Fontenelle came to La Motte's assistance in this af- fair, while Rousseau warmly espoused the other side. But this was an insignificant incident in the career of Fontenelle. He was a man of much greater force than those with whom I have just grouped him. Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757), the nephew of the two Corneilles, Pierre and Thomas, at first followed them in the dramatic ca- reer. But his Aspar and Idalie having failed, he betook himself to other literary fields. Besides his Entretiens sur la pluralite des Mondes, his Histoire des Oracles, his Histoire de V Academic des Sciences, his Eloyes des Savants^ and other scholarly and sci- Under Louis XV. 147 entific works, he produced Psyche, Bellerophon, and other operas, a musical and dramatic pastoral called Endymion, and a number of comedies, fables, and epigrams. At the age of ninety-two he still wrote madrigals, and when he lay on his death-bed, hav- ing almost completed his hundredth year, he uttered his last bon mot, saying: "I do not suffer, my friends; but I feel a sort of difficulty in living any longer." He was a great social favorite. One of those ladies, who delighted to be numbered among his friends was Madame de Staal, whose piquant Memoires reveal to us the life of that little court of the Duchesse du Maine at Sceaux, which was in opposition to the court of the Regent. Another of his lady friends was that Marquise de Lambert, whose salon was open to him in Paris, and whom we know as a moralist through her Conseils ad- dressed to her son and daughter. Quite apart from these shunners of the dissolute revelry of the Regent's court was one who had be- longed always to that gay circle of which Bussy- Rabutin and Saint- Evremond were fair specimens. This was the Comte de Hamilton. He and Saint- Evremond were both about equally French and English at different periods of their lives. Saint- Evremond's wit had got him into trouble and forced him to spend his last years in England. Hamil- ton's fate was also, from other causes, to make him divide his life between France and England. Antoine, Comte de Hamilton (1646-1720), sprung from the illustrous Scottish family of that name, was born in Ireland. Brought up in France during the English Revolution, he returned to London at the Restoration. The Revolution of 1688 drove him again to France, where he passed the thirty years he was still to live. Although a for- eigner, he is ranked with the leading French mem- oir-writers, on account of his Memoires du Cheva- lier de Grammont, his brother-in-law. This work is a sprightly and witty picture of the dissolute 148 French Literature. court of Charles II. of England. Hamilton carries to perfection the art of relating little trifles in such a way as to give them importance. His badinage, less elegant than Voltaire's is perhaps more charm- ing, because more natural. His style is character- ized by French critics, as having all the ease and grace of the best conversation. The coolness with which he narrates the foul and sometimes inhuman incidents, which made up the life of that shameless court of the Kestoration, is perhaps the strongest evidence we can have of the utter corruption of heart and mind which then debased the society in which royalty moved, both in France and Eng- land. Turning to the theatre, we find this intermediate period which fills the gap between Moliere and Yoltaire filled by Destouches, Crebillon, Lesage, Lafosse, La Grange-Chancel, and Marivaux. Destouches (1680-1754) was particularly success- ful in the comedy of character. Le Glorieux is pronounced by Geruzez to be almost a masterpiece, and Le Philosophe marie to be but little inferior to Le Glorieux. Crebillon, the dramatist, must be distinguished from his son, the romancer, whom Sterne bantered for a contest in which each should try to shock the public by indecency more strikingly than his rival. The elder Crebillon made his sensations by an appeal to another vulgar taste of human nature. Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon (1674-1762) was born at Dijon. His tragic vein was not deficient in blood at least. He took pleasure in painting crime, and his Electre, Atree, Idomenee, are all trag- edies of the frightful kind. His Rhadamiste et Zenobie had a great success, and is considered by French critics as really fine, true to nature and ter- rible at the same time. About this time Lesage produced his Turcaret. He had already written his satirical romance, Le Diable boiteux. Under Louis XV. 149 Alain Rene Lesage (1668-1747) was born at Sarzeau, in what is now the department of Morbi- han. From a lawyer he became a writer. Turca- ret was so bitter a satire on the financiers of the day, that he is said to have been offered 100,000 francs to suppress it, but he refused to do so. His great work, however, was the immortal Gil Bias of Santillane. There he paints human nature at large, and the keenness of observation, wit, fertility of invention, variety and picturesqueness of the in- cidents, are only equaled by the ease and anima- tion of the style. But there was another student of human nature, who was at this time recording in private his ob- servations in a very different mood and in a differ- ent manner, thougn with as trenchant a burin. This was the Due de Saint-Simon, who spent his last years in composing those Memoires, which are among the finest in French literature. Louis de Rouvroi, Due de Saint-Simon, (1675- 1755) belonged to a noble family which claimed descent from Charlemagne. Pride was the master- principle of his character, his ruling passion through life. Fanatical on the subject of aristocratic rights and privileges, he was as hostile almost to the court as to the middle class of society. " He was as nearly," says Macaulay, " an oppositionist as any man of his time. His disposition was proud, bitter, and cynical. In religion he was a Jansenist : in politics, a less hearty royalist than most of his neighbors. His opinions and his temper had pre- served him from the illusions which the demeanor of Louis produced on others. He neither loved nor respected the King." If such were his feelings toward Louis XI V., they were even more unfriendly to the infamous governments which came after the great monarch. To such a man it was a dark joy to paint the true characters of those whom he looked upon daily with scorn. Pluming himself on his penetra- 150 French Literature tion, and enjoying with an artist's rapture the skill with which he could secretly transfer in burning words to his manuscript the conceptions which his mind had formed of the characters revealing them- selves unconsciously before that questioning eye, he produced for later generations a vast gallery of pen-pictures which vividly illustrate that age of vice and worthlessness. "The Due de Saint-Simon," says Bulwer-Lytton, "is partly the Tacitus, partly the Juvenal of the old French regime. Of his style it may be said, as it was of Ter- tullian's, that 'it is like ebony, ^at once dark and splendid.' He stands amid the decay of a perishing social system. The thorough rot of the old regime is clear to his sancti- monious and solemn eye, through 4he cracks of the satin- wood which veneers its worm-eaten substance and bungled joinery. I am far from saying that men, on the whole, were rather good than otherwise, and women, on the whole, rather better than the men, in the world which Saint-Simon knew; but his world was very contracted. His personal vanity served to contract it still more. Marmontel said of him, ' that all which he saw in the nation was the noblesse ; all that he saw in the noblesse was the peer- age; and all that he saw in the peerage was himself an exaggerated judgment, as definitions of character con- densed into sarcasms usually are, but not without a large foundation of truth." The Souvenirs of Madame de Caylus describe the same society. Marthe Marguerite de Villette de Murcay, Marquise de Caylus (1673-1729) was a descendant of the D'Aubigne' family, converted to Eomanism by her kinswoman, Madame de Mainte- non. She was famous as a leader of society, and was complimented by Racine in the prologue to his play of Esther. Her worthless husband having died, she offended tlie King then in his highly moral stage under Madame de Maintenon's influ- ence by becoming the mistress of the Due de Ville- roi, but on the death of Madame de Maintenon she was allowed to return to the court, over which Under Louis XV. 151 the Regent and Dubois were by that time presiding. In her memoirs she testifies to Louis the XIV.'s excellence in language. We have seen Port Royal destroyed against the protests of Pascal. It left, however, three disciples, whose virtues were to prove the excellence of the school in which they were trained. These were the younger Racine, Rollin, and Daguesseau, warm friends and steady believers, in an age of faithless- ness and skepticism. Lonis Racine (1692-1763), son of Jean, was a gentle poet, more remarkable for being one of the first among his countrymen to study English liter- ature, than for his own productions, which lack vigor. He attempted the translation of Milton's Paradise Lost. Charles Rollin (1661-1741) was principal of the College of Beauvais at the time of the elder Racine's death, and it was to his care that young Louis was intrusted by -iris father. Rollin's whole life was passed in the business of education, and he was twice Rector of the University of Paris. His Histoire ancienne, though for several generations a most popular work, has been wholly superseded by the greater accuracy of modern methods in the study of history, and a philosophic treatment of the subject which never entered into the thoughts of Rollin. His utter ignorance of the principles of historical criticism makes him regard all ancient authorities as of about equal value. Villemain, however, praises him highly both as man and his- torian. Henri Frangois Daguesseau (1668-1751), Chan- cellor of France, was the great jurist of his age. He lost his high office on account of his firm oppo- sition to the wild schemes of the speculator Law. In his retirement he composed his Considerations sur les Ifonnaies and the Mtmoire sur le commerce des ac- tions de le compaynie des Indes, profound treatises on political economy. When the Mississippi scheme 152 French Literature. failed, Lh,guesseau was recalled and restored to his place. Eesisting the Regent again, when Dubois was allowed to take precedence of the Princes of the Blood, he was a second time sent to his country house at Fresne. He was, however, restored to his functions, and exercised them until when more than eighty years of age he retired from his high post. His eloquence, learning, probity, and wonderful memory are warmly praised by Saint-Simon, in a passage in which he strongly censures him for those very political virtues which to other minds and in freer lands so greatly enchance the glory of his character. To his works already mentioned should be added his Meditetions, his Metaphysiques, the Essai dune Institution au Droit Public, an unfin- ished work called Reflexions diverses sur Jesus Christ, and the famous Mercuriales. These last were set discourses, delivered either by the Procureur General or one of his substitutes, the Advocats-Gene'raux, at the opening of the terms of the Parlement. It was in the exercise of this office that Daguesseau delivered the eighteen Mer- curiales, which are published in his works. These discourses were lectures on various points of official duty, to which the Parlement was bound needfully to listen. Daguesseau's subjects are the indepen- dence of the advocate, the love of the profession, the dignity of the magistrate, and other qualities required of him. Hugh S. Legard, in the account of him which he gave in the Southern Review says: " His mind and his heart were equally and perfectly well disciplined. He had received the sort of education which metaphysicians have mentioned as the best practi- cal fruit of mental philosophy. All the powers and ca- pacities of his intellectual and moral being seem to have been cultivated with a view to its highest perfection. His was that harmony of character, the music of the well-at- tuned soul, in which the Platonists in their dreams of that perfection make it to consist. Truth and beauty eter- nal truth, the unblemished form of ideal beauty which Under Louis XV. 158 can neither vary nor fade away were never revealed in greater purity and loveliness to the vision of any man. In those admirable discourses the Mercuriahs Dagues- seau has embodied, so to speak, his conceptions of excel- lence, and not the mere naked conceptions, as a metaphy- sician might have done, but glowing with life, radiant with glory, clothed in such shapes and hues as genius is sure to bestow upon the objects of its ' desiring phantasy.' His works are justly pronounced, by his last editor, one of the best courses of lectures on rhetoric and morals, that is anywhere to be found. Throughout the whole range of his inquiries involving all the subjects that are most interesting to man as a social and responsible being religion, ethics, jurisprudence, political justice, and po- litical economy, literature, metaphysics the same en- larged views, the same refined criticism, the same sound judgment are everywhere displayed, in a style, which we cannot better characterize than by saying that it is in every respect worthy of the age of Racine and Boileau and Bossuet and Fenelon.'' Pure as Daguesseau in character, but exceedingly unlike him in judgment, was the abbe de Saint- Pierre (1658-174:3). Romantic and impracticable schemes were the dream of his life. He must not be confounded with Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the author of Paul et Virginie, who lived a century later. The Abbe de Saint-Pierre's numerous writ- ings, setting forth all sorts of projects for the ad- vancement of society and the furtherance of human happiness, have all passed out of date. But some of his ideas were carried out after the expulsion of the Bourbons from the throne. These dreams of political and social reform were supplemented by Quesnay's dissertations on political economy and Montesquieu's thoughts on the philosophy of his- tory. Frangois Quesnay (1694-1774), eminent as a phy- sician, is noted as the earliest writer on political economy and as the inventor of the term. His principal works were Maximes Generales du Gou- vernement Economique d'un Royaume Ayricole, Le 154 French Literature. Droit Naturel, Probllmes Economiques, and Dia- logues sur le Commerce et sur les Travaux des Arti- sans. He was also one of the contributors to the famous Encyclopedic, edited by D'Alembert and Diderot. Montesquieu's place in the thought of this age is a high one. His views were noble and his scope of view was wide. His learning was sufficient to serve as a basis for his sound judgment to build upon, and his imagination served him well in ena- bling him to bring charmingly witty satire to the aid of his good sense and just discrimination in the sphere of political thought. Charles de Sconedat, Baron de la B rede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was born at his father's chateau of Brede, near Bordeaux. He became early in life President of the Parlement of Bor- deaux. His first work was the famous Persian Let- ters (Lettres Persanes), a satire still diverting to the modern reader from its exquisite humor and the pungency of its criticisms of contemporary man- ners and customs, as well as from the variety of its topics. These keen thrusts at folly, sometimes taking the neatest epigrammatic form, are put into the supposed correspondence of a Persian resident in Paris. Montesquieu had been anticipated, in this idea of imagining a foreigner's surprise at the customs of the country, by Dufresny (1648-1724), the writer of comedies, in his Amusements serieux et comiques. But Montesquieu's execution of the idea is far richer, stronger, and more subtle. In invention, wit, humor of contrast, political insight, compre- hensiveness in scope of his satire, he has so enlarged and enriched the conception as to have made it fairly his own. Travel abroad, especially in England, aided greatly in enlightening Montesquieu's mind on political questions. It was after his return from England that he published the work which showed Under Louis XV. 155 the thoughtfulness and vigorof his mind ; his Causes of the Greatness and Decline of the Romans (Con- siderations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur decadence). The style of this work is marked by a sententious precision of statement which is brilliant and effective. A work, however, of fur higher aim was his Spirit of Laws(s/?n des Lois), which sought to examine and describe in a systematic manner the relation between the laws of different states and the genius and fortunes of the races constituting them. The Spirit of Laws was immensely popular, especially in England. In one part of his subject, the origin of the French monarchy, Montesquieu had been preceded by two antagonistic writers, the Cornte de Boulain villiers (1658-1722) and the Abbe Dubos (167* Metrornanie, is full of wit and fire. Both he and Gresset wrote tragedies also, but these were soon forgotten. Gresset's little poem of Vertvert is a graceful and sportive effusion. Some of his other pieces, La Chartreuse, Le Careme Impromptu, Le Lutrin Vivant, and Les Ombres, are lively and elegant poems, in which the verse flows with great ease and naturalness. Gilbert the satirist (1751-1780), who died at twenty-nine, cannot be numbered among those whom Voltaire assailed. He was an adversary to whom, for some reason, the bitter controversialist made no reply. Short as was Gilbert's career, his satire was strong enough to take a place in litera- ture. But Voltaire did not show the same forbearance toward Freron the critic (1719-1776), who in his journal made weekly assaults on the philosophy of the day, and especially on Voltaire. The epi- grams of the wits are said to have killed poor Freron, but this may be as apocryphal as the old 178 French Literature. story of the death of Keats having been hastened by hostile criticism. ' To the Abbe Guenee (1717-1803), who wrote the Le.ttres de quelques Juifs, and to the writer of comedy, Marivaux (1688-1763), Voltaire showed a more forgiving spirit, looking upon them as men of merit, whom he would be sorry to regard as en- emies. Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux was the author of many comedies, the style of which sinned by excess of fine points and straining after wit. This mannerism gave the language a new word, marivaudage. The best of his comedies were Les Fausses Confidences and Le jeu de T Amour et du Hasard. He is not deficient in depicting character, but his dialogue lacks naturalness and is too brilliant for truth to nature. In romance he succeeded better, his Mariane taking high rank among French works of fiction. He also wrote a romance called Le Paysan Parvenu.. Besides these writers, who were associated with Voltaire's career, either as mercilessly satirized by him, or as his assailants whom he saw fit to spare, there were others, younger men, whom he gener- ously aided and drew to his side as friends. Among these were Marmontel and La Harpe. Jean Frangois Marmontel (1728-1799), after making himself some reputation as a poet in Toulouse, went to Paris on Voltaire's invitation in 1746. He had no great success, however, with his tragedies and operas, but through Madame de Pom- padour's influence got a secretaryship at Versailles, and, later, was put in charge of the Mercure. In this paper he began to publish his Gontes Moraux, which have had great popularity, and have been translated into many languages. lie wrote also a political ro- mance called Belisaire, which contained a chapter on toleration that raised the ire of the doctors of the Sorbonne. Belisaire was condemned as heretical and blasphemous. The tempest it raised gave rise Rousseau, the Stage, and the Encyclopedists. 179 to a whole literature of pamphlets, epigrams, and caricatures. Out of this tumult Marmontel emerged as historiographer of France, the wits winning the day at court against the clerical party. He was a contributor to the famous Encyclopedic, being as- signed the departments of poetry and general litera- ture. This contribution he also published separa- tely, under the title, Elements de Litlerature. This is a body of judicious and able criticism. Another work of his, which Geruzez classes with the Beli- saire, calling them both " poems in prose," is Les Incas. His Memoir -es are said to be very entertain- ing Jean Fran9ois de La Harpe (1739-1803) was called the French Quintilian. He was an excellent critic, and is now chiefly remembered by his Lycee, on Cours de Litterature Ancienne et Moderne. His first essays in literature were satirical verses, which got him into trouble with the government. He next tried dramatic writing, producing Warwick, Philocttte, and Melanie, which had better success than Marmontel's tragedies. But his success in these efforts was not so great as to satisfy him, and he abandoned the drama. He visited Voltaire at Ferney in 1766, and was his guest for two years. On his return to France, he devoted himself to criticism, becoming a regular contributor to the Mercure. Both Marmontel and La Harpe lavished eulogies on Voltaire. La Harpe was, in the closing years of his life, a participant in the thrilling scenes of the Revolution, and was at first a strong republican ; but, suffering imprisonment under the Directory, his views underwent some change. Saint-Lambert (1717-1803) was still more ex- travagant in his praise of Voltaire. He set him above Corneille and Racine. This overstrained homage occurs in a poem called Les Saisons, a work of no great merit. His prose is still heavier. The 180 French Literature. Catechisme universel is a work in which the hard, materialistic philosophy of the age is formulated. Les Saisons was the first swallow of a great flock of descriptive poems, Delille's Les Jardins, Lemierre's Les Pastes, Bosset's L 1 Agriculture, and Boucher's Les Mois. Delille had already won some reputation by his fine translation of Virgil's Georgics. Lebrun (1729-1807) wrote odes inferior only to those of J. B. Bousseau, while he perhaps excelled him in his epigrams. He also paid homage to Voltaire. De Belloy (1727-1775), a tragic writer of no great power, macle a great success in his Siege de Calais by his fortunate choice of a subject which possessed national interest. Lemierre (1723-1793), besides that descriptive poem of which mention has already been made, produced tragedies that deserved their success. Guismond de La Touche (1725-1760), in his Iphigenie en Tauride; Saurin (17Q6-1781), in his Spartacus; La Noue (1701-1761), in his Mahomet II. and his much-applauded comedy of La Coquette corrigee ; and Ducis, in his transfers to the French stage of Shakspeare's Hamlet, Borneo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, all deserve brief mention. They were all admirers of Voltaire and received his gracious approval, although he ex- pressed some regret, in view of the irregularity of Ducis's plots, at having made Shakspeare known to his countrymen. But the great effort of that age of free-thinkers, in the way systematizing their philosophy, was the Encyclopedic. Voltaire, who did not wholly sym- pathize with its founders, declared that it was built half of marble and half of mud. It was, indeed, a sort of Tower of Babel. Its authors were of vari- ous shades of revolutionary opinion and held differ- ent degrees of skeptical doctrine. Their theories were not harmonious. Besides the troubles caused by their own divisions and discrepant views, their Rousseau, the Stage, and the Encyclopedists. 181 essays as fast as published were vehemently assailed from without. Still, the work was finally published, in twenty-eight volumes, with a supplement, later on, in five volumes, and, finally, an analytical index in two volumes. Biography and History were deliberately excluded. The topics which found admission were discussed with greater originality than any compilation of the sort had yet shown, and the articles were prepared with great ability. It was received with immense enthusiasm. D'Alembert traced the plan, and Diderot in the main charged himself with the task of editing. The chief writers in it were, besides the editors, Grimm, Rousseau, Voltaire, Dumarsais, D'llolbach, and Jaucourt. D'Alembert's preface was consid- ered a master-piece. Jean-le-Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783) was one of the most distinguished mathematicians of his time. He was the illegitimate son of Madame de Tencin and a M.^Destouches. Exposed by his un- natural mother on the steps of the Church of St. Jean-le-Rond, and put by the guard who found him there in the hands of a poor glazier's wife, he was brought up by her, the father secretly allowing him a sum of 1200 francs a year. He lived for nearly forty years with his good foster-mother, pursuing his favorite studies in that humble home, and shar- ing with her his slender income. She, though loving him well, used to expostulate with him on the subject of his studies, saying : " You will never be anything but a philosopher ; and what is a phil- osopher but a fool, who torments himself while alive, that folk may talk about him after he is dead ! " He did make an effort to seek a profitable career for his abilities, trying first law and then medicine ; but his passion for science was too strong. His treatises on scientific subjects, however, soon won him reputation. He was through life singu- larly indifferent to riches and distinctions. Fred- erick of Prussia offered him the presidency of his 182 French Literature. Academy, but he declined the honor. Catherine II. of Russia invited him to take charge of her son's education, at 100,000 francs a year ; but he declined this also. He never married, though he was for many years greatly attached to Mademoi- selle Espinasse, whose death was thought to have hastened his. He was a man of great benevolence ; and, though his views on the subject of Christian- ity are well known from his private correspondence with Yoltaire and Frederick the Great, he re- frained from attacking religion in his published writings. It was not so with Diderot. Sincere, eloquent, and outspoken, a fatalist, an eager talker, and an unwearied worker, he proclaimed his infidelity with the zeal of an apostle. Denis Diderot (1713-1784), like D'Alembert, practised that practical charity which the Gospel he disbelieved so strongly enjoins, and which Chris- tianity introduced into the spirit of society. Being in his early life reduced to want, he made a vow never to disregard the prayers of the needy. This resolution he faithfully kept. When in compara- tive wealth, he was thronged by applicants for help in various ways, and he is said to have been always ready to furnish the aid sought for. He married while still very poor, and this forced him to great exertions. A translation of the History of Greece from an English work brought him a hundred crowns. Finding himself successful in literary work, he now wrote his Essai sur le Merite et la Vertu, the Pensees Philosopliiques, the Inter- pretation de la Nature, and the Lettre sur les Aveugles. This last work sent him to the prison of Vincennes for three months. He wrote also for the stage, but was unsuccessful in his dramatic attempts. His best work was what he did for the Encyclo- pedie. Finding himself obliged, in his later years, to sell his library, to provide for his only daughter, he was urged by the impress Catherine to come to Rousseau, the Stage, and the Encyclopedists. 183 Russia arid be librarian, at a salary of one thousand francs, she purchasing his library on condition that lie would accompany it. He went to St. Peters- burg though merely to thank the Empress, while declining to assume the offered post, and died on his return the next year. Among his romances, the most powerful are Jaques le Fataliste, and Le Neveu de Rameau. His writings are full of fire and passion, but have the negligent style of an improviser. Indeed, he af- fected conversational carelessness in writing, under the conviction that naturalness was a virtue always to be aimed at ; and it was this labored abruptness and disconnectedness in the dialogue which chiefly spoiled his plays, Le Pere de famille and Le Fils naturel. Friedrich Melchior, Baron Grimm,(1723-1807) was born at Regensburg, (Ratisbon) on the Danube. Ac- companying the yourg Count of Schonberg to the University at Leipsic, and afterwards to Paris, he became a permanent resident. in the French capital, Rousseau introducing him to Diderot and other eminent literary persons, and thus opening up to him a brilliant future. Diderot and D'Alernbert employed his pen in their Encyclopedic. Becoming secretary to the Duke of Orleans, he acquired much reputation in Germany by the literary bulletins which he sent periodically to some of the petty princes of the empire. But Diderot and the Abb6 Raynal supplied him with much of the material used in these critical letters. He received his title of Baron from the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. When the Revolution came, he took refuge in Goth a. Besides what he supplied to the Encyclopedic, his literary remains are Correspondance Litteraire, Philo- sophique et CV ////'. with a suplement entitled Cor- respondance inedite de Grimm et Diderot. Paul Heinrich Dietrich, Baron von Holbach (1723-1789) was born at Heidelsheim, in the Palat- inate. He took up his residence in Paris early in 18-i French Literature. life. He was a pleasant social companion, and, having inherited wealth, was able to entertain in fine style. His guests were the most eminent literary men of his time, Diderot, Helvetius, Raynal, Rousseau. Buftbn, and the like. He was one of the extreme antagonists of religion. His chief work was the Sys&me de la Nature, in which he sought to deduce a moral scheme from natural principles. The book advocated materialism and atheism in their crudest forms. That he was kind- hearted and unselfish must be granted even by those who are most shocked at his doctrines. The Jesuits were especially obnoxious to him; yet, when they fell into disgrace, he made his house a refuge for several of them. Claude-Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771), sprung from a family of Swiss origin, was born at Paris. After leading the gay and profligate life of a courtier for some two years, he grew disgusted with its frivolity, married the charming daughter of the Cornte de Ligneville, and retired to a little estate at Yore", where he spent his time in bringing up his children, caring for the welfare of the peasantry, and writing his philosophical books. His De VEsprit was devoted to his favorite theory, that sensibility is the source of all the higher operations of the mind, and that matter alone exists. The Sorbonne and the Parliament of Paris condemned the book. Helvetius also left a posthumous \vork, De VHomme, d?. ses Facultes, et de son Education. Guillaume Thomas Francois Raynal (1711-1796) .was an abbe, whose sympathy with the skeptical thought of the age soon drove him from the Church into literature. He became one of the editors of the ftfercure. In conjunction with Diderot, he wrote the Histoire Philosophique et Politique des fitablissements et du Commerce des Europeens dans les deex Indes, a work which from its strictures on superstition excited the ire of the clerical party, who procured its condemnation by the Parlement. Rousseau, the Stage, and the Encyclopedists, 185 To the student of English, literature this book is perhaps known only from the extraordinary rhap- sody into which Raynal bursts, when treating of the birthplace of that Mrs. Draper, whom Sterne affected to adore under the name of his " Brahmine." It begins: "Territory of Anjinga, you are nothing; but you have given birth to Eliza. One day these commercial settlements founded by Europeans on the coast of Asia will exist no more. The grass will cover them, or the avenged Indian will have built over their ruins ; but if my writings have any duration, the name of Anjinga will remain in the memory of men." There are three more pages of this absurd rubbish. Among these sentimental skeptics were Ma- dame Du Deffand and Madame D'fipinay. Marie de Vichy Chamroud, Marquise du Def- fand (1697-1780), was born of a noble family of Burgundy. She eflrly gave evidence of the bold- ness of judgment which won her so many admirers in her mature years. Massillon was deputed by her parents to win her to acquiescence in their creed. But the great preacher did not succeed in this mission, though he was himself greatly im- pressed by her beauty and intellectual charm. Her marriage with the Marquis du Deffand was an unhappy one, and they were soon separated. She then plunged into all the gallantries and follies of that depraved society which constituted the Re- gent's court. She gathered about her all the bril- liant men of her day. She kept up a correspondence with some of the foremost thinkers in Europe. She made her soire'es at her hotel in the Rue St. Dom- inique the gathering-point for all that was select in Parisian society, including the eminent foreigners who visited that city. Becoming blind when between fifty and sixty years old, she chose Mademoiselle d 1'Espinasse as reader and companion. But growing jealous aftet a time of the attentions p." 1 id this young lady, she 186 French Literature, parted with her. Her rival, however, took away from the saloon of the marquise, D'Alembert and many more of her admirers. The correspondence of Madame du Deffand with D'Alembert, Henault, Montesquieu, the Duchesse du Maine, Horace Wai- pole, and Voltaire, is of great interest as making part of the memoirs of that age of materialism in philosophy and of corruption in society. Louise Florence Petronille de la Live d'fipinay (1725-1783) married her cousin, and, like the Mar- quise du Deffand, failed to find happiness in mar- ried life. Her husband was a debauchee. Her taste was for men of genius. When Rousseau came to Paris, she took a fancy to him and gave him the Hermitage for a residence. This was a little house in the woods of Montmorency on land of her husband's. Rousseau and Grimm, however, quar- reled and involved Madame D'fipinay in the dis- pute, which ended in Rousseau's becoming again a wanderer and eventually calumniating the woman who had befriended him. She had, however, to the last, a select circle of literary men around her. Under the direction of Diderot, she took Grimm's place, on his leaving Paris, in preparing for the German princes, criticisms of French literature. She also produced an educational work of some merit, Conversations d*]Emile. To this must be added her work called Les Confessions du Comte de * * * , together with a large correspondence carried on with Grimm, Diderot, Rousseau, and others. Another famous entertainer of literary men in this period, and herself a little of an author was Madame Geofirin. Marie Therese Geoffrin (1699-1777) was born at Paris. Her father was a valet-de-charnbre named Rodet. But her marriage to a very rich manufact- urer and his death soon after left her at an early age the mistress of an immense fortune. She drew literary men around her, and her wealth was of Rousseau, the Stage, and the Encyclopedists. 187 great assistance in the publication of the Encyclo- pedie. She is said to have contributed no less than 100,000 francs for that purpose. She was not only liberal to men of letters, but bestowed her gifts with a delicacy which gave them double value. Her attentions to distinguished foreigners won h3r their esteem and affection. Poniatowski, to whom she had been particularly kind, announced to her his elevation to the throne of Poland in the words: 'Mamma, your son is king." He afterwards in- duced her to visit Warsaw, and received her there with a truly royal welcome. Her treatise, Sur la Conversation, and her Lettres were published after her death by Morellet. Madame D'Houdetot and Madame Suard should also be mentioned as eighteenth century queens of society. Some of Madame D'Houdetot's sweet- verses still hold a place in collections of French poetry. Madame Geoffrin, Madame d'Houdetot, and Madame Suard were all famous in their day for their salons, where all that was witty, elegant, and distinguished found a glad welcome and con- genial surroundings. 188 French Literature. XIV. ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION. WE have not yet completed the roll of Voltaire's and Eousseau's contemporaries. But the ablest of them, Buffon, must be reserved until some minor writers, not mentioned yet, have been disposed of. Charles Pineau Duclos (1704-1772) was a Bre- ton. As a writer of romance and history, he was held in great estimation by his contemporaries. His romances were Acajou et Zirphile and La Bar- onne de Luz. His principal serious work was the Histoire de Louis XI. He also produced memoirs of the reigns of Louis XIV. and XV. He was cold and mannered in his historical writings. Dumarsais (1676-1756) was of note mainly as a grammarian. Geruzez praises his method as supe- rior to that of Duclos, who labored in that field also. The same critic accords to another gramma- rian, Beauzee (1717-1789), superiority in originality and profundity ; and to still another, Court de Gebe- lin (1725-1784), excellence in invention, whatever that may mean. To Rulhie're (1735-1791) he also accords superiority over Duclos, as historical writer, eulogizing the Histoire de TAnarclne de Poloyne, in which he thinks Rulhiere has shown himself an able painter and profound political thinker. Duclos's true title to remembrance, in Geruzez's judgment, rests on his Considerations sur les Mceurs. Vauvenargues (1715-1747) was a writer, like La Rochefoucauld, of thoughts and maxims. De- voted, in spite of frequent illness, to earnest inquiry into moral truth and the nature of man, he might, had he lived longer, have taken an eminent place among moralists. The contrast in spirit and tone On the Eve of the Revolution. 189 which he presents to the age in which he lived adds to his merit, and it is refreshing to find so pure a believer in virtue amid that throng of scoffers. It is a credit to Voltaire, that he held Vauven- argues in high regard and esteem. Duclos and Van ven argues stand together in the unspiritual at- mosphere of their age as almost the only sober thinkers. The Gomte de Tressan (1705-1783) led the way in resuscitating the literature of the Middle Ages, the fabliaux and the legends of the Round Table. Classical studies were kept from utter decline by the labors of the President de Brosses (1706-1777). One of the first of the many attempts which have been made to introduce the modern reader to the inner life of antiquity, was the Voyage du Jenne Anacharris en Grece, by Jean Jacques Bar- tlielemy (1716-1795). The Abbe makes his Ana- charsis journey from Scythia to Athens and there observe the peculiarities of Greek life and manners. Though full of anachronisms, the characteristics of Greek life at several different periods being con- founded together, it is a work of some charm, helped greatly to popularize the knowledge of an- cient life, and has been imitated in later times by Becker in his Gallus for Roman and Charicles for Hellenic life. Barthelemy was a man of extensive learning. Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee were among his studies. His first distinc- tion was that obtained by his discovery of the Pal- myran alphabet. The Revolution deprived him of his offices, and rudely disturbed his studies. Among his works were Reflexions sur I 1 Alphabet et la Lanf/ue de Palmyre, Explication de la Mosaique de Palestrine, and a romance entitled Caryte et Poly 'dor e. Another man of learning was the eminent phy- sician, Paul Joseph Barthez (1734-1806). lie founded at Montpellier a medical school which had a great reputation all over Europe. He was ruined by 190 French Literature. the Revolution; but Napoleon recalled him from exile, and bestowed honors and dignities upon him. His Nouveaux Elements de la Science de VHomme ad- vocated a system founded on dynamical principles. He wrote also Nbuvelle Mecanique des Mouvements de I Homme et des Animaux, Traitement des Maladies Goutteuses, and Consultation de Medicine. These are purely scientific works ; but I shall more than once have occasion to mention medical writers and other specialists among the attractive writers in the French language, for that clearness of statement and liveli- ness of illustration, as well as enthusiasm of tone, which have only in our day made science popular with the great mass of English readers, were culti- vated at a much earlier period by the French men of science. Another earnest worker in these times was Thomas (1732-1785), a philosophical writer in the manner of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. There is too much strain and emphasis, however, in his sententious utterances. His Eloyes have too much of the rhetorician's art about them to please, though the sentiments are noble. In his verses the same vice of self-conscious effort spoils the effect. Among the scholarly minds of the period was the Abbe de Mably (1709-1785), the author of Les En- tretiens de Phocion and Observations sur VHistoire de France. He compared, greatly to the discredit of the moderns, the institutions of the ancient repub- lics with those of his own day. Of .writers for the stage, besides those already mentioned, there were Mercier (1740-1814), and Sedaine (1717-1797). Sedaine was an uneducated genius. His Philosophe sans le Savoir, produced for the Theatre Francais; Le Deserteur and Rich- ard Cceur-de-Lion, written for the Opera Comique ; arid Aline, Reine de Golconde, written for the Grand Opera, were pieces characterized by excellent taste and exquisite naturalness. Jacques Cazotte (1720-1792), was first brought On the. Eve of the Revolution. 191 into notice by a mock romance and a coarse song. He afterwards wrote his Roman d 1 Olivier and Le D table Amour eux. He also continued with admirable skill Voltaire's account of the civil war in Geneva. Suddenly he became notorious as a pretender to the gift of prophecy ; and La Harpe tells a story of his breaking out, in the time of his mysticism, at the close of a gay banquet, into a rhapsody in which he related to the carousers around him, with all the precision of a Highland Scot's vision of second- sight, the fate which awaited each one of them. He himself, adhering to the royal cause during the revolutionary storm, fell a victim to the rage and fear of the bloody tribunals of that time. I have mentioned La Harpe before, in treating of the friends and eulogizers of Voltaire. Jean Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794) was one of those poets and romancers who pretend only to amuse. Protected by the Due de Penthievre, he was suspected of "incivism" on the outbreak of the Revolution, and suffered imprisonment. His first literary success was a poetical epistle called Voltaire et le Serf du Mont Jura. His eclogue, Ruth, was also crowned by the Academy. In his Qalatee, he imitated Cervantes; and in his Numa Pompilius, Fenelon. Other works of his were his Fables; his GonsalvedeCordove; a romance founded on the story of William Tell, which he worked at during his imprisonment, but never finished; and an abridgement of Don Quixote. His best work was a pastoral entitled Estelle. A poet imbued with thoroughly Hellenic tastes and genius makes a marked contrast to the super- ficially romantic tone of Florian. This was Andre- Marie de Chenier (1762-1794). Born in Constanti- nople, he traveled much in after years. His poems were for the most part idyllic. Such are Le Men- dicant, UAveuyle, and Le Jeune Malade. Shortly before the Revolution, he produced his Elegies, the Art d 1 Aimer, & Invention, Hermes, Susanne, andZa 192 French Literature. Liber te. He took an active part in the Revolution, opposing the Jacobins and the execution of the King. Resisting the arrest of a lady in whose house he was living at Passy, he was arrested and imprisoned. Before his execution, he wrote some striking poems. Marie-Joseph de Che'nier (1764-1811), younger brother of Andre", was also born in Constantinople. His first tragedy, Azemire, was almost a failure. His next, Charles IX., still keeps a place on the stage. After these appeared Henry VIII., Anne de Boulen, the Mort de Galas, Gains Gracchus, Timo- leon, Fenelon, and Cyrus. He also put on the stage a version of Lessing's Nathan the Wise, and trans- lations of the (Edipus Turannos and CEdipus at Colonos of Sophocles. His lyric poems are fall of freshness and elevation of tone. His Epitres are able, and one of them, the Epitre sur la Calomnie, is considered by French critics as worthy of the highest praise. His Satires are also ranked very high by his countrymen. His imitations of Ossian will recall to the minds of readers of history the prevalence of a taste in France for that wild and cloudy bombast, which marked the effort of the revolutionary spirit to shake off even in literary art the bonds of order, and which made Napoleon in his early days an enthusiastic admirer of Macpher- son's rhapsodies. Chenier was also eminent as a prose- writer. His Tableau de la litterature frangaise depuis 1789 enjoys a high reputation. He took a more prominent part than his brother in the stormy scenes of the Revolution, being at the head of several of the public bodies so rapidly organized in those ever-changing days. He, however, gave in his adhesion to the Empire, and it was at Napole- on's request that he prepared his work on recent French literature. Among many odes of his was the famous Chant du Depart. Sjbastien Roch-Nicholas Chamfort (1741-1794) was the illegitimate son of a strolling actress. He On the Eve of the Revolution. 193 began life with only the name " Nicolas "; but, getting into the College des Grassins, he worked well and won prizes. Assuming the name of " Chamfort," he began his literary career by writ- ing sermons for lazy cure's at a louis apiece. Com- peting successfully for one of the Academy prizes, the gay world was henceforward, open to him. His brilliant and bitter talk made him much admired. Madame Helvetius entertained him for some years at Sevres. He won other prizes, and finally went to court under the protection of the Duchesse de Grammont. Retiring to Auteuil, after attaining a brilliant place in the world and experiencing only disgust with it, he there fell in love with a lady of the household of the Duchesse du Maine, and mar- ried her. But, six months after the nuptials, his wife died, leaving him more bitter than ever in his views of life. When Mirabeau began to undertake the perilous task of guiding the storm of the Eevolution, Chamfort came heartily to his side, and helped him with the literary part of his orations; for, though Mirabeau was a marvel in delivery, it was to Chamfort and Dumont, it seems, that he was mainly indebted for his ideas and their form. Chamfort took an earnest part in the struggle, and was one of the storming party that broke first into the Bastille. But, criticising the Convention as bitterly as he had criticised the court, he fell before that new tyranny. It was he who made the political fortune of the Abbe Sie*yes, by giving him the striking title to his pamphlet: "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it? Nothing." He left few writings. His fame rested chiefly on his brilliant talk. His best works were an IJJloge of Moliere and one of La Fontaine, as well as a pretty comedy entitled La Jeune Indienne. Over aprainst the pessimist, Chamfort, who de- spaired of human nature and was always saying bitter things of it, should be set the sweet temper 13 194 French Literature. and joy in God and nature of Bernardin de Saint- Pierre. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) was one of those souls that remain optimist in spite of many and long -continued trials. His imagination was always pleasing itself with charming illusions, and dissappointments had no power to embitter his spirit. The justice and mercy of God, the consola- tions of human love, and the ineffable charm of na- ture were for him beautiful verities that took the sting from all that was painful in the immediate present. His Etudes de la nature is a work that re- veals at once his key-note, belief in the possible harmony of God, Nature, and Man. His style is as beautiful, as his imagination is rich, pure, and chaste. His Vceuxd'un Solitaire breathes the same spirit, while it is to that dominant note of Christian philosophy that his tropical tales, Paul et Virginie and the Chaumiere indienne, owe their freedom from the taints which like subjects handled by Eousseau would infallibly have had. Paul et Virginie, the delight of childhood, even in translated form, is really a work of genius. As Geruzez says of it, " it has that grace of eternal youth which time withers not." Few prose idylls have ever been written with a skill so poetic and artistic. The grouping, the coloring, the atmospheric tone are all those of the painter. Everything about the story is picturesque. To the colder criticism of the mature mind it is too much so; there is too much of that theatrical grace and beauty for absolute truth to nature. But to the guileless fancy of childhood it is true and charming. The Abbe" PreVost (1697-1763) ought not to be forgotten when mention is made of the romancers of this period. Kousseau's contemporary, he painted in his Manon Lescaut a picture of passion as glowing as that of the Nouvelle Helo'ise, yet free from the over-strained sentiment and the disordered morality of Kousseau. It is the most wonderful On the Eve of the Revolution. 195 picture of single-minded devotion to an unworthy mistress in all literature. Among the scientific contributors to the Encyclo- pedic was Condorcet. Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794), was one of the most emi- nent scientists of his age. His Essai sur le Calcul Integral gained him early in life a seat in the Academic des Sciences. His Eloyes des Academi- ciens Morts avant 1699 won him still higher honors. He won also a prize from the Berlin Acad- emy by his theory of comets. His Eloges et Pensees df. Pascal does credit to his heart as well as his head. During the Revolution he took a prominent part, acting in general with the Girondists, and falling with them when they fell. During his time of concealment he wrote his Esquisse des Pro- grbs de T Esprit Humain. He was finally arrested, and one morning was found dead in prison. The great master of style among the writers who were now devoting themselves to that study of na- ture which became so absorbing a passion in the next century, was Buffon. George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, (1707- 1788), after traveling through France and Italy with Lord Kingston and his tutor, a man of scien- tific tastes, accompanied them to England, where, to improve his English, he translated works of Newton and Hales. Appointed in 1739 Intendant of the Royal Garden and Museum, his mind was directed especially to the study of zoology, which resulted in his undertaking his Histoire Naturelle, a work covering thirty-six volumes. It was from this work that Oliver Goldsmith avowedly bor- rowed the greater part of his Animated Nature. The task to which Buffon devoted fifty years of his life was no less than the description and explana- tion of nature as a whole and in all its parts. His work has no great scientific value now, but his method is still esteemed by scientists. " Up to his 196 French Literature. time," says Cuvier, "the history of nature had been written with fulness only by compilers who had no ability; the other general works offered only dry nomenclatures. Excellent and very nu- merous observations existed, but all upon parlk-u- lar points. Button conceived the project of com- bining, on a vast plan and with the eloquent dic- tion of Pliny, the profound views of Aristolle with the exactness and the minuteness of detail with which the moderns had observed facts." Button did not begin his life-work until he was thirty-three years old. But he had early prescribed for himself a system of study, which he would not permit himself to deviate from, setting apart a cer- tain number of hours each day for this purpose. At six every morning it was a servant's duty to wake him up. This duty was discharged by the same man for sixty years, and this faithful valet's testimony was that his master had never once broken the rule which he had imposed upon him self. Method like this tells. A vast deal of work can be accomplished by the man who so regulates his life. It goes far to sustain Button's own defini- tion of genius, as "a long patience." His account of the origin of the earth and the growth of fauna and flora upon it, with their subse- quent development from natural causes, is of course in many points behind the present lights of science. But, viewed as a whole, it is safe to say that his theory is in the main that which the as- tronomers and geologists of our day still hold. In- stead of the nebular hypothesis, however, he sup- poses the earth to have been brought into being by the collision of a comet with the sun, a part of the incandescent mass of that luminary having been struck off' into space and by the laws of gravitation and centrifugal force assuming its ultimate shape and rotation. Leaving this subject and his investigation of in- organic matter, as well as the history of the vege- On the Eve of the Revolution. 197 table kingdom which he handles very superfi- cially we come to the animal kingdom, where he is more at home. He begins by rejecting all sys- tems of classification. He figures to himself a man who sees for the first time the creatures around him, animate and inanimate, without any precon- ceived notions to embarrass his judgment. He then traces the process of natural classification which must go on in such a man's mind the sep- aration of the animate from the inanimate; the division of objects into animal, vegetable, and min- eral; the division of the animals into quadrupeds, birds, and fishes; the separation of the quadrupeds into the domesticated and the wild. Buffon took this method himself. Later, however, he modified the disdain of scientific method with which he had set out, notably in his natural history of birds. In truth, what Buffon really excelled in was his eloquent manner of setting forth what he knew, rather than in profound or accurate knowledge. Yet his knowledge was beyond doubt copious and extensive. He was aided, too, by Daubenton in the preparation of the details of his work. Com- bining the dry facts of anatomy and physiology with an animated description of the habits of ani- mal life and the homes and haunts of the creatures whose framework Daubenton had just analyzed, he made a long step towards popularizing science, a rare feature of genius in his time, and one that con- stituted no small part of his charm. In his history of man, he is decidedly antago- nistic to the school which in our day seeks to con- nect man closely with the rest of the animal crea- tion. "Man," says he emphatically, " is not more reasonable, not more spiritual, for having abun- dantly exercised his ears and his eyes. One does not see that people of obtuse senses, the short- sighted, the deaf, the defective in the sense of smell, have less intelligence than others. This is an evi 198 French Literature. dent proof that there is in man something more than an interior animal sense." He declares for the ex- istence of the soul. It is, he says, of a different nature from matter, and thought is its form. As a naturalist, he takes pains to deny to the brutes any share in this unique possession. Style was a study with Buffon. He labored strenuously to express himself in the best manner, correcting again and again, reading aloud what he had written, to have the witness of his ears to the perfection of his periods, and in his heart believing that he improved in this matter as he grew older. His supreme value for style made him even unjust to extemporaneous oratory; nor is it likely that he could really understand the fiery and impassioned eloquence of an age less cold, didactic, and skepti- cal than that in which he lived. The corruption of the court, a ruinous financial system, the wide spread of atheistic doctrines and theories subversive of all government, the oppres- sive privileges of the nobility maintained, in the face of the growing wealth and knowledge of the commons, were now rapidly driving the country toward revolution. An eager, inventive, fertile, and brilliant spirit, of boundless audacity, nerve, and coolness, came to the front ; and, first by open conflict with the corrupt judiciary of the land, and then by bold dramatic lessons, did more to open the eyes of the people to the true state of affairs than any other one man. This was Beaumarchais. In the course of his long law-suit against Goesman, a Counsellor of the Maupeou Parlement, he clearly set before the world the monstrous character of that justice which should have been the last and sure resort of the oppressed. He took to the theatre the same gayly mocking, penetrating wit, taking society to pieces with the scalpel of an Aristophanes and showing the sores that were eating into every vital part. The philosophic spirit was already reigning on On the Eve of the Revolution. the boards, as in every department of literature. Tragedy was full of tirades against fanaticism ; comedy sparkled with epigrammatic sayings that cut at the root of authority. But Beaumarchais was bolder, wittier, more terribly iconoclastic than his fore-runners. His Figaro was the very incarna- tion of the spirit of revolution. It is amazing that an arbitrary government tottering on the verge of ruin should have been so mad as to have permitted the representation of the Mariaye de Fiyaro. Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732- 1799) was the son of a watchmaker and began his career in the same business. Inventing a new kind of escapement, he had to maintain his right to the invention before the Academy of Sciences. This was his first law-suit. Making himself useful to the King's daughters by his skill on the harp and the guitar, he was recommended by them to Paris- Duverney, one of Louis XV.'s ministers. Showing himself gifted in the management of financial mat- ters, he was warmly befriended by that minister, whose kindness he rewarded by securing what Paris- Duverney had during nine years been longing for, namely, a visit from Louis to the tlcole Militaire, which the minister had created and for which lie desired the prestige of royal commendation. Beau- marchais persuaded the princesses to visit the school, and the apathetic monarch was then induced to follow their example. In favor with the court, and made wealthy by marriage, Beaumarchais now began to devote himself to literature. His first play, Eugenie, proving successful, he followed it up with Les Deux Amis, which was not so well re- ceived. They are serious pieces, very different in spirit from those which we now most naturally as- sociate with the name of the gay and brilliant Beaumarchais. He was interrupted in his dramatic writing by his two famous suits, the one against De la Blache, the heir of Paris-Duverney, the other against Goes- 200 French Literature. snan, the Counsellor of the Maupeou Parlement. Fifteen louis intended to bribe the Counsellor, and imprudently retained by his wife, were the cause of this last suit. Those wonderful JUemoires, in which he convulsed the country with laughter or moved it to bitter indignation, at will in which he mingled all the witty turns of comedy with the invective of a splendid eloquence in which he ruined the reputation of his judges and made his own, though he lost his case, taught Beaumarchais where his true strength lay, and made him give up forever the serious drama except in the third piece of his Figaro trilogy, La MZre Coupable and turn his attention to comedy. Le Barrier de Seville was at first only a comic opera, filled with pretty Italian and Spanish airs which Beaumarchais had picked up in his travels. The Italian comedians refused it, the chief actor having once been a barber and objecting to appear in the too familiar character of Figaro. The French players accepted it, but it failed at the first representation. Beaumarchais cut it down from five acts to four, and then it had a brilliant success. Few comedies are so amusing. Its successor, La Folle Journee, ou le Mariage de Figaro, is also amusing, but richer in intrigue, more definitely political in its tone and allusions, and bolder in its revelations of the ingrained immorality and invet- erate clinging to the oppressive privileges which characterized the French noblesse of that age. It was immensely popular. There were more than a hundred successive representations. This success was perhaps as much due to the delight which the public took in the many indecent situations which occur in the play, as to their comprehension of the political satire and sympathy with its bitter pun- gency. The king and the court understood the at- tacks on all existing institutions put into Figaro's mouth ; and the play was at first prohibited. For four years Beaumarchais, with his usual persever- On the Eve of the jRevoi&tiicft. 2C1 ance, struggled against tliis resolution of the gov- ernment. He was so persistent that at last the government yielded ; and the laugh that Figaro raised was in the course of a very few years changed to the ringing notes of the Yz Ira and the Marseillaise. " It is only little men who fear little writings," he had made Figaro say ; and the king and every courtier feared to be classed among these "little men." Not quite half a century later, Legare, then United States' Minister at Brussels, jots down in his diary a conversation with Prince Auguste d'Arenberg about Goinon's Jfemoiret, in which mention is made of the prodigious run of the Mar- riage of Figaro. The Prince remarked: "The other evening they acted this same piece, the im- pression made by which, half a century ago, I so well remember; on our boards, it fell lifeless as it were. The subject was out of date. What was bold then, is now banal what hit most forcibly, has, through subsequent changes, become inappi'- cable. In short nothing could be more flat. The famous monologue of the great barber was received without one token of effect." The Kev? 1n .tion of the English Colonies in America nov/ began, and Beaumarchais undertook to furnish arms and supplies to the colonies. H< carried on this financial operation under the dis- guise of a Spanish mercantile house, and was ex- ceedingly useful to the Americans at a critical period. He never recovered the whole of the sum due him in this business, and it was not until many years after his death that the Congress cr '.ho United States paid the amount to his heirs. A few years before the Revolution of 1789, he undertook a complete edition of Voltaire's works, and lost an immense sum by it. During the Revo- lution, he lost the rest of his fortune by bad specu- lations, came very near losing his life, was impris- oned for a time, and afterward became a refugee. 202 French Literature. Returning to France when a time of comparative quiet had come, he wrote an account of his experi- ences in Mes Six Epoques and a powerful but rather painful comedy of intrigue almost a tragi-com- edy entitled L'Autre Tartuffe, ou La Mere Coup- able, in which the Almaviva family, Figaro, and Suzanne are once more introduced. Tins vvns rep- resented for the first time at Theatre du Marais the 26th of June, 1792. Nearly seven years later Beaumarchais died suddenly and without sickness. His Tarare was an opera of no great meri t. He was not skilled in verse-making, and all his plays are in prose. He made some songs of which the best is Robin, but he was only moderately success- ful in this department. His fame must rest on the pleadings in the Goesman case and the wit and boldness of Figaro in the two comedies produced be- fore the Revolution, in which he figures. Even Figaro is not himself in La Mere Coupable. Among those who made their reputation be- fore the Revolution and perished under Jacobin rule, was Bailly. Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), born in Paris, was eminent in science and literature. His earlier works were on astronomical subjects. He also pro- duced for the Academy of Sciences eloquent Eloges on Charles V., Moliere, Corneille, Lacaille, Leib- nitz, Cook, and Gresset. He was prominent in the early stages of the Revolution, as President of the National Assembly and afterwards as Mayor of Paris; but, refusing to give way to the populace when they proceeded to violence, he became un- popular. While with his friend, La Place, at Melun, he was seized, brought to Paris, accused of being a royalist, condemned, and executed. His Memoirs were published after his death. Jean Baptist Louvet de Couvray (1760-1797), the author of Faublas, that romance of ill-fame, but also of a remarkably pure tale, Emilie de Ver- mont, barely escaped the guillotine in Robespierre's time. Chateaubriand and Madame de StaeL 203 XV. CHATEAUBRIAND AND MADAME DE STAEL. I HAVE nothing to do here with the stormy scenes of the French Eevolution. Nor need I stop to dwell upon the metaphysical oratory of the Gi- rondists and the blood-thirsty declamations of the Mountain, the horrible Carmagnoles of Barere, and the paper Constitutions of the Abb Sieyes. The successive oratorical triumphs of Mirabeau, of Dan- ton, and of Eobespierre belong to the province of the historian. Such men have no place in a sketch of literature. Only those actors in the scenes of revolutionary change, such as Bailly and General Dumouriez, who left Memoirs behind them, are en- titled to literary mention. The great literary names of the Napoleonic period are those of the Emperor's declared enemies, Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael. Napoleon gathered eminent scientific men around him; and of these something must be said. But we can better pursue the thread of literary development by taking up first the purely literary producers of this transitional period. Fnm^ois- Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768- 184:8), was born at St. Malo, in Bretagne, and was educated at the College of Eennes. In his Memoirs, he describes vividly the terrible life of isolation in which he grew up, under the stern dis- cipline of his father, in the sombre castle of Com- bourg. Born and bred in that province in which more than anywhere else in France the noble still maintained unquestioned state and the priest still commanded reverence, he was to witness more 204 French Literature. strikingly than most men the contrast between feudal and revolutionary France. In early life he was procured a commission as sub-lieutenant in the regiment of Navarre. He took leave of his father at the old castle, never to see him again. Arrived in Paris, his brother insisted on presenting him at Court, and he records in his Memoirs the impressions made on him by his first sight of that Court, which was so soon to be brought face to face with the prison and the guillo- tine. After a brief stay in Bretagne, he was once more in Paris and at Court after the opening of the States-General in the fatal year, 1789. He gives a graphic picture of the confused and disorderly con- dition of Parisian society at this time. The army sympathizing with the people, the regiment of Na- varre soon became involved in the general defec- tion. Its colonel, the Marquis of Mortemart, with most of the officers, emigrated ; but Chateaubriand withdrew from the service, took up a scheme for getting up an expedition to search for the North- west passage, and set out for America. Wandering in the wilds of America, and at the same time poring over the kindling rhapsodies of Kousseau, he received profound impressions both from the grandeur and awful wildness of nature in the primeval forests of the New World and from the impassioned fervor of the wandering Genevese. But both impressions swayed his genius too much in one direction, and produced in him that straining after effect which was his bane. The result was that in all his works he gave way so much to the temptation to make fine pictures that, on the whole, he must be regarded as no more than a grand rhetori- cian. His political pamphlets, with all their in- consistencies, must be considered his ablest produc- ions, as they are in the main free from the rhapsod- ical finery with which, in the effort to embellish, he really marred the purity of his style in his more Chaleauhriaad aneen planned and the outline of it written on the backs of packs of playing cards. As a supplement to this, he wrote his Du Polytheisme Romain, con- sideree dans ses Rapports avec la Philosophic Grecque et la Religion Chretienne. He seems to have had the same faculty of tiring out the patience of his English friends, as his be- loved paragon, Madame de Stae'l ; for Thomas Moore tells an amusing story, in one of his journals, of Lord Lansdowne's escape from hearing him read a novel, by adroitly making use of Madame Con- stant's cat to cover his abrupt departure. There were other exiles, besides these more emi- nent ones, who did literary work of some impor- tance. Among these were the brothers De Maistre and General Dumouriez. The Comte Joseph De Maistre (1753-1821) was born at Chambery, of a noble French family which had settled in Savoy. During the occupation of Savoy by the French in 1792, he withdrew from the country. "When his king retired to the island of Sardinia, the only part of his dominions where he could still exercise sovereignty, De Maistre joined his court there, and was sent as ambassadorto Saint Petersburg in 1803. There he remained until 1817, when he was recalled to Turin, to fill high posts at home. His later years were spent in his native country. His only title to a place in the history of French literature rests on the fact that his excellent works were written in French. His first work was his Considerations sur la France, which appeared in 1796. Later, he pro- duced an essay Sur le Principe Generateur des Con- stitutions Politiques, his work Du Pape, that De T K'jlise Gallicane, and the work by which he is now chiefly known, Les Soirees de Saint -Petersbourg. This last work is full of elevated thoughts and is written with great spirit and liveliness. It has done ^ooil service in the cause of the religious party; but the defect of De Maistre, as an influence on the 15 226 French Literature. Catholic side, is that he represents the most arbi- trary and inflexible school of thought. Toleration and conciliation are ideas beyond his sphere. To the works already mentioned, must be added a posthumous publication, Examen de la Philosophic de Bacon, as well as the Lettres et Opuscules. His brother, Xavier De Maistre, (1764-1852), who was also born at Chambery, took refuge in Russia during the revolutionary storm, and entered the Russian military service, in which he rose to the rank of general. Literature, science, and the fine arts were, however, the chief occupations of his life. He was successful in both prose and poetry, was a fine landscape painter and an able chemist and physician. During a visit to Italy in 1794, while busying himself with studies in water-color painting and India-ink drawing, he began, as a sort or relaxation, the work on which his fame chiefly rests, his Voyage autour de ma Chambre, in which the thoughts are no less charming than the style. He also wrote Le Lepreux de la Vallee d'Aoste, Le Prisonnier du Caucase, Prascovie ou la Jeune Sibe- rienne, and L' Expedition nocturne autour de ma Chambre. He died at Saint-Petersburg. General Dumouriez belongs to literature only through his memoirs, which are indeed very en- tertaining. Charles Fran9ois Dumouriez (1799-1823) was born at Cambrai, served in Germany during the Seven Years' War and in the occupation of Corsica by the French; held the office of commandant of Cher- bourg under Louis XVI.; joined the Jacobin Club during the revolutionary period; led the French revolutionary army in its earlier campaigns; won the victory of Jemappes, in which the Austrians were badly defeated ; began to distrust the political heads of the revolution in Paris ; opened negotia- tions with the Austrian general; tried to bring the army over to his views when ordered by the home government to return to Paris and stand his trial ; The Scientific Period. 227 failed in this effort, and escaped to the ranks of the enemy. The Convention set a price of 300,000 francs on his head. He wandered about Europe, and finally settled in England, where he died. His later years were employed in writing his Memoires. Dumont, the pupil of Bentham after having been the co-adjutor of Mirabeau, also spent a large part of his life in England. Pierre fitienne Louis Dumont (1759-1825) was born at Geneva, became a Protestant minister in that city ; went to Saint Petersburg to take charge of the French Protestant church there ; passed from there to England; formed a strong alliance with the Whigs ; repaired to Paris at the outbreak of the Eevolution; became very intimate with Mira- beau and wrote the ablest speeches delivered by that brilliant declaimer; returned to England in 1791 ; attached himself to the famous utilitarian philosopher and legislative reformer, Jeremy Ben- tham, and ultimately translated to the world into per- spicuous French the incoherent and involved Eng- lish in which that strong thinker, but most muddy writer, put his ideas. Dumont published in Geneva, successively, his Traite de Legislation Civile et Penale, his Theorie des Peines et des Recompenses, his Tactique des As- semblees Legislatives, his Preuves Judiciaires and his Organisation Judiciaire et Codification, the last appearing after his death. Another posthumous work was his Souvenirs sur Mirabeau et sur les deux premieres Assemblies Legislatives. He died at Milan. Macaulay, in reviewing Dumont's Recol- lections of Mirabeau, pays him a handsome trib- ute: " M. Dumont," he writes, " was one of those persons, the care of whose fame belongs in an especial manner to mankind, for he was one of those persons who have, for the sake of mankind, neglected the care of their own fame. . . . Possessed of talents and acquirements which made him great, he wished only to be useful. In the 228 French Literature. prime of manhood, at the very time of life at which amb* tious men are most ambitious, lie was not solicitous to pro- claim that he furnished information, arguments, and eloquence to Mirabeau. In his later years he was per- fectly willing that his renown should merge in that of Mr. Bentham." The literary strength ol' France, as has lieen seen, lay in this age with those whom Napoleon could not win to his side. Those who submitted to the Empire could point to no such literary names as Chateaubriand, Madame de Stael, and the De Mais- tres, among their number. But there was some literary ability enlisted on the side of the Empire also. If Napoleon failed to propitiate Madame de Stael and Madame de Kecamier, he had 011 his pension list a literary woman of very different character in Madame de Genlis. If he could not command the eloquence of Chateaubriand and the grace of the De Maistres, he had the science of Champollion, Cuvier, Fourier, De Sacy, Arago, Gay- Lussac, Fresnel, and Ampere, and the dramatic skill of Andrieux, Legouve, Arnault, fitienne, Des- augiers, and Lemercier, to give splendor to his reign. Stephanie Felicite', Comtesse de Genlis (1746- 1830) was born at Champ9^ri, near Autun, in Bur- gundy, of an old but impoverished family. Born Mademoiselle Ducrest, she married at fifteen the Cornte de Genlis, and became a member of the household of the Duchesse de Chartres, wife of that prince who was afterwards known as Eyalite. Ap- pointed to train his children, she wrote a number of works for them, Theatre a V usage des Jeunes Personnes, Adele et Theodore ou Lettres sur V Edu- cation, Les Veillees du Chateau on, GOUTS de Morale a T usage des Enfants. Like that scandal of the house of Orleans, for whom she compromised her reputa- tion, she showed sympathy with the revolutionary party in the early stages of the great movement; but she was soon obliged to take refuge in Belgium. The Scientific Period. 229 Going later to Switzerland, and from there to Altona in Germany, she wrote during her stay there a romance called Les Chevaliers du Gygne ou la Cour de Charlemagne, and a pamphlet entitled Precis de la Conduite de Madame de Genlis pendant la Revolution. On Napoleon's becoming Consul, she returned to Paris, and accepted a pension. Residing in Paris until her death, she produced a number of sketches of fashionable life : her Observations Critiques pour servir d VHistoire Litteraire du 19me si&cle, her Dictionnaire Critique et Raisonne des Etiquettes de la Cour, des Usages du Monde, etc., and her Diners du Baron d'Holbach. After reaching her eightieth year, she composed her Memoires. There is much malicious gossip in all these later works; and her " moral " stories, once so popular, are as far from being immaculate as was her private character. Jurisprudence, practical science, and the stage were all given a considerable share of Napoleon's at- tention. Assembling the chief lawyers of the land, with Cambaceres at their head, he committed to them the great undertaking of compiling a code for France. Their deliberations produced the Code Civil des Francais, the Code de Procedure, the Code Penal, the Code d 1 Instruction Criminelle, and com- mercial and militar}'- codes. Much of this legis- lation is still in force. Cuvier, though submitting to the Empire, was in no sense a partisan, but simply an eminent scientist who lived calmly through that period and worked on undisturbed after the fall of Napoleon. Georges Chretien Leopold Dagobert, Baron Cuvier (1769-1832), was born at Mompelgard, then a town of Wurtemberg. Early evincing a passion for natural history, educated at Stuttgart, becoming private tutor in the family of the Comte d'He'ricy near Fecamp in Normandy, making the acquaint- ance of Geoffrey St. Hilaire and other eminent Parisian scientists, appointed through their in- 230 French Literature. fluence professor in the ficole Centrale of the Pan- the'on, becoming soon after assistant to Mertrud in the study of comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, he rose to distinction as a master in scientific investigation. Succeeding Daubenton in the College de France, and becoming Perpetual Sec- retary of the Institute, he soon stood high in the Emperor's favor, and was commissioned by him in 1808 to superintend the institution of academies in the countries newly acquired by France. Later, he became a member of the Council of State. After the fall of Napoleon, he was made Chancel- lor of the University of Paris, became a Cabinet Minister under Louis XVIII., opposed, under Charles X., the government measures for restrict- ing the freedom of the press, was made a peer of France under Louis Philippe, and died shortly after being named Minister of the Interior. His scientific work consists chiefly in creating the modern method of classification in zoology, and in raising comparative anatomy to the dignity of a science. His chief writings were his Legons d'Ana- tomie Comparee, Memoir e pour servir a VHistoire de VAnatomie des Mollusques, Recherches sur les Osse- ments Fossiles des Quadruples, Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surf ace du Globe et sur les Change- ments qu'elles ont produits dans le Rbgne Animal, and a number of eulogies delivered by him on scien- tific men. Both his valuable works on natural his- tory and his eulogies on men of science are distin- guished by the precision, clearness, ease, and ele- gance of their style. But his genius was not confined to that branch, which he may almost be said to have created. His retentive memory, profound legislative knowledge, and judicial cast of mind enabled, him when Presi- dent of the Council of State, to sum up the deliber- ations of his colleagues with a rapidity and succinct- ness which often amazed them; and his own contri- butions to legislation were exceedingly valuable. The Scientific Period. 231 "Once," says De Vericour, "in the Chamber of Peers, when a military question was mooted, and confusion ensued in the debate, Cuvier rose and solved the difficulty with the ease of a man who had passed his life in the study of tactics." Nor was he famous only as a student of nature and a masterly writer on his special subjects. " Nothing," says De Vericour, " could surpass the elaborate eloquence of his lectures. Whether lec- turing at the Jardin des Plantes on comparative anatomy, at the College de France on the history of natural philosophy, or at the Athenee Royal on subjects selected for a cultivated audience, accus- tomed to hear Chenier, Ginguene, Guizot, and others, he was always profound and never tedious. His great understanding seemed for the time to be communicated to his hearers ; and he led them, without fatigue, to the comprehension of the most elevated and recondite views." There were two Champollions. The elder, who lived to edit the manuscripts of his more distin- guished brother, is known as Champollion-Figeac. Jean Jacques Champollion-Figeac (1778-1867) was eminent, like his younger brother, as an ar- chaeologist. He was born at Figeac in the depart- ment of Lot. Librarian and Professor of Greek Literature at Grenoble, afterwards Conservator of MSS. in the Imperial Library at Paris, and then Librarian under Louis Napoleon of the palace of Fontainebleau, he published successively Anti- quites de Grenoble, Annales des Lagiades et figypte, Ancienne, Les Tournois du Roi Rene, and Notice sur les Afanuscrits Autographes de Champollion le Jeune. He left a son, who has worked in the same field of research, and published antiquarian and philological works. The greater Champollion, the famous Egyptolo- gist, Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), was also born at Figeac. Early interested in Egyptian antiquities by Baron Fourier, studying in Paris, 282 French Literature. made Professor of History in the Lyceum at Greno- ble, publishing in 1811 his figypte sous les Phara- ons, publishing in 1821 his essay, Sur V ficriture Hieratique des Anciens figyptiens, he was still some- what in the dark as to the true principle to be em- ployed in deciphering the ancient Egyptian inscrip- tions, until he became aware of the views of that great English Egyptologist, Dr. Thomas Young. Young lacked grace and perspicuity as a writer, but his scientific genius was amazing." Admired by Arago, Gay-Lussac, and Fresnel for his successful effort to establish the undulatory theory of light, he showed the same lightning glance of intuitive per- ception when he turned his attention to the great work of deciphering the Eosetta Stone, given up in despair even by Silvestre de Sacy, the great orient- alist Young began by ascertaining the original identity of the demotic, enchorial, or abridged char- acters with the sacred. He also divined the fact that phonetic characters were often interspersed with the symbolic. To these discoveries he added the important one, that the characters enclosed in an oval ring were proper names. The Greek text, which had been easily read and the mutilated parts supplied by Person and Heyne, helped at this point. The phonetic principle was discovered, and a fair beginning of analysis made. At this stage, Champollion took up Young's methods, and with masterly ingenuity interpreted monument after monument, and constructed a more perfect alphabet than Young's. The works on Egypt, after he had fairly got on the right track of investigation, were his celebrated Lettre a Monsieur Dacier, the Precis du Systime Hieroglyphique, the Pantheon jfigyptien, the Lettres au Due de Slacas, and his posthumous Orammaire figyptienne. Charles X. appointed him in 1828 to accompany a scientific expedition to Egypt and on his return to Paris he filled the new chair of Egyptian An- The Scientific Period. 233 tiquities in the College de France, but died soon after beginning his course of lectures. Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (1758- 1838), another great orientalist, was born at Paris. Early in life he began his oriental studies with He- brew, to which he added in the course of time a knowledge of Syriac, Aramaic, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, besides the European lan- guages, ancient and modern. His first elaborate work was the Annales de Mirkhond, a translation from the Persian. He refused the chair offered him in 1795 in the newly-founded ficole des Langues Orientales, being unwilling to take the oaths re- quired of him. But, in 1803, he became Professor of Persian in the College de France. In 1808 he became a member of the Corps Le'gislatif. Other high positions were filled by him after the fall of Napoleon. In 1822 he founded, with Abel Remu- sat, the Societe Asiatique. He produced a prodig- ious number of essays, memoirs, and pamphlets, besides his larger works. Of these the chief were his Grammaire Arabe ; his Chrestomathie Arale ; his Antholoyie Grammaticale Arabe; his Memoires sur Diverses Antiquities de la Perse, translation of Abdollatis's Egypt, and editions of various oriental books ; his Memoires sur TEtat actuel des Samari- tans ; and his Expose de la Reliyion des Druses. His son has been an able journalist. Jean Pierre Abel Remusat, (1788-1832), the dis- tinguished Chinese scholar, who founded with De Sacy the Societe Asiatique, was born at Paris. His first publication was an essay Sur la Lanyue et la Litterature Chinoises. While serving as a surgeon in Napoleon's military hospitals, he produced his, Uranographie Monaole and his discourse Sur la Nature monosyllabique attribute Communement a la Langue Chinoise. On the Restoration, he became Professor in the chair of Chinese newly founded in the College de France, delivering a brilliant inaugu- ral address, which De Sacy made haste to bring 234 French Literature. before the journal -reading public in the form of an analysis prepared for the Moniteur. After publishing numerous and able works on his special studies, Remusat died at Paris of chol- era. His chief works were his Recherches sur les Langues Tartares, Elements de la Grammaire Chin- oise, Recherches sur V Origine et la Formation de VEcriture Chinoise, Etude historique sur la Medecine des ChinoiS) Tableau Complet des Connaissances des Chinois en Histoire Naturelle (which, however, he did not complete), Sur la Pierre lu, Notice sur la Chine et ses Habitants, Sur V Extension de V Empire Chinois en Occident depuis le Premier Siecle avant Jesus- Christ jusqu 'd nos Jours. Frangois Arago (1786-1853), the famous scien- tist, was born at Estagel, near Perpignan, in the de- partment of the Eastern Pyrenees. He early made his reputation as an astronomer, and was employed by the government, with other eminent men of science, to measure an arc of the meridian. During his solitary residence in the little island of Ivica, while engaged in extending the arc from Barcelona to the Balearic Isles, war broke out between France and Spain, and he had a series of trying adventures, ending with his capture and slavery in Algiers. On his return to France, what he had endured in the cause of science won him unusual honors from the Academy of Sciences. In 1812, he began his fascinating lectures on astronomy, which drew listen- ers of all classes. Four years later, he established, along with Gay-Lussac, iheAnnales de Chimie et de Physique; and the two scientists, ignorant at that time that Dr. Thomas Young had already done it, proved the undulatory theory of light. A year or so later, Arago published his Recueil d 1 Observations geodesiques, astronomiques, et physiques. His next work was in the department of electro-magnetism, in which he discovered the development of mag- netism by rotation. Two visits made to England gave him early rec- The Scientific Period. 235 ognition abroad. He also acquired special renown as a writer by the eloges which he delivered in his capacity of Perpetual Secretary of the Academy. These biographical sketches have great literary merit. He also took part in the political move- ments of his time ; held office as a republican min- ister ; was an actor in the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 ; and refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis Napoleon on the establishment of the Second Empire. His chief works were the Astronomic populaire and the Notices scientifiques et biographiques, in which the clear style, the precise and rapid de- scriptive power, and the tact in putting salient points in a picturesque grouping have contributed to render science at once attractive and intelligible to the ordinary reader. Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac (1778-1850), the great chemist and physicist, is naturally named in the same breath with Arago. He was born at St. Leonard, in the department of Upper Vienne. He early worked, in concert with Biot and Alexander von Humboldt, on magnetic and chemical prob- lems. In 1808, he announced his discovery of the law of volumes for gases. By Napoleon he was directed to give special attention to chemical inves- tigations ; and, with The'nard, he published the re- sults of these inquiries in the Recherches Physico- chimiqncs. His discoveries belong to a history of chemical progress, and need not detain us here. He continued his scientific work uninterruptedly after the Restoration, and in 1839 was made a peer of France. Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827) was born at Broglie, in the department of Eure. Receiving a thorough education as an engineer, he was employed by the government in that capacity until 1815. He was busy during the Hundred Days in making in- vestigations into the polarization of light. Una- ware of what Young had published on the subject 236 French Literature. of the transmission of light, he too proved th< undulatory theory, refuting the corpuscular theory advanced by Newton. His chief work was the memoir jointly produced by himself and Arago on this subject. Fourier, whom Arago succeeded in the secre- taryship of the Academy of Sciences, was eminent as a mathematician. He must be carefully distin- guished from Fourier the Socialist. Jean Baptiste Joseph, Baron Fourier (1768-1830), was born at Auxerre. After completing his educa- tion in military schools, he accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, and wrote the fine historical introduction to the Description de VEyyple. As prefet of the de- partment of Isere, he drained the marshes in Bour- goin, near Lyon, which had long been an engineer- ing problem. After the Eestoration, he devoted himself wholly to scientific research, producing the Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur, the Memoire sur les Temperatures du Globe Terrestre et des Espaces Planetaires, and a work published after his death, entitled Analyse des Equations Determinees. Guillaume, Baron Dupuytren (1777-1835), famous as surgeon and anatomist, was born at Pierre- Bumere, in Limousin. He was not only a skillful practitioner, but also the inventor of methods of surgical operation and of valuable instruments. He wrote little, however, his chief works being his Lemons or ales de Clinique Chirurgicale faites a V Hotel- Dieu, and his Triate Theorique et Pratique des Blessures par Armes de Guerre. To these must be added the elder Ampere. Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836), born at Lyon, was a scientist of great merit. His electro-dynamic theory and his early suggestion of the identity of electricity with magnetism have set him high in the roll of savants. His father perished under the guillotine in 1793. Young Ampere devoted him- self then wholly to the study of nature. His first work was an essay Sur la TJieorie Matliematique du The Scientific Period. 237 a calculation of the chances in gaming. The results of his studies in electricity appeared in his Recueil cT Observations Electro-dynamiques, and his Theorie des Phenome'nes Electro-dynamiques. An account of his son, so famous as a philologist, must be reserved for another part of this sketch. The Michaux, father and son, may well close this list of scientists. Andre Michaux (1746-1802) studied under the botanist Jussieu and the astronomer Lemonnier. He traveled for botanical purposes in England, in the region of the Pyrenees, and, later, into Persia. There he was so fortunate as to cure the Shah of a dangerous disease, and hence the two years he spent in Persia were spent to great advantage. Later still, he traveled in North America at the expense of the government; but, on his way back, was ship- wrecked, and lost most of his specimens. The Directory did not treat him well, and in 1800 he sailed for Madagascar, still intent on botanical re- searches. There he died, two years after. His chief works were Histoire des Chenes de TAmerique Septentrionale, a work on the flora of North America. His son, Franyois Andre Michaux (1770-1855), visited this country three times on governmental service. His chief work was Histoire des Arbres fores tiers de VAmerique Septentrionale. He suc- ceeded in introducing a number of our forest trees into France. Another botanist, Ambroise Marie Francois Jo- seph Beauvois de Palisot (1752-1820), ought also to be named here. He had adventures in Africa and San Domingo. His works were Flore d'Oicare et de Benin, Insects recueillies en Afrique et en Amerique, and Muscoloyie, ou Traite sur les Mousses. Eminent as a naturalist, especially in ichthyol- ogy, was Bernard Germain Etienne de Laville, Count de Lacepede (1756-1825), a friend of Buf- fon's. He produced works on the natural history 238 French Literature. of Reptiles, of Fishes, of the Cetacea, and of Man. An elegant writer, and an accomplished musician, he added to these an aesthetic work, La Poetique de la Musique. He also wrote two romances. In his habits simple and domestic, kind and amiable in social intercourse, he was an honor to the great body of scientists which France produced in this age. Tlie Socialists and their Contemporaries. 239 XVII. THE SOCIALISTS AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES. IF this was eminently a period of scientific ad- vance, it was also as markedly a period of social- istic speculation, based upon a materialistic philos- ophy. The metaphysics of Condillac and Helvetius being in vogue, that school of thought which looks to the physiological nature of man as accounting for all his faculties worked out steadily its logical re- sults. The chief exponents of this philosophy were Cabanis and Volney. Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis (1757-1808) was born at Cosnac, in the department of the Lower Charente. A liberal in politics and a friend of Mirabeau, he took* a prominent part in the revolu- tionary period, but abhorred the extremes to which his party went. His philosophical work, written from the standpoint of his medical studies, was entitled Rapports du Physique et du Moral de THornme. He traces all ideas to sensation, and re- gards the brain as performing its functions under identically the same laws as those which regulate the processe of digestion. Some years after the death of Cabanis, his friend, De.stutt de Tracy, put his system into more detailed metaphysical form, in his Elements d 1 Ideologic. Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy, Comte de Tracy (1754-1836), was a sharer in the councils of the revolutionary party in 1789, served the Empire as Senator, and opposed re-actionary measures after the Restoration. Besides his metaphysical work and several writings on political economy, he pro- duced able Commentaires sur 'IS Esprit des Lois' de Montesquieu, in 1828, 240 French Literature. The most pronounced of the materialists, in car- rying the metaphysical doctrine to its legitimate results in the field of religious thought, was Volney, the ardent traveler and student of Eastern tongues. Constantin Fra^ois Chassebceuf, Comte de Volney (1757-1820), was born at Craon, in Anjou. He assumed the name of Volney, in addition to the family name of Chassebceuf, after reaching man- hood, just as Arouet had assumed that of Voltaire. After attaining a thorough education and studying successively both law and medicine, he went travel- ing in Egypt and Syria, having inherited a suffi- cient fortune from his mother. The work of Travels which he published on his return gained him great reputation. He took an active part in the great Eevolution, was imprisoned in 1793, and only set free by the fall of Robespierre. Soon after, he published his famous work, Les Ruines, in which he set forth his political and religious creed, the latter being a disbelief in all religions. His con- tribution to the materialistic philosophy was his Catechisme, which teaches that morality is a purely physical science, to be mastered by the same meth- ods as the other natural sciences. He was made professor in the ficole Normale, and his brilliant discourses were eagerly listened to ; but that school was soon suppressed, and he came over to this country, returning to France, however, after a few years' absence. Napoleon had once regarded him with favor ; but, as he opposed the Empire, he was always during its existence sneered at by the Emperor as one of the "ideologists," who, whatever their abilities, were impracticable. He was forced to keep his seat in the Senate, but his work was mainly literary, most of his writings, indeed, being purely linguistic. After the Restoration, he was called to the House of Peers, having already been made Count by Napoleon. A direct outcome of these ideas in philosophy was that school of socialistic thought which ex- Vhe Socialists and their Contemporaries. 2-il pounded its views in the doctrines of Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. Claude Henri, Comte de Saint-Simon (1760- 1825), was born at Paris of a family that boasted descent from Charlemagne through the Counts of Vermandois. He was cursed from early youth with the same inordinate pride which characterized his singular kinsman of an earlier generation, the Due de Saint-Simon. His disciples declare that before he was seventeen, he was used to have his valet wake him up every morning with the words : " Arise, my Lord Count, you have great things to do." He received a fair education, D'Alembert being one of his teachers. He served when quite young among the French volunteers under "Wash- ington, reaching the rank of colonel, and distin- guishing himself at the siege of Yorktown. Made a prisoner while on his way home, he was taken to Jamaica, where he remained until the declaration of peace. Two years later, he resigned from the army, traveled in Holland and Spain, took a warm interest in various industrial schemes, came back to France on the outbreak of the Revolution and voted for the abolition of titles of nobility,butin the main took no share in the tumults of the period. He bought up confiscated property, began to conceive his project of establishing a new social system, undertook the study of the sciences by listening to the talk of learned professors, married, and lavished in profuse hospitalities the fortune he had made by speculation. It was at this time that he is said to have visited Madame de Stael at Coppet and proposed marriage to her, having first divorced his wife, addressing the Baroness in these strange words : " Madame, you are the most extra- ordinary woman in the world, as I am the most extraordinary man in it ; we should without doubt have a child more extraordinary still." But the lady treated it as a jest. Finding himself by this time in want of means, 16 242 French Literature. he published at Geneva a Lettre d*un Habitant de Geneve a ses Contemporains, proposing the found- ing of a subscription list for the benefit of men of genius. As this brought in no funds and he began to suffer great privations, his career would have soon been cut short by starvation, had not Diard, an old friend, taken pity on him and given him shelter in his house. Here he produced his Introduction aux Travaux Scientifiques du Dix-nouvieme Siecle. Diard's death plunged him again into misery, and his sufferings forced him to write to Cuvier and others: "I am dying of hunger. For a fortnight my only fare has been bread and water. I work without fire, and I have had to part with even my clothes to get means to continue my work." It is not easy to get at the cause of his failure to take advantage of the great name he bore, when the Kestoration had brought back the prestige of the old nobility. His disciples claim that he scorned such vulgar ambition. Others suppose that he had offended too deeply to win forgiveness. In 1819, he put forth a pamphlet called Parabole, reflecting bitterly on the aristocracy. For this he was indicted and narrowly escaped severe punish- ment. But he had already won admirers and followers. Augustin Thierry assisted him in pre- paring his Reorganisation de la Societe Europeenne. His disciples also helped him in his IS Industrie ou Discussions Politiques, Morales, et Philosophiques, the third volume being by Comte. To these suc- ceeded Le Systtme Industriel and Le Catechisme Industriel. His publications having exhausted his finances, he tried to commit suicide by firing a pistol at his head. He lost an eye, but recovered life and reason. He now wrote his most remark- able book, Le Nouveau Christianisme. In this work, he claims that all his ideas on progressive social development are based on the words of Jesus Christ, that Christianity has been cramped and distorted by rigid dogmas and ecclesiastical organ- The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 243 izations, that Protestantism and Catholicism alike have gone astray from the purpose of the Founder, that the great duty of humanity is to ameliorate the condition of that vast majority the poor. After finishing this work, Saiut-Sirnon eank into a languor, and died. Rodrigues, Comte, and others of his disciples were around him in his last mo- ments, and reported his dying utterances with the same spirit of reverence with which Plato and Xenophon recorded those of Socrates. Soon after his death, the periodical he had hoped to establish, Le Pro'lucteur, appeared. Olinde Rodrigues was editor ; the contributors were Bazard, Enfantin, Cerclet, Buchez, Michel Cavalier, Carnot, Fournel, Barroult, Chasles, Duveyrier, Annand Carrel, Reynaud, Pierre Leroux, Saint-Cheron, Gueroult, and Charton. It died soon, however, for want of funds. Some of the leading Saint-Simonians then began to put forth the new doctrines in lectures They proposed the adoption of a system of rewards as a reform in jurisprudence, the abolition of the death- pena'lty and the substitution of reformatory dis- cipline, the adoption of civil-service reform, the enfranchisement of women, the abolition of mar- riage, and the eventual division of property according to the share of each man or woman in promoting social welfare. All agitation, though its aim be destruction of existing organizations, tends to produce organiza- tion of its own. The Saint-Simonians soon or- ganized a hierarchy, claiming that they were restor- ing the true religion and that Saint-Simon was a veritable prophet. They even adopted a peculiar costume. When the Revolution of 1830 came, Bazard and Enfantin, the chiefs of the new Church, had all Paris placarded with a scheme for the salvation and regeneration of France. Members of the govern- ment, however, denounce' I their sect as advocates 244 French Literature. for community of property and community of women. Proselytes to the new doctrine meantime became numerous. The prospects of the society seemed brighter than ever, when discord came, at the first blush of prosperity, to blight all the fair promise. Bazard died broken-hearted. Enfantin estranged many of the best men in the society. The funds were squandered in the great " Festival of Sanctification." Government prosecuted the chiefs, and troops were sent to break up their meetings and shut up their churches and schools. Enfantin retired to his house at Menilmontant with forty disciples, put forth from that retreat his Catechisme et Gendse du Saint- Simonisme, admitted the public to witness the worship of the sect, and drew down once more the interference of the police. After a short imprisonment, he went to Egypt with some few followers. Returning in the course of two years, he settled in the neighborhood of Lyon. Appointed in his later years a member of the Scien- tific Commission for Algiers, he wrote on his return from Africa a sensible book, called Colonisation de TAlyerie. He also appeared before the public after the Revolution of 1848, editing a paper in which he again brought forward Saint-Simonian doc- Barthe'lemy Prosper Enfantin (179 6-1864) had fought, when a mere boy, against the allies on the heights of Montmartre and St. Chaumont, and had on this account been expelled from the ficole Poly technique. His chief works were Doctrine d( Saint-Simon (written with others), Traite de V Econ- omic Politique,La Religion Saint- Simonienne, Moral, Le Livre Nonveau, Correspondance Philosophique et Religieuse, Correspondance Politique, and La Vie Eternelle, Passee, Presente, Future. Charles Fourier was before the public in advance of Saint-Simon. But it was not until the Saint- Simonians had attracted the attention of the public, that Fourier's speculations excited remark. The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 245 Fran9ois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837) was oorn at Besangon. His father, who was a merchant, gave him a good education. He then lived, as mer- chant's clerk, at Lyon, Rouen, Marseille, and Bor- deaux. He also traveled on commercial business in Holland and Germany. Being a close observer and having a remarkable memory, he acquired a vast amount of useful knowledge during these journeys. The fine fortune left him by his father was lost in the Revolution. He was forced into two year's ser- vice in the cavalry, which bad health released him from, at the end of that time. Going into business again, he employed his leisure in studying social problems. His books, developing his system, were Theor'ie des Quatre Mouvements et des Destinees Generales, Traite d 1 Association Domestique Ayricole, Le Nou* veau Monde Industrial et Societaire, Pidyes et Char- latanisme des Deux Sectes Saint-Simon et Owen, promettant V association et progre~s, and La Famse In- dustrie, Morcelee Repugnante, MensonyZre, et I An- tidote, T Industrie Naturelle, Combinee, Attrayante, Veridique, donnant Quadruple Produit. Fourier based his system upon a wild theory of the constitution of the universe, which need not be stated here, as he himself bitterly complained that these speculative notions were selected for ridicule, while his main scheme was ignored by the critics. This, stated in his own words, was a practical sys- tem embodying " the art of organizing a well-com- bined industry, from which will result morality, harmony amongst the three classes^the rich, the poor, and the middle class the impossibility of revolutions, universal unity, and perfectibility." He proposed an equal division of men, the smallest sub- division being a group, comprising from twelve to sixteen families: from twenty-four to thirty-two of these groups were to constitute a phalanx. Each phalanx, comprising about 1800 people, was to live in a building called a Phalanstery, in the middle of 246 French Literature. a large and highly cultivated domain, supplied with, workshops, studios, and all the appliances requisite for industr}', art, comfort, and amusement. His cal- culation was that such a Phalanstery would not require greater expense than four hundred cottages in an ordinary French parish of the same number of inhabitants, and that a well-built Phalanstery would outlast such cottages six or seven times. The institution was to be a grand co-operative concern, thus minimizing expenses. Distribution was to be regulated according to the capital brought into the common stock and to the labor performed. So many Phalansteries were to form a city, and these again one great metropolis; the Bosphorus being in his view the most convenient site for this metrop- olis. There were also to be special corporations, called Industrial Armies, commanded by those ex- celling in each branch of industry, art, or science, and destined to march to each point where their services might be immediately required, whether to build, to dig canals, to drain lands, or for any other great work needing concentrated action. The chief of the whole federal body was to be styled " Omniarch." Fourier's idea, it will be seen, is that of compre- hending all humanity in one great industrial asso- ciation, the members of which are all to hold shares in the common stock a monster co-operative so- ciety, in short. Fourier's views were taken up after his death, and attained more importance eventually than any other socialist system. La Phalange, a periodical edited by Victor Considerant, author of La Destinee Sociale, became the exponent of Fourierism. With the financial aid of a young Englishman, named Young, Considerant established in 1882 a Phalan- stery on the model planned by his master ; but the experiment failed. Later in life, he established a similar community in Texas ; but this also proved abortive. Both the Saint-Si monians and the Fourierites The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 247 have passed away. But the great question of the organization of labor remains as difficult to settle as ever. The worst forms of discontent with the rela- tions subsisting between capital and labor have been the crude and brutal Communism and Nihilism of recent times. These, however, can hardly be said to have a literature. Having now treated of those philosophical and socialist elements which sprung up in the soil of the French Revolution and produced literary fruit either during the Empire or soon after, I find it fitting to proceed to the stage "as it was under Napoleon. As has been said, the Emperor favored the stage, at least so far as the ancient tragedy was concerned. Plays on the classic model and on classic subjects were the order of the day ; and they had the great advantage of being acted by that great tragedian, Talma, ably assisted by Mademoiselle Duchesnois. The play-writers of this period were Andrieux, Raynouard, Legouve, Arnault, fitienne, Desaugiers, and Lemercier. Fran9ois Guillaume Jean Stanislas Andrieux (1759-1833) was born at Strasbourg. After being a short time in public life, he was removed by Napoleon from the presidency of the Tribunal, and then devoted himself to literature. His chief pro- ductions were the comedies, Les fitourdis, Anaxi- mandre, Molibre avec.ses Amis, Le Vieux Fat, the tragedy of Brutus, and some pretty tales in verse, of which Le Afeunier de Sans-Soiici is the best. As Professor of Literature in the College de France, he charmed his classes by his easy, familiar style of lecturing. Some of his lectures were published under the title of La Philosophic des Belles Lettres. As Perpetual Secretary of the Academy, he was an active worker in the preparation of its famous Dictionary. Fran9ois Juste Marie Raynouard (1761-1836), born at Brignoles in Provence, attained greater 248 French Literature. fame as a philologist than as a dramatic writer. After practising law with great success ; escaping during the Revolutionary troubles the fate of his friends, the Girondists, by being forgotten in prison ; and, on the fall of Robespierre and his own release from confinement, resuming the practice of his pro- fession, he fir.ally retired from it with a competency secured, and, betaking himself to Paris, gave him- self up to literary work. Besides a poem called Socrate au Temple d 1 Aglaure, lie produced a number of plays. These were Eleonore de Bavibre, Les Templiers, Sctpio, Les $tats de Blois, Don Carlos, Charles 1., Debora, and Jeanne $ Arc a Orleans. Of these, Les Templiers was the most successful. Before the Restoration, he had begun to take an absorbing interest in the Provencal language and the old literature of his native country ; and to the study of these he devoted himself through the rest of his life. His researches have proved very valu- able to linguists, however subsequent investigation has been forced to modify and even wholly set aside some of his theories. His chief linguistic works were Elements de la Orammaire Romane, Choix de Poesies Originales des Troubadours, Oram- maire comparee des Langues de VEurope Latine dans leur Rapports avec la Langue des Troubadours, Observations Philologiques sur le Roman du Rou, Influence de la Langue Romane, Lexique Roman ou Dictionnaire de la Langue des Troubadours. Of Marie Joseph de Chenier I have already given an account, in connection with the sketch of his brother Andre, who perished in the Revolution. Here, it need only be mentioned that he takes rank among the most distinguished of the play-writers of the period. Gabriel Marie Jean Baptiste Legouve' (1764- 1812), born at Paris, devoted himself wholly to literary pursuits. Among his poems, La Sepulture, Les Souvenirs, La Melancolie, and La Merite des Ferames, the last is a graceful tribute to the ex- The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 249 cellences of the sweeter part of humanity. His successful tragedies were La Mort d'Abel, Epicharis et Neron, and La Mort de Henri IV. Antoine Vincent Arnault (1766-1834) produced a great number of tragedies, the best known of which are Marius a Minturnes, Les Veniticns, and Germanicus. His residence in Venice on diplo- matic business helped him to make his " Venetians" effective. Napoleon was greatly pleased with this play, and his favor was prejudicial to Arnault when the Bourbons came back. Arnault also wrote in prose Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon, and Les Memoires d'un Sexayenaire. He was one of the contributors to the Nouvelle Bioyraphie des Con- temporains. His Fables have some merit from their vivacity and mischievous wit. Charles Guillaime lltienne (1770-1845), born in the village of Chamouilly, came young to Paris, and plunged at once into literary efforts. A lively comedy, Brueys et Palaprat, brought him immedi- ate reputation. He was censor of the press under Napoleon, but, losing his post at the Restoration, became an opposition journalist. After the Revolu- tion of 1830, he was made a peer of France. Of his many dramatic works, the finest are Les Deux Gendres, one of the best comedies of the Empire, and Joconde, a work that was produced for the Op- e*ra Comique. Marc-Antoine Desaugiers (1772-1827) was a joint-producer, with many writers for the stage, of comedies, operas, and vaudevilles ; but he is best known by his songs. They have a gaiety so fresh and companionable, so much dash, and so hearty a swing, that they have always been popular. His being like Tom Moore, in singing as well as writing his songs, gave the same kind of personal charm to his society. He warmly befriended Beranger, his country's greatest song- writer, in the beginning of the latter's career. Nepomucene Lemercier (1772-1840) was born 250 French Literature. at Paris. His chief plays were the tragedies of Agamemnon and Fredegonde et Brunehaut, the dramas of Richelieu and Pinto, ou la Journee des Dupes, and some comedies which had but slight success. A very remarkable work of his was Ins satirical poem called La Panhypocrisiaae. He also put forth a Cours de Literature Dramatique, which gives evidence of fine powers of observation, as well as of a delicacy of taste far from being so perceptible in his dramatic works. I have mentioned, above, his dramas separately from his tragedies ; and this is a fitting place to ex- plain what the French mean by the Drame as dis- tinguished from the Tragedie. The whole differ- ence may perhaps be best summed up in the state- ment that the Tragedie is the play of the classical taste and is subject to the rules of classic art ; while the Drame is the play of the romantic school, disregarding the unities and combining at will the elements of comedy with those of tragedy. The other literary men of this period, not hitherto mentioned, were the historians Daru, Michaud, and Sismondi; the poets, Fontanes, Viennet, and Millevoye ; and some of the members of the Bona- parte family, including Napoleon himself. Pierre Antoine Noel Bruno, Comte Daru (1767- 1829) was born at Montpellier. He entered the army while still a mere boy. Hs was one of the many prisoners of the Reign of Terror whom the fall of Robespierre released. During his imprison- ment he employed himself in translating Horace, subsequently publishing this Traduction en Vers des Poesies d'Horace. At the same time appeared his Cleopedie, on la Theorie des Reputations en Litterature. Napoleon held him in high favor, and employed him as one of his most trusted ministers. After the Restoration, he devoted himself wholly to literary work. His chief productions were the Histoire de la Repiiblique de Venise, the Histoire de Bretagne, his poetical Discours sur les Facultes The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 251 Oe I'Homme. his Discours sur la Liberte de la Presse, his Elopes, and a criticism of Chateaubriand's " Genius of Christianity." Count Daru's great work was his History of Venice, in seven volumes. He had peculiar facilities for making this a thorough work. The removal of the republic's archives by the French revolution- ary government to Paris, and Daru's position as Napoleon's favored minister, enabled him to make use of abundant materials which had hitherto been carefully kept concealed from the world. De Vericour gives this history very high praise for accuracy and judgment, though he remarks that the style lacks animation. Joseph Michaud (1767-1839) was born in Savoy, and wrote in early life a Voyage au Mont Blanc. Finding his way to Paris through the influence of the Comtesse de Eeauharnais, he there became an associate of the revolutionary leaders; but, remain- ing at heart a conservative, lie ventured after the fiill of Eobespierre to advocate in La Quotidienne the restoration of the monarchy. Condemned first to death and then to exile instead, he set out to find a refuge in the Jura mountains. Eeturning to Paris in 1799, he published some years later his Printemps d'un Proscrit, a poem which has some fine passages. In partnership with a younger brother, who was a printer, he undertook next the Biographic Moderne, which comprised sketches of the revolutionary leaders. On the return of the Bourbons, he sided heartily with the government party, published Le dernier Kegne de Bonaparte^ resumed the editorship of La Quotidienne, and began to write his great work, L'Histoire des Croisades. His friend, Madame Cottin, who was then writing her novel of the Crusading days, Malek Adhel, having begged him to look up some authorities for her, he became interested in the subject, and his study of the period ended in his seriously setting to work 252 French Literature. at a history of it. De Vericour gives him credit for a graceful, fluent, and figurative style, but charges him with great lack of perspicuity and accuracy. Michaud's other works were his Correspondance d 1 Orient, his Histoire de V Empire de Mysore, a Col- lection de Memoires sur V Histoire de France, and the Biibliotheque des Croisades. Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842) was born, of a house sprung from Italian ancestry, at Geneva, in Switzerland. His education was still in progress when the necessities of his parents forced him to enter a counting-house at Lyon. He did his work fairly, and in after-life regarded this practical training as of great value to him. The Revolution came, and he had to return to Geneva. But the family soon ceased to feel safe there, and took refuge in England, soon however to return. Still feeling uneasy, they bought a little farm near Pescia, in Tuscany. Here Sismondi be- gan to prepare materials for his History of the Italian Republics. Meanwhile, he had seen something of the society which gathered around Madame de Stae'l, and had been classed by Napoleon as one of those " ideologists " whom he so constantly sneered at. Before his history was finished, he put forth a work on political economy entitled De la Richesse commerciale. His Histoire des Republiques itali- ennes, in sixteen volumes, when it did appear, estab- lished his reputation. This was confirmed by his Histoire de la Litterature du Midi de V Europe, and his greatest work, the Histoire des Frangais. De Vericour eulogizes his learning, research, and penetration ; the purity of his style ; and the picturesqueness with which he has succeeded in in- vesting the scenes of his first subject, the Italian city-commonwealths. But he charges him with inequality of style and with the obtrusion upon the narrative of philosophical reflections which break The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 253 the spell of illusion for the reader and chill his in- terest. Guizot also, in his History of Civilization, while criticising Sismondi's History of the French closely, gives it very high praise. We turn now to the poets. Louis, Marquis de Fontanes (1757-1821), sprung from an old Huguenot family of Languedoc, was born at Niort. He early won at Paris a reputation for elegant and graceful poetry, publishing there, before the Eevolution, Le Cri de Mon Coeur, Le Verger, and translations from English poetry. He took the popular side when the great crash came, became famous as an orator, warmly admired Napoleon, and kept his favor to the last. After the Restoration, he was raised to the peerage by Louis XVIII. Jean Louis Guillaume Yiennet was born at Beziers in 1777. Intended for a priest, he became a soldier on the outbreak of the Revolution, and after the Restoration betook himself to literature. He was successful S journalist, satirist, dramatist, and romancer. Among his works may be named La Philippide, his Promenade philosophique au Cimetiere du Pere La Chaise, his Satires, his Epitres, his play of Michel Bremond, and his Fables. Charles Hubert Millevoye (1780-1816) attempted every branch of poetry, but did not succeed in works of the highest order. In little poems of pure sentiment he proved himself a poetic artist of exquisite charm and grace. La Chute des Feuilles is considered his finest poem. Among the others, in which his chaste and melancholy sweetness show to best advantage, are L' Amour maternel, UAn- niversaire, La Demeure abandonnee, Le Poele mou- rant, and Les Souvenirs. His dramatic attempts and his more ambitious poems, the Charlemagne and the Alfred, will not be remembered. The Ernperor himself has some claim to a place in the literature of his age. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), born at Ajaccio in the island of 254: French Literature. Corsica shortly after it fell under French rule, received a French education and used the language always with power, if not with accuracy. The great events of his life belong to history, and need not be recounted here. His literary works consist of tliose brilliantly eloquent proclamations to his soldiers and bulletins of his campaigns, which are certainly the productions of a very high order of oratorical genius; his messages and addresses to various state bodies ; his correspondence private and public ; and his Memoires historiques, written under his dictation at St. Helena. In these cam- paign memoirs, his style is simple, precise, and direct. His brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino (1775-1840), was also born at Ajaccio and educated in France. He was President of the Council of Five Hundred, when that 18th Brumaire dawned which was to see his military brother all powerful over the destinies of France ; and it was to Lucien's help on that occasion that Napoleon owed his suc- cess. For a time he continued docile to the will of the more imperious Bonaparte ; but, opening his eyes at last to Napoleon's arbitrary character and boundless ambition, he began to oppose him. Matters were brought to a crisis by Lucien's re- fusal to divorce his second wife, Madame Jouber- thon, the widow of a stockbroker, even for the bribe of the crowns of Italy and Spain. Retiring to his estate of Canino, in the province of Viterbo, Lucien devoted himself to art, science, and litera- ture. It was by the Pope that he was created Prince of Canino and Musignano, and Rome was his favorite resort. Pursued by Napoleon's hostil- ity, he at last set sail for America, but was cap- tured by the English and taken to England. On Napoleon's retirement to Elba, Lucien was allowed to return to Rome, where he had been living at the time of his attempt to get to America. His abilities might have given him a fair place in The Socialists ami lh>ir Contemporaries. 255 literature, had he not made the mistake of trying to produce epic poems. His Charlemagne ou Vfiglise delivree, in twentj'-four cantos, which was written and published in London ; and his La Cyrneide ou La Corse Sauvee, were both tedious efforts. The pretended memoirs of Lucien are not considered authentic by modern critics. Lucien's eldest son, Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte (1803-1857), born at Paris, won some fame as a naturalist, and especially as an orni- thologist. He wrote one or two works on natural history. Another son, Louis Lucien Bonaparte, attained some eminence as a chemist, mineralogist, and linguist. Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), Napoleon's third brother, whom he made King of Holland, and forced to marry his adopted daughter, Hortense Engenie Beauharnais, lived in retirement after the fall of the Empejor, and formally separated from his wife. This brother of one emperor and father of another wrote a novel, descriptive of Dutch manners and customs, Afarie, ou les Hollandaises ; Documents sur le Gouvernement de la Hollande; Histoire du Parlement Anglais ; and a criticism of Norvins' Napoleon. Hortense Eugenie Beauharnais (1783-1837), the daughter of Josephine by her first husband, Gen- eral Beauharnais, was born at Paris. Her father was one of the early victims of the Revolution. Her mother was protected by Barras, and after her marriage with Napoleon, soon rose to the highest position in the State. Hortense perferred General Desaix, but the will of Napoleon forced her to marry Louis and become Queen of Holland. After suffer- ing great anxieties about her two sons during the risings of the Carbonari in Italy, where one of the young men died, she settled permanently in the residence at Arenenberg, in the canton Thurgau, which had been her habitual resort since the over- throw of Napoleon. She was a good song- writer. 256 French Literature. Her best known song is that Partantpour la Syrie, which her son afterwards made the national air of France. She also wrote La Heine Hortense en Italic, en France, et en Angleterre, pendant I'Annee 1831. In connection with the Bonapartes, may be men- tioned Madame de Remusat, whose Memoirs, pub- lished by her grandson in 1879, give so intimate a view of the Napoleonic court. Claire Elisabeth Jeanne Gravion de Vergennes, Comtesse de Remusat (1780-1821) was a grand- niece of Louis XYI.'s minister, Vergennes. Her career is fresh in the minds of the readers of the Memoirs and Letters lately before the public. She also wrote an essay Sur V Education des Femmes. The sprightly but superficial Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Abrantes, and the Memoirs of Las Cases should also find a place here. The title of the well-known work by Marshal Junot's wife is Memoires ou Souvenirs Mstoriques sur Napoleon, la Revolution, le Directoire, le Consulat V Empire, et la Restauration, and is certainly full of promise, but there is really little in the book of historic value. Emmanuel Auguste Dieudonne, Comte de Las Cases (1766-1842), was born in the chateau of Las Cases, near Revel. He was in the naval service when the Revolution broke out, served later in the Prince of Conde's army, was an exile in England, supporting himself by teaching, and came back to France on Napoleon's settling a firm government. Getting the Emperor's attention by his fine Atlas historique, he was employed by him. After Waterloo, on the dethroned Emperor's sentence of imprisonment, Las Cases offered to share his fate. During his stay at St. Helena, he acted as aman- uensis for Napoleon ; but he was removed some time before the Emperor's death. After that event, he published the Memorial de Sainte-Helbne. He was in public life for a time after the Revolution of 1830. The Socialists and their Contemporaries. 257 To these may be added the Memoirs of the Comte Miot de Melito, diplomatist under the Empire, and an acute and cool observer of persons and events ; as well as the Letters, recently published by Pallain, of that singular being, the Machiavelli of modern times, Charles Maurice de Talley rand-Peri gord, Prince de Benevento, so often master of the destinies of France, subtlest of diplomatists, and keenest of wits. Some mention may be made here also of Memoirs of a very different kind those of Vidocq, the de- tective. Fran9ois-Jules Vidocq (1775-1850), born at Arras, successively thief, swindler, soldier, galley- slave, highwayman, informer, spy, chief of police, and autobiograplier, put forth his book when Sue's novel was most in vogue, with the title, Les Vrais Mys&res de Paris. In these Memoirs of Vidocq occurs a song in the flash dialect, which Marginn translated into the corresponding English thieves' dialect. Both versions may be found in the "Noctes Ambrosianae." 17 258 French Literature. XVIII. AFTER THE RESTORATION. THE philosophers and the socialist dreamers of whom I have already spoken were an outcome of the French Revolution. But there was at the same time an under-current of thought and feeling, which began shortly after the Restoration to take definite form as a powerful re-action against the tendencies and forces which at once produced and followed the Revolution. Especially was there a re-action against infidelity, helped into its earlier literary, expression by the somewhat vague religious senti- ment of Chateaubriand and the Protestant con- victions of Madame de Stael, and carried to ultra- montane extremes by Joseph De Maistre. Similar views to those of De Maistre, but expressed more temperately and with more emphasis given to the political side of the question, were at about the same time strongly brought forward by De Bonald. Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald (1753-1840), was born at Monna, near Milhau, in Aveyron. He was one of the emigrants, when the fury of the Revolution burst upon society. His first work of note, Theorie du Pouvoir Politique et Religieux, foretold the Restoration. When Na- poleon had established a strong government, De Bonald returned to France, and entered the public service. After the Restoration, he was raised to the peerage by Louis XVIII. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new government after the Revolution of July. Besides the work men- tioned above, he published Legislation Primitive, and Recherches Philosophiques sur les Premiers Objets des Connaissances Morales. His style is con- After the Restoration. 259 fused, and his views, as already stated, were ex- treme ; but he did good service against the mate- rialism of the physiological school. Another, but a much more gentle advocate of the claims of the church than De Bonald, De Maistre, or De Lamennais, was Pierre Simon Ballanche (1776-1847). According to De Vericour, Ballanche was as full of charity and Christian unction as Fene- lon, and might be classed as a Catholic transcendental - ist. He styles him " the most poetic philosopher and prose writer of the nineteenth century," and states that " all his works are marked by the most touch- ing sympathy for his fellow-creatures ; and the en- couragements he gives them glow as if with pro- phetic fire." His works were Du Sentiment considere dans la Litterature et dans les Arts, a prose poem called Antigone, an essay Sur les Institutions sociales dans leur Rapport av ec les Idees nouvelles, Le Vie.il- lard et le Jeune Homme, a novel entitled Uhomme sans Nom, the Vision d'Hebal, and, above all, Palincjenesie Sociale. But the greatest, and at one time apparently the most hopeful movement in the bosom of the Catholic Church, because it aimed at reconciling the author- ity of the Church with the yearning of the age for free government, was the Liberal Catholic move- ment headed by Montalembert, De Lamennais, and Lacordaire. Montalembert was much the youngest of these; but his position, his genius, and his undy- ing hopefulness of nature identify him with the movement as its especial protagonist. Charles Forbes, Comte de Montalembert (1810- 1870), was of an ancient family of Poitou. A bom orator, and an admirer of the English Constitution, of Burke and of Grattan, he was fated to spend his life and his glowing energies in the tormenting task of trying to reconcile his love of liberty with his devotion to the Holy Roman Church, and to con- tend in vain for a basis of compromise between the church and the state. 260 French Literature. His whole career was greatly influenced by those two able men, the Abbe de Lamennais and the Pere Lacordaire. These two men planned and published UAvenir as the exponent of their views. Their great object was to place the Church at the head of the liberal movement. They were cordially joined by Montalernbert. But it was not long before they contrived to embroil themselves with both the Government and the Church. UAvenir was con- demned at Rome. Montalembert and Lacordaire submitted , but De Lamennais broke away in wrath from the Church, published his famous Paroles dun Croyant, wildly and fiercely renouncing a body which he now believed to be at war with liberty. Montalembert turned to literature for solace, pub- lished his Du Vandalisme en France, a plea for the old cathedrals; and his Histoire de S. Elisabeth, a. devout and enthusiastic study of holy life in the " Ages of Faith." On reaching the age which per- mitted his joining in the debates of the Chamber as a peer of France, he began that wonderful oratorical career in which his genius showed itself at its best. Sainte-Beuve thus describes him : "When he re-appeared in the Chamber, [his first ap- pearance had been when he stood his trial before his peers for opening a school in defiance of the law, along with Lacordaire and De Coux.] he had the right to say any- thing, to dare anything, so long as he retained that ele- gance of aspect and diction which never forsook him. He could utter with all freedom the most passionate pleadings for that liberty which was the only excess of his youth. He could develop without interruption those absolute theories which from another mouth would have made the Chamber shiver, but which pleased them from his. He could even give free course to his mordant and incisive wit, and make personal attacks with impunity upon poten- tates and ministers. In one or two cases the Chancellor called him to order for form's sake ; but the favor which attends ability carried everything before it. His bitterness and he was sometimes bitter from him seemed almost After the Restoration. 261 amenity, the harshness of the meaning being disguised by the elegance of his manner and his perfect grace." In 1837, Montalembert married the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Count Felix de Merode, a nobleman of an ancient Belgian house, and with her he lived a happy and contented home life, at the same time enjoying as an orator many public triumphs. He resolutely opposed to the last the arbitrary measures of the Second Empire, and the efforts of that party in the Church which aimed at establishing the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, though on his deathbed, soon after the success of that party, he gave in his adhesion to what he said he did not pretend to understand. Besides his works already mentioned, he published, among other writings, Les Moines d 1 Occident depute $. Benoit jusqu 1 d S. Bernard, L'Eylise libre dans VEtat libre, and Le Pape et Ed Pologne. One of the most touching incidents in Monta- lembert's life was that related of his daughter's announcing to her parents her desire to become a nun; and, on their tenderly seeking to know what secret sorrow might be prompting the wish, her pointing to a passage in one of her father's worka in which he eloquently declared that blighted hearts were a poor sacrifice to offer to God. Hughes Felicite Robert de Lamennais (1782- 1854) was born at Saint Malo. He took the ton- sure in 1811, going into the little seminary of Saint Malo, and being ordained priest some years later by the Bishop of Rennes. A tract against Na- poleon obliged him to take refuge in England. Other works of his had already given him some reputation as an assailant of the materialistic phi- losophy of the day ; but the appearance in 1817 of the first volume of his Essai sur I 1 Indifference en Matibre de Religion gave him at once European celebrity. The remaining three volumes were equally successful, and, when, he went to Rome, 262 French Literature. Pope Leo XII. declared him to be " the last Father of the Church." His later course I have already described. After the Paroles d\m Croyant, which proclaimed his rupture with the Church, he put forth a series of works, advocating the most extreme democratic doctrines. He ceased to believe with the Church on many vital points, and tried to con- struct from his natural lights a system of Christian metaphysics. His most labored production of this peroid was his Esquisse d'une Philosophic. Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire (1802-1861) was born at Eecey-sur-Ource, Cote-d'or, the son of a village doctor. Montalembert, in his short biog- raphy of Le Pbre Lacordaire, says : " He had, like all the young people of his day, lost the faith at school, and had not recovered it either at the law school or the bar, in which he was enrolled for two years. To all outward seeming, nothing distinguished him from his contemporaries. He was a deist, as all the youth was then ; he was, above all, liberal, like the whole of France, but without excess. He had said it again and again : no man or book was the instrument of his conversion. A sud- den and secret flash of grace opened his eyes to the nothingness of irreligion. In a single day he became Christian, and the very next day from Christian he wished to be priest." He soon became famous as a great preacher, pro- foundly in earnest and of a brilliant eloquence. I have already the story of his association with Mont- alembert and De Lamennais in the publication of L'Avenir. From the time of the papal condemna- tion of that journal, he devoted himself to his pul- pit duties. His sermons at Notre Dame drew im- mense audiences. He produced a Life of Saint- Dominic, and, moved by his enthusiasm for that order, became a Dominican friar. This led to his preaching in different parts of France. After the Eevolution of 1848, he for a short time went into political life, as one of the representatives from After tht Restoration. 263 Marseille. Preaching, at various times, again at Notre-Dame, he finally gathered a number of his sermons of both the earlier and later periods, and published them under the title, Conferences de Notre Dame de Paris. His Oraisons funebres are also esteemed by French critics as worthy to be placed beside those of the great preachers of the seven- teenth century. "We have now reached the point at which it will be fitting to take up those metaphysical thinkers who have mainly directed the thought of France in the last generation. These are Cousin, Jouffroy, Damiron, and Comte. Cousin was pre- ceded by Eoyer-Collard, whose busy share in politi- cal life has somewhat obscured his claims to notice as a philosopher. Pierre Paul Eoyer-Collard (1763-1845) was born at Sompuis, Maine.- He was at first prominent in the agitations of the Revolution, but was forced to live in obscurity during the Reign of Terror, even follow- ing the plough to escape the sharp-eyed messengers of the Jacobins. When Napoleon came into power, Royer-Collard was placed in the chair of philosophy in the University of France, and devoted himself with great singleness of purpose to the study of metaphysics. He rejected the system of Condillac, studied by preference the Scottish philosophers Reid and Dugald Stewart and began that system of eclecticism which Cousin afterwards developed with so much brilliancy. The Restoration broke in upon these studies, as Royer-Collard was soon drawn into political life. After 1842, however, he lived in retirement. He published little ; but his influence on both political and philosophical thought was very great. His library-room served as a sort of salon in which were to be met men like Cousin, Guizot, the Due de Broglie, Casimir Perier, De Barante, Villemain, Ampere, and De Remusat. His earnest and upright character, his moderate and sensible views, the simplicity of his life, and 264 French Literature. his love for books caused him to be highly esteemed by such men as these. Victor Cousin (1792-1867), the head of the school of Eclectic Philosophy, was born at Paris, the son of a clock-maker. He was at first Greek tutor in the ficole Norm ale, but before long was appointed as- sistant to Royer-Collard, and, on the retirement of the latter from his professorship, became his suc- cessor. He expounded the doctrines of the Scottish metaphysicians with great clearness and power, added to them with discreet eclecticism principles borrowed from the great German thinkers Kant, Fichte, Jacobi, and Schelling; and finally drew largely from Hegel 'also, combining them all into a symmetrical whole, equally brilliant and seductive as seeming to harmonize views at first sight discord- ant. His audiences were large and enthusiastic. As a lecturer he was always a splendid success. Eare lucidity of exposition, a style recalling tliat of Plato, extraordinary powers of generalization, ad- mirable taste and skill in illustrating the deepest metaphysical subtleties from history, art, science, and daily life, were qualities which gave a new charm to a study commonly reputed dry and repul- sive. He took some part in public life when the Revolution of 1830 made his friend Guizot Prime Minister. His chief works were the Histoire de la Philosophie auXVIIP SiZcle; Fragments litter air es ; Fragments philosophiques ; a translation of Plato ; literary studies of Pascal, Jacqueline Pascal, and J. J. Rousseau ; the Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien; an Introduction a T Histoire de la Philosophie ; Etudes sur les Femmes Illustres et la Societe du XVII 6 Sibcle ; Des Principes de la Revolution fran^aise ; and Lemons de Philosophie sur Kant. His ablest scholars were Jouffroy and Damiron. Theodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842) became a professor in the College de France. He published translations of Reid and Stewart. His best known original work is the Melanges Philosophiques. After the Restoration. 265 Jean Philibert Damiron (1794-1862) was also a Professor of Metaphysics, and published several philosophical works, among them a Cours de Phil- osophic and an essay on Philosophic en France an 19* Siecle. Another of Cousin's pupils was Louis Eugene Marie Bautain (1796-1867), born at Paris. He wrote La Morale de VEvanyile comparee a la Morale des Philosophes, Philosophic-psychologic ex- perimentale, Philosophic morale, Philosophic du Christianisme, La Religion et la Liberte considerees dans leurs Rapports, and La Morale de VEvanyile comparee aux divers Systemes de Morale. Others of this school were Bouillet, De Cardail- lac, Mazure, Ozaneaux, Hippeau, Tissot, Gamier, Poret, Caro, Paffe, Caunes, and Geruzez. Among the opponents of eclecticism was Pierre Leroux (1798-1871), once a Saint Simonian. His Refutation de TBclectisme was the ablest of the many attacks made on the system of Cousin. Pierre Leroux, after separating from Enfantin, joined Reynaud in editing the Revue Encyclopedique, and, on its failure, the Encyclopedic Nouvelle. About the time of his attack on eclecticism, he published also his work De THumanite, de son Principe, et de son Avenir, in which he set forth his own philo- sophical views, a sort of modified eclecticism with a belief in the old anima-mundi theory of the ancients superadded to it. Later, he associated himself with Viardot and Madame Dudevant in the publication of the Revue Independante. He was also the author of a philosophic poem, of a drama called Job, and of a translation of Goethe's Werther. Auguste Comte (1796-1857), the founder of the Positive Philosophy, was another of those who had once been Saint-Simonians. After breaking away from that school, he became Professor of Mathe- matics in the ficole Poly technique. His works were Cours de Philosophic Positive; Discours sur V Ensemble du Positivisme ; System* de Politique Positive ; and Catechisme Positiviste, ou Sommaire 266 French Literature. Exposition de la Religion Universelle. He produced also works on analytical geometry and on astron- omy. His main idea was that Theology was the law of man's childhood, Metaphysics the law of his youth, and Positivism the law of his maturity, this Positivism being the search of humanity after the laws that produce phenomena. Positivism, then, limits all legitimate speculation to observed facts. It makes a religion of science, and ignores all that park of nature within and without us which science can not grasp and analyze. The great question of the organization of labor which the socialists brought into prominence was treated with especial attention by two antagonistic thinkers, Louis Blanc and Michel Chevalier. Jean Joseph Louis Blanc was born in 1813. In a Socialist Review, which he founded in Paris in 1838, he brought out his chief work on Socialism, the Organisation du Travail, afterwards publishing it in a separate form. This book won him great popularity among the industrial classes. He next published his Histoire de dix Ans, which overthrew the government. His Histoire de la Revolution frangaise followed, in which he prophesied the triumph of Socialism. When the Revolution of 1848 came, Blanc was put at the head of the com- mission on the labor question. Involved in the insurrections which followed the attempt to inaugu- rate national workshops, he was forced to escape to London. During his exile, he wrote his Appel aux Honnetes Gens and his Catechisme des Socialistes. These were followed by Pages d> Histoire de la Revolution de Fevrier, Plus de Girondins, and La Republique Une et Indivisible. On the fall of the Second Empire at Sddan, Blanc returned to France. His French Revolution is an able work. Michel Chevalier was born at Limoges in 1806. He was educated to be an engineer. In his early life, he was an active Saint-Simonian; and, when the division took place in that sect, he followed After the Restoration. 267 Enfanwii, helped in preparing the Livre Nouveau, and suffered imprisonment for his ardent advocacy of that cause. Later, however, he retracted all that he had advanced against Christianity and the institution of marriage. He was sent by the gov- ernment to the United States, on a special mission of inquiry into our canal and railroad system. He also visited England with a similar purpose. Pub- lishing works of industrial information based on these travels of investigation, and pursuing a career of earnest devotion to his profession, he gained in time a position of distinction in the state. In reply to Blanc's work, he wrote his Lettres sur T Organ- isation du Travail. He also published works on political economy and on Mexico. Among the writers on political philosophy must be classed Charles de Remusat, De Tocqueville, Guizot, De Cormenin, and the Emperor Louis Napoleon. Fra^ois Marie Charles, Comte de Remusat (1797-1875), the son of a Proven9al gentleman, Auguste Laurent, Comte de Remusat, and of that Madame de Remusat whose Letters and Memoirs have lately been put before the world, was born at Paris, and began his political career as a journalist under the influence of Guizot; but at a later period he pursued a more independent course. The most important of his earlier essays were Sur la Re- sponsibilite des Afinisteres, Sur la Liberte de la Presse, Sur la Procedure par Juris en Afattire Criinindle, and Sur les Amendements a la Loi des Elections. He figured among those journalists whose protest emphasized the popular discontent with the governmental measures which produced the Revolution of 1830. He went then into public life and held some important offices, continuing to serve the State in such capacities after the Revolu- tion of 1848. When Louis Napoleon overthrew the republic, De Remusat was exiled for a time. During the Second Empire he devoted himself to 268 French Literature. literature and science. His works on non-political subjects were Essais de Philosophic, Histoire d" 1 Abe- lard, Saint Anselme de Canterbury, UAnyleterre au dix'huitieme Siecle, Passe et Present, Bacon, Hart- ley, Histoire de la Philosophic anglaise de Bacon d Locke, and a philosophical drama entitled Abelard. Charles Henri Alexis Cleret de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was born at the chateau of Verneuil, near Mantes, in the department of Seine-et-Oise. In 1831 he came to the United States with Gustave de Beaumont on a mission from the Government to examine and report on the practical working of the penitentiary system. He used the occasion to study the influence of a democratic form of gov- ernment on the institutions, social manners, and literature of a country. On returning, besides publishing with his colleague a report Du Systeme penitentiaire aux Etats- Unis, he put forth the result of his studies in his great work, De la Democratic en Amerique. Royer-Collard styled this work " a continuation of Montesquieu." A great sensation was produced by it, and De Tocqueville at once took rank as the greatest thinker of his day in the science of political philosophy. The clearness and keenness of his vision in a sphere of observation where the facts are exceedingly complex, the fair- ness of his judgments, the thoroughness with which he had digested the vast array of facts before him, and the sirnplicitj^, force, warmth, and vivacity of his style won him golden opinions from the most judicious critics on both continents. When he visited England, he received an enthusiastic welcome from the Whig leaders. There he mar- ried an English lady. Later, though at first de- feated, he was in the end sent to the Chamber by the people of that Norman department in which the old family estate of Tocqueville lay. He was one of the strongest opponents of the Socialist movement. When Louis Napoleon destroyed the liberty of the people, De Tocqueville retired to his After the Restoration. 269 Norman estate and devoted himself to agriculture. There be wrote Uancien Regime et la Revolution. He died at Cannes, whither he had gone for his health. In 1860, De Beaumont published his friend's (Euvres et Correspondance inedites, with a biograph- ical notice. Gustave de Beaumont (1802-1866) was born at Beaumont-la Chartre, in the department of Sarthe. His course was, throughout, that of his friend, De Tocqueville. He was Lafayette's grandson, and he married his cousin, the daughter of Georges La- fayette. Besides the Penitentiary Eeport which he prepared in conjunction with De Tocqueville, he produced J/an'e, ou VEsclavaye aux Etats- Unis, and Ulrlande, sociale, polilique, et reliyieuse. Franyois Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874) has Avon his greatest literary distinction as a his- torian. But he was also a remarkable orator, statesman, and publicist. He was born at Nirnes, of Protestant parents. His father, a lawyer, per- ished on the revolutionary scaffold. By his mother he was then taken to Geneva. He betook himself to Paris in 1805, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. His first important publication was a Didionnaire des Synonymes fran^ais, after which he put forth the Vie de Corneille et de Shakspeare, and a translation of Gibbon, with valuable histor- ical notes. In 1812, he was appointed Professor of History, and began that series of historical works on which his fame chiefly rests. After the Resto- ration he took part in politics, writing his Histoire des Orifjines du Gouvernement Representatif, and other works on the philosophy of political in- stitutions. In conjunction with other men of letters, he pub- lished two most valuable collections of Memoirs throwing light on French history, numbering in all fifty-seven volumes. Besides, also, editing several works, he published his Histoire de la Revolution d Anyleterre, and his Histoire de la Civilisation en 270 French Literature. France. After the Eevolution of 1830, he stren- uously supported Casirnir Perier, held several high offices in the State, and labored earnestly for im- provements in education. After serving as ambas- sador to England, he became Prime Minister until the fall of Louis Philippe. His restrictive measures, his cold and austere manner, and his rigid impassi- bility, together with the general offensiveness to the nation of the government which he represented, made Guizot at this time one of the most unpopular men in France. Escaping to London when the crash came, he was there well received, in spite of his identifica- tion with the selfish policy which the " Citizen- King " had pursued both at home and abroad. His pamphlet entitled Guizot a ses Amis failed to restore the confidence of the French people. The violent seizure of the government by Louis Na- poleon in December, 1851, put an end to Guizot's intrigues to bring about a restoration of the mon- archy ; and he returned to his literary labors, writing Memoires pour servir a THistoire de mon Temps, Meditations sur Vfitat actuel de la Religion chretienne, Melanges biographique et litteraires, and Melanges politiques et historiques. Besides these works may also be named his Monk, ou Chute de la Republique et Retablissement de la Monarchic en Angleterre; Washington, son Caractere et son In- fluence dans la Revolution d 1 Amerique, Etudes sur les Beaux-arts, and a History of France as told to his grandchildren. This last-mentioned work was published after his death. Politically, Guizot's position was that of a Con- stitutionalist,equally opposed to absolute monarchies and to republican governments. His horror of dis- order led him to prefer authority to liberty, when there was strong danger of liberty's degenerating into anarchy. His style of oratory was incisive and impressive ; he kept steadily to his subject, and allowed nothing to draw him away from it. After the Restoration. 271 His speeches were wholly impersonal, in spite of the temptation which must often have assailed him to indulge in recrimination when Berryer, Barrot, Thiers, Arago, and Mauguin rained upon him their fierce philippics. As a writer, his chief qualities are great erudition, a passion for order and for generalization, elevation of sentiment, loftiness of view, impartiality, and closeness of analysis. His style is defective. It lacks the charm which we look for when reading a great French writer. Nor does Guizot impress the reader as one who knows the human heart. The vast fund of knowledge displayed has all been drawn from books. There is nothing to indicate personal observation as the source of anything he has written, or to point to his possession of that gift of sympathy by which imaginative men of genius are able to re-animate the people of the past and set them vividly before us. We turn now to an agitator in behalf of popular rights, who left behind him the reputation of hav- ing been the greatest of pamphleteers. This was Courier. Paul Louis Courier (1772-1825) was born at Paris. He served in the Italian campaign, resigned from the army after the battle of Wagram, acquired some literary reputation as a translator from the classics ; but directly after the Restoration began his brilliant career as a pamphleteer. Living on a small estate in Touraine, he poured forth one after the other caustic criticisms on the course of the government, the keen and cutting irony of which recalled the masterly style of Pascal. For one po- litical diatribe the government had him prosecuted and condemned to imprisonment. His inimitable wit and the Attic simplicity of his style give his productions high literary value. His last piece, put forth the year before his assassination, with the title Pamphlet des Pamphlets, was styled by 272 French Literature. Armand Carrel who published in, 1835 a complete edition of his works The Swan's Death -song. Beranger, with his pungent sarcasm and biting scorn, was about the same time making his politi- cal songs as dreadful to the Ministry as were Courier's pamphlets. But in one respect Courier differed widely from Beranger as a political agita- tor : he abhorred the Napoleonic legend which with Beranger had become the natural rallying point against the evils of Bourbon rule. Another of the formidable enemies of the re- actionary government was De Cormenin. Louis Marie de la Haye, Yicomte de Cormenin (1788-1868), was born at Paris. He had an im- mense political influence through the whole period which elapsed from the time of the Restoration to the day of his death. His pamphlets were almost as famous as those of Courier. His work, Le Droit Adtninistratif, his Etudes sur les Orateurs Parle- mentaires, and his Le Droit de Tonnage en Algerie were all works of merit. Les Entretiens de Village was another work of his. Another historian, who was also orator and statesman, was Thiers. Louis Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) was born at Marseille. Studying law at Aix, he formed there a close intimacy with Mignet the historian, and with him sought Paris to begin his career there as political journalist. His Histoire de la Revolution frangaise by its clearness of narration, accuracy, and vigor of style, at once gave him reputation. His fatalist theory, by which he justified all the excesses of each party in its hour of triumph, detracts greatly from the philosophic value of this work. When the struggle began which led to the overthrow of the government in 1830, Thiers by working heartily 'with the Liberals had no small share in bringing about the revolution. He now became one of the leading public men of France, in spite of the ludicrous appearance which he presented After the Restoration. 273 in the Chamber with his diminutive person and huge spectacles. His parliamentary oratory, how- ever, soon won him attention, and he was always a prominent member of the government or of the opposition. When the republic, set up in 1848, was overthrown by Louis Napoleon in 1851, Thiers was banished. He was soon, however, allowed to return. He had been working for many years on his Histoire du Consulat et de TEmpire. At last this work was published in 1860. A few years after, he again entered public life, this time as a member of the party in opposition. On the down- fall of the Second Empire, he once more came into prominence, was put at the head of the Provisional Government, made peace with Prussia, and became President of the new republic, giving way in 1873 to Marshal MacMahon. Narcisse Achille, Comte de Salvandy (1796- 1856), born at Condom, was another of those engaged in political life who also wrote history. He put forth many political pamphlets ; wrote, after a travel into Spain, a romance styled Alonzo ; and published, in 1829, his Histoire de Pologne avant et sous le Roi Jean SobiesTci. The style of this history, according to De Vericour, is too often declamatory and pompous. Among recent historians, one of the most emi- nent was Pierre Lanfrey (1828-1877). He was born in Savoy. His first work was UEglise et les Philosophes du 18* Siecle. After this came his Histoire politique des Papes and Le Retablissement de la Pologne. But the great work of his life was his Histoire de Napoleon /., published in six volumes. It is a very thorough study of the imperial period, and exposes with unrelenting clear- ness of narrative and fulness of detail the selfish character of the first Emperor. When the Franco- German war came on, Lanfrey took the field with the garde mobile, and fought like a true Frenchman. Later, he was appointed by Thiers ambassador to 274 French Literature. Switzerland. On MacMahon's election to the presidency, Lanfrey resigned this post. Some two years before his death, he was elected life-senator. The Emperor Louis Napoleon must be classed among those writers who have written history from a political motive. With the startling and roman- tic events of his life we have nothing to do here. His career belongs to history. His literary work may be summed up in a few words. Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873) was born in the purple, in the palace of the Tuile- ries. Daring his wandering life, before the Revolu- tion of 1848 opened the way for him to gain a political foothold in France, he published at various times his Reveries Politiques, Projet de Constitution, Deux Mots U M. de Chateaubriand sur la Duchesse de Berri, Considerations Politiques et Militaires sur la Suisse, Manuel d 1 Artillerie, and Idees Napoleoni- ennes. While imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, he wrote his Aux Manes de TEmpereur, Fragments Historiques, Analyse de la Question de Suisse, Reponse a M. de Lamartine, and Extinction du Pauperisme, besides assisting in editing the Dictionnaire de la Conversation. While Emperor, he published his Vie de Jules Cesar, intended to set forth the Napoleonic theory of politics, already announced in that famous passage of the first Napoleon's on Les Saitveurs des Nations. Another political writer, and one of marked ability, was that PreVost-Paradol, whose suicide while ambassador at Washington was believed to have been caused by his despair when the Emperor allowed the war-party at court to force his judg- ment. Lucien Anatole Prdvost-Paradol (1829-1870) was born at Paris. Distinguished as journalist, he published at different times an JKloge de Bernardin de Saint- Pierre, Revue de THistoire universelle, Du Role de la Famille dans I 1 Education, Etudes sur les Moralities, Precis de VHitfoire universelle, De la After the Restoration. 275 Liberte des Guiles en France, Essais de Politique et de la Litterature, and Quelques Pages d 1 Histoire con- temporaine. Turning now to those historians, not so closely connected with the political history of their times, we find, among those whose fame had begun before the liestoration, Philippe Paul de Se"gur, who was born at Paris in 1780. His father, the Comte Louis Philippe de Segur, was for many years ambassador at St. Petersburg and a great favorite with the Empress Catharine II., and was himself the author 'of many works, among them Pensees Politiques, Histoire de Frederic Guillaume II., Contes, Fables, Chansons, et Vers, and Memoir es ou Souvenirs et Anecdotes. The son was one of Napo- leon's generals, and wrote the history of the disas- trous Russian campaign in which he shared. This work is entitled Histoire de Napoleon et de la Grande Armee en 1812. ft was a great success. He after- wards wrote a Lettre sur la Campayne du General Macdonald dans les Grisons ; and two histories, Histoire de Russie et de Pierre le Grand, and His- toire de Charles VIII., Roi de France. Antoine Guillaume Prosper Brugiere, Baron de Baraute (1782-1866), was born at Riom. He was early employed in diplomatic service. On the Restoration, he was still employed in various pub- lic capacities, but kept up throughout his state service his devotion to letters. After the Revolu- tion of 1830, he was again an ambassador, but retired from public life on the establishment of the republic in 1848. His great work was his Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne. Among his other writings were La Litterature franchise pendant le dix-huitieme Si&cle, Les Etudes litteraires et historiques, and Le Parlement et la Fronde. In his History of the Dukes of Burgundy, he gives a simple, clear, and elegant narrative of events in a lively, dramatic style, telling his story without stopping to investi- gate and explain in tiie presence of the reader. It 276 French Literature. is a bright, busy, and picturesque recital full of stirring incidents, luminously put before the mind in a most attractive manner. Augustin Thierry and his brother Amede'e were both historians, though the former has left a repu- tation far more brilliant and solid than the latter. Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry (1795-1856) was born at Blois. His first work was De la reor- ganisation de la Societe Europeenne. This work considers the question of uniting all Europe under one government. Starting with so close an approx- imation to the Saint-Simonian doctrines, Thierry was soon a declared advocate and assistant of Saint- Simon. Later, he worked with Comte and Dunoyer. Having published in 1820 some letters, in a journal, on French history, he became interested in historical subjects, and in 1825 published his Histoire de la Conquete de VAngleterre par les Normands, which at once gave him high rank among historians. His Lettres sur I 1 Histoire followed ; but, after that, he became nearly blind in consequence of his arduous studies. Going to Hyeres for his health, he met there and married Julie de Querengal, a lady who had herself some literary reputation. His eyesight being partly restored, and his wife aiding him faith- fully in his work, he next published Dix Ans deludes historiques, and Recits des Temps Mero- vinyiens. His last work was an essay Sur V Histoire de la Formation et du Progres du Tiers IJJtat. His researches threw great light upon early French history and dissipated a host of errors which had been repeated without investigation by writer aftei writer. Ame'dee Thierry was born at Blois in 1797. Besides his Resume de V Histoire de Guyenne, he wrote a book of profound historical research which gave him great reputation. This was his Histoire de la Gaule sous la Domination des Romains. Of this work his brother wrote, in his history of his own historical ideas and labors, given as a preface to his Dix After the Restoration. 277 Ans oT fitudes historiques: " He was preparing to give to the public one half of the prolegomena of the history of France the Keltic origins, with an account of the Gallic migrations, and a picture of Gaul under the Roman administration. For my own part, I undertook to give the other part, that is to say, the Germanic origins, and a picture of the great invasions which caused the ruin of the West- ern Roman empire. I experienced a heartfelt delight at the idea of this fraternal association at the hope of fixing our two names on the double basis upon which must be placed the edifice of our national history." I have already had occasion to mention Mignet, in speaking of Thiers, who studied law with him at Aix, whence they went to Paris together, to engage in literary life. Frangois Auguste Alexis Mignet was born at Aix in Provence in 1796. He began literary work as a journalist. Having given lectures on history which were well received, he was encouraged to undertake his Histoire de la Revolution Franchise, which treated that great series of events from a philosophical point of view. He takes, however, the same fatalist views which his friend Thiers held and expressed. After the Revolution of 1830, Mignet held office for a time; but that of 1848 drove him into private life. His later works were Notices historiques, Memoir es sur des Questions d'Histoire, 'Histoire d 1 Antonio Perils, Histoire des Negociations relatives a la Succession (VEspagne, Histoire de Marie Stuart, Histoire de V Abdication et des demises Annees de Charles- Quint, and Rivalite de Francois I. et de Charles V. His style is firm and pure, his matter the result of profound research and penetrating insight into the entanglements of politics. Conciseness is a marked characteristic of his style. The Eloges pronounced by Mignet must also be mentioned. They are striking pictures of a number of eminent men. 278 French Literature. We come now to a historian of a different order. Michelet, the disciple of Vico and Niebuhr. the seeker after symbolic truths in historical facts, is a marked contrast to men like Thiers, Mignet, and the Thierrys. A poetic imagination, a rare ability in painting individuals and masses, a brilliant and glowing style, and a great fund of knowledge united to form in Michelet, in many respects, a model his- torian. But his visionary theories made his nar- rative too often unsound in its general tenor. Jules Michelet (1798-1874) was born at Paris, studied under Villemain and Leclerc, and early be- came a Professor of History. His chief works were a Precis de VHistoire moderne, a translation of Vice's works, Introduction a VHistoire universelle, Histoire romaine, Les Memoires de Luther, Les Ori- gines du Droit franc, aise, Histoire de France, Histoire de la Revolution fran^aise, and Les Femmes de la Revolution. Entering into controversy with the Jesuits, he brought out against them Des Jesuites ; DuPretre, de la Femme, et de la Famille ; and Du Peuple. He took no part in the stir of the Eevolution of 1848, which swept so many literary men into the vortex of politics. But when the republic fell, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis Napoleon. Besides his historical and controversial works, he wrote those fanciful and rhetorical and somewhat hysterical books by which perhaps he is best known in this country, V Oiseau, L'Insecte, L* Amour, La Femme, La Mer, La Sorci&re, La Bible de THuman- ite, and Nos Fils. The Memoirs of his wife may also be given a place here. Merle D'Aubigne, as the historian of the Kefor- mation, holds a high rank in the estimation of many in England and this country. His work, however, in the judgment of impartial critics, is as full of prejudice in one direction as Audin's bitter life of Luther is in the other. Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigne (1794-1872) was After the Restoration. 279 born at Eaux- Vives, near Geneva. Studying under Neander at Berlin, he afterwards became pastor of the French Protestant church at Hamburg. Later, he lived in Brussels, and, later still, returned to Geneva and became Professor of Church History there. His great work was the Histoire de la Refor- mation au seizilme Sibcle. He wrote also Le Protec- teur, ou la Republique cFAngleterre aux Jours de Crom- well; Trois Slides de Lutte en Ecosse ; Histoire de la Reformation en Europe au Temps de Calvin. In closing the sketch of historical writers, I must merely mention such works as Dulaure's history of Paris ; other writers on the Revolution besides those already mentioned Lacretelle, Tissot, Labaume, Montgaillard, Cony, and De Norvins ; Bignon's history of France under Napoleon ; and the volumi- nous productions of Capefigue his history of Philip Augustus; of the Restoration; of France in the Middle Ages; of .the Reform, the League, and Henri IV.'s reign; of Richelieu, Mazarin, and the Fronde; of Louis XIV.'s reign; of the Regent Philip of Orleans ; and of Europe during the Con- sulate and Empire of Napoleon. Just as briefly must be named Mazure's History of the English Revolution of 1688 ; Armand Car- rel's History of the English Restoration ; Fauriel's History of Southern Gaul under the dominion of the German conquerors ; Delecluze's History of Florence ; St. Hilaire's History of Spain ; and General Foy's History of the Peninsular War. Duret, Wallon, Jung, Double, Jonquiere, and Lacroix have also produced historical works. Mention should also be made of three valuable works on the subject of the Huguenots : Peyrat's Histoire des Pasteurs du Desert ; Coquerel's Histoire des figlises du Desert ; and Crottet's Histoire des ^Jglises Reformees de Pons, Gemozac, et Montange, en Saintonge. Able histories of the civil war in the United States have been produced by the Comte de Paris and by Ernest Grasset. 280 French Literature. XIX. POETS AND PLAYWEITEES. THE Restoration opens with two lyric poets, whose influence dominates the age. The one, the Poet of the People, is Beranger. The other, the Poet of the Sentimentalists, is Lamartine. But, before we take up these poets, some men- tion must be made of the Hymn of Revolution, La Marseillaise, and its author, Rouget de Lisle. In the year 1792, a young officer of engineers, who had been a teacher of music, was urged by the Mayor of Strasbourg, a noble Alsatian, the Baron Dietrich, to compose a patriotic song for the ceremonies about to be observed in that city. He composed it that night, both words and music, and called it Chant de Guerre de I'Armee du Rhin. It was sung with great enthusiasm by the volunteers; but the song did not make its way to Paris, until Barbaroux and the young men of Marseille poured into Paris, chanting it. The Parisians named it the "Mar- seillaise Hymn." Heine wrote of this song, during the revolutionary year of 1830 : " A strong joy seizes me, as I sit writing. Music resounds under my window, and in the elegiac rage of its large melody, I recognize that hymn with which hand- some Barbaroux and his companions once greeted the city of Paris. What a song! It thrills me with fiery delight. It kindles within me the glowing star of enthu- siasm, and the swift rocket of satire. Swelling, burning torrents of song rush from the heights of freedom, in streams as bold as those with which the Ganges leap from the heights of Himalaya ! I can write no more. This song intoxicates my brain. Louder and nearer advances the powerful chorus Aux armes, citoyens \ " Poets and Play writers. 281 It is indeed a martial chant of wonderful power. Few songs have so stirred the souls of men. "When we come to Beranger, we find that he is to be viewed under two aspects, as a political power, and as a poet. We have already seen how strong a force was arrayed against Bourbonism in the par- liamentary eloquence of such men as Constant^ Foy, and Royer-Collard, by the socialist ferment, and by the stinging pamphlets of Courier and De Cormenin. But the songs of Beranger made their work tenfold easier by creating a political atmos- phere in which the fire of free speech could live. Pierre Jean de Beranger (1780-1857) was born at Paris in the house of his mother's father, a tailor in the Rue Montorgueil. He seems to have been early indoctrinated in republican principles by his aunt with whom he lived fora time at Peronne. A born song- wri tor, he early began to pour forth his thoughts and fancies in verse. His songs not finding a market, he sent some of them to Lucien Bonaparte, already famous for his devotion to liter- ature. By him he was warmly encouraged and helped in the most delicate manner, for which Be- ranger was always deeply grateful. By Desaugiers, the then acknowledged lyrist of France, who recog- nized his merit, he was introduced to the choice spirits of the day, constituting the Caveait, a social club of poets, dramatists, journalists, painters, and musicians, meeting at a cafe near the Palais Royal. This was in 1809. Desangiers had read Beranger's little satire, Le Roi tfYvetot, and predicted his future fame. By Lucien Bonaparte's influence, Beranger received a small governmental appoint- ment which gave him a sufficient support and left him leisure for literary work. During the Hun- dred Days, Napoleon offered him the post of censor, but this he declined. In 1815, he published his first collection of songs, which brought him at once great popularity. When he next published, some of his songs brought 282 French Literature. down upon him the vengeance of the government. One in particular, Les Adieux a la Gloire, Decembre 1830, was too bitter not to awaken the resentment of the Ministry. He was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the debtor's prison of Sainte-Pelagie and to pay a fine of live hundred francs. His works, however, were so popular as to yield profits which fully indemnified him for all losses. His next publication brought him again under the frown of the government. This time his sentence was nine months in the prison of La Force and a fine of ten thousand francs. His friends paid the fine, and the government only succeeded in advertising him as a political martyr. The songs of Beranger became a great power in France and one of the agencies which expelled the Bourbons for the second time. Under Louis Philippe, Beranger's friends became the rulers of the state. But the poet refused to profit by the change. It was an age of literary statesmen, and Beranger was one of the very few men of literary fame who did not take the political fever. His publisher, Perrotin, treated him gener- ously, and the poet lived at his ease and was con- tent. After the Kevolution of 1848, he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly, but he soon resigned this public trust. When Louis Na- poleon overthrew the republic, feeling how much he owed to the work Beranger had done in keeping the memory of the first Empire in the hearts of the people, he urged the poet to accept some reward at his hands. But Beranger, though tempted by the charming importunity of the Empress Eugenie, resolutely kept his independence. He had not flat- tered the first Emperor during the time of his power, and he refused to bind himself in his old age to the support of the nephew. He died at the ripe old age of seventy-five, honored at the last by a funeral escort of a hundred thousand men in Poets and Playwriters. 283 arms, the government fearing the excitement of the people on such an occasion. His songs are of many kinds, the frivolous and impure, the deeply feeling and impassioned, the gay and joyous, the keenly satirical, the tender, and the lofty in tone. Sometimes he sings his country's glory and misfortunes, the grandeur of the Empire, and the woeful fall of the soldier Emperor. Some- times his strain is of liberty and equality, the rights of man, individualized into the right of the French- man to rule himself. Sometimes his theme is purely of practical politics under a corrupt and corrupting government, and takes the form of a bitter satire like Monsieur Judas. Sometimes his songs are gay, sprightly, and humorous, such as Roger Bonttmps or Le Petit Homme Gris. Sometimes the sharns and oppressions of the passing time make every line thrill with revolutionary throbs. His higher strains are real odes. Nothing can be finer than Mon Ame, or Le Dieu des Bonnes Gens, or Le Cinq Mai, or La Bonne Vieille, or Mon Habit. Such noble effusions condone the offense of his shocking Madame Greyoire, Ma Grand 'mere, and similiar outrages on decency. He knew what he could do, and wisely confined himself to that. When urged by Lebrun to apply for a chair in the Academy, he declined in a grace- ful letter in which he said : "I am only a singer, gentlemen; let me die a singer." It would have been better for his fame, had he restricted himself to even less than what he could do, and blotted many a ribald song before it reached the hand of the printer. His works furnish an apt illustration of the truth, that there are cases in which a part is greater than the whole. Lamartine was a literary worker of greater pre- tensions, but the quality of his work was neither so fine nor so strong. Still his writings were im- mensely popular in their day, and have warm ad- mirera even in this generation. In spite, too, of a 284 French Literature. taint of vanity which was his most marked weak- ness, his character was a right noble one. Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) was born at Macon. In his Memoirs he gives a charming recital of the simple home-life in which he grew up, and of the troubles which his family underwent during the Keign of Terror. He traveled in Italy in his youth, and again after the fall of Napoleon. In 1820, the publication of lui&Meditattons Poetiques won him renown and a position on the staff of the French embassy at Naples, and, later, at Florence. He married an English lady ; published his Nou~ velles Meditations Poetiques, his Mori de Socrate, and his Dernier Chant de Childe Harold; fought a duel with Colonel Pepe ; produced his Harmonies Poe- tiques et Religieuses ; and travelled in the East. On his return from the Levant, he entered public life, became a distinguished orator in the Chamber, published in his Voyage en Orient, an account of his Eastern pilgrimage, and put forth successively his narrative poems, Jocelyn and La Chute d'un Ange, and his confused and rhetorical Histoire des Giron- dins. When the Revolution of 1848 came, he was perhaps the foremost man in France ; but he nobly threw away his popularity by refusing to authorize the violence of the anarchists of that critical period. The overthrow of the republic by Louis Napoleon put an end to his public career. His other works were his Elegies, Epitres, Confidences, Histoire de la Revolution franchise, Cour familier de la Litterature, Fior d'Aliza, and Histoire de la Restauration. There is undoubtedly both passion and imagina- tion in his poems, and the lyric vein is strong in him. But to a foreign ear the sentiment does seem overstrained, arid the tender melancholy too often savors of affectation. To the modern Frenchman the muse of Lamartine seems almost as insipid as to the foreigner; and the criticism of our day detects a flavor in almost all the fine writing admired by that generation which our taste stamps as " not Poets and Playv:riters. 285 genuine." His verse, however, has great charm from its melody and its elegant smoothness. The prevailing element in his earlier poems was their deep seriousness, their expression of religious ecstasy in the presence of nature's loveliness in fine, the blending of religious sentiment with aesthetic sentiment, both very vague and somewhat crude. Such are Le Lac, Le Vallon, Le Golfe de Baia, and Le Temple. The success of Jocetyn adds one more instance to the many proofs literature furnishes us of the charm for the ordi- nary reader a story has that is told in verse. The taste for romance and the taste for poetry are gratified at the same time. Walter Scott's, Moore's and Byron's romantic poems, Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leiyh, and the younger Bul- wer's Lucile are all evidences of the value of a dis- tinct story in making poetry acceptable to the masses. For this peason, Tenm-son's Princess and Idyls of the King will always be the most popular of his poems. By different sections of the public both Beranger and Lamartine were idolized during a great part ol their lives. But, if Lamartine's fame as a poet has undergone great obscuration for a number of years, the day will never come when his conduct during the Revolution of 1848 shall not be set down to hia honor as man and patriot. Of that splendid action Bulwer-Lytton happily says: " When Alphonse Lamartine, by an immortal speech, in which there is no wit and no sparkle, struck down tc his feet the red flag, we recognize intuitively the differ, ence between the maxim-maker's knowledge of the con. ventional world [He has been speaking of La Rochefou. cauld's cynical Maxims] and the poet-orator's knowledge of the universal human heart. Honor to Alphonse Lamartine's knowledge of the heart in that moment which saved the dignity of France and the peace ot Europe, no matter what were hi.s defects in the knowl- edge of the world defects by which rulers destined to 286 French Literature. replace him learned to profit ! Honor to that one tri- umph of poetry put into action! " The passion of regret for the glories which France had won under the star of Napoleon, and lost with the return of the Bourbons, had inspired Beranger to fire the hearts of his countrymen with indigna- tion against the new order of things. The same impulse produced the Messeniennes of Delavigne, and the same popular sympathy went out to meet and to welcome his strains. Jean Fra^ois Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843) was born at Havre. He published his elegies when the soil of France was still humbled by the presence of the allied armies, borrovving his title from Bar- thelemy's account in the Voyage (VAnacharsis of how Tyrtasus had stirred the souls of the Lacede- monians in their wars with the Messenians. De Vericour says of these elegies, that many of them are remarkable for their rich coloring, splendid imagery, energy of thought, and metrical harmony; and he specifies the Waterloo, Parthenope, and Napoleon as among the finest. La Parisienne was written under the impulse of enthusiasm awakened by the July revolution. Casimir Delavigne refused employment under Louis Philippe, and devoted himself to the production of plays. The chief of these were Les Vepres Siciliennes, Les Comediens, Marino Faliero, Louis XI., Les Enfants d 1 Edouard, Don Juan d'Autriclie, and La Fille du Cid. In his dramatic works he tried to blend the principles and spirit of the classic tragedy with those of the romantic drama. But Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Alfred de Vigny had, after the Kevolu- tion of 1830, boldly forsaken the old school and declared war with its whole spirit and method, and put upon the stage dramas conceived in the roman- tic spirit ; and the efforts of Casimir Delavigne were not able to restore the popularity of the older sys- tem. He was successful, however, in comedy. His Poets and Play writers. 287 $cole aes Vieillards, brilliantly performed by Talma and Mademoiselle Mars, brought him a triumph, which ought to have tempted him to renewed efforts in that branch of literary art. Retiring to Lyon for change of air, when his health began to give way, he died in that city. After his death ap- peared his Ballades italiennes, which revealed the fine lyrical ability he possessed. Among the poets of this period must also be named Madame Desbordes-Valmore (1787-1859), whose literary labors comprised elegiac and idyllic verse, fables, and romances. Tenderness and pathos, gentle piety, and sweet consolation are her special qualities. Her romance, Une Raillerie de V Amour, has its scene in the days of the Empire. Others were Les Veillees des Antilles and IJ Atelier d"un Peintre. The poems were published under the titles of Elegies et Romances, Pleurs, and Pau- vres Fleurs. Alexandre Soumet (1788-1845), another poet of this period, produced elegies, tragedies, and epics. La Pauvre Fille is considered a masterpiece in delicacy of sentiment and beauty of style. His tragedies were Saiil, Clytemnestre, Jeanne d*Arc, Elisabeth de France, Cleopatre, and Norma. His epics were Jeanne d'Arc and La Divine Epopee. Alexandre Guiraud (1788-1847) wrote a great number of tragedies, the finest of which was his Macchabees ou le f Martyre. He also produced Pof-mes et Chants Eleyiaques. fimile Deschamps, who was born at Bourges in 1791, translated some of Shakespeare's plays, Schil- ler's "Bell," and other works, and published a book of original poems, Les Poesies des Creches, which are graceful and elegant. Arsene Ancelot (1794-1854), born at Havre, was successful on the stage with his plays of Louis IX., Le Maire du Palais, Fiesque, and Olga. He gained some distinction also by his poem of Marie de Brabant, his romance of Lllomme du Monde, 288 French Literature. and his Epitres Familttres. His style is 'pure and elegant. Jean Eeboul (1796-1864), the baker-poet of Nimes, was a follower of Lamartine. Besides his Odes and his Elegies, he produced a poem in ten cantos, called Le Dernier Jour du Monde. Madame Amable Tastu was b9rn at Metz in 1798. She won fame first by her Eloge de Madame de Seviyne. Her Education Maternelle and her Histoire de la Litterature have also taken rank among the standard works for the young. Her finest poems were La Vieille de Noel, L'Etoile de la Lyre, Le Retour h la Chapelle, and Le Dernier Jour de VAnnee, the last being regarded by French critics as a masterpiece of touching thought expressed in most harmonious verse. But it was the romantic school of poets who carried everything before them in the great revolu- tion which literary taste began to undergo about the time of the political revolution of 1830. The chief of these were De Vigny, Hugo, and Dumas ; and the stage was their field of battle with the old classic taste. The new school, as has been said, inspired by the strong spirit of reaction against the taste of the old Bourbon period and by the study of English literature, insisted upon the free representation of mingled comedy and tragedy, as they are found in life. They also forsook the fields of ancient his- tory and mythology, which had furnished materials for most of the productions of the earlier play- writers, and ransacked all history for suitable dra- matic situations. Unfortunately, there was too often a preference for the horrible and the grotesque. Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (1797-1863) was born at Loches in Touraine. He served in the army for a time; but, marrying in 1826 a wealthy Englishwoman, he withdrew from the ser- vice and gave his time to litera-ture. His taste is pure and refined. In the war with the classic Poets and Play writers. 289 school, his course was moderate. Before 1830, he had published several volumes of poems and his famous historical romance of Cinq-Mars. After that period, he published one or two novels; but, in the year that followed the Revolution, he put on the stage a play which had a powerful influence in winning popularity for the romantic drama. This was his Marechale (TAncre, the scene of which be- longs to the same period as that of his romance of Cinq- Mars the age of Louis XIII. He also pro- duced Le More de Venise, taken from "Othello," and Chatterton, founded on his story of Stello ou Les Diables Bleus. Cinq Mars is an able delineation of the condition of France under the rule of Richelieu, and still retains its place among the recognized classics of French literature. De Vigny's Servitude et Gran- deur Militaire, hovtever, is regarded by the critics as a still abler work than Cinq-Mars. It is a col- lection of stories illustrative of military life, and is full of admirable reflections. It is tinged too with, a tone of melancholy which makes it very attrac- tive to meditative minds. Another work of De Yigny's was his Consultations du Docteur Noir. After his death some poems of his entitled Les Destinees were published. But the foremost spirit of the romantic school was that versatile writer, Victor Hugo, poet, drama- tist, romancer, pamphleteer, and politician, who has been well styled "half-charlatan, half genius." Victor Marie, Vicomte Hugo, was born at Besan- 9011 in 1802. His father was a soldier of Napoleon. His mother was a native of La Vendee and hence a devoted royalist. Victor Hugo was early in the field as a poet. His genius being essentially lyric, his first important productions were Odes et Ballades, the Odes being royalist in tone and the Ballads medieval in subject. To these succeeded with many other works intervening his poems of Les Orientales, Les Chants du Crepuscule, Les Rayons 19 290 French Literature. et les Ombres, Les Voix Interieures, and Les Feuilles cFAutomne. Bold in imagery, picturesque, defiant of all the old rules of restriction, these poems had a singular effect upon the age and did more than per- haps anything else, except his plays, to secure the triumph of the principles of the romantic school. His play of Marion Delorme, which appeared on the eve of the Revolution of 1830, was the strongest agent in bringing about this change in public taste. He had before put on the stage Cromwell and Her- nani ; but these were greatly inferior dramas to Marion Delorme. His other plays were Le Roi s'amuse, Ruy Bias, Marie Tudor, Lucrece Borge, Angelo, Les Burgraves, and Torquemada, in all of which he takes great liberties with history and is often offensive to common decency of feeling, but never fails in a certain spasmodic power which strikes the imagination. The evident straining after effect ; the delight in conceiving monstrosities ; the crudity of perpetual antithesis in style, character, and situation; the lavish use of lurid tints; the tedious working over and over the meaningless parts of the picture, and putting in minute and in- significant details, are blots that must make the greater part of his work forfeit the title of really high art. His romances were written on the same system. Originality was too often sought at the expense of good taste. Yet there is power in them all, a wild erratic genius that one must admire in some sort, even while condemning. The chief of these were Hans d'lslande, a grotesque romance of the North- ern regions; Les Derniers Jours d'un Condamne ; that great, wild creation, Notre-Dame de Paris, a romance of Paris in the fifteenth century, a real prose- poem of fantastic but wonderfully picturesque conceptions ; Claude Gueux ; Bug-Jargal, an amus- ingly incredible negro story ; the five-fold romance of the angelic convict, Jean Valjean, Les Miserables ; L'Homme Qui Bit ; Quatre-vingt-treize ; and Les Poets and Ptaytoriters. 291 Travailleurs de la Mer. In spite of the extrava- gance of thought, conception, and language, these are all works of remarkable power. Meanwhile, he was living a life of mingled storm and sunshine. Louis Philippe made him a Peer of France. But he sympathized with the Revolution of 1848, and became one of the leaders in the short- lived republic. Prince Napoleon warned him of the designs of Louis Napoleon, and urged him and his party to take measures to prevent the coup d'etat. But Victor Hugo declined to move, on the ground that illegal measures to prevent illegality are not justifiable. The threatened evil came, and Hugo remaining irreconcilable was banished by the Emperor. The exiled poet went to live in the isle of Jersey, and from that retreat launched the bit- terest pamphlets against the successful criminal. Napoleon le Petit, the book of poems called Les Chdtiments, and EHistoire (Tun Crime were all in- spired by his wrath at this event. On the fall of the Second Empire, he came back to France. Notes made upon his original manuscripts which he has carefully preserved show, it is said, that Victor Hugo has always written with great rapidity. His drama of Cromwell, written at the age of twenty- five, was finished in three months. Notre-Dame de Paris cost him four months and a half. Marion Delorme was written in twenty-four days ; Hernani, in twenty-six ; Le Roi s'amuse, in twenty ; Ruy Bias, in two months and three days ; and Les Bur- graves, in thirty-nine days. His death made a greater impression than that of any man of our time. The success of the romantic school on the stage was aided materially by Vitet's historical plays, written for the closet and not intended to be acted. Louis Vitet was born at Paris in 1801. His fame rests chiefly on his art-criticism, in which his excellent taste and the clearness and precision of 292 French Literature. his style make him an acknowledged master. He published also besides his Histoire de Dieppe and his Vie de Le Sueur, a drama of the time of the League, called Les Barricades, in which Henri III. and the Due de Guise appear as promi- nent characters ; another drama of the same period, called Les Etats de Blois ; and still another, called La Mort de Henri III. Among the minor poets of the period before the Second Empire must be briefly named Porch at, author of the dramas, Jeanne d 1 Arc and Winlcelried; the novels, Les Colons du Village and Trois Mois sous la Neige ; and poems published under the title Fables et Paraboles. Under the same head comes Julien Auguste Pelage Brizeux (1803-1858), author of Marie, a graceful fiction in which the simple life and pic- turesque features of the Breton peasantry are por- trayed, and of a poem called Les Bretons. Here also comes Joseph Mery (1798--1866), born at Marseille, an improvise! 1 of odes, satires, romances, dramas, comedies, and criticisms. He worked at first in concert with Burthelemy. His natural gifts were remarkable, but he lacked the patience to produce finished works. His brightest productions were Nuits au Glaises, Heva, La Guerre du Nizam, Les Confessions de Marion Delorme, Nuits d 1 Orient, Un Carnaval de Paris and Poesies intimes. By the side of these must be placed Edgard Quinet, born in 1803, translator of Herder, author of an ambitious epic novel called Ahasverus and a poem entitled Napoleon, neither of which met with marked success. He attained distinction, however, as a historian by his work, Les Epoques chevaler- esques du XI I e Si&cle. It was to the elder Dumas that Hugo and De Vigny owed most for able help in fighting out the battle of romanticism with classicism. By himself, and also with the aid of co-workers, he issued a host of pieces for the stage, as well as of romances, Poets and Play writers. 29$ wonderful in their vivacity and brilliancy, and by reason of their sensational incidents, lucidity, lively coloring, and brisk dialogue admirably suited to win popularity. Alexandre Dumas (1803-1870) was the son of General Dumas and the grandson of the Marquis de la Pailleterie and a negro woman. He was born at Villers-Cotterets. His first appearance as a writer was in a volume of Nouvelles ; but it was three years later and just on the eve of the Revolution of 1830 that he acquired fame by the production on the stage of his first and best play, Henri III. et sa Cour. The characters are presented in this piece with great force and originality, and the plot is admirably developed. From this time he became a great man in the eyes of the Parisians, and one of the greatest of men in his own estima- tion for his vanity was prodigious. He produced also for the stage Antony, Christine, Therese, Anyele, ifean, Don Juan de Marana, Calig- ula. Some of these plays are wretched stuff, and others are stolen goods. His system of using hack- writers to work up a book, which he would then embellish with some of his characteristic passages, lifted into gaiety by sheer flow of animal spirits, enabled him to flood the market with literature of very varying quality. His best romances were Les Trois Moitsquetaires. Le Comte de Monte- Or is to, and La Reine Maryot. Thackeray speaks warmly of these books, as engaging companions of the youthful imagination. " Of your heroic heroes," he says, " I think our friend Monseigneur Athos, Count de la Fere, is my favor- ite. I have read about him from sunrise to sunset with the utmost contentment of mind. He has passed through how many volumes ? Forty ? Fifty ? I wish for my part there were a hundred more, and would never tire of him rescuing prisoners, punishing ruffians, and running scoun- drels through the midriff with his most graceful rapier. Ah, Athos, Porthos, and Araniis, you are a magnificent trio." 294 French Literature. As to Dumas' Memoir es, the reader will find those pleasantly garrulous and amusingly coxcombical revelations as entertaining as his romances. His vivacious and slightly impudent manner makes him always amusing. But of all writers for the stage under the restored Bourbons and the Second Empire, Scribe was the most sparkling and the most unwearied. His pieces were chiefly vaudevilles; and, as he had many collaborators, they were produced with amaz- ing rapidity. The plots were taking; the dialogue, quick, light, and bright; the air of the scene deli- cately mocking; and there was just enough sensi- bility to move a merry audience to a momentary tenderness without exciting deep emotion. Augustin Eugene Scribe (1791-1861) was born at Paris. His most striking pieces were Bertrand et Raton, Le Manage d 1 Argent, Une Chame, Le Verre dEan., La Camaraderie, La Bataille de Dames, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Les Contes de la Reine de Navarre, and Les Doigts de Fee. In the composition of more than four hundred pieces which bear his name he was aided by Brazier, Carmouche, Delavigne, Delestre, Durnersan, Dupin^ Duveyrier, Legouve, Lemoine, Mazeres, Mesleville, Eougemont, Varner, and others. He wrote also the libretti for a number of operas, besides writing several novels. Among the poets who stood side by side with Hugo in the struggle for the principles of the ro- mantic school was Henri Auguste Barbier (1805- 1882), born at Paris. He came into notice just after the Revolution of 1830 by the publication of his lambes, satirical poems of great wildness and vehemence. Later, he put forth, in his Pianto, a harmonious and elegant poem, his impressions of Italy. To this succeeded his Lazare. Leon Gozlan (1806-1866), born at Marseille, may be classed among the play writers, as he produced many dramas, comedies, and vaudevilles, which were Poets and Playwriters. 295 well received. He was, however, also the author of a vast number of novels and romances. French critics find fault with, his style, as injured by mere- tricious graces to an extent which good taste must condemn. Madame de Girardin, born Delphine Gay, at Aix- la-Chapelle (180-1-1865), is another who may be classed among the contributors to the literature of the stage, although she won fame as a novelist also. She was in her day the pet of French literary so- ciety, having many personal charms, not the least among which was her unaffected simplicity and sweetness of character. Here was one of the last of the salons, after her marriage with the journalist, fimile de Girardin. Hugo, Lamartine, Dumas, Sainte- Beuve, Mery, Gautier, Sue, and Balzac were all at dif- ferent periods frequenters of her house. She gave to the theatre, besides lively comedies like Le Chapeau cfun H&rloger, one piece of graceful senti- ment and a quiet vein of pathos, which still keeps the stage. This is La Joie fait Peur. She also published a collection of poems. But her novels were her most important works. Many of these were solely her own work ; but one, La Croix de Berny, she wrote in concert with Gautier, Mery, and Sandeau. Her most striking romance was one entitled Le Lorgnon. Her Lettres Parisiennes, pub- lished, as well as the novels, under the pseudonym of the Vicomte de Launay, are very lively, and are regarded as giving a perfect picture of French so- ciety from 1836 to 1848. Both Theophile Gautier and Sainte-Beuve were responsible in their time for some poetry ; but the one is so much better known as a story-teller and the other as a critic, that they hardly belong among the poets. The same thing may be said of Edmond About, his failure as a writer of comedy and his success as a teller of stories relegating him to another part of this work than this which treats of playwriters. 296 French Literature. Ernest Legouve is therefore the next on our list. He was born at Paris in 1807. Alone, or in con- cert with others, he produced a number of success- ful dramatic works, of which the most striking were Guerrero, MMee, and Un Jeune Homme qui nefait JRien. He wrote also the romances of Beatrix and Edith de Falsen, as well as a work entitled Histoire morale des Femmes. Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855) was born at Paris, and produced Elegies nationales et Satires politiques, a translation of "Faust," and, in prose, his Voyage en Orient, besides some romances. Charles Lafont (1809-1864) was born at Lie'ge. His two tragedies, Ivan de Russie and Daniel, were much praised for elegance of style. He wrote also a poetic drama entitled Un Chef-d'oeuvre in- connu, some vaudevilles, and his Legendes de la Charite. Madame Louise Revoil-Colet was born at Aix in 1810. Besides publishing a great many romances, translations, and dramatic pieces, she wrote poetry of graceful elegance. Leonard Sylvain Jules Sandeau was born at Aubusson in 1811. He began his literary career by working in concert with Madame Dudevant, and when they parted, she used the half of his name as her nom de plume. Besides many charming ro- mances, he wrote a great number of able comedies. The principal romances of his workmanship were Madame de Somerville, Mademoiselle de la Seigltire, Catherine, Mariana, Valcreuse, Sacs et Parchemins, and La Maison de Penarvan. The best comedies included several of these tales dramatized, and also Le Gendre de M. Poirier. Victor de Laprade was born at Montbrison in 1812. His poems were a collection called Odes et Poemes, the chief of which was Psyche ; another, called Poemes evangeliques ; and still another, called Idylles heroiques. Joseph Autran was born at Marseille in 1813. Poets and Playwriters. 297 His first poem was an ode in honor of Lamartine, entitled Depart pour V Orient. His later poems were Ludibria Ventis, Poemes de la Mer, Melianah, Laljoureurs et Soldats, and La Vie rurale. His tragedy of La Fille d'Eschine was a success. He also wrote in prose a work called Italie et Scmaine sainte h Rome. Madame Anai's Segalas was born at Paris in 1813. Her poetry is likened by the critics to that of Madame Tastu. Fran9o'is Ponsard (1814-1867) was born at Vienne in Dauphine. His first publication was a translation of Byron's " Manfred." He next wrote a tragedy called Lucrtce, which was brought out as a re-action in the classic taste against the romantic school. It had a great success, and is still ranked as a standard work. Later, he produced Aynh de Meranie, Charlotte Corday, and a comedy called Horace et Lydie, 'to which Rachel's acting gave brilliant success. L'Honneur et T Argent again brought fame to him after the failure of his tragedy of Ulysse and his poem of Hombre. It was remark- able for its purity and high tone. His comedy of La Bourse was too hastily produced, and did" not sustain the reputation he had won. His last works were Le Lion Amoureux and the drama of Galilee. It is with design that I have sketched rapidly the places of these minor poets in a general account of French literature like this, before taking up Alfred de Musset, who, as a perfect representative of the blase type of brilliant young Frenchmen of the Restoration period, deserves more extended notice. Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) was born at Paris. "At twenty he came before the public with his Conies en Vers, which at once gave him high rank among the poets of his day. The sensuousness of these poerns was as noticeable as their elegance. Later, he published Nouvelles in prose, Comedies et Proverbes^ and two Recueih de 298 French Literature. Poesies, consisting of elegies, tales, satires, songs, sonnets, and other forms of verse. His comedies still hold the stage and are full of grace and wit. Few writers for the theatre command with such ease the graceful tone of the best society. In skepticism, and license he has been compared to Byron and to the younger Bulwer; but none deny the exquisite beauty, tenderness, and power of the greater part of what he has written. There is a quality in his best work, hard to define but full of attraction to the cultivated taste, an airy lightness of touch with the suggestion of strength in its very ease. His liaison with Madame Dudevant, and its subsequent rupture, was the occasion of several books on both sides by themselves and their friends; but the literature of Elle et Lid and Lui et Elle is not particularly edifying. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) should be men- tioned along with De Musset, as an extreme type of the same pessimist spirit. He was the chief of those poets outside of society who delighted in the name of " Bohemians." There is a sombre beauty in many of his poems, which entitles them, in spite of their grossness and affectation of diabolism, to some share of that admiration which genius in any form must always elicit. He had a great admira- tion for Edgar Allan Poe, and made an exceedingly able translation of his works. Octave Feuillet, one of the most delightful of living authors, was born at Saint-Lo in 1812. He has been best known in this country as a romancer. But he has also been brilliantly successful with comedies, vaudevilles, and other stage pieces, rival- ing Alfred de Musset in that exquisite grace in which he excelled. Feuillet's finest romances were Bellah, La petite Comtesse, Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre, Sibylle, M. de Camors, and Le Journal cTune Femme. His best pieces for the stage were dramatizations of some of these ro- mances, and La Nuit Terrible, Le Bourgeois de Poets and Playwriters. 299 Pome, La Crise, Peril en la Demeure, La Fee, Le Village, Dalila, La Tentation, Montjoye, La Belle au Bois Dormant, Le Cas de Conscience, Julie, and La Cle d'Or. His latest play, just announced, is Un Roman Parisien. Smile Augier was born at Valence in 1820. His little two-act comedy, La Cigue, first brought him into notice. With Ponsard he then stood forth as ready to form the nucleus of a reaction against the excesses of romanticism on the stage. His princi- pal pieces have been Un Homme de Bien, L'Aven- turiZre, Gabrielle, Philiberte, Les Effrontes, La Pierre de Touche, Le Oendre de M. Poirier, and, above all, La Jeunesse, one of the best of modern comedies. Lively wit, skilful art, strong and piquant language, are his most marked qualities. Pierre Dupont was born at Lyon in 1821. A book, called Les Paysans, containing six songs, gave him popularity, the airs as well as the words being his own composition. He wrote also the text for the Legend of the Wandering Jew, illus- trated by Gustave Dore. Henri Murger (1822-1861) was a Bohemian after Baudelaire's own heart. His Le Bonhomme Jadis is one of the pieces most frequently played at the Comedie fra^aise. Adeline Protat, Le Pays latin, Les Baveurs d'Oau, and LesVacances de Camille are considered his best productions. He is most famous, however, for having produced La Vie de Boheme, which describes the reckless, miserable, and yet from time to time wildly and desperately gay life of the literary gipsies of Paris. Victorien Sardou, still the inexhaustible caterer for the stage-loving public of Paris, was born at Paris in 1831. Representing at the Ode"on, when still quite young, La Taverne des fitudiants, a three- act comedy, he suffered the discouraging experience of an ignominious failure. Working then for six years before again trying his fortune with the pub- lic, he brought out a comedy called Les Pattes de SOO French Literature, Mouche, which was received with great applause. He was from that time a favorite with the Parisian public. His best pieces were Les Femmes Fortes, Nos Intimes, Les Ganaches, La Perle noire, Les Vieux Gar^ons, La Famille Benoiton, and Nos bons Villayeois. Most of the popular novelists of our day have put one or more pieces on the stage. But they will come more fitly before us in another place, es- pecially as their plays are generally dramatized from their novels. Such, for instance, is Jules Claretie's Monsieur le Ministre; and such is the Pere de Martial, of the Louisianian Albert Delpit. Adolphe Belot and Jules Verne are among these romancers, who are also producing plays and fairy- pieces for the stage. Other living dramatists who may be named are Ferdinand Dugue, Emile Ber- gerat, Auguste Vacquerie, Frangois Coppee, Edouard Pailleron, Eugene Guiraud, Grangeneuve, and Marras. Something must be said of the extraordinary re- vival of Provengal poetry. The ancient poetry of Provence was in no sense a part of French litera- ture. The race which created it was not under the dominion of French, kings. The language in which it took form was a cultivated tongue before the Trouveres had composed a single lay in the old French tongue. It is different, however, with the Provengal literature of recent production. The race from which the modern Provengal poets spring has long been a component part of the French nation ; the language in which they express them- selves is as recognized a patois or dialect of French as the Lowland Scottish is of English. The Pro- vengal poets, then, have the same place in French literature as that held in English literature by writers like Burns and Hogg. Th'e most eminent of the Provengal poets of modern times, the "last of the Troubadours," as he has been called, was Jacques Jasmin (1798-1864). Poets and Playwriters. 301 He was born at Agen. In his Soubenis he gives a humorous account of his early life, stating that he was of humble birth and was taught the trade of a hair-dresser, which he considered not amiss, as it was concerned, as well as his other business of mak- ing poems, with head-work. His poems possess both pathos and wit; and that peculiar quality of rustic or childlike archness and freshness, which is the charm of dialect, is of course largely present in a poetry that springs so directly from the soil and has suffered no sophistication from books or the society of cities. Jasmin's chief works were Lou Chalwari, LSAbuylo de Castel-Cuille, and Las Papil- lotos de Jasmin. Another of these Provencal poets, Frederic Mis- tral, was born near Saint-Remy in 1830. His poems have been numerous, the chief of them being his Alireio, of which a fine translation has been made by our American poet, Mrs. Margaret J. Preston. 302 French Literature. XX. ROMANCERS. IN no field of literary labor has the harvest been so abundant in modern France, as in that of prose fiction. I shall not attempt to arrange and classify the writers of romance, but give them for the most part in chronological order. Some have been named already, because their productions entitled them to be ranked as poets or as workers for the stage, as well as romancers. Of this class were Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Octave Feuil- let. The first on our list must be Nodier, Paul de Kock, and the writer who called himself Saintine. Charles Nodier (1783-1844) was born at Besan- 9on. He was an eminent philologist, a graceful poet, and a charming story-teller. Besides two linguis- tic works, the Dictionnaire des Onomatopees and the Elements du Linguistique, he produced Jean Sbogar, Thertse Aubert, Adtte, Smarra, Trilby, Les Souvenirs de la Revolution et de T Empire, and Les Contes fantastiques. To Saintine we owe the exquisite moral and religious romance of Picciola. His real name was Joseph Xavier Boniface (1797-1865), a native of Paris. His romances and poems were put forth under the pseudonym of Saintine, while to his comedies and vaudevilles, of which he wrote a vast number in concert with Scribe, he signed the name of Xavier. The story of the little prison-grown plant, which converts Charney from skepticism, is his finest romance, and it is a masterpiece. Among his other stories may be named Mutile and Les Soirees de Jonathan. Romancers. 303 Charles Paul de Kock (1794-1871), born at Plassy, near Paris, besides stories in verse and vaudevilles, wrote upwards of fifty novels. His romances are frankly coarse, but their gayety, their racy humor, and their truth to life the sort of life led by fast young men in Paris have given them a longer lease of life than they really deserve. Still, they are not so demoralizing as the more subtly depraving sentimental romances which came later from more powerful pens. Among his books may be mentioned Les Enfants de Boulevard, Une Grappe de Groseille; Ninie Guignon, La Fee aux Amourettes ; Les Petits Ruisseaux, Ma Petite Con- sine, Le Demon de V Alcove, Ni Fille, ni Femme, Friquette, and Un Jeune Homme mysterieux. His son, Henri de Kock, has followed in the same path. La Dame aux Emeraudes, Minette, and L'Amant de Lucette may be named as samples of his writings. Rodolphe Toepffer (1799-1846), the son of an able painter, was a Genevese writer and professor of literature. His moral romances, Nouvelles gene- voises, Rosa et Gertrude, and Le Presbytere, won him much reputation. His Voyages en Ziy-Zag was a book of travel-sketches, which he illustrated himself. His essay on the Beautiful, under the title Reflexions et Menus propos dun Peintre Gene- vois is an assthetic treatise of great value. Balzac deserves more extended mention than this sketch can afford him. Not only were his romances very numerous, but they were careful art-studies which entitle him to a higher place among French romancers than perhaps any other can justly claim. Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) was born at Tours. He wrote at first under various assumed names, and was long unsuccessful and very poor. Giving up at last the manner which he had borrowed from, Pigault and Lebrun, and writing in an original style his Les Derniers Chouans, ou la Bretagne ev$ 304 French Literature. 1800, he found his work for the first time well re- ceived by the public. After this book came his Physiologie du Manage, Scenes de la Vie Privee, Scenes de la Vie de Province, Scenes de la Vie Paris - ienne, Le Medecin de Campagne, Le P&re Goriot, La Peau de Chagrin, Histoire Intellectuelle de Louis Lambert, La Recherche de VAbsolu, Les Parents Pauvres, Eugenie Grandet, Le Lis dans la Vallee, Le Cure de Village, Histoire de Cesar Birotteau, and a mystico- metaphysical novel entitled Seraphita. He is considered to have shown wonderful penetra- tion into the mysteries of the female heart. In his Contes Drolatiques, he imitated the wild, fantastic humor of Rabelais, using also the quaint style of that author. He aspired to group all the varieties of human character into a complete whole, and de- scribed his romances under the general title of Comedie humaine. There can be no question as to his wonderful grasp of the methods of analysis in observing human nature. His fault lay in over- working minute details and losing sight of that symmetry which is essential to perfection in form. His literary habits were eccentric, and many curious stories are told of his mode of working after hav- ing gathered material for a novel. He married in later life [a Polish lady, who had long lived with him. Melchior Frederic Soulie' (1800-1847) was born at Foix. His romances glow with imagination, and have a fresh and sparkling style. Among the best were Les Deux Cadavres, Le Comte de Toulouse, Le Vicomte de Beziers, Le Conseiller d'Etat, and Les Memoires du Didble. Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) took high rank as romancer, but he was also historian, playwriter, and archaeologist. He was born at Paris, the son of a distinguished painter. Merimee made early ac- quaintance with English and Spanish literature, and came forward as an enthusiastic adherent of the romantic school. His first work, Le Theatre de Romancers. 305 Clara Gazul, purporting to be dramatic pieces trans- lated from the Spanish, did not meet with success. His next, La Guzla (the name, an anagram of the earlier nom de plume) was an effort to popularize the folk-song of Illyria and Montenegro. It was much admired in Germany, but its popularity was confined to literary circles. After the Revolution of 1830, Merime'e entered public life, like so many of the literary men of the day. Meanwhile he kept writing for the reviews a series of wild and thrilling tales in a strong, clear condensed style, a style of restrained power which made all his stories very fascinating. The chief of these was Colomba, a Corsican tale of horror. Others, equally well-told, were Matteo Falcone and L'Enlbvement de la redoute. Besides these, his other most striking tales were Arsene Guillot and Carmen. The opera of Carmen is founded on this tale. His historical studies bore fruit in works on episodes in Roman history ; an episode in Russian history, worked up in Les Faux Demetrius ; and his Chronique du Regne de Charles IX. One of the ablest of these historical studies was his La Jacque- rie, a study of one of the most frightful outbursts of ignorant and oppressed humanity in French his- tory, a series of occurrences which was at once a prelude though at a great distance in time to the Revolution of 1789, and a prophecy of that tremen- dous convulsion. Among the works of this polished cynic, but most gifted artist in word-painting, must also be named his fantasy-piece, Venus d llle ; Le Double Meprise, a picture of modern society; and the sin- gular Lettres d Une Inconmie, which made so great a stir when they appeared shortly after his death. They seemed to have been addressed to some woman who possessed the fascinating qualities, though probably not the beauty, of Madame de Recamier, and who enjoyed the adoration of her admirer, but was able to be as obdurate to him as 20 306 French Literature. that lady was to Benjamin Constant. She was an Englishwoman. Eugene Sue, though now known best by the Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew, began his fame by the production of sea-stories. In this line he ranks with Cooper and Marryatt, showing great fertility of fancy and that boyish spirit of fun and frolic which is so natural to the sailor. De Vericour names Corbiere and Lecomte as other writers of nautical novels during the same period. Marie Joseph Eugene Sue (1804-1857) was born at Paris. Becoming an army-surgeon, he served under the Due d'Angouleme in the expedition into Spain. Transferred thence to the navy, he was present at the battle of Navarino, and saw enough of life at sea to fit him for writing those stories with which he began his literary career. Of his earlier works the chief were Atar Outt, a frightful story of revenge; Salamander, also full of horror; and Vigie de Koatven, the story of a prosperous vil- lain. This indeed is the blot upon Sue's fiction. His villains always triumph. After leaving the ocean as the scene of his tales, Sue, in the new field which he chose and in which he developed a socialist tendency, first showed his peculiar power in Mathilde, ou les Memoir es d'une jeune Femme. But his Mystires de Paris and Le Juif Errant were the works which really estab- lished his fame. They created wild excitement, and enriched their author, so large were the sales. His power in these romances is that acquired over the reader's imagination by complicated, intricate, and exciting plots, appealing strongly to the passion of curiosity. No English novelist has ever shown this art in anything like the same degree of skill as it is to be found in a goodly number of French romancers. These thrilling romances of Sue's were followed by Martin, V Enfant Trouve ; Les Sept Pechees Capitaux; and Les My stores du Peuple. In his later works he developed socialist tendencies. Romancers. 307 He was in public life when the Second Empire came; and, being identified with the extreme wing of the republican party, he was banished by Louis Napoleon. We now reach the most remarkable woman of recent times, the "George Sand" of literature. Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, who became the Baronne Dudevant by her marriage, was born (180-1 1876) at Paris. Her father was descended from the famous Marshal de Saxe. While still Made- moiselle Dupin, she was moved at one time to take the veil, but the reading of J. J. Eousseau's works changed her purpose. Married to the Baron Dude- vant at an early age, she lived with him for nine years'. At the end of that time, finding her wedded life intolerable and discovering that her husband had neither love for her nor confidence in her, she got him to consent to a formal separation, and went to Paris to engage in literary work. In concert with Jules Santleau, she wrote Rose et Blanche. After parting with Sandeau, she kept by the advice of Delatouche, the editor of the Figaro, for which she wrote her earlier romances, the first half of Sandeau's name and signed her works George Sand, Delatouche holding that the public would not give a woman due credit for her writings. Her Indiana gave the first indication of her splendid powers. In these earlier works, her pent-up wrath at the broken illusions of the woman-heart thrown upon a cold, heartless, and corrupt world, found vent in a reckless plea for passion and a scorn for the mar- riage-tie, which would have utterly condemned her works with the moral part of the French reading public, had it not been for the fascinating style and enchanting glow of feeling which showed a fresh- ness of heart that seemed incompatible with real depravity. Indiana was followed by Valentine, Lelia, Jacques, Andre, Leone Lenni, and ftimon. The delirium of passion and of outraged feeling seemed to pass 308 French Literature. away with these earlier romances. Her travels in Italy and Spain may have had something to do with soothing her mind. The influence of Lamen- nais, too, who was then engaging her services as a writer for his journal, Le Monde, may have had some effect in awakening her to that spirit of Christian resignation which her Lettres h Marcie breathed. Certainly, the whole atmosphere of her literary work became purer and sweeter. Andre and Simon were a definite contrast in spirit to works like Indiana and Lelia. But she seems at all times to have been remarkably susceptible to influences from without, the influence of scenery and the influence of society. Many writers have spoken of her masculine tastes and masculine type of mind. No greater mistake, it seems to me, could be made. Few women have ever possessed in a higher degree than she the essentially femi- nine gift of assimilating through sympathy all the spirit, thoughts, and qualities of every man in whom she became deeply interested, and reproduc- ing with definitely feminine art what she had thus absorbed. She was a highly gifted woman, doing in literature what every superior woman does in society, the written sexual transmutation of the one answering to the spoken and acted of the other. Her travels suggested L 1 Uscoque, Les Mai- tres Mosa'istes, Mauprat, and La Derniere Aldini. Her studies in philosophical speculations bore fruit in the mystical Spiridion, and her essay in prose- poetry, Les Sept Cordes de la Lyre. Her political ideas took form in Le Compaynon du Tour de France and Pauline. About this time, her literary success having secured her a comfortable maintenance, she obtained a divorce. In the Revue Independante, which she started with Viardot and Leroux, she published Horace, Consuelo, and La Comtesse de Rudolstadt. These were followed by Jeanne and Le Meunier tfAngibault. In all these later works, the political Romancers. 309 tone is strongly democratic, and in the last-men- tioned her views are decidedly socialistic. She went back, however, at a later date, to purely literary romances. Such were Isidora, Teverino, La Petite Fadette, Francois -le-Champi, Les Maitres Sonneurs, La Filleule, and, above all, that charm- ing little prose idyll, La Mare au Diable. Her Letters dun Voyageur described " with pathos and animation the reminiscences of her youth, the course of her affections, the blight and desolation of her soul under accumulated sorrows; but she no longer speaks in a wrathful and .passionate tone; her spirit is subdued and chastened ; and she pours forth the natural and plaintive effusions of one wounded in the tenderest sensibilities, stricken as a mother, a friend, a lover, and a wife. The countries she has visited in her travels are also sketched with great force and vigor of delineation, which leaves a vivid impression on the mind of the reader." This is the judgment of De Vericour. After the Revolution of 1848, she produced some pieces for the stage. Among her successes were JFrangois-le-Champi, Claudie, Le Pressoir, Le Man- age de Victor ine, and Maitre Favilla. Especially was Le Marquis de Villemer a striking dramatic success. Among her later works we may cite also Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Dore, Jean de la Roche, Mademoiselle de la Quintinee, and La Confession cTune Jeune Fille. Among those autobiographical pieces which, taken together, would make a large group of memoirs, were her Histoire de Ma Vie, Journal d'un Vogageur pendant la Guerre (published in 1871), and Impressions et Souvenirs. Respecting her relations with a succession of men eminent in different spheres of art and litera- ture, I choose to say nothing here, though there is quite a literature on that single subject. The writer, whose works go by the name of De Stendhal, is stated by De Vericour to be Bayle, French Consul at Civita Yecchia not long before 310 French Literature. 1848. The pessimist view of life is that taken in his novels. They were Rouge et Noir, La Chartreuse de Parme, and L'Abbesse de Castro. Besides these, he produced biographies of Haydn, Mozart, and Metastasio, a descriptive work, called Promenade dans Rome ; a work on Italian painting, called Histoire de la Peinture en Italic, and a book of travels. fimile Souvestre (1806-1854) was born at Morlaix in Bretagne. His amiable and cheerful spirit makes him a marked contrast to De Stendhal. His romances illustrate Breton life, with its roman- tic scenery, its rugged coast, and its simple people. Les Derniers Bretons was the first of these. It was followed by his ficlielle des Femmes, Riche et Pauvre, and the Memoires d'un Sans-culotte. This last deals with the struggle in La Vendee between the royalists and the republicans. Les Confessions d'un Ouvrier, Au Coin du Feu, Memorial de Famille, Le Foyer breton, L'ffomme et V Argent, and Pierre et Jean were others of his works. But that which is most readily mentioned when the name of Souvestre comes up, is his Philosophe sous les Toils. Leon Gozlan (1806-1866) already mentioned among the play- writers born at Marseille, besides furnishing the theatre with numerous dramas, comedies, and vaudevilles, was the author of an archaeological romance of history, entitled Les Tourelles ou Les Chateaux de France. Another romance of his was Le Notaire de Chantilly. Theophile Gautier (1811-1872) was born at Tarbes. One of the most original and one of the most productive, both in prose and verse, of recent French authors, he belongs, like most of the modern artists in fiction, to the sensuous school. Trained to be an artist with pencil and brush, he has carried the qualities proper to that form of production into literature. There is wonderful picturesqueness in his visions of the past, a fine taste for classic beauty in all his work. But his Romancers. 311 fancy is pagan, sensual, and impure in too many of bis romances. The voluptuous visions he sets before the mind are powerful creations; but, as is so apt to be the case with an imagination so un- restrained, there is a monotony in his passion for portraying the naked form of woman, which in- evitably narrows the sphere of his genius. His most famous novels were Mademoiselle de Maupin, Le Capitaine Fracasse, and Spirite. Shorter sketches of Poesque fancy were La Morte Amoureuse, Une des Nuits de Cleopatre, Clarimonde, Arria Marcella, Le Pied de la Momie, Omphale, and Le Roi Can- daules. Both Ernest Feydeau and fimile Bergerot wrote memoirs inspired by their admiration for Gautier ; and Maxime du Camp has recently given in the Revue des Deux Mondes interesting reminiscences of literary and artistic life in Paris at the time when he and Gautier and Arsene Houssaye were publishing the Revue de Paris. It was in the pages of this review that Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Eugene Fromentin first became known to the public. Gautier's place as journalist critic was as high as that which he attained as a romancer. But he had to submit to a great deal of over- work, harassed as he was by his creditors and hardly dealt with by his family. During this period, his literary work was done altogether in the printing-office ; and he once said : " Schiller, in order to set his fancy working, inhaled the odor of rotten apples ; I be- lieve I could not write without smelling the stench of printer's ink." Among his poems may be named La Comedie de la Alort and fimaux et Camees. It was from ex- perience gathered from the fate of his first poem, that he warned Flaubert against indulging his passion for following his own theories of art. "I know all about that," said he to Flaubert. " Every- body goes through that phase, just as children have 312 French Literature. the measles. When I used to live with Arsena Houssaye, Camille Rogier, and Gerard de Nerval, we had just such ideas. I know what it is to write chefs d'oBuvre: I wrote La Comedie de la Mort ; I gave away two volumes of prose in order to have my verses published, of which seventy-five copies were sold. Everybody can write chefs d'ceuvre, if he will only believe in them." In his youth, Gautier was one of the most ex- travagant of the romantic school, emphasizing his artistic and literary creed by wearing a flaming crimson waistcoat and keeping his hair in long waving masses. Of course he outlived these follies, and his genius was evident in masterly creations and polished language even in his most fantastic days. In few literary works is the artist so manifest as in his. He was also a remarkable instance among recent French writers of perfect in- difference to political life and complete devotion to the literary profession. He traveled a good deal, and his travels bore fruit in his Voyage en Italic, Voyage en Russie, Voyage en Espagne, and L* Orient. Jean Alphonse Karr was born at Paris in 1808. He has published many romances, in a style remarkable for clearness and precision, and with a singular vein of humor running like an oddly tinted thread through all that he has written. He began with Sous les Tilleuls, the story of his first dis- appointment in love. This, being well received, was followed by Une Heure trop tard. After these came Fa Dttze, Vendredi Soir, Le Chemin plus court, Einerley. Grenevi&ve, Clotilde, Hortense, Am Rauchen, Pour ne pas etre Treize, De Midi a Quatorze Heures, Feu Bressier, Voyage autour de mon Jardin, La .famille Alain, Histoire de Rose et de Jean Duchemin, Le& Fees de la Mer t Clovis Gosselin, Agathe et Cecile, Fort en Theme, Soirees de Sainte-Adresse, Les Femmes, Raoul, Lettres ecrites de mon Jardin, Au Bord de la Mer, Promenades hors de mon Jardin, La Penelvpe Normande, La Peche en Eau douce et en Romancers. 813 Eau salee, the last being a treatise on fishing, of which he is very fond, as he is also of gardening. Xavier Marmier, famous for his travels as well as for his numerous translations from the German, was born at Pontarlier in 1809. Being a master of most of the languages of northern Europe, be was made professor of foreign literature at Eennes ; but he has traveled since in all the continents, studying languages, manners, and literature every- where. His romances were Les Fiances de Spitz- berg, Gazida, HelZne, Suzaine, and others. Bon Louis Henri Martin was born at St. Quentin in 1810. His first publication was a novel entitled Tour du Loup, written in concert with a young friend. After this, he produced many other ro- mances, among them Tancrede de Rohan. He con- ceived, with Lacroix, the idea of compiling a his- tory of France, made up of extracts from different authors, which Lacroix assisting him only with the first volume he carried on alone to its com- pletion. His other important works have been L'Abbaye au Bois, ou la Femme de Chambre ; Histoire de Soissons ; De la France, de son genie et deeses destinees ; Daniel Mauin; IS Unite Italienne et La France ; Jean Reynaud ; Pologne et Moscovie ; Vercingetorix ; La Russie d 1 Europe ; His- toire de France populaire ; and Etudes d'archeologie Celte. Edouard Kene Lefebvre Laboulaye, born at Paris in 1811, is one of the ablest and most versatile of modern French writers. He was first known in letters by his Histoire du droit de propriete en Europe. Later, he published an essay Sur de Savigny, a work entitled Des Recherches sur la Con- dition civile et politique des Femmes, and an essay Sur les Lois criminelles des Romains. Besides the works on jurisprudence, which are very learned and very clear in style, and his Histoire politique des Btats Unis, he has produced imaginative and satiri- cal works of a high degree of humor and power. 314 French Literature. His best works of political satire are his Paris en Amerique and that exquisite satirical fairy-tale, Le Prince Caniche, with its inimitable exposition of the " Gobemouchian " theory of government. He has also written, in his Contes bleus, some of the best of modern fairy-tales for children; an Arabian romance of much charm entitled Abdallah ; and a collection of tales, called Souvenirs (Pun Voyageur. Louis Veuillot, a writer on the clerical side, was born at Baynes in 1813. He returned from a visit to Rome in 1838 a vehement ultramontane journal- ist. Among his works, polemical, political, and satirical, were Les Libres Penseurs, LEsclave Vin- dex, Les Franeais en Algerie, Les Odeurs de Paris, and Parfum de Rome. He also wrote a strikingly original romance entitled Corbin et d 1 Aubecourt. Auguste Maquet was born at Paris in 1813. Dumas was struck with the ability displayed in his drama, Bathilde, and proposed that they should work together. Many of Dumas's romances were thus composed. But in 1851, Maquet began to write under his own name. Among these romances, which Dumas did not retouch, are Histoire de la Bastille; Prisons de T Europe; Belle Gabrielle ; Le Beau d'Argennes ; Dettes de Cozur ; L'Envers et LEndroit ; La Maison du Baiyneur ; and La Rose blanche. He also put upon the stage the opera, La Fronde; and the plays, Le Chateau de Gautier, Le Comte de Lavernie, and La Belle Gabrielle. Louis Amedee Bngene Achard was born at Marseille in 1814. His stories make up more than thirty volumes. Among them may be named the pretty romance of Belle Rose and La Robe de Nessus, Maurice de Treuil, Madame Rose, Le Clos-Pommier, L Ombre de Ludovic, La Famille Guillemot, Le Due de Carlepont, Histoire d'un Homme, L 'Eau qui Dort, La Mis^re d'un Millionaire, and Madame de Sareus. Jean Mace", born at Paris in 1815, ranks among the story-tellers only by his Contes du petit Chateau, fairy-tales which in my opinion are very far from Romancers. 315 being first-rate, although commended by so high att authority as Laboulaye. While educating the girls of Alsace, Mace' conceived the idea of simplifying and popularizing science for children, and began by his Bouchee de Pain, which he followed up by a number of other educational works of the same sort. This notion of always instructing, of making very sure to " point a moral," is what makes his so- called fairy-tales so very far away from the ideal type. Arsene Houssaye was born in 1815. He appeared as an author first in a romance entitled Couronne de Bluets. His later work has been principally that of journalist and art-critic. Among his works are L 1 Histoire du Quarante-et-untime Fautenilde V Acad- emic franr ais ; L'eventail brise; Une histoirc etranye ; Les larmes de Jeanne ; Lucie ; La robe de la mariee ; Roman des femmes qui ont aimee ; Une trayique aventure;' Les trois Duchesses ; and Vie de Leonardo da Vinci. I have already mentioned his engaging with Theophile Gautier and Maxime du Camp in the revival of the defunct Revue de Paris. This was in October, 1851, and the monthly was kept up until January, 1858. Paul Henri Corentin FeVal was born in 1817. Of his numerous novels, always lively and entertain- ing, may be named Alizia Pauli ; Les Amours de Paris ; Les Fanfarons du Roi ; La Maison de Pilate ; Les Nuits de Paris ; Le Roi des Gueux and La Fontaine aux Perles. Erckmann and Chatrian are two writers, whose works have attained great popularity both in France and abroad, on account of their real merit and the freshness of the scenes and simplicity of the life depicted, as well as the pathos of the stories told, but partly also from the sympathy lately aroused for Alsace, and largely too from the circumstance of constant copartnership in the production of their romances. The marriage of two minds has always been an interesting fact in the history of literature. 316 French Literature. ftmile Erekmann was born at Phalsbourg in 1822 ; Alexandra Chatrian^ at Soldatenthal in 1826. Since 1847, they have worked together in the composition of their Alsatian tales, signing them with the double name, Erckmann-Chatrian. Their works first attained popularity on the publica- tion of Llllustre Docteur Matheus in 1859. Among their best romances may be named: Conies des bords du Rhin ; Le Fou Yegof ; Le Joueur dt Clar- inette ; La Maison Foresti^re ; Le Consent de 1813; Madame There'se ; L 'Invasion et Waterloo ; Le Grand-pbre Lebigre ; Lami Fritz ; Les Deux Fibres and Brigadier Frederic. Some of these stories have also been thrown into the form of comedies. Their play of Rantzan, produced by the Come'die frangaise, is a sort of bourgeois Romeo and Juliet. It is a dramatization of Les Deux Fr'eres. The younger Dumas, born at Paris in 1824, made his reputation by that immoral but very popular story, La Dame aux Camelias, from which the op- era of La Traviata was afterwards taken. Among his other romances are, Le Roman d'une Femme ; La Dame aux Perles ; Diane de Lys ; La Femme du Claude ; Les idees de Madame Aubray Une Visite de Noces ; Le Bijou de la Reine ; and La Prin- cesse de Bagdad. He has also written plays. One of the most vivacious and fantastic of French romancers, Edmond About, who of late years betook himself wholly to political journalism, is but lately dead. He died in 1885. Edmond Francois Valentine About was born at Dieuze, Meurthe, in 1828. His La Grtce Contem- poraine, an extravagantly satirical sketch of mod- ern Greece, brought him at once into notice. It was followed by the publication in the Revue des Deux Mondes of his autobiographical romance, Tolla. He now tried the stage ; but his comedy of Guillery ou I'Effronte was a failure. He returned to romance ; and Les Manages de Paris, Le Roi des Montagnes, Gcnnaine, and Les Echasses de Romancers. 817 Jfaitre Pierre showed where his true powers lay. Others of his romances are L'Homme a I'oreHle cassee, T rente et Quarante, Le nez d'un notaire, La Viei-lle Roche, Madelon, and 'LInfame. Some of his political pamphlets, such as La Question Romaine, and La Rome Contemporaine, made a great noise in their day. As a story-teller, About reminds me of two very dissimilar writers in English literature, the English satirist Peacock and our own Poe in his quality of fantastic romancer. There is no poetic imagination in About's whimsical fancies, however, nor any of that air of a reserved force, which is manifest in the artistic creations of Poe. Another political writer who has used romance as the vehicle of satire is Rochefort. Victor Henri, Comte de Rochefort-Lucay, was born at Paris in 1830. His father was a great royalist, but his mother taught the-" youth democratic principles. As a journalist, he was a thorn in the side of the Napoleonic government, and spent much of his time in prison or in exile. After the fall of the Empire, he was involved in the proceedings which resulted in the temporary establishment of the Commune. For complicity in their atrocities, he was tried with other Communists by the government of Thiers, condemned, and imprisoned. Escaping from the penal colony in the Pacific, to which he had been transported, he returned by way of the United States to Europe, was allowed to go back to Parts, on the declaration of amnesty in 1880, and has since then written his story of Mademoiselle Bismarck, in which Gambetta and other political leaders are said to figure under fictitious names. Victor Cherbuliez was born in 1832. After a fantasy-piece entitled Un Cheval de Phidias, he published a series of romances. Among these are Le Comte Kostia ; Le Prince, Vitale; Paule Mere; Le Roman dune honnete Femme ; L'idee de Jean 318 French Literature. Teterol; Les Amours fragiles ; and Noirs et Rouges. There is a good deal of artistic power in his works. Ludovic Halevy, the son of Leon HaleVy and nephew of the great composer of music, was born at Paris in 1834. His father, born in 1802, was in his youth a Saint-Simonian, and, later, a professor of literature and author of Fables, La Grece Tra- gique, and a play entitled Electre. The son wrote the libretti for many well-known operas, and a number of romances. Among these is L'Abbe Constantin, a story of exquisite simplicity and sound moral tone. The light touch of Halevy is an artistic gift which all can feel the charm of, but which only trained critics perceive and appre- ciate. One of the most delightful purveyors of amuse- ment for children in these days is Madame la Com- tesse de Segur (nee Kostopchine), who has written a host of amusing books, always bright and im- aginative, sunny and sweet, with never a taint of evil about them. Her Nouveaux Contes de Fees is one of the best of fairy-tale books. Her other books are Apres la Pluie le beau Temps; Come- dies et Proverbes ; Diloy le Chemineau; Frangois le Bossu ; Jean qui grogne et Jean qui rit; La For- tune de Gaspard; La /Swur de Gribouille; L'Au- berge de I'Auge gardien; Le General Dourakine; Les bons Enfants ; Les deux Nigauds ; Les Mal- heurs de Sophie; Le Mauvais Genie; Les Petites Filles Modeles; Les Vacances ; Memoir es d'une Ane; Pauvre Blaise; Quel Amour d Enfant! and Un bon Petit Diable. I have but space to touch lightly upon other romancers of note. The passion for crude art, taking form in pictures of coarse and depraved life, in sensual passion untinged by any light of wit or coloring of humor, in minute studies of horrors, seems to have taken possession of- those who cater for the public taste in our day. Ernest Feydeau's Fanny, with its "sickly and Romancers. 319 an wholesome sentimentality ; " Flaubert's Madame Bovary, with its revolting scenes ; Adolphe Belot'a Femme de Feu, with its debasing tendencies ; Zola's Rougon-Macquart family, in the whole of the abom- inable series in which those brutal specimens of humanity figure, are types of the worst features of the prevailing "realism," so much vaunted by the admirers of that school. Charles de Bernard, Jules Claretie, Smile Gab- oriau, Jules Verne, Alphonse Daudet, make another and a very varied group. I can only mention a few of their stories. De Bernard is responsible for Les Ailes d'leare; Un Reau-Pere; Gerfaut; Le Nozud Gordien; Le Paratonnerre ; Le Paravent; La Peau du Lion. Among Claretie's works may be named Une Maitresse ; Les Amours d'un In- terne; and Le Renegat. Gaboriau, who died some years ago, wrote a vast number of police-court stories, with intricate plots woven about crime. The names of some of these are L' Affaire Lerouge; L* Argent des Autres ; La Clique doree ; Les Comediennes adorees ; La Corde au Cou ; Le Crime d'Orcival; Le Dossier, No. 113; Les Esclaves de Paris; Manages dAventure ; Monsieur Lecoq; La Vie Infernale ; and Petit Vieux des Batignolles. Verne's flighty and fantastic stories amusing, if there were any end to that string of extravagancies are so well known by translations, that it will be enough to name one or two, such as Autour de la Lune ; De la Terre a la Lune ; Vingt-mille Lieues sous les Mers ; Voyage au Centre de la Terre ; and Uih Mysterieuse. Daudet, who plumes himself as much on realistic pictures as Zola, though he refrains from sinking quite so low, that is, into utter filth, has acknowl- edged that his characters are taken from the. life, many being drawn from persons now living. This, he states, is the case with all the characters in Fro- rrwnt jeune et Risler aine, except Zizi Delobelle. 320 French Literature. ., Among his other books may be named Jack ; Les Lettres de mon Moulin; Les Hois en Exile; Le Nabob ; and Nwna Roumestan. His Tartarin de Tarascon is an amusing extravaganza, much en- joyed by children. His brother Ernest has written Le Mari and Henriette, and, recently, a memoir of t'ne youth of himself and Alphonse, entitled Mon Frere et Moi: /Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse. Of Zola, it would be superfluous to say more than is contained in these words from a review of his Pot-Bouille in an American journal, as they apply with equal fitness to all his books: " There is not one decent character in the book ; not one redeeming trait of manhood ; not one pure woman ; not one touch of humor ; not even an innocent child. It reeks with filth. It is a veritable hot-bed of indescribable grossnesses and will besmear every one who touches it." This vile literature comprises La Conquete de Plassans ; La Faute de VAbbe Mouret; Nana; Venire de Paris ; L'Assommoir ; and one or two more, the latest being Pot-Bouille. Turning from this reeking atmosphere to pure air, we find it in the sweet society to which Mad- ame Durand introduces us. This is the writer who puts to her books the name of Henry GreVille. Her stories have been mainly of Eussian life. But, whatever her theme, she gives always delightful pictures of domestic life and hearty, natural char- acters. A criticism in the same journal quoted above well says : " A keenly sympathetic temperament, a pure and lim- pid style, and the easy flow of natural and graceful dia- logue unite in the charm of her work. There is some- thing idyllic in the sweet lessons of self-devotion to another vvliich she is continually teaching, and which, however often they may be told, never lose their original freshness and simple eloquence. . . . And there is not one of her books that is not pure in motive, word, and deed which is suying a great deal as French novels go." Romancers. 321 Her books are numerous. Among them I may name Cite Menerd, La Niania, Sonia, Dosia, Ariad- ne, and La Princesse d'Ogheroff. Nor is Madame Durand the only pure romancer. Madame Craven's religious novels, Recit d'une Soeur, Fleurange, and Anne Severin are also entitled to respect from the lofty tone and untainted atmos- phere which they breathe. To her literature also owes Une Annee de Meditations, Le Travail dune Ante, La Sceur Nathalie Narlschkin, and Eliane. One of the most popular of living romancers is Andre* Theuriet, the author of La Chanson du Jar- dinier and Madame Heurteloup. He lias also written Sous Bois, Mademoiselle Guignon, Le Man- age de Gerard, Ondine, La Fortune dAngele, and Itaymonde. Edouard, Vicomte de Beaumont- Vassy, a kins- man of Gustave de Beaumont, has written, besides a historical work, several romances of some merit, among them Une Marquise d Autrefois. To the Marquis de Chennevieres we owe some pretty stories about peasant life in the province of Perclie. These are told in his Contes de Saint- Sautin. Among other novelists may be mentioned Delpit, the author of Le Mariage d'Odette and Le Fils de Coralie; Brehat, of whose numerous tales we may mention LAuberge du Solett d'Or, La Cabane du Sabotier, and La Sorcie~re Noire, Capendu, the author of La Popote and LePre Catelan ; Berthet, the author of Le Val d'Andorre and La Bastide rouge ; Xavier de Montepin, who wrote among other tales La Compare Leroux, Viveurs d' Autrefois, Les Viveurs de Paris, and Les Viveurs de Prov- ince; and De Goncourt, the author of Les Fibres Zemganno, Gavarni, and La Maison dun Artiste. Arrnand de Pontmartin, who is more famous as a critic, wrote about a dozen novels, of which the most striking were Or et Clinquant, Les Jeudis de Madame Charbonneau, Les Memoires dun Notaire, 322 French Literature. Pourquoi je reste a la Camqagne, and Entre Chien et Loup. Madame Charles Eeybuad wrote Mademoiselle de Malepeire, Mise Brun, and Le Cabaret de Gau- bert. Ponson du Terrail is responsible for a host of sensational stories, such as Un Crime de Jeunesse, Les Fils de Judas^ Memoires dun Gendarme, Les Mysferes des Bois, Nuits du Quartier Breda, and Le Secret du Docteur Rousselle. There are also Georges Ohnet, whose Le Maure de Forges is, I believe, his masterpiece ; Jacques Vin- cent, with his Le Cousin Nott ; fimile Kichebourg, with his Le Missel de la Grand m^re ; and Lucien Biart, with his Jeanne de Maurice. The opposition of the French Society for the Pro- tection of Animals to the abuses of the practice of vivisection has given origin to a special form of fiction, that devoted to inculcating humanity to the dumb creatures under man's protection. The So- ciety gave a gold medal a few years ago to Aure- lieu Scholl for his pathetic little story, Le Roman de Follette. A charming story of a wandering troupe of per- forming animals by Hector Malot, entitled, Sans Famille, and translated into English with the title, " No Relations," seems to have been inspired by the same gentle motive. Malot has written a number of novels. Romain Kalbris is a romance for chil- dren. Of his other works I may name Cara, Le Docteur Claude, La Boheme tapdgeuse, and Une Femme d Argent. Pleasing tales have been written by Louis ^nault, Daniel Lesueur, and A. Gennevraye. Critics and Scientists. 32(5 XXL CRITICS AND SCIENTISTS. D'IsRAELi's epigram on the critics has no appli- cation in the case of the best French critics. They have been remarkably able men, who have, besides producing original works of merit, raised criticism into a powerful, attractive, and useful branch of literature. The excellence to which French criti- cism has attained in modern times is largely due to the new direction given to it by Villemain. His criticism was a great advance upon that of Laharpe and Diderot. His lectures on literature were eloquent and fascinating, delivered in a style of elegant and graceful ease, that possessed all the elasticity which characterizes the best conversation. Abel Fran9ois Villemain (1790-1780) was born at Paris, and became in early life a Professor of Liter- ature. His lectures, with those of Guizot and Cousin, always drew immense audiences, and counted among the most brilliant and fruitful intellectual events of the Restoration period. Besides his Eloges of Montaigne and Montesquieu, his History of Crom- well, his drama entitled Lascaris, ou les Grecs du XV. Siecle, translations from Cicero and Pindar, and a history of lyric poetry, he produced Discours et Melanges litteraires, Tableau de V Eloquence chreti- enne au IV e Siecle, tudes d'Histoire Moderne, Etudes de Litterature, and Chateaubriand, sa Vie, ses crits, et son Influence litteraire et politique. Two delightful volumes were all put forth by him, entitled Souvenirs contemporains d'Histoire et de la Litterature. He mingled for a time, like m^st or ihe literary men of the day, in political life, was minister under 324 French Literature. Louis Philippe, became a Peer of France and Per' petual Secretary of the Academie Fran$aise; but all his earlier and most of his later years were given up to literary labor. One of the weightiest influ- ences which he applied to the discussion of literature was that derived from his study of English literature. Amply stored with all the arsenal of knowledge the past could give, his mind was enabled to keep a just poise between the claims of the classic and the ro- mantic schools and to act as mediator between them. He might justly be styled the first great historical critic. In the order of time, Patin, Vinet, Chasles, Ampere, Girardin, and even Janin may be entitled to mention before Sainte-Beuve. But his is the great name in criticism, easily the superior of them all, and the artist and poet among critics. He stands naturally by the side of Villemain. Charles Augustin Saint-Beuve (1804-1869) was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer after his father's death. His mother, a woman of fine education and char- acter, took great pains with his education. Her family was of English origin, and through her he early acquired a knowledge of the English language and literature. Beginning life as a medical student, he was easily drawn into literary circles and critical work by his enthusiasm for Victor Hugo's Odes et Ballades and the principles of the romantic school. He was soon moved to try his own powers in the field of poetry. His Poesies de Joseph Delorme won the plaudits of Beranger and other literary men, though it did not hit the taste of the public. Les Conso- lations, his next poetic effort, was more successful. With Pensees dAout, he retired from the domain of poetry. His poetry is, in the main, an imitation of the mild muse of Crabbeand Wordsworth, familiar, grave, and self-communing verse for which the French have no great taste fortunately. Besides these three collections of poetry, he pro- duced several volumes of Portraits litteraires, Critics and Scientists. 325 Jlistoire de la Potsie francaise au XVIe Stide, His- toire de Port Royal, a romance entitled Volupte ; and, above all, his delightful series of biographical and critical sketches which appeared under the title of Causeries de Lundi. Sainte-Beuve was especially a student of the en- vironment of the writer he was criticising. He made it his first business to inquire who and what the author was ; what produced, what developed, and what modified him. He was sympathetic and appreciative in his judgments, but at the same time a little cynical ; impartial, tolerant, and inclined to skepticism in religious matters ; subtle in analysis ; piquant, animated, richly descriptive in style ; and remarkably gifted in combining biographic details and suggestive allusions with purely literary criti- cism. Henri Joseph Guillaume Patin was born at Paris in 1793. His main claim to a place in literature is his Etude sur les Tragiques Grrecs. Alexandre Vinet (1797-1847) was born in the village of Grassier, Canton de Vaud. He was Pro- fessor of French Literature successively at Bale and at Lausanne. His principles led him to infuse into his literary studies Christian and philosophic ideas, while his taste for art enriched and beautified the moral conceptions with which he inspired his essays. Etudes sur Pascal, Histoire de la Litterature Fran- qaise au XVIII Q Stide, Etudes sur la Litterature Francaise au XIX* iSiecle, Essais de Philosophic Morale et Religieuse, Discours Religieux, Etudes jZvangeliques, and Ecrits Polemiques constitute his contributions to literature. Victor Euphemion Philarete Chasles (1798-1873) was born at Mainvilliers. He wrote Etudes sur les Homrnes et les Mceurs au XIX e Sttcle and other critical works, besides an account of his travels. His specialty was English literature. The articles making up the books issued by Philarete Chasles were 326 French Literature. originally contributions to the Revue des Deux Mondes and the Journal des Debats. Jean Jacques Ampere (1800-1 864),, the son of that Andre Marie Ampere who has been spoken of already in this work as an illustrious scientist of the Napoleonic period, was born at Lyon. He soon won a brilliant reputation for large and comprehensive literary research, traveling as he did in Italy, Ger- many, and the Scandinavian lands, and, later, in the eastern Mediterranean, and studying language and literature wherever he went. He was very success- ful as a professor in inspiring enthusiasm for lin- guistic and literary studies, and at the same time he wrote on many subjects. His Litterature et Voy- ages told the story of his travels and studies. The brilliancy of his style and the correctness of local coloring and historic fact give great interest to his La Grece, Some et Dante; Etudes Litteraires d'apres Nature; VHistoire Romaine d Rome; and Cesar. His Histoire Litter air e de la France avant le douzieme Siecle is a careful and philosophic resume of the great work of. the Benedictines on the same period, giving an account of literary work done on the soil of Gaul before it became France, and at the same time treating of the influence of the Latin, Germanic, and Keltic languages upon the formation of the French tongue. Jules Gabriel Janin (1804-1874) was born at St. fitienne, in the department of the Loire. Thackeray, in that satirical little sketch on "Dickens in France," which was after his death re-published in " Early and Late Papers," describes our critic thus : " Who is Janin? He is the critic of Prance. J. J. in fact the man who writes a weekly feuilleton in the Journal des Debats with such indisputable brilliancy and wit, and such a fine mixture of effrontery, and honesty, and poetry, and impudence, and falsehood, and impertinence, and good feeling, that one can't fail to be charmed wilh the compound, and to look rather eagerly tor tlie Monday paper; Jules Janin is the Critics and Scientists. 327 man, who, not knowing a single word of the English language, as he actually professes in the preface, has helped to translate the Sentimental Journey" And, then, Thackeray goes on to abuse him heartily for not liking Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby. But, in spite of this fierce little satire, Jules Janin, the " King of the feuilleton," as Heine called him, is not to be despised. He was for Paris the sort of piquant, racy, jolly old gossip that not Aristoph- anes, but some human counterpart of his Dionusos might have been for Athens. There was just the sort of flavor about his wit and wisdom that the true Parisian has a relish for ; and the favor of Paris made Janin a rich man before he died. He wrote a goodly number of novels, among them EAne mort et la Jeune Femme guillotinee, that ill- omened title with which Thackeray jeers him at every turn in the paper just cited. He wrote also accounts of his little trips. But nothing else that he wrote got him anything like the kind and amount of reputation which he gleaned from his weekly feuilletons, brimming with high spirits and kind, hearty, good feeling, as well as much ready wit and some tenderness. Pontmartin, his fellow critic, said that he could not withhold his affection and sym- pathy from one " gifted with that faculty of vibration which responds to every incident of public life, to every episode of literary life, by a page, a line, a word the page true, the line piquant, the word just." It is Pontmartin who gives in eloquent words the story of Janin's creation of the feuilleton, and then adds : " It was in September, 1830, that this dramatic and literary royalty, which still endures, began ; and since that time there has never been a play, a book, a work of art, an actor, a great man, an event, a success, a misfortune, a fashion, an absurdity, a caprice, an illustrious death, which has not been reflected in these rapid pages, steno- 328 French Literature. graphed by a hand which nothing wearies, under the dictation of each day." Such and so various was Janin's matter. His manner was all his own. Never was there just such a style, quaint, inverted, fantastic, grotesque, run- ning through the whole gamut of tones with a sort of Merry Andrew lightheartedness, even as the birds sing. In any other man's work it would be rightly thought affected, as would Charles Lamb's; but it was the natural expression of that " fat and witty child," as Dumas called him, just as Lamb's letters show how little affectation there was in the printed Elia. Janin's principal feuilletons were collected and published under the title, Histoire dramatique et litteraire. Nisard stands apart from these critics, as a bitter assailant of the principles of romanticism. Jean Marie Napoleon Desire Nisard was born at Chatillon-sur-Seine in 1806. He began as a jour- nalist in opposition to the government of Louis XVIII. After the Eevolution of 1830, he at first supported the new government, but was soon once more in opposition. He changed again, however, and in the end was a zealous supporter of Louis Philippe's government. When that government fell, he was for a time in obscurity, but emerged with the rise of Louis Napoleon to power, and thenceforward was somewhat notorious as an advocate of arbitrary measures. Meanwhile, as a critic, he avowed loy- alty to the literary spirit of the past, especially ridiculing the excesses of the romantic school in his criticisms of Victor Hugo and De Lamartine. His Poetes Latins de la Decadence seems to have been purposely written to point the resemblance between the Latin literature of the age of Lucan and the literature of modern France. His other works, be- sides translations from the Latin classics, where Histoire de la Litter ature Fran^aise, Souvenirs d 1 Angleterre, and a volume of Melanges. Gustave Planche (1808-1857) was an austere and Critics and Scientists. 329 bitter critic. He wrote, however, in a pure and elegant style ; and his essays on English literature were particularly useful to his contemporaries at a time when the French were only beginning to take some interest in the great body of literature produced on the other side of the Channel. His articles appeared in the Artiste, the Revue des Deux Afondes, the Journal des Debats, and the Chronique de Paris. Ange Henri Blaze de Bury was born at Cavaillon in 1816. He was the son of a celebrated composer of music, and seems to have always taken a great interest in music and musicians. Besides translating " Faust," and other poems of Goethe, he wrote a volume of Poesies, Etudes on Mozart, Eossini, Beetho- ven, and other contemporary musicians, and an eloquent and enthusiastic account of German litera- ture, called Eerivaina et Poetes de I'Allemagne. Sainte-Beuve's greatest rival was the Comte Armand de Pontmartin, born in 1811, and living alternately at Paris and at his estate of Les Angles near Avignon. Sainte-Beuve denied that Pont- martin was a critic at all in the true sense of the term, and described him as " an amiable talker and literary chronicler after the fashion of good society and the drawing-room." I have already spoken of De Pontraartin's novels. His critical essays were republished, from the journals in "which they first appeared, in several series, with such titles as Causeries Litteraires, Cauteries du Samedi, and Nouveaux Samedis. His religious, moral, and political character remains steadfast in its attach- ment to the old principles of the aristocratic race to which he belongs. His style is rich, animated, flexible, and impassioned. His literary criticism is keen and earnest, based upon great underlying principles which force him to condemn much that he admits to be forcible and seductive. To Balzac he objects that his art is morbid and corrupting, and that he destroys pure and noble illusions ; to 330 French Literature. Victor Hugo, that he stirs up animosity between class and class, and that his genius is too often delirious ; to Sainte-Beuve, that he lacks genuine- ness, has no convictions, and is a time-server, un- happy, irascible, and sour in temper beneath his fine phrases. There is bitter satire in all this, but enough of truth to have made it very telling. fimile Montegut was born at Limoges in 1826. His article in the Revue des Deux Mondes on the philosophy of Kalph Waldo Emerson gave him his first reputation. His criticisms were extended over the field of contemporary French, English, and American literature. He also translated Macaulay's History of England and Emerson's Essays. One of the youngest and most brilliant of French critics is Taine. He has the credit, even among English and American critics, of having produced the best of all histories of English literature. His knowledge of this subject is far beyond that pos- sessed by Chateaubriand, Philarete Chasles, and others who have treated it in French. Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was born at Vouziers, Ardennes, in 1828. His earlier works were essays on La Fontaine and Livy, and a work entitled Les Philosophes Francois au dix-neuvieme Siecle. Later on, he brought out his Essais de Critique et d'His- toire, his Philosophic de I' Art, and his famous His- toire de la Litterature Anglaise. In this last he carries to its extreme the doctrine of environment and of original race-characteristics, and with the most brilliant diction heaps up facts upon facts, with a breathless prodigality of circumstance and of illustration, to build up the theory that is to account for every phenomenon of genius. It is all very fine and philosophical, but perhaps ignores too readily the force of individual character and gifts quite irrespective of any known or knowable cause in past or present. Taine has since written Notes sur I' Angleterre, Les Origines de la France Contem- Critics and Scientists. 331 poraine, Voyage aux Pyrenees, Voyage en Italie, and Vie et Opinions de M. Graindorge. fimile Gigault de la Be'dolliere, born in 1814, was in early life a favorer of Saint-Simon's doctrines ; but he outgrew those notions. Becoming a jour- nalist, he produced a great number of essays, ro- mances, poems, and translations. His Soirees d'Hiver, Les Industriels, Histoire de la Garde Nationale, and Mceurs et Vie privee des Franqais are his most important original works. Many of the professors of literature in French colleges have written excellent histories of French literature, either in whole or in part. Among these I should name fimile Chasles, who wrote a Histoire Nationale de la Litterature Franchise, divided into four books of Origines, namely Le Genie Gaulois, ou la Race; Les Gallo-Romains, et la Civilisation; Les Gallo-Francs, et V Epopee; and Les Gallo- Bretons, et V Esprit' Romanesque. This work was published in 1870. To Geruzez we owe La Litterature Francaise du Moyen Age aux Temps Modernes and La Littera- ture Francaise pendant la Revolution. He is a spirited and agreeable writer. To Demogeot we are indebted for Tableau de la Litterature Franqaise au 17 e Siecle. Demogeot lays especial stress upon the revelations which the old memoirs give of the inner social life. To De Vericour we owe Milton et la Poesie Epique and a valuable work in English on Modern French Literature, bringing us down to the Revolu- tion of 1848. De Vericour gave especial weight to philosophical and political developments. Other historians of French literature besides those already named are Aubertin, Baron, Saint-Marc Girardin, Godefroy, Nettement, Albert, and Char- pentier. Baret, Bida, Fauriel, and Gaston Paris on old French and Proven9al literature ; Villemarque on that of Bretagne ; Assailly on the Minnesingers ; Bossert on German literature down to the Middle 332 French Literature. Ages , Courriere on Slavonic literature ; Gidel on modern Greek literature ; Roux on modern Italian literature, represent some of the authorities in the critical study of literatures. In the field of biography, Sainte-Beuve supplies sketches of Boileau, Chateaubriand, Chenier, De Comines, Courier, Delavigne, Diderot, Fenelon, Hugo, LaBruyere, La Fontaine, La Harpe, Lamar- tine, Lamennais, La Rochefoucauld, Lebrun, Lesage, Littre, Malherbe, Marivaux, Marmontel, Massillon, Millevoye, Moliere, De Musset, Racine, Reynard, Renan, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Simon, Scribe, George Sand, Madame de Stael, De Tocqueville, and De Vigny. Lomenie gives us Beaumarchais et son Temps ; Littrt), Comte et la Philosophic Positive; Guizot, Corneille et son Temps and a number of other lives ; Flourens, lives of Buffon and Cuvier; Levallois, D'Haussonville, and Pons, each a work on Sainte- Beuve ; Walkenaer, Memoires sur Madame de Sevigne ; and De Falloux, Madame Swetchine, sa Vie et ses (Euvres. Here will fitly come the consideration of a few essayists on moral, religious, or philosophical subjects, whose works cannot be conveniently classed under any general head. fimile Edmond Saisset (1814-1863) was born at Montpellier. Besides furnishing a great many arti- cles on philosophy to the Dictionnair.e des Sciences Philosophiques and the Revue des Deux Mondes, he produced an essay Sur la Philosophic et la Re- ligion au XIX e Siecle, and another De, Philosophic Religieuse which have been highly commended. Jean Charles Leveque was born at Bordeaux in 1818. His work entitled La Science du Beau Etudiee dans ses Principes, ses Applications et son Histoire; his fitudes de Philosophic Grecque et Latine ; and his Du Spiritualisme dans I 1 Art, have all won high honor. Jules Francois Suisse Simon was born at Lorient Critics and Scientists. 333 in 1814. He was a follower of Cousin in philosophy ; but, having entered political life, he has made a greater name there than in literary work. He re- fused to take the oath of allegiance to the Second Empire, but after its downfall became a prominent personage in the political world. Among his works are Le Devoir, La Religion naturelle, La Liberte de Conscience, La Liberte, L'Ouvriere, EEcole, and L'Ouvrier de huit Ans. He is remarkable for inde- pendence of thought, for his steady maintenance of the rights of the people, his defense of liberty of the press, and of the interests of the laboring class, especially women laborers. Pierre Jules Hetzel, whose pseudonym was P. J. Stahl, was born in 1814. He has been called the French Sterne. His chief works are Scenes de la Vie des Animaux, Le Diable h Paris, Tom Pouce, His- toire dun Homme enrkume, Le Voyage dun Etudi- ant, and Bttes et Geni. His sketches were highly praised by Madame Dudevant and Louis Ratisbonne. Among the friends and ardent admirers of La- mennais was a young poet, Georges Maurice de Guerin, who died before reaching the age of thirty. His memory was kept sacred even more than by the few remains of his published a generation later through the charming journal and letters of his sister, Mademoiselle Eugenie de Guerin, whose devout and poetical soul shines sweetly in the naive style which was so natural to her. The book issued with the literary remains of Maurice de Guerin is entitled Journal, Lettres et Fragments de M. Gue- rin. His sister's writings are issued with the same title, except that Mademoiselle Eugenie takes the place of M. One of the greatest names in the France of our days is that of Renan. Unquestionably a great thinker in many fields of thought, his attitude toward Christianity has done much to obscure the real merit of his character and writings for those of us who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed 334 French Literature. the Son of God, and that he came into the world to save sinners. Joseph Ernest Renan was born at Fre*guier in 1823. He early won distinction in linguistic studies, and was especially noted for his acquaintance with the Semitic languages. His first work of impor- tance was his Histoire generate et Systemes compares des Langues Semitiques. This was followed by his Etude de la Langue Grecque au Moyen Age. His other historical, linguistic, and ethical works were his Sur Averroes et VAverroisme, his Mission de Phenice, Etudes d'Histoire Heligieuse, Essais de Morale et de Critique, La Reforme Intellectuelle et Questions Contemporaines, Dialogues et Fragments Philosophiques, and Melanges d' .Histoire et de Voy- age. He has also written a singular satirical poem called Caliban. But the writings by which he has most stirred the world are those which make up a series to which he gives the name, Origines du Christianisme. The first part of this was La Vie de Jesus. This was followed by the Histoire des Apotres, Saint Paul, Antichrist, and La seconde Generation Chre- tienne : Les Evangiles, Renan began with a proneness to dissent from recognized religious and political creeds, with a scorn for mere utilitarian or materialistic conceptions in philosophy, and with a vague elevation of senti- ment, which powerfully drew him towards the moral side of Christ's teachings. Sympathizing rather with the transcendental school of thought than with materialist skepticism, he was essentially an idealist, and, like all gifted idealists from Plato to John Ruskin, a great word-painter. Rejecting miracles, however, with as firm a belief in the immutability or the secularly slow mutability of nature as the narrowest of our modern philoso- phers, and trying to explain the presence of the miraculous element in the narrative that has come down to us, not by the theory of imposture, but by Critics and Scientists. 335 that of reverent wonder producing innocent distor- tion of the facts, he attempts on this hypothesis to reconstruct the history of Christ and the early Church. Of course, it all results in his calling on us to believe far greater wonders in the moral sphere than any recorded miracles are for us in that of the intellect. There is also something so illogical and uncritical in the arbitrary rejection of one statement of a series of authors some of them stating facts as eye-witnesses to accept other statements made at the same time, and to build huge inferences upon them, that one is apt to refuse Renan credit for the really fine things he does say, and the good inten- tion which prompts him throughout. Some good- will is due for his persistent protest against the mate- rialistic tendencies of the age. Renan takes high rank among philologists, and may well lead us to name a few of his compeers in this field. Perhaps the most distinguished of them was Littre, who died in 1881. Maximilien Paul mile Littre was born at Paris in 1801. He early gave himself up to linguistic studies. He had, however, also studied medicine ; and his first publication, (Euvres d' Hippocrate, was in that field. Taking a great interest in Comte's doctrines, he next put forth a lucid exposition of his system in De la Philosophic Positive. Master of the old French used by the Trouveres, he published in the Revue des Deux Mondes an article called La Poesie Homerique et VAneienne Poesie Francaise, in which he gave a translation of the first book of the Iliad into old French, it opens thus : " Chante 1'ire, 6 deesse, d'Achile fil Pelee, Greveuse et qui douloir fit Grece la louee Et choir ens en enfer mainte ame desevree, Baillant le cors as chiens et oiseaus en curee Ainsi de Jupiter s'acomplit la pense*e, Du jour ou la querelle se leva primerin D' Atride roi des hommes ? d'Achile le divin." 836 French Literature. Other books of his, besides the " Dictionary," which was the great work of his life, were Histoire de la Langue Frangaise, Paroles de Philosophic Pos- itive, Auguste Comte et la Philosophie Positive, Auguste Comte et /Stuart Mill. His article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Des Origines organ- iques de la Morale, brought on him the accusation of atheism. But the work which gave him his greatest renown was his Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangaise, the most complete thing of the kind in any language. Other eminent philological writers are Alart, Bar- bier de Meynard, Boissier, Chatelain, Cornu, Bida, Cosquin, David, D'Herbomez, Godefroy, Gras, Luchaire, Gaston Paris, Holland, Senart, Thomas, and Tournier. Graux and Paulin Paris have recently died. Turning to writers dealing with religion on the philosophical and historical side, we have Jean Joseph Franois Poujoulat (1808 1880), who began his career by travelling and laboring with Michaud, when the historian was studying the scenes of the Crusades, His principal works were Histoire de Jerusalem, Histoire de St. Augustin, and a review of Kenan's Vie de Jesus. fitienne Vacherot was born in 1809. He was, under the ban of the Second Empire for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and was also imprisoned for his La Democratic^ His principal works were Histoire critique de TEcole d 1 Alexandrie, La Meta- physique et la Science, Essai de Philosophie critique, and La Religion. An able writer on the history of the Early Church, J. B. Charpentier, was also a writer on literary his- tory. The work I refer to is entitled Les Etudes sur les Peres de I'Eglise. The literary works are Histoire de la Renaissance des Lettres en Europe au XV e Siecle, Essai sur I Histoire litteraire du Moyen Age, and Tableau de la Litterature Franqaise aux XV e et XV I e Siecles. He also published in 1853 a Logique Franchise. Critics and Scientists. 337 One of the most eminent of Protestant theologians is Pressense. Edmond Dehoult de Pressens^ was born at Paris in 1824. He studied in Swiss and German universities, became the friend of Neander during his student life at Berlin, took high rank as a prsacher, writer, and legislator, and became widely known as a vigorous advocate of moderate principles in government, free education, and liberal views on most subjects. His works are Conferences sur le Christianisr.ie dans son Application aux Questions sodales, Du Catholicisime en France, Histoire des Trois Premiers Siecles de VEglise Chretienne, L'ficole Critique et Jesu- Christ, La Liberte religieuse en Europe depuis 1870. Bishop Dupanloup was a vigorous writer on the Catholic side. Felix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup (1802-1878) was born in Savoy. He was much interested in the subject of education. Among his works are De V Education, La femme studieuse, L' Enfant, and Le Mariage Chretien. Naming now a few of those who have been most remarkable in science or in writings on industrial progress, we have to consider the works of a great surgeon like Velpeau, of a master in archaeological research like Quatrefages, of a microscopist and discoverer of the germs of disease like Pasteur, of an authority in architecture like Viollet-le-Duc, and of an authority in taste and the philosophy of digestion like Brillat-Savarin. Alfred Armand Louis Marie Velpeau (1795-1867) was one of the greatest of surgeons. Among the works which he found time to write, in the midst of his arduous duties, the most valuable are his Traite de FAnatomie Chirurgicale and his Nouveaux Ele- ments de Medicine Operatoire. Claude Fra^ois Lallemand (1790-1854), born at Metz, was also a famous medical authority. His most important work was Recherches anatomico- pathologiques sur T EncephaJes et ses Dependances. Felix Archimede Pouchet (1800-1872), born at 338 'French Literature. Rouen, was a most prolific writer on medical matters. His experiments on spontaneous generation were made in opposition to those of Pasteur. His most important works were Theorie Positive de V Ovulation spontanee et de la Fecundation des Mammiferes et de I'Espfae humaine, Histoire des /Sciences naturelles au Moyen Age, Traite de la Generation spontanee, Les infiniment Grands et les infiniment Petits. Claude Servais Pouillet (1791-1868) was a much- admired lecturer. He also invented instruments for measuring the varying compressibility of gases, originated a theory of the cause of the sun's heat, and invented an instrument for measuring its heat. He wrote many scientific works on electricity, the elasticity of fluids, the latent heat of vapors, the height, speed, and direction of clouds, and other subjects of kindred nature. His principal work was Notions generates de Physique et de Meteo^ologie. - Louis Pasteur, the great chemist, was born at Dole in 1822. His discoveries have been exceed- ingly valuable to mankind, and there is good rea- son to hope that through his researches measures may be taken by which many terrible scourges of humanity will cease to ravage civilized lands, even as the advance of smallpox has been checked by inoculation and vaccination. His writings have been Nouvel Exemple de Fermentation, Etudes sur le Vin, Etudes sur le Vinaigre, Etudes sur la Mala- die des Vers de Soie, and a few other works. His controversy with Pouchet on the subject of sponta- neous generation has already been mentioned. Pas- teur argued against spontaneous generation, and his experiments have proved that all fermentation and many forms of disease are due to the development of germs of microscopic minuteness. Pasteur was a pupil of the famous chemist Dumas; and his first step in the great discoveries he made was taken in conducting the investigation, committed to him by Dumas, into the disease which threatened to destroy all the silk- worms of France and Italy. Critics and Scientists. 339 One of the most eminent of living scientists is Jean Louis Armarid de Quatrefages de Breau, born in 1810. His essay entitled Theorie dun Coup de Canon, his work Sur les Aerolithes and that De I' Extroversion de la Vessie, his Etudes sur les Types i /' rieurs de V Embranchement des Anneles, his J*hysiologie comparee, Metamorphose de rHomme et des Animaux indicate the variety of his studies. He has also written Les Polynesians et leur Migra- tions, Charles Darwin et ses Precurseurs Francois, La Race Prussienne, and L'EspZce humaine. One of the greatest of recent French geologists was Jean Baptiste Elie de Beaumont (1798-1874), born at Canon. In conjunction with Dufrenoy, he devoted many years to the preparation of a geologi- cal map of France. His chief writings were Coup d'CEil sur les Mines, Observations Geologiques sur les . differentes Formations sur le Systime des Vosges, Recherches sur quelquesunes des Revolutions de la Surface du Globe, and Voyage Metallurgique en Angleterre. Here, perhaps, though somewhat out of place, may be mentioned a writer in French, who takes rank as the father of geology as a science, the great Swiss investigator, Horace Benedict de Saussure (1740-1799), born at Conches near Geneva. Four years before his death Geneva was annexed to France. Hence he may in more than one sense be considered as entitled to a place in French litera- ture. His Voyages dans les Alpes marked an era in the history of modern science. Besides this work and sveral in Latin, he wrote Observations sur r Ecorce des Feuilles et des Petales, and Sur'lHy- ' grometrie. This last Cuvier considered one of the ' most important contributions to science in that age. One of the ablest chemists and writers on chemi- cal subjects France has produced is Jean Baptiste Dumas, born at Alais in the department of Gard in 1800. Lavoisier, about 1787, when he gave it its 1 earlier nomenclature, may be almost said to have 340 French Literature. organized chemistry into a science. Other French- men, Berthollet, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Gay-Lussac, Becquerel, Ampere, Decandolle, and Provost, did much to further its progress. Dumas's contributions to the advance of the science have been very impor- tant. His chief works are Traite de Chimie appli- quee aux Arts, Lemons sur la Philosophic chimique, and Essai sur la Statique chimique des Etres Organises. A writer who has done much to popularize scien- tific studies is Jean Francois Elisee Keclus, born in the Gironde in 1830. Driven into exile by the establishment of the Second Empire, he traveled in many parts of the world. Returning to France in 1857, he became successively editor of several im- portant periodicals, and wrote his books of travel and his La Terre. He was implicated in the disorders of the Commune, and again became an exile, to return however under the general amnesty. His Les Continents and L' Ocean are handsomely illus- trated books. Figuier and Flammarion also have been prolific writers on scientific subjects. Guillaume Louis Figuier was born in 1819. His works are La Terre avant le Deluge, La Terre et les Mers, Histoire des Plantes, Zoophytes et Mollusques, Les Insectes, Les Poissons, Les Mammifires, L'Homme primitif, Les Races humaines, Savants de I'Antiquite, Savants du Moyen Age, Savants de la Renaissance, Savants du 12 e Siecle, Savants du 18 e Siecle, Le Savant du Foyer, and Les grandes Inven- tions. Camille Flammarion, eminent as an astronomer, was born in 1842. He has been, like Reclus, an expert in balloon ascensions. His principal works are La Pluralite des Mondes Habites, Les Mondes imaginaires et les Mondes reels, Les Merveilles ce- lestes, Dieu dans la Nature, Histoire du del, Contem- plations scientifiques, Voyages aeriens, L" 1 Atmosphere t Critics and Scientists. 341 Histoire dun Plaritte, Les Terres du Ceil. His style is very animated and picturesque. Guillemin is another author of illustrated scientific books, such as Les Cometes, Le del, Les Phe7iomenes de la Physique, Les Applications de la Physique. In architecture we have Eugene Emmanuel Viollet- le-Duc, born at Paris in 1814. Besides his His- toire dune Maison, and other works on architectural subjects, he has written a Memoir e sur la Defense de Paris. In literature on the arts we have Auguste Alexandre Philippe Charles Blanc (1813-1882), born at Castres and trained to be an engraver. He held for many years the post of Director of the Fine Arts. He has published many works on artists, among which is his finely illustrated Histoire des Peintres de toutes^ les Ecoles : Ecole Franchise, Ecole HoUandaise, Ecole JenVne 2;'. Beaiiuiont Kiel 26entier 336 349 350 INDEX. PAGE Charriere (Madame de) ~2l Charron 70 Chat-tier 53 Chasles (Pliilarete) 325 Chasles (fimile) 3:;i Chateaubriand (de) ....20, 203, 210 Chaulieu U'Abb6 de) 146 Cheaier (Andre) 191 Chenier (Marie Joseph) 192 Chennevieres 321 Cherbuliez 31" Chevalier 200 Chrestien '.. ... 77 Chrestien of Troyes 40 Christine de Pisan 53 Claretie 300, 319 Code Napol6on 229 Comities (de) 10, 50 Comte 205 Condillac 10 Condprcet 195 Considerant 240 Constant 21 0. 221 , 225 Constant, on Mud. de Stael. . . . 220 Coqnerel 27'.) Cormeiiin 272 Corneille (Pierre.) 13.88 Corneiile (Tin. mas) 14 J Cottin (Madame) 220, 251 Coney (tie) 41 Courier 2',i Court de Gebelin 188 Cousin 29. 2tJ3 Craven (Madame) 21), 321 Crebillon (de) 10, 1-18 Crottet 279 Crusades, changes produced by 4S Cnvelier 53 Cmier 229 Cnvier, on Buff on 19.~> Cyrano de Bergerac 100 Dacier (Madame) 146 Daguesseau 151, 153 I>am iron 205 Danehet 240 Darn 250 Daubenton 197, 230 D'Anbigne, 07 D'Aubign-HMerle) 278 Daudet 27, 319 Daurat 03 Deffand (Madame du) 185 D.-luvigne 280 Delery 344 Delille 180 Demogeot Si. 331 Delpit 300,321 Desaugiers 219 Desbordes-Valmore (Madame). 287 Descartes 92 Deschamps 52 Desmarets 86, 87, 99 Desportes 68 Destouches 148 Diderot 10, 182 Drneys 145 Ducis 180 Duclos 188 Dudevant (Madame). . . .26, 307-309 Uupuytren f!lie de Beaumont, ftnanlt PAGE Dufour 34.-) Dugue 344 iManarsais. li^8 Dumas (Alexandra) 24, 293 iJiimas (:e Jeiine) 316 Dumas (ehemis-t) 339 Dniiiont Ai7 Dmnoiiriex 203, 226 iHipanloup 337 Dupont i 29'J Durand (Madame) 320 230 339 322 180 244 186 815 76 45 332 279 138 298 315 318 310 340 31!) 139 110 279 191 253 205 146 23(i 246 49 1 Kn fan tin itpinay ( Madame de) KrckmaiiP-Chatrian 27, fitienne (fistienne) Kabliaux Fallonx (de) Kauriel Fenelon 14,137, Feuillet Ft''val Feydeau 27. Fignier Flammarion Flaubert Fleuhier Fleury (I'Abbe) .... Florence (Deleelnze's Histoiy of). Florian F'ontanes Fontaues, on Chateaubriand... Fontenelle Fourier Fourier (Charles) Frangoisof Rues... Franks French People Language " Heroic Metre " Fiction Freron Fresnel Froissart Gaboriau Galland Gamier. .241- Gautier of Coinsv Gautier (Theophile) 295, ' on Art Gayarre 'Gay-Lussac Geiee Genlis (Madame de) Gennevraye Geoffrin (Madame) (ierson... 310- Gt'-rnzez Geruzez, on 1'Hopital "La Fontaine Gilbert Gillot Girard Girardin (Madame de) Gotnbault , 168 23 177 235 50 319 143 6S 46 312 312 343 49 228 322 186 53 331 71 127 177 340 295 97 IXDEX. 351 PACK Gomberville 'J7 Goncourt (de) 321 Gondi (Paul de) 13-3 Gournay i Mademoiselle de) 74 QoKlan. 294, 310 Graindor of Douai 39 Grasset 279 Grebau (the brothers) 54 -t 177 Greville 28,320 Grimm 183 Gueneed'Abbe) 178 Guerin (Maurice de) 333 Gueriu (Eugenie de) 333 Guillaume of Lorris 47 Guillemiu 341 Guiraud 287 Guizot 29, 269 on the Crusades 48 " la Princesse de Cleves.130 " " Philippe de Comines, 56 Guy-Patin 99 Halevy 318 Hamilton (de) 147 Hardy 86 Heine, on the Marseillaise. ... 280 Helvetius 184 Herberay des Essarts 62 Herbelot (d') 113 Heroic Age 3* 1 Hetzel 883 Hoi bach (d') 1*3 Houdetot (Madame d'.i 187 Hugo 25,289-291 Hundred Years' War 49 Houssaye 315 Huon of Villeneuve 39 Huon le Roy 46 Jacquemart 341 Jacqueuiart GelSe 49 Janin 28,326 Jasmin 300 Jean Borel 40 Jean of Boves 46 Jeau of Flagy 39 Jean of Meuug 47, 48 Jean Michel of Angers. 54 Jodelle 66 Join ville (de) 47 Jouffroy 29, 264 Karr ( Alphonse) 312 Hook (Paul del 26, 302 Kock (Henri de) 303 Laboulaye 29, 313 La Bruyere 139 Lacepede 237 Lacordaire 29, 262 La Fayette (Madame de) 130 Lafont 296 La Fontaine 14,127,141 La Harpe idei 179 Lallemand 337 Lally-Tollendal 167 Laniartine (de) 28, 29, :>S4 Lambert the Short 40 Lamennais (de) 29, 261 Lamotte 14C Lancelot 96 Lanfrey 273 PAGE Language, French 1 Langue d'Oil 9 Langue d'Oc .....' 9 La Xoue 180 La Noue (de) 76 La Prade 296 La Touche 180 Las Cases 256 Lays of Exploits . . . 32 Lebrun ... 180 Legare, on Daguesseau 152 Legare. quoting Prince d'Aren- berg on Figaro 201 Legouve (E.) 296 Legouve(G.) 248 Lemaistre 93 Lemaistre de Sacy 96 Lemercier 249 Lemierre 180 Lemoine (Le Pere) 99 LenonnaBt 29 Lepouse 346 Leroux 265 Leroy ( Pierre) 77 Leroy ( Huon) 46 Lesage 17, 148 Lesueur 322 Leveque 332 L'Hopital (De) 70 Lingua-Franca 47 Lisle. Rouget (de) 280 Littre 335 Lomenie (de) 332 Lome'nie (de), on Chateaubri- and 210 Louis Napol6on ~'74 Louvet 202 Lovers of Provence (The) 42 Mably (1'Abbe de) 190 Macaulay, on Provence 8 " Feneion 138 " Saint-Simon 143 " Voltaire 161. 164 ' " Dumont 2\!7 Mace 3!4 Mackintosh, on Mad. de Stael.. 217 Maillard 54 Maimbourg 140 Mainteuon (Madame de) 144 Mairet 87 Maistre (Joseph de) 225 Maistiv i Xa vier de) 2^6 Malebrauclie 140 Malherbe 77 Malot 322 Maquet 314 Marguerite of Navarre . . .10, 60, 62 Marivaux (de.) 178 Marmier 313 Blarmontel 109, 178 Marot CO Marseillaise, La 280 Martin 313 Mascaron 139 Massillon 14, 139 Maynard 77, 78 Mazure 279 Menage 108 Blenot 54 352 INDEX. FAGS Mercier 346 Merimee 304, 305 Mery 292 Mezerai 140 Michaud 251 Michaux 237 Michelet 29, 278 Mignet 277 Milievoye 253 Miotde M61ito '. 257 Mirabeau 193, 203 Mistral 301 Mole ei7 Moliere 14, 103, 1 14 Monstrelet 51 Montegut 330 Montepin 321 Montaigne (de) 12, 72 Montaigne, on Amyot 72 Montalembert (de) 29, 259 " on Lacor- daire .... 262 Montesquieu (de) 15, 154, 155 Montfleury 141 Montluc (Blaise de) 76 Montausier 81 Moore, on French Heroic Verse, 168 " " Constant 225 Mornay, Philippe de 83 Murger 299 Musset (de) 28, 297 Mystery and Miracle Plays 54 Memoirs of Bernard Palissy. . . 61 the Leaguers 83 " the Huguenots 83 " Richelieu 86 " Richelieu's Time.. 102 " Cardinal de Retz.. 132 " the Due de Saint- Simon 141,149 " La Fare 146 " Mad. de Staal 147 Voltaire 170 " Rousseau 174 Bailly -. 202 " Chateaubriand .... 206 Madame de Stael.. 219 " Dumouriez 226 Dumont 227 Madame de Genlis, 229 Arnault 249 Napol6on 254 Mad. de Remusat. . 256 Mad. d'Abrantes.. 26b " Las Cases 256 " Miot de Melito .... 257 " Vidocq 257 " Madame Michelet. 278 " Dumas 294 Napoleon 253 Napoleon (Louis) 273 Necker 21 1 Nerval (de) 296 Nicole 96 Nisard 328 Nodier 302 Ogier le Danois 38 Ohnet 322 Orleans (Charles of) 55 PAGE Palisot 237 Palissy 61 Paris, le Comte de 279 Pascal 14,93 Pasquier 75 Pasquier, oil Montaigne 73 Passerat 77 Pasteur 33tf Patin 325 Pellisson 140 Pereflxe 140 Perrault 14;i Perrotin, the publisher 38J Pey rat 27n the French stage.. . 22 Sar-inii 299 sarrnzin 82 Sa;yre Menippe 76 Siimin 180 SiinsMire (del 339 S:i i] vijriiy (de) 101 Soarrori 100 Srh"ll '.. 322 Scribe 294 8cuderi (George) 88 Scnderl (Mile, de) 82,96,98 Sc.iaine 190 Sf.gala* 'Madame Anals) 297 St'^ur i dei 275 Segur (de) Madame 29, 318 S.'-j.'iir 343 Seville i Madame de)...9, 130-132 Sieyes 193,203 Simon 332 Sismondi (de) 250 PAGE Sorel 101 Souli6 304 Soumet 287 Souvestre 310 Spain (St. Hilaire's History of i. 279 Staal (Madame de) 147 Stael HolsteiinMad.de), 20, 211-220 Stahl 333 Stendhal (de) .309 Suard (Madame; 1ST Sue 25,306,307 Taine 28,330 Tallemant desReaux... f-0 Talleyrand 257 on Mad. de Stael.. 219 Tastu Oladamei 288 Terrail (Du) 322 Thackeray, on Dumas 293 " Janin 326 Theophile Viaud .. 78 Theuriet 321 Thierry 29,276.277 Thiers 29,272 Thomas 190 Tillemont 140 Tissot 265,279 Tocqueville (de) 268 Toepffer 303 Tracy (de) 239 Tressan (de) 189 Troubadours and TrouTeres..9, 52 Turold 39 Urfe(d') 77 Vacherot... 336 Varillas 140 Vaudeville, Origin of 53 Vauquelin de la Fresnaye 68 Vauvenargues 188 Velpeau 337 Vericour(de) 331 " " on Chateaubriand 'M6 " " Cuvier 231 Vertot 140 Verne (Jules) 27, 319 Veiiillot 314 Viaud 78 Vidocq 257 Viennet 253 Vignaud 345 Vigny (del 28, 288 Villehardoum 41 Viilemain 3-J3 Villemain, on Beaumarchais. . JH " Froissart 51 Villeneuve (Madame) 143 Villon 55 Vincent 322 Vinet 325 Viollet-le-Duc 341 Vitet 291 Voiture 82 Volney 240 Voltaire 15, 156-171 AValkenaer 332 Zola 30, 27,319,320