Contes choisis [microforme]

Je doute du soleil, je ne crois plus aux roses, Et je vais le front bas Comme un homme hanté.

xii Contes Choisis

Fais ce que dois, à dramatic episode in one act in verse, acted at the Odéon on October 21, 1871, was inspired by fervent patriotism, The poet showed not only talent, but remarkable Courage in speaking the sad truth about the war’ to his fellow-countrymen at such a time.

In Z'Abandonnée there is not sufficient action, and the two acts are not properly connected, but Ze Rendez- Vous (1872) gave promise of better things. This promise was realised on the appearance of Ze Zufhier de Crémone (1876). In this play, which is one of his masterpieces, Coppée was happy in the choice of his subject, and more than happy in his interpretation of it. The characters live and move, the action is full of life and energy, and the situations are well contrived.

La Guerre de Cent Ans, à drama in five acts with Prologue and Epilogue, written in collaboration with M. Armand d’Artois, was never acted. It is epic as well as dramatic in style, full of patriotic inspiration, of real value as a work of art, but in execution inferior to its conception.

Ze Trésor is an anecdotic comedy with three characters, first acted in 1877. This was followed by two slight dramatic pieces, Za Bataille d'Hernani and La Maison de Molière. Then comes Coppée’s first great dramatic effort, first called Ze Psautier, and then Madame de Maintenon (1881). The attempt to depict so sphinxlike a character as that of Madame de Maintenon was more honourable to Coppée as a poet than fortunate to him as a dramatic author. It sufficed, however, to prove to him that he was capable of managing a play in five

Introduction xiii

acts in verse, and it was followed by his crowning success on the stage, Sezero Zorelli (1883). The scene is laid in the Italy of the Renaissance, and the action takes place in Pisa in 1494. Severo Torelli is one of the masterpieces of contemporary dramatic literature, its only fault in execution being a certain lack of cohesion between ‘he acts. The language is powerful, energetic, and brilliant.

Al the poet’s generous sentiments and noble ideals were expressed in Zes Jacobites (1885). From the dramatic point of view this play is inferior to Severo Zorelli, which it perhaps surpasses in its splendid poetry, on which account it holds a distinctive position in Contemporary literature. The heroic, typical, fateful characters remind us of the creations of Victor Hugo.

Le Justicier, afterwards called Pour la Couronne, describes the manners of Eastern Christendom in the fifteenth century. This play has been adapted for the English stage by Mr. John Davidson, but the verse of the original has been rendered partly in prose and partly in blank verse,

Olivier, 1874, is the only long poem Coppée has written. It is the Story of the psychological state of a young man, full of disillusion and disappointment, who seeks to renew his life in the quiet scenes of the country. The elegiac portions have a finished charm of their own, but the Ilyrical parts are somewhat cold and constrained.

Les Récits et Les Élégies is dedicated to his sister Annette. In these short pieces he exhibits his double inspiration as à narrator and as an idealist. ‘They must be compared with Victor Hugc’s Za Légende des Sièches

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xiv Contes Choisis

and Leconte de Lisle’s Poèmes Antiques; but his clearness of thought and conciseness of expression are all his own.

From 1880 to 1884 Coppée was employed as dramatic critic on the staff of the journal called Za Patrie. His sympathies naturally. went out to the idealistic, romantic school, but he always showed great freedom from shibboleths, together with the most refined taste in his literary judgments.

From 1871 to 1887 Coppée wrote his prose Zomans el Contes parisiens. His first attempt in this style was Une Idylle pendant Le Siège, first published in the Moniteur Universel in 1872. His Contes en Prose are like the most delicate miniature paintings, a few lines contain a finished picture or a complete drama. The effect obtained is always vivid and in just proportion, the observation exhibited is exquisitely fine and minute. But in his prose, as in his Poetry, a distinct evolution can be traced ; his youthful recollections and descriptions of simple scenes or single emotions gradually lead to such dramatic and touching episodes as Zes Vices du Capitaine, Le Remplaçant, Mon Ami Meurtrier, etç. ; and in Vingt Contes Nouveaux the author appears as a perfect master of his style.

Contes en vers et Poésies diverses and Z’Arrière-Saison ef Les Paroles Sinières ( 1886-90) give us the flowers and fruit of his vigorous maturity.

Amongst Coppée’s most recent works may be mentioned Aux Français à Alger and Ze Coup de Tampon, 1891; Contes Rapides (a further series of tales in the style af his earlier Contes en Prose), Henriette, Toute une

Jeunesse, and Les Vrais Æiches, 1892; Les Rivales and

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Introduction xv

Longues et Brèves, 1893; Les Contes de Noël and Mon Franc Parier, 1894. Coppée’s last collections of stories are distinguished by perfection of form, sureness and lightness of touch, delicate and just feeling, and experience in handling his tools. Seveial of these stories are slightly ironical in tone, but never sarcastic, and the tinge of pessimism which is OCcasionaily perceptible never becomes too marked.

Le Coupable, 1897, differs in Character from the foregoing. It is written in prose, but is in the form of a novel. It again reveals Coppée’s tenderness for es umb/ s and his dramatic instincts, but all traces of pessi .ism have vanished.

J « 1876 Coppée became : -ember of the Légion d'Honneur, On February 21, :84, he was elected a member of the Académie Française, in the place of the late Victor de Laprade. On December 18, 1884, he took his seat in the Académie, At this time he was

artistic skill in the choice and Manipulation of words : his thorough n0dernité, that is to Say, love of the con:créte, the precise, the Personal ; and thirdly, his really remarkable power of Appealing to all classes of society.

NOTE. — Further Particulars as to Coppée’s life and works may be found in M. ‘4e Lescure’s François Coppée, L'homme, la vie et

xvi Contes Choisis

l'œuvre, Paris, 1889, which has been taken as the basis of the above sketch, Also in Charles Gidel’s Æisoire de la Littérature À française, deuxième partie, vol. v. PP. 330-7, and 419-20, Paris, 1891. See also the critical article by Jules Lemaître in Zes Contemporains, première série, 1890, pp. 83, 84, and Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française, tome viii. pp. 32-41.