French poetry for the young; with vocabulary and notes

" Ne nous flattons donc point ; voyons sans indulgence L'état de notre conscience.

Pour moi, satisfaisant mes appétits gloutons,

J'ai dévoré force moutons ; Que m'avaient-ils fait ? Nulle offense : Même, il m'est arrivé quelquefois de manger Le berger."

La Fontaine.

The verse of ten syllables, with the caesura after the fourth, was chiefly used in Old French Chansons de Gestes, and is still much used in modem song. Tlie alexandrine verse of twelve syllables, with the caesura (or division of the line) after the sixth, is, however, the most important, being the only mètre

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used in coiuetly, tragedy, aud satire. Modem poets, following André Chénier's and Victor Hugo's examples, hâve greatly added to the beauty and to the resources of the French alexandrine hy " breaking the sensé " of the line and placing the caesura wherever it gave the verse a greater power of expression ; but there is always a rcst after the sixth syllable forming the hemistich. One example will suftice to illustrate in this respect the différence between Boileau's and Victor Hugo's verse : —

" Dans les combats d'esprit savant maître d'escrime, Enseigne-moi, Molière, où tu trouves la rime. On dirait, quand tu veux, qu'elle vient te chercher. Jamais au bout du vers on ne te voit broncher ; Et sans qu'un long détour t'arrête ou t'embarrasse, A peine as-tu parlé qu'elle-même s'y place."

BOILEAU

"L'homme s'est vendu. Soit. A-t-on dans le louage Compris le lac, le bois, la ronce, le nuage ? La nature revient, germe, fleurit, dissout. Féconde, croit, décroît, rit, passe, efface tout. . . . C'est naturellement que les monts sont fidèles Et purs, ayant la forme âpre des citadelles. Ayant reçu de Dieu des créneaux où, le soir. L'homme peut, d'embrasure en embrasure, voir Étinceler le fer de lance des étoiles."

Victor Hugo.

It is unnecessary to give hère examples of ail French mètres ; nor, until my young readers are them-

vui FRENCH rOETRY FOR THE YOUNG

selves thiiikint;- of wiiting Freiich Yerse, iieed they be troiibled with tlie Règles tnécaniques des vers, the différent kinds of rimes, etc.

Every experienced teacber lias to acknowledge tbat, wbile French prose compels admiration and is admittedly worth studying, French poetry is too often dismissed with the sneering remark that it is nothina but rimed prose. Yet it is true of ail poetry, French as well as English, " that there is a height of power in the style of verse, arising froni the essential nature of verse, which cannot be attained by even tlie greatest masters of prose " (Prof Lyster) ; and youug readers sliould learn a foreign language in its best expression, and its pronunciation in its " measures of delightful Sound." Then : Ccst i:ieu (Vaimer les vers, il les faut savoir lire. Let any earnest teacher try and impress upon his young pupils, by reading aloud to them, hefore they read it to him, a sensé of the metrical harmony of the text of the lesson, and the pleasure and profit to ail will far exceed the little trouble thus taken ; of course the note on each author should be read before translating the text.

I hâve departed from my usual course, and hâve not added to my brief notices and remarks notes on the text with a view to the study of composition, vjhilst reading and translating it. I hâve supplied instead a complète vocabulary, including the différent