PREFACE

In order to give time for the an.ilysis above inggested, it would be advisable to rcad thc work • unseen ' in class tliat is, the teachcr should take the place of dictionary, supplying what aid hc thinks fit ! what is givcn in the notes. In thèse care lias bcen taken to j*>int ont ail instances of archaic constructions and to give thc modem équivalents. No oral exercises hâve so far been added, for expérience has yet to show what form they should take in a work which is to be regarded less as a basis for linguistic exercises than as a storehouse of thought and a model of clear and logical composition. They will be added later, if at ail.

W'ith the notes will be found short accounts of the l.ifc and Works of each author, and at the beginning a short sketch of the évolution of Frcnch literature in the seventeenth century, followed by a chronological table. By enabling the pupil to locate his author, the sketch and table will serve much the same purpose as the map in a geography lesson. Thèse additions, and more particularly the bibliographies appended to them, should prove of some practical use to those preparing for examinations which require a knowledge of French literature.

Considérable trouble has been taken to secure the portraits of the Prosateurs that are known to be the most faithful to their originals, and it is hoped that the remaining pictures will add to the interest and value of the book.

For the introduction, bibliographies, and chronological table the gênerai editor is alone responsible. He shares the responsibility for the Lives and Works.

F. B. KIRKMAN.

{General Editor.)

FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE SEVEN- TEENTH CENTURY. A SKETCH OF ITS EVOLUTION.

Sainte-Beuve compared the literary history of the seventeenth century to a broad river, flowing slowly, and spanned in its course by a bridge, adorned with admirable statues ; they are those of Pascal, Bossuet, Molière, La Fontaine, Racine, and Boileau. The bridge stands for the so-called siècle de Louis XIV. (1660-1690), and the river, flowing slowly but surely from its source to the sea, and passing under the bridge, is the spirit of the sixteenth century on its way to become the spirit of the eighteenth century. The comparison is striking, and is easily remembered. It is of value to the student, for it will prevent him from identifying the characteristics of the great classical writers with those of the prevailing literary movement of the century.

To trace the river to its sources, it would at least be necessary to go as far back as the Renaissance. One notable source is the sentiment of personal liberty, which was so marked a resuit of the revival of learning. The désire to be free from social restraints tended to become the Fais ce que voudras of Rabelais. Liberty degenerated into libertinism, and this libertinism, or, as it is termed, this ' esprit gaulois? was still a literary force to be reckoned with at the beginning of the seventeenth

viii i kincii LÎTERATURI IN THF. i;tii CENTURY

century. It found its most characteristic représentative in Régnier (i 573-161 3).

J'ai vécu sans nul pensement, Me laissant aller doucement A la bonne loi naturelle.

But the tendencies of the time were against the esprit gaulois. The long wars of religion, the immorality, and futilities that marked the reign of Henry III. had given rise to a thirst for peace and order, which found its expression in the political reforms of Henry IV. and Sully, and in the literary reforms of Malherbe, ' the tyrant of words and syllables.' He cleared the language of many foreign words and provincialisms, and —

Fit sentir dans les vers une juste cadence, D'un mot mis en sa place enseigna le pouvoir Et réduisit la muse aux régies du devoir.

Boileau, Art. roc t., 131.

It was the Précieuses who completed the defeat of the Gaulois, and it is the esprit précieux which is embodied in the broad river flowing through the century, to find itself before the end once more in contact with the esprit gaulois, and influenced by new forces.

The first précieuse, madame la marquise de Rambouillet, founded her famous salon about the year 1608, and till 1648, the year of the outbreak against Mazarin of the revolt known as the Fronde, it remained the great literary centre of France. Its foundation marked the entry of women into literature, and with them a refining influence which made itself felt for good. The correctness and distinction of the salon was opposed to the coarse vulgarity of the Libertins, and rendered it contemptible. And in the présence of noble ladies and great lords, the scholastic pedantries of the sixteenth-century writers were out of place. The précieuses put a polish on the

FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE 17TII CENTURY ix

men of letters, and also on the language. Balzac did for the reform of prose what Malherbe had done for poetry, and we hâve the highest resuit of this movement in the Letters of Madame de Sévigné and in the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld, ' le dernier des illustres précieux ' (Brunetière), and we hâve its consécration in the foundation of the Académie française by Richelieu. But the rule of the salons was not ail iojc good ; they helped to perpetuate in France the influence of the Italian and Spanish décadent schools ; they imitated the ' emphase,' the ' fières extravangances,' the bombast of the latter and the ' préciosité' (in its worst sensé) of the former, its taste for trivialities and mère verbal effects. Voiture, the poet of the salons, writes verses in ■ praise of a lady's shoe,' and one has only to read the Précieuses ridicules to understand what were the affectations and blue-stocking pedantries of the esprit précieux at its worst.

Towering above the précieuses, but undoubtedly of them by the nature of his earlier and later plays, by his 1 emphase,' his exceptional heroes and his rolling heroics, is Pierre Corneille, whose first masterpiece, the Cid, appeared in 1636. But Don Rodrigue and Chimène, though unusual and heroic, are no more so than some of the contemporaries of Corneille — than, for instance, the hero Condé, who at the âge of twenty-two wins immortality at the battle of Rocroi. It is, therefore, quite true to say that Corneille draws from nature his characters. Their dominant quality, their power to subordinate passion to will, guided by reason, is equally after nature. In Richelieu the poet had a living embodiment of the qualities he glorifies. In this sensé, then, Corneille at his best can claim to be as true to human nature as his great rival Racine.

A year after the Cid appeared Descartes' Discours

v ikiNui LITERATURE IN THE 1 71 II CENTUKY

de la méthode (1637). According to M. Brunetière, the authors of thèse two masterpieces are the 'premiers qui aient ilonnc à notre littérature sa marque originale, son caractère de nationalité, les premiers créateurs enfin, et non plus des commentateurs et des compilateurs. C'est par là que le Cid, comme le Discours de la méthode, marque une date ou une époque . . .' (Grande Encyclopédie : Corneille). But, says the same authority in his Manuel, ' Non ! en vérité, le Discours de la méthode n'a point fait époque dans l'histoire de notre littérature. Pleins d'admiration pour le géomètre, les contemporains du " philosophe " l'ont presque ignoré comme tel. Et si la littérature a fini par secouer le joug de toutes ces influences qui semblaient conjurés contre elle pour l'empêcher de devenir purement française, elle le doit à de toutes autres causes dont la première et la plus importante a été la réveil de l'idée chrétienne sous la forme de l'idée janséniste' (Manuel, 147-148). The apparent contradiction is reconciled by noting that, though the Cid and the Discours may hâve been the first to bear a 4 marque originale,' their authors, 1 les premiers créateurs,' set an example that was not followed. The reason is obvious. From 1643 to 1661 France was governed by a Spaniard, Anne of Austria, and an Italian, Mazarin, and the period was marked by a recrudescence of the Spanish and Italian influence. 1 II se produit alors, dans tous les genres, une espèce d'exaltation ou d'enflure qui va jusqu'à l'extravagance' (id. 143-147). The esprit précieux is, in fact, rioting. It should also be noted that it was left for the eighteenth century to understand and drive to its logical conclusion Descartes' ' methodical doubt' His immédiate philosophical influence was small, and, but for his discreet réservations in favour of authority and tradition, he would undoubtedly hâve had more occasion than he did to

FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE 17TII CENTURY xi

meditate on the nature and effects of persécution. The fate of Galileo, who, four years before the appearance of the Discours, had been condemned by the Inquisition for discovering that the Earth turned round the Sun, warned him to exercise a prudent economy of truth.

It is not till 1656 that we find ourselves in front of the bridge and its statues. In this year came the first Lettre provinciale of Pascal, presenting a perfect model of pure and natural French, freed from emphase or préciosité. It set an example that was followed. With the triumph of Molière's Précieuses ridicules (1659), the esprit classique asserted itself over the esprit précieux ; its supremacy was ensured by the death of Mazarin in 1661, and the passing of despotic power into the hands of the young Louis XIV., who used his great authority to impose the classical writers upon their reluctant contemporaries. The next three décades, forming the siècle de Louis XIV., were rich in masterpieces. How rich may be seen by a glance at the chronological table (p. xviii).

One of the chief characteristics of the classical school is its fidelity to the natural, as opposed to the affectations and exaggerations of the précieuses and their foreign models. It is, therefore, essentially national. It is also universal in being true to human nature. ' Lorsque vous peignez des héros,' says, Molière, pointing the fînger of scorn at Corneille, ' vous n'avez qu'à suivre les traits d'une imagination qui se donne l'essor . . ., mais lorsque vous peignez des hommes, il faut peindre d'après nature.' With Nature, in the sensé of birds and beasts, woods and streams, hills and valleys, the classical writers had little or no sympathy. The bonhomme La Fontaine, with his animais and his interest in

Tout ce que disent sous les cieux Tant d'êtres empruntant la voix de la nature

vu PRENCH II ri K 1TURE tN THE i

D exception. fVnother characteristic of the writers of the their common admiration for classicaJ

antiquity. It mav be seen in their choice of subjectmatter and titles, for instance: Phèdre, Art poétique. Fables d'Esope mises en vers par M. de la Fontaine ; but what this latter says elsevvhere of himself applies equally to ail his contemporaries : —

Mon imitation n'est pas un esclavage.

Yery far from it. Further, it may be said of the classical writers that to a greater or less extent they u rite with a purpose : they are not content with art as an end in itself, but they intend to instruct and correct. This is obvious in Pascal, Bossuet, Boileau, to a less extent in Molière and La Fontaine, and it is apparent in Racine :

Par cette fin terrible, et due à ses forfaits, Apprenez, roi des Juifs, et n'oubliez jamais Que les rois clans le ciel ont un juge sévère, L'innocence un vengeur, et l'orphelin un père

Athalie, V. 8.

This quotation serves to remind us that the esprit classique was, on the whole, essentially Christian. Nothinj; is more striking in Bossuet, for example, than the steadfast assurance that results from a happy alliance of reason and faith. And Boileau, when in the Art poétique he exclaims —

Aimez donc la raison : que toujours vos écrits Empruntent d'elle seule et leur lustre et leur prix

viously not thinking of the raison raisonnante, which in the next century will become anything but the handmaid of faith. Lastly, one need do no more than note that the classical writers were masters of style. In this they cannot be regarded as exceptional, at a period when, according to Courier (1772- 1825), 'la moindre femelette en eut remontré à nos académiciens.' The characteristics

FRENCII LITEKATURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY xiii

of French style, its ordre (see note, p. xlii), and its clarté were never more apparent than in the great classical masterpieces of the seventeenth century. They serve as models for ail times and nations.*

In 1673 Molière died, and the esprit précieux was delivered from one of its most formidable antagonists. In 1677 'l'hôtel de Rambouillet renaît, pour ainsi dire, dans l'hôtel de Bouillon ' (Brunetière). The Duchess of Bouillon and those who frequented her salon opposed to the Phèdre of Racine the Phèdre of Pradon, and succeeded so well that in his disgust Racine wrote no more tragédies for twelve years. And this happened in spite of the fury of Boileau, and though Louis XIV., the protector of the classical writers, was at the height of his power. To keep up the figure of Sainte-Beuve, one may say that the river is beginning to émerge from the shadow of the bridge. In 1691, Athalie, the masterpiece of Racine, was played in private and immediately forgotten. The date may well serve to mark the end of the classical period. The river flows once more in the full light of day.

The revival of the esprit précieux may be seen in the renewed importance of the salons, among them that of the Duchess of Bouillon, for which

Avec impunité les Pradons font des vois,

and later that of Mme de Lambert, with its oracle, La Motte. The chief qualities of préciosité , its exaggerations, unreality, affectations, and worldliness, are in a

* In this connection it may be well to warn the English student of French literature not to take too seriously the assertion of some of his compatriots that French poetry is little more than rhymed prose. He will show proof of wisdom and modesty if he takes it for granted that he cannot claim to know French until he is able to appreciate the fact that a fable of La Fontaine, for instance, is not only poetry, but poetry of the best.

\« il LITBRATURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY

;cr or less degree apparent in the plays of Crébillon, .ml, and in the oratory of Massillon. Closely akin to thfl worldliness of the Précieux is the growing curiosity in the life of the présent as opposed to that of the past. The admiration for classical antiquity above noted changes into a thirst for actuality. This tendency is defined in the quarrel betvveen the Anciens and the rues, to which Perrault's adulation of the siècle de Louis XIV. gave rise. Some of the chief représentatives of the tiède — Boileau, La Fontaine, Racine, aided by La Bruyère — ranged themselves, so to speak, against themselves, and supported the superior claims of the Ancients against the champions of the Modems, Perrault and Fontenelle. The controversy produced the Parallèles (1688- 1697) of Perrault, the Digression sur les Anciens et les Modernes (1688) of Fontenelle, and the Reflexions sur Longin (1694) °f Boileau. A striking instance of the interest in actualities is the success of Fénelon's Télcmaquc, which, under a quasi-classical mask, criticises the politics of Louis XIV. (see Life, p. xxxviii). Another instance is provided by the plays of Dancourt.

This curiosity in the life of the présent, the wish to know and understand its manifestations, is at the root of the esprit scientifique which characterizes the new literary movement. It is apparent in the Caractères (1688) of La Bruyère. This writer belongs to the classiques by his championship of classical antiquity, and by his didactic mariner, but he is far from having the robust Christianity of Bossuet, and, above ail, he has the esprit scientifique ; his Caractères are observations of the manners of his time, made and noted with the most scientific précision. The esprit scientifique is again obvious in the works of Fontenelle : ■ " Par les Entretiens sur la pluralité " la science entre pour la première fois dans le domaine de

FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY xv

la littérature ' (Brunetière : Manuel, 230). It receives its consécration in the reorganization of the Académie des Sciences (1699), an^ ^s origins may be traced far back into the century to such names as those of Galileo, Harvey, and others (see Chronological Table).

The scientific spirit is in turn closely related to the spirit of rationalism, which begins to prevail. Malebranche advances it unconsciously by popularizing the philosophy of Descartes, and in 1697 appeared the Dictionnaire of Bayle, the * father of rationalism.' How this rationalism might develop into intellectual libertinism is apparent in this same dictionary. To make the end of the century more like its beginning, the esprit gaulois is reborn to find îtself, as before, in conflict with the esprit précieux.

The spirit of the sixteenth century lias become the spirit of the eighteenth, and to receive its complète embodiment only awaits the advent of Voltaire and the other Grands Prosateurs of his time.

F. B. KIRKMAN.