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FRANCE. (LITERATI UE). 



he won all hearts by his Paul and Virginia, and La 

 Chaitmiere Indienne. His works are distinguished 

 by charming pictures of nature, a simple and unaf- 

 fected style, and a tender sensibility. Chateaubriand's 

 religious tendency, and his warm and glowing ima- 

 gination, appear every where in his works. His Atala, 

 his Rene, and his Martyrs, are written in a touching 

 style, but with a tinge of melancholy and mysti- 

 cism entirely unknown in France before him. The 

 works of Victor Hugo are characterized by great 

 vigour. Among the modern female writers, 

 Madame de Stael is the most distinguished. Her 

 Corinne, ou I'llalie, is a masterpiece. Her Del- 

 phine contains many beauties, mixed with many 

 faults. Madame de Genlis was an extremely prolific 

 writer, but of little genius. The romances of Madame 

 Cottin, Malvina, Amelie Mansfield, Elisabeth, and 

 Mathilde, are full of tenderness. The works of Ma- 

 dame deFlahaut (subsequently Madame de Souza) are 

 written with taste, and display a nice talent of obser- 

 vation, an intimate knowledge of life, and delicacy of 

 feeling. Adele de Senanges, Mademoiselle leTournon, 

 and Eugene de Rothelin, are the best. Le Negre 

 comme il-y-a peu de Blancs, by Lavallee, Les Quatre 

 Espagnols, LeManuscrit Trouveau Mont Pausilippe, 

 by Montjoye, and Valerie, by Madame de Krudener, 

 rank among the best modern novels. The prolific 

 Pigault le Brun often assume? too much liberty in 

 every respect. Fievee's Dot de Suzette, Salvandy's 

 Alonso, Madame de Montolieu's Caroline de Licht- 

 field, deserve mention. 



Poetry. In treating of French poetry, we shall 

 begin with the lyric and light narrative poetry. The 

 oldest Norman French poems were songs. (See 

 Fauchet's De I'Origine delaLangue et Poesie Fran- 

 Daises.) The romances &nd fabliaux, however, are 

 older than the chansons. With the Provengals, on 

 the contrary, poetry, properly so called, was the 

 branch of literature first developed. It was called 

 by them the gay science (gay a ciencia), and it breathed 

 the romantic spirit of the south. The first Trouba- 

 dours probably came from the Provence to the north 

 of France, in the reign of Philip Augustus, towards 

 the close of'the twelfth century. Chretien de Troyes, 

 who translated the romances of the round table into 

 Norman French verse, is considered to have been the 

 first who imitated the Provengal song in French 

 verse. The Norman Alexander (from whom the 

 Alexandrine verse derived its name) lived between 

 1180 and 1223, at the court of Philip Augustus, 

 where he composed and sang his life of Alexander 

 the Great in rhyme, which is full of allusions to the 

 deeds of Philip. Thibaut, king of Navarre, addressed 

 to the lady of his love, Blanche, queen of Castile, 

 songs written in the simple style of the Provengal 

 lays, with deviations which sometimes resemble the 

 canzoni. Almost all his songs consist of five strophes, 

 the last of which concludes with the Provengal 

 close (envoy), which the Italians retained in their 

 canzoni. The language is as different from modern 

 French as the language of the Suabian minnesingers 

 from modern German. The Norman Trouvers and 

 the Provencal Troubadours saluted each other as 

 brethren in art. The chatelain de Coucy became 

 famous by his romantic fate. Messire Thierry de 

 Soissons was one of the chivalric poets who accom- 

 panied St Louis to the East. To this period belong 

 the Poesies de Marie de France, Poete Anglo-Nor- 

 r*and du XIII. Siecle (Paris, 1820, 2 vols.). The 

 songs of many French poets of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury surprise us by the similarity of their metres to 

 those of the old Spanish songs. The celebrated 

 poetess Doete de Troyes lived about that period. 

 Philippe Mouskes of Arras wrote a history of France 

 in verse. Allegory then became popular. Jean 



Froissart (q. v.), the celebrated historian, introduced 

 the Provengal pastorals into French literature. His 

 poems consisted principally of pastourellcs and ran- 

 deaux. They are distinguished by the most graceful 

 simplicity and loveliness. We have also a great 

 number of lays and virelays by him. He collected 

 part of his poems in the fonn of a romance, under the 

 title Meliador, or the Knight of the Sun. His alle- 

 goric poem, the Paradise of Love, and a religious 

 poem, the Three Marys, were favourites. The comic 

 fabliaux, in verse, were in favour in the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries. They are often extremely inde- 

 cent. This error of mistaking an anecdote in verse 

 for poetry, has survived through all the periods of 

 French literature. Two monks, Coinsi and Farsi, 

 distinguished themselves by their moral and satirical 

 fabliaux. The Provengal lyric poetry was most 

 flourishing in the north of France, during the fifteenth 

 century. The triolet, the quatrain, the king's song, 

 so called, were cherished particularly on account of 

 the burden, which was essential to them, for in it 

 plays of wit could be exhibited. Charles, duke of 

 Orleans, who, at the battle of Agincourt, fell into the 

 hands of the English, was distinguished by the unaf- 

 fected grace of his songs. During that war, which 

 had nearly destroyed the French monarchy, there 

 were several such princely minstrels. John and 

 Philip, dukes of Burgundy, Rene of Anjou, John of 

 Lorraine, and several others, were connected with 

 one another ; and their songs may be found in the old 

 manuscript collection of songs (Balladier) ; but 

 genius of a high order must not be sought among 

 them. To this period belong Clotilde du Vallon- 

 Chalys, Alain Chartier, Villon, who made his own 

 tricks the theme of his songs, Coquillart, distin- 

 guished for copiousness of burlesque expression 

 and for licentious sallies, and Gretin, or Du Bois, 

 and Bordigne. Michault, Martial d'Auvergne, 

 Olivier de la Marche, Chastellain, Michel d'Am- 

 boise, &c., belong to the lyric poets of the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century. Their complaints of unre- 

 quited love are affected and spiritless. Their comic 

 productions show some power. With Francis I., a 

 prince often rash, but always noble and amiable, 

 chivalric glory threw its last gleam over France. He 

 was himself a poet, but much more distinguished for 

 devotion to all that was truly great and excellent 

 than for poetical merit. He first introduced the 

 study of the Greek and Latin classics into France, 

 and was justly called the father of letters. Through 

 the influence of Catharine of Medici, sonnets came 

 into favour. Jean Marot and his son, Clement Marot, 

 make an epoch. Their imitators were called Maro- 

 tists. Both lived entirely at the court. They were 

 witty profligates, admired for their talents, but cer- 

 tainly esteemed by none. Elegance is conspicuous 

 in the poems of Marot ; but he had no feeling of the 

 dignity and sacredness of the art. He wrote alle- 

 gories, eclogues, comic poems, elegies, epistles, 

 heroic poems, epigrams, and chansons in great num- 

 bers. He was also distinguished for his metrical 

 translations from the Latin and Italian. He had 

 warm friends, and not less violent enemies. Among 

 the former were Mellinde-St-Gelais, who, like him, 

 aimed at classical elegance in trifling, and Dolet, 

 who was burned as a heretic. Margaret of Navarre 

 and Mary Stuart queen of Scots wrote songs in 

 French. With the poet Jodelle, began the school of 

 French sonneteers. He and his friends formed the 

 pleiades, as they were called, and were the first who 

 gave poetry a more serious and elevated direction. 

 Ronsard was the head of this body, and was still 

 called the prince of French poets in the following 

 century. He boldly discarded the trite allegories 

 and stale conceits of his predecessors, but he was 



