OF LITERATURE. 



Xli 



two poles, on which their whole system is made 

 to turn. 



From the date of Tristan, in 1190, the first 

 that was written in prose, a large portion of these 

 works was withdrawn from the domain of verse. 

 But the poetical form was again adopted for a 

 celebrated composition, allied to them in name 

 rather than in substance, which bespeaks the 

 originality of French genius, and has been the 

 model of some illustrious imitators. William of 

 Lorris, who died in 1260, began the ROMANCE OF 

 THE ROSE : John of Meun, about fifty years 

 later, completed it. This allegorical dream on 

 the art of love, distinguished from the Visions 

 found in some classic authors by the nature of its 

 plot, and from the chivalry-romances by its shape 

 and double meaning, was received with acclama- 

 tions of surprise and pleasure. The fact that it 

 was so greeted has been often advanced as a 

 proof of the extreme bad taste of the times ; yet it 

 cannot be denied that amid all the extravagance, 

 indelicacy, and tediousness of its twenty thousand 

 lines, there are both great powers of luxuriant 

 description, and traces of that wit, that invention, 

 and that practical philosophy, which, in com- 

 bination with the talent of narrating, very early 

 delighted the French people, and constitute the 

 very soul of their literature. 



In another great branch of poetry, the Normans 

 set the example to modern Europe. In their 

 hands, either on French or English ground, the art 

 of narration once more warmed into the DRAMA. 

 Before the close of the thirteenth century, tales 

 in dialogue, grounded upon sacred subjects, 

 were produced by pilgrims returning from the 

 Holy Land. In 1313, Philip the Fair of France 

 gave an entertainment, at which dramatised facts 

 and parables of Scripture were mixed with satiri- 

 cal farces. In 1380, regular companies were 

 organized to conduct both these species of 

 exhibition. It is curious to perceive, in some 

 of these steps, a near resemblance 10 the rise of 

 ancient tragedy and comedy. The character of 

 those histories, which furnished its plots, rather 

 than anything in the process of its growth, gave 

 a new character to the romantic drama, when 

 compared with that of the classical ages. 



Meanwhile composition in prose, though the 

 faults that marred a vast proportion of their 

 metrical works, were even exceeded by its im- 

 perfections, was not abandoned by the French. 

 About the year 1309 JOINVILLK, by his biography 

 of St Louis, became the founder of a historical 

 school, in which the France of later days has 

 numbered many of her most eminent wits. 

 Though deserving praise for his fulness and 

 fidelity, his style is unformed, verbose, and 



intricate : but, almost a century later, the en- 

 thusiastic FROISSART,* conceiving his plan in 

 youth, and devoting his life to its execution, 

 croAvned the other merits of his captivating 

 chronicles with a fluency and a power of paint- 

 ing that reveal, in spite of frequent carelessness, 

 the hand of a master. 



During the hundred years that lie between 

 Froissart and the end of our first modern period, 

 French literature was not entirely stagnant. 

 We may mark the venomous satires of COR- 

 BEuiL,t and the agreeable memoirs of PHIUP DK 

 COMINES.J But mighty causes were now coin- 

 ing into operation, the heralds of a new era, and 

 whose effects on the progress of French letters 

 will hereafter, in their turn, be pointed out. At 

 present we must go back to take up the literary 

 annals of other countries. 



With the literature of northern France that of 

 ITALY has certain links of consanguinity. The 

 romance of the rose, immeasurably inferior as it 

 is, gave the hint for the transcendent vision of 

 Dante. Boccacio drew upon the fabliaux of the 

 trouveres for a considerable part of his materials. 

 Ariosto, and other authors of the chivalrous 

 epics, echoed while they improved the tone of 

 the chivalrous romances. But the first literary 

 connexion of the two nations arose, more natu- 

 rally, between the Italians, and the poets of 

 Provenge. 



Towards the conclusion of the middle age, and 

 while the Romanic language in Italy was still 

 raw and fashionless, some legendary tales appear 

 to have been attempted in that dialect ; but it had, 

 as yet, no fitness for regular composition. Sub- 

 sequently, the constant intercourse of the Italians 

 with the south of France made them aware of the 

 graces of the Provencal tongue, and masters of 

 its use. Thus put in possession of an already 

 formed medium of thought, they strove to emu- 

 late the Provengal poetry. The troubadours 

 welcomed and encouraged the ardour of their 

 disciples. For two centuries, the style which 

 they had created, continued popular in its new 

 territory; and the reputation of the Mantuan 

 SORDELLO ;ll of him whom Dante honoured, and 

 in whom he figures Virgil as proud to own a 

 fellow-citizen and successor ; illustrates the 

 brightest point of that period. 



By degrees the proper Italian, both in Sicily, 

 where songs were written in it on the Arabian 

 and Provengal model, and in Italy itself, was 

 gaining form and flexibility. By the very fer- 

 mentations of its political state, by the increase 



* Died A. D. 1400. t A. D. 14311461. 



t A. 1>. 14461501). } From A. D. 11001300. A. D. 1200. 



