LITERATURE 



293 



FRENCH LITERATURE Continued 



The most ancient documents in the French 

 language date from the Ninth to the Eleventh 

 Centuries, but real French literature began much 

 later. There are a hundred of the "Chansons 

 de Gestes," including the famous "Chanson de 

 Roland." Their origin is not known, but they 

 date earlier than the songs of the troubadours. 

 Following these were the epics, "Arthurian 

 Romances," written from the legends of the 

 Round Table, and later the " Romances of An- 

 tiquities," also narrative forms, treating of the 

 conquests of Alexander and other classical 

 stones. A fourth form in prose and verse, in- 

 cluded "Shorter Stories" which cannot be classi- 

 fied. These four divisions make the literature 

 of early France. 



In earliest days poetry was used for all literary 

 purposes an<l I n-nrh vene is tin- first in modem 

 European .-pere-h. " Tin- Romance of the Rose," 

 a long poem which is really j.rnsr. except for the 

 measure of the verse, is an ancient work that 

 gained th (> attention of the j>conle of France, 

 and no book was ever more popular 

 A-ritten by two authors. (luillaume de Lorris, 

 who lived in the first half of the Thirteenth < 'en 

 fury, commenced it. and it was continued and 

 finished by Jean de Meung. who died in i' 



l>oth a love poem and a satire and 

 put in form "t allegory. In it are found the 

 characteristics of the later Middle Age, its my fl- 

 its chivalry, its science, and its shrewd 

 -in. 



In the Tenth or Eleventh Centuries Indian 

 tales were translated into Latin, prohahly |.\ 

 the monks, and these, with legend* from Arabia, 



brought by the Moors into Spain, became com- 

 mon to all literature. In France, during the 

 Twelfth and the Thirteenth Centuries, tales writ- 

 ten in verse, the collection known as " Fabliaux." 

 appeared, and these simple, gay stories are 

 treasures of invention from which other nations 

 have often borrowed. Among these "Reynard 

 the Fox," a poem, or a series of poems, is well 

 known and for two centuries, with its compan- 

 ion, "Isengrin, the Wolf," it formed the basis 

 for an endless variety of songs, poems, and 

 satires, moral applications and generali/ings. 

 One of the most interesting of the Fabliaux. 

 "Aucassin and Nicolette," gave the subject for 

 the well-known opera. 



It has le"n claimed that Latin comedy was 

 never lost and was handed on chiefly through 

 the convents, but when the public had forgotten 

 ancient drama an impulse was given to this 

 form of writing in France hy the pilgrims re- 

 tiiniing from 'the Crusades. At the end of the 

 nth Century di produced, called 



1 laternity iif the Passion" and compre- 

 hending the whole history of Christ. In these 

 dramas dialogues of the devils were made to fill 

 in the eomic parts. Other dramatic writings 

 followed, hased on parahles and historical parts 

 of the I hey hecame Pure allegory min- 



gled with farces, and there is hardly an abstrac- 

 tion, a virtue, or a vice which did not find place 

 in these compositions. Marly in the Fifteenth 

 Century a comic company brought |>olitiral and 

 personal satire int.. their plays and dialogues, 

 made from the fables, and thus began the Ro- 

 mantic Drama of Km 



