STUDY OF ROMANCE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 439 



ble to the gratification national pride gained or seemed to gain from 

 it. They did not appreciate its importance, so that in volume vu, 

 which nevertheless marks a remarkable progress, Dom Rivet, even 

 for a monument as important as Boethius, limits his quotations to 

 nine lines of the fragment made known by the Abb6 Leboauf, and 

 this "pour etre moins a charge a ses lecteurs." 1 A higher degree 

 of sympathy and intelligence appears in the dissertations gathered 

 and published in the volumes of the Histoire and Memoires of 

 the Academic Roy ale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 2 And one of the 

 Academicians, La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, spent all his long and 

 industrious life within the recesses of the languages, the literatures, 

 the history, of medieval France. It is noteworthy in him that he had 

 no sectional preferences, and was the first northerner who turned to- 

 wards the south, so that from his material, when he had given up all 

 hope of elaborating it, came forth the Histoire litteraire des Trouba- 

 dours of the Abb Millot, 3 faulty indeed, yet better than its fame. 

 His broad patriotism contrasted with the narrow patriotism of Le- 

 grand d'Aussy, who, in his introduction to the Fabliaux ou Contes 

 du XII e et du XIII s siecle, published soon after, 4 and owing their 

 birth still to La Curne, 5 inveighs, for the greater glory of the litera- 

 ture of the langue d'oil, against "ces tristes Chansonniers " of the 

 south. 6 Overlooking this pettiness, we can call the introduction of 

 Legrand the most notable review of old French literature which we 

 find in the eighteenth century. Quickened with an eager love of its 

 subject, it is the fruit of much reading, which Legrand d'Aussy con- 

 tinued, 7 in preparation, I think, of his promising history of French 

 poetry, broken off by death. 8 It is greatly significant, however, that 

 the author deems it necessary to publish the Fabliaux, not in the orig- 

 inal text, which nothing forbade his accompanying with a translation, 

 but translated, abridged, applying, though improved, the method 

 followed for other compositions in the Bibliotheque des Romans.'" 



1 p. xxxi. 



2 Already in the second volume, which jointly with the first contains contribu- 

 tions from the period 1701-1711, we have rich ''Discours sur quelqucs anciens 

 Poet es et sur quelques Romans Gaulois pen connu," by Gnlland (pp. 673-6S9). 

 Here Gnlland, establishing himself exclusively on MSS. in the possession of Fou- 

 cault, gives information about authors, "dont le nom et Irs ouvrages out este in- 

 connus a Ui Croix du Maine et a Fauchet." In the same volume there is a notice 

 on the }'ic tie. Christine de Pisan ct de Thomas dc Pisan son pcrc " (pp. 704-71-1). 



3 In 1774. 



4 1779-1781. 



5 Vol. i, p. Ixxxix: " Je dois ;\ M. de Sainte-Palaye les premiers materiaux aver 

 lesquels j'ai commence cot Ouvruge, et qui m'en out inspire le projet. . . . Le 

 possesseur genereux de ces richesses litteraires me les a abandonnees . . ." 



6 See p. 4IU, note 2. 



7 It may be seen about how many works he ^ivcs information in the 5th volume 

 of Notice* (t [-'.rlra'ts dc Maniiftcritx dc In l!ili/>/>/l!<' !/>/<'. formerly du l\m, and later 

 Nationalc. The volume bears the date of " Apr. 7": 179S 99. 



8 Ills death happened on the Cth of December, 1SOO; just when the century 

 also was coming to an end. 



9 A Bihliothrquc of ancient French novel-; onlv, quit different from that of 

 Trcssiin had been planned much earlier by La Curne de Sainte-Palaye: " Si je puis 



