STUDY OF ROMANCE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 445 



toire Litteraire, 1 intrusted to the Institut in 1807. It was a happy 

 decision to resume, after forty years, the noble enterprise which had 

 been breathing its last since the death of Dom Rivet, who first con- 

 ceived it. The Histoire Litteraire never had been, and never succeeded 

 in being, a true history. And it was not made one by the Discours 

 sur I'Etat des Lettres which preface every century, " discourses " that 

 have besides the inevitable fault of condensing into a synthesis things 

 not yet analytically known. 2 It always remained a "bibliotheca" 

 even after abandoning the mechanical device of chronological order 

 by dates of death. There is besides this no difference between it and 

 the volumes entitled Notices et extraits de manuscrits, which the 

 Academic des Inscriptions began to publish in 1787, and where in the 

 fifth volume we already find ample space given to Old French. In 

 arrangement only is there a difference from the Manuscrits }ranc.ais 

 de la Bibliotheque du Roi, which later came from Paulin Paris. But 

 this lack of organism permitted an almost absolute liberty of move- 

 ment, which turned out most useful. It is due especially to this that 

 the Histoire Litteraire has increased remarkably the knowledge of 

 French literature in the vulgar tongue, which in this phase began to 

 occupy a far greater place than it had ever occupied before. And 

 with this progress, what had been done did not satisfy. Hence 

 delays and journeys backward, which, if they destroyed even the 

 shadow of an historical plan and resulted in not reaching far into 

 the fourteenth century after one hundred years of labor, neverthe- 

 less came near enough to the ultimate goal. 



The awakening which showed itself would have rejoiced Legrand 

 d'Aussy. 3 Nor would he have considered unreasonable the reprint 

 which Meon made of the Fabliaux of Barbazan. 4 Meon would surely 

 have rejoiced his heart with the Roman de la Rose, 1813, with the 

 addition to the Fabliaux, 1824, and the Roman du Rcnart, 1826; and 

 he would have been delighted with Roquefort, who in his Glossairc de 

 la langue romane, 1808, offered a tool useful for the reading of texts. 5 



1 A. Duval says of him in his necrology at the head of volume xiv: "II se 

 r^serva la partie de 1'ouvrage on 1'on doit traitor des pottos franeais et des trouba- 

 dours des XII e et XIII e siecles: il tait prepare a ce travail par les recherches 

 qu'il lui avait fallu faire sur la litterature Romane, qui out line grande influence 

 sur la litterature italienno, dont il s'occupait dopuis si long-temps." 



2 Speaking of himself Daunou says, vol. xvi, pp. vi, vii, that in composing the 

 "Discours" about the thirteenth century, "on a reconnu combien il etait difficile 

 d'esquissor ainsi le tableau de la litterature de tout un siecle, avant d'avoir pu 

 en examiner les productions. Ces exposes seraient plus complets et moins in- 

 exactes," if, instead of preceding, they should follow. 



3 See p. 437, note 7. 



Fabliaux, vol. i, p. ii : " Les catacombos de nos anciens Poet.es, dans lesquels per- 

 sonne n'est encore descendu, ou qu'on n'a families que fort supernciellement, offrir- 

 aient a des travailleurs intolligens et courageux plus d'une docouverte pareille a 

 faire; et je croirais avoir bion merite des Lettres si mon oxemple animait t\ cette 

 laborieuse entreprise, des mains plus habiles quo les miennes." 



4 The edition of Barbazan came out in 17;">6; that of Me"on in 180S. 



6 Subsequently Roquefort published the Poesies of Marie de France. The dedi- 



