PRESENT PROBLEMS IX THE FIELD OF- ROMANCE 

 LITERATURES 



BY ALCEE FORTIER 



[Alcee Fortier, Professor of Romance Languages, Tulane University of Louis- 

 iana, b. June 5, 1856, St. James Parish, Louisiana. Student at University 

 of Virginia. Xew Orleans, and Paris. Litt.D. Washington and Lee Univer- 

 sity; Officier de 1' Academic d'Instruction Publique du Cambodge; Cheva- 

 lier de la Legion d'Honneur. Professor of French, Boys' High School, Xew 

 Orleans, 1878-79; Professor of French, L'niversity of Louisiana, 1880-84; 

 and Tulane University, 1884-94. President of Modern Language Associa- 

 tion of America, 1898; American Folk-Lore Society, 1894; Athenee Louis- 

 ianais, Louisiana Historical Society; Catholic Winter School of America. 

 Member of the American Historical Association, American Dialect Society, 

 International Phonetic Association, State Board of Education, President of 

 the Board of Civil Service Commissioners, Xew Orleans. Official delegate from 

 the United States to Congress of History, Paris Exposition, 1900 ; member 

 of the Congress of Higher Education, Paris Exposition. Author of many 

 books, Louisiana Folk-Talcs; Louisiana Studies; Histoire de la Littf'raturc 

 fran^ai.^c ; Pn'cis de 1'Histoire de France; A History of Louisiana, etc.] 



I FKKL greatly honored to have been invited to read a paper before 

 this Congress of scholars, but I fear that I acted with rashness when 

 I accepted the invitation of the committee. The subject assigned, 

 the "Present Problems in the Field of Romance Literatures," is too 

 vast to be treated in its entirety, and to do it full justice it would 

 require the learning of Friedrich Diez or of Gaston Paris. These 

 two great professors were philologists in the highest sense of the 

 term, and to them Romance philology meant not only the study of 

 grammar, but also of literature, of civilization. Diez had a preference 

 for literary subjects, and published in 1820 an important work on the 

 Lives and Pottri/ of the Troubadours. His masterpiece, however, is 

 his Grammatik dcr Romanischcn Sprachcn, of which the first edition 

 was published in 1<S3G. Gaston Paris also had a high literary taste 

 and was a worthy member of the French Academy. He was at the 

 same time an accurate student of language, and his edition of 

 Lti \'i< <h >7. J/'.H'N served as a model for subsequent scientific 

 criticism. Literary ability and taste and high scholarship in philology 

 in il> re>tricted sense are a rare combination. Dante wrote his treatise 

 l)> r/ij/i/ir/ i 'in/lit /itiit. and this work i< interesting as being the first 

 written about the philology of one of the Romance languages. Yet 

 it is the Dirina ( 'mntiK did. that has given immortality to the won- 

 derful bard of Florence. On the other hand, Raynouard's literary 

 works, his tragedies, are completely forgotten, while his comparative 

 grammar of the Latin languages has placed his name next to that of 

 Diez among the founders of Romance philology, in spite of his error,- 



