PRESENT PROBLEMS IN ROMANCE LITERATURE 471 



The study of the sources is one of the most important problems 

 in the field of Romance literatures, and although a great deal has been 

 done in that direction, the work not yet accomplished is still im- 

 mense. The literary relations between France, Italy, and Spain, 

 in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were very close, and are 

 an interesting subject to investigate. Also the influence of England 

 and Germany on French writers, principally in the first half of the 

 nineteenth century. Excellent works have been written on these 

 subjects by Messieurs Brunetiere, Morel-Fatio, Jusserand, V. Rossel, 

 and J. Texte, but comparative literature is almost a new science, 

 and a great future awaits the scholars who will devote themselves to 

 it. The influence of Ibsen and Bjornson, of Mickiewicz and Tolstoy, 

 of the Scandinavian and Slavonic literatures, on the Romance litera- 

 tures is itself a broad and important field to explore, one which 

 presents many interesting problems to solve. 



M. Lanson's article on Modern French literature is so exhaustive 

 that I have used it partly as a text for my commentary on that 

 subject, and I shall recapitulate briefly a few of his statements. He 

 recommends that correct and critical texts of the great writers be 

 published and says that there hardly exists a single scientific edition 

 of the texts of the nineteenth century. The history of comedy in its 

 transformations has not been written, and there should be a his- 

 tory of lyric poetry, of epic poetry, and a history of history. The 

 history of the genres is yet very incomplete. Strange to say, the his- 

 tory of Latin influence on French literature in the three classic 

 centuries has not been written, and that of Greek influence very 

 inadequately. The problem of the origin of French romanticism has 

 not yet been solved, and the eighteenth century is not well under- 

 stood. The genealogy of a writer and his physiological tempera- 

 ment should be studied in order to understand better his biography 

 and his psychology. The most interesting problem, however, is 

 to determine which are the really great works produced in the nine- 

 teenth century. The above observations may be applied in general 

 to the literatures of Spain. Portugal, and Italy, as well as to that of 

 France. 



Although French literature was considerably influenced in the nine- 

 teenth century by English and German writers, it exerted in its turn 

 a great influence on foreign literatures, especially on the Italian and 

 the Spanish. The modern literatures of Spain and of Portugal have 

 exerted little influence in France, but that of modern Italy is better 

 known and appreciated. The works of Leopardi. Fogazzaro, Matihle 

 Serao, Edmondo de Amicis, Giovanni Yerga. and Ada Xegri are said 

 by French critics to be popular and to have exerted a beneficent 

 influence, while Gabricle d' Annunzio, whose genius is much admired 

 in France, is viewed with some distrust. M. de Yogu'e. in 1S95. saw 



