694 POETEY 



tlie Grown on the one hand., and with the Classical Humanists on the 

 other, against the aristocratic literary party represented in the co- 

 teries of the Precieuses. The artistic value of the apparently abstract 

 rules formulated in the poem consists in their oblique way of reflecting 

 on the practice of the Seuderys, St. Amant and Pradon. The Art 

 Poetique is the formulated expression of the law of French poetry, 

 first recognized nearly a century before in the verses of Malherbe, 

 whose praises Boileau so enthusiastically sounds. " Lastly," he says, 

 " came IMalherbe, the first in France to give an example of just ca- 

 dence in verse, to show the power of a word in its right place, and to 

 restrict the Muse to the laws of duty. Eestored by this wise writer, 

 our language no longer offered any rude shock to the refined ear. 

 Stanzas learned how to close gracefully; one verse no longer ventured 

 to overlap another. Everything approves the justice of his laws, and 

 this faithful guide still serves as a model to the authors of our time. 

 Walk in his steps; love his purity; imitate the clearness of his happy 

 style.'' 



What, then, was the ideal which Boileau, by his reasoning and illus- 

 trations, set before the French poet ? The expression of Truth, Rea- 

 son, Logic. The aim was not wanting in life and vigor. Genius, says 

 the critic, at the opening of the Art Poetique, is indispensable, but 

 the medium in which genius must work is good sense. " Tout doit 

 tendre au bon sen?.'' And again, " Good sense must prevail even in 

 song." Hardly so deeply laid as the foundation of Horace, " Scribendi 

 recte sapere est et principium et fons," the rule implies that the stand- 

 ard of the correct imitation of nature is the lucid perception and logic 

 of the bourgeois mind, aided by the refined manners of the court. 

 " Etudiez la cour. connaissez-vous la ville." Above all, whatever sub- 

 ject is chosen, the poet must go to its essence, and not be sati-iied till 

 he has found the exact and perfect form of words required for the 

 expression of the thought. Xot a word about Beauty, Liberty, Im- 

 agination. Fancy. In every phrase we hear the voice of the stern pro- 

 scribe)', the Sulla of poetry, on the watch to put on the list for mas- 

 sacre some dangerous partisan of the Hotel Eambouillet, who has 

 managed to escape critical notice. 



I Soil can was well aware that Poetry could not dispense with the aris- 

 tocratic clement in language: and being at war with the principle 

 favored by the -ocial aristocracy, he sought to till the void in his criti- 

 cal system by allying himself with the literary ari-tocracv of the Ee- 

 naissance, and exalting the authority of the Greek and Eoman classics. 

 The principle was excellent so lor, r a? it meant no more than self- 

 criticism by the highest standard of antiquity. But Boileau was 

 almost inevi'fibly carried into error by his logic. lie regarded all the 



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