NATIONAL POETRY. 



fouronnees, bqtelees, which Guillaume Cretin made use of with all the cunning 

 of a juggler. The reminiscences of the " Eomance of the Rose " were revived 

 by Gringore's "Chateau de Labour," by Clement Marot's "Temple de 

 Cupidon," by the "Loups Ravissants," and by the "Espinette du Jeune 

 Prince conquerant le Royaume de Bonne Renommee." Jean Marot and 

 Octavian de St. Gelais put into verse the diary of the expeditions of 

 Charles VIII. and Louis XII. The popular muse inspired only two poets 

 Roger de Collerie and Pierre Gringore, who in every branch of poetry 

 preserved the stamp of his proverbial and witty style. The epoch of 

 Francois I. seemed to renew the language, if not the form, of poetry, by 

 imposing upon the writer who aimed at being read a frank, simple, and 

 sprightly style. Clement Marot was the real restorer of this eminently 

 French style. He had not the genius to write great works, and he was too 

 buoyant and too Gallic to think of composing long poems which no one 

 would have read. . He composed merely roundelays, epistles, elegies, chants 

 royal, ballads, epigrams, and madrigals, which latter were as yet called 

 epigrams also, as in the Greek anthology. It was in epigram that Clement 

 Marot was so much the superior of all other poets, and for fifteen years his 

 delicate, graceful, and witty style found him numberless admirers and 

 imitators ; but when he placed his services at the disposal of the Reformed 

 Church, and, at the request of Calvin, translated into hymns the Psalms 

 of David, he lost all his merits as a poet. His school, which numbered 

 a few charming versifiers Bonaventure des Periers, Victor Brodeau, and 

 Charles Fontaine amongst others remained in favour with the court, thanks 

 to Fran9ois I., the friend and pupil of Marot. It was that monarch who 

 conceived the idea of translating into French verse all the Greek and Latin 

 poets : Homer, by Hugues Salel ; Ovid, by Clement Marot ; Virgil, by Michael 

 of Tours and Octavian de St. Gelais ; and Horace, by Francois Habert. 

 The poetry of Mellin de St. Gelais, who was looked upon as the only rival of 

 Marot, already showed signs of being imitated from the Italian, and though 

 the ideas were ingenious and correct, the style was a mixture of pretentious 

 affectation and of Italian concetti. 



The Reformation, it must be said, was everywhere fatal to language and 

 literature, and it dealt a specially severe blow at German poetry. Hans Sach, 

 the Nuremberg shoemaker, is perhaps the only poet who, trying his hand at all 

 branches of poetry, ventured to brave the Lutheran intolerance. In England, 



