THE FÉLIBRIGE
The history of the Félibrige, from its beginning, in 1854, down to the
year 1896, has been admirably written by G. Jourdanne.[2] The work is
quite exhaustive, containing, in addition to the excellently written
narrative, an engraving of the famous cup, portraits of all the most
noted Félibres, a series of elaborately written notes that discuss or
set forth many questions relating to the general theme, a very large
bibliography of the subject, comprising long lists of works that have
been written in the dialect or that have appeared in France and in other
countries concerning the Félibres, a copy of the constitution of the
society and of various statutes relating to it. It not only contains
all the material that is necessary for the study of the Félibrige, but
it is worthy of the highest praise for the spirit in which it is
written. It is an honest attempt to explain the Félibrige, and to
present fairly and fully all the problems that so remarkable a movement
has created. A perusal of the book makes it evident that the author
believes in future political consequences, and while well aware that it
is unsafe to prophesy, he has a chapter on the future of the movement.
His history endeavors to show that the Felibrean renaissance was not a
spontaneous springing into existence. On the purely literary side,
however, it certainly bears the character of a creation; as writers, the
Provençal poets may scarcely be said to continue any preceding school or
to be closely linked with any literary past. In its inception it was a
mere attempt to write pleasing, popular verse of a better kind in the
dialect of the fireside. But the movement developed rapidly into the
ambition to endow the whole region with a real literature, to awaken a
consciousness of _race_ in the men of the south; these aims have been
realized, and a change has come over the life of Provence and the land
of the _langue d'oc_ in general. The author believes and adduces
evidences to show that all this could not have come about had the seed
not fallen upon a soil that was ready.
The Félibrige dates from the year 1854, but the idea that lies at the
bottom of it must be traced back to the determination of Roumanille to
write in Provençal rather than in French. He produced his _Margarideto_
in 1847 and the _Sounjarello_ in 1851. In collaboration with Mistral and
Anselme Mathieu, he edited a collection of poems by living writers under
the title _Li Prouvençalo_. During these years, too, there were meetings
of Provençal writers for the purpose of discussing questions of grammar
and spelling. These meetings, including even the historic one of May 21,
1854, were, however, really little more than friendly, social
gatherings, where a number of enthusiastic friends sang songs and made
merry. They had none of the solemnity of a conclave, or the dignity of
literary assemblies. There was no formal organization. Those writers who
were zealously interested in the rehabilitation of the Provençal speech
and connected themselves with Mistral and his friends were the
Félibres. Not until 1876 was there a Félibrige with a formal
constitution and an elaborate organization.
The word _Félibre_ was furnished by Mistral, who had come upon it in an
old hymn wherein occurs the expression that the Virgin met Jesus in the
temple among "the seven Félibres of the law." The origin and etymology
of this word have given rise to various explanations. The Greek
_philabros_, lover of the beautiful; _philebraios_, lover of Hebrew,
hence, among the Jews, teacher; _felibris_, nursling, according to
Ducange; the Irish _filea_, bard, and _ber_, chief, have been proposed.
Jeanroy (in _Romania_, XIII, p. 463) offers the etymology: Spanish
_feligres, filii Ecclesiæ_, sons of the church, parishioners. None of
these is certain.
Seven poets were present at this first meeting, and as the day happened
to be that of St. Estelle, the emblem of a seven-pointed star was
adopted. Very fond of the number seven are these Félibres; they tell you
of the seven chief churches of Avignon, its seven gates, seven colleges,
seven hospitals, seven popes who were there seventy years; the word
_Félibre_ has seven letters, so has Mistral's name, and he spent seven
years in writing each of his epics.
The task that lay before these poets was twofold: they had not only to
prune and purify their dialect and produce verses, they had also to find
readers, to create a public, to begin a propaganda. The first means
adopted was the publication of the _Armana prouvençau_, already referred
to. In 1855, five hundred copies were issued, in 1894, twelve thousand.
For four years this magazine was destined for Provence alone; in 1860,
after the appearance of _Mirèio_, it was addressed to all the dwellers
in southern France. The great success of _Mirèio_ began a new period in
the history of the Félibrige. Mistral himself and the poets about him
now took an entirely new view of their mission. The uplifting of the
people, the creation of a literature that should be admired abroad as
well as at home, the complete expression of the life of Provence, in all
its aspects, past and present, escape from the implacable centralization
that tends to destroy all initiative and originality--such were the
higher aims toward which they now bent their efforts. The attention of
Paris was turned in their direction. Jasmin had already shown the
Parisians that real poetry of a high order could be written in a patois.
Lamartine and Villemain welcomed the new literature most cordially, and
the latter declared that "France is rich enough to have two
literatures."
But the student of this history must not lose sight of the fact that the
Provençal poets are not first of all littérateurs; they are not men
devoting themselves to literature for a livelihood, or even primarily
for fame. They are patriots before they are poets. The choice of
subjects and the intense love of their native land that breathes through
all their writings, are ample proof of this. They meet to sing songs and
to speak; it is always of Provence that they sing and speak. Almost all
of them are men who ply some trade, hardly one lives by his pen alone.
This fact gives a very special character to their whole production. The
Felibrean movement is more than an astonishing literary phenomenon.
The idea from this time on acquired more and more adherents. Scores of
writers appeared, and volumes whose titles filled many pages swelled the
output of Provençal verse. These new aims were due to the success of
_Mirèio_; but it must not be forgotten that Mistral himself, in that
poem and in the shorter poems of the same period, gave distinct
expression to the new order of ideas, so that we are constantly led back
to him, in all our study of the matter, as the creator, the continuer,
and the ever present inspirer of the Félibrige. Whatever it is, it is
through him primarily. Roumanille must be classed as one of those
precursors who are unconscious of what they do. To him the Félibres owe
two things: first of all, the idea of writing in the dialect works of
literary merit; and, secondly, the discovery of Frédéric Mistral.
Among these new ideas, one that dominates henceforth in the story of the
Félibrige, is the idea of race. Mistral is well aware that there is no
Latin race, in the sense of blood relationship, of physical descent; he
knows that the so-called Latin race has, for the base of its unity, a
common history, a common tradition, a common religion, a common
language.
But he believes that there is a _race méridionale_ that has been
developed into a kind of unity out of the various elements that compose
it, through their being mingled together, and accumulating during many
centuries common memories, ideas, customs, and interests. So Mistral has
devoted himself to promoting knowledge of its history, traditions,
language, and religion. As the Félibrige grew, and as Mistral felt his
power as a poet grow, he sought a larger public; he turned naturally to
the peoples most closely related to his own, and Italy and Spain were
embraced in his sympathies. The Félibrige spread beyond the limits of
France first into Spain. Victor Balaguer, exiled from his native
country, was received with open arms by the Provençals. William
Bonaparte-Wyse, an Irishman and a grand-nephew of the first Napoleon,
while on a journey through Provence, had become converted to the
Felibrean doctrines, and became an active spirit among these poets and
orators. He organized a festival in honor of Balaguer, and when, later,
the Catalan poet was permitted to return home, the Catalans sent the
famous cup to their friends in Provence. For the Félibres this cup is an
emblem of the idea of a Latin federation, and as it passes from hand to
hand and from lip to lip at the Felibrean banquets, the scene is not
unlike that wherein the Holy Graal passes about among the Knights of the
Round Table.[3]
Celebrations of this kind have become a regular institution in southern
France. Since the day in 1862 when the town of Apt received the Félibres
officially, organizing Floral Games, in which prizes were offered for
the best poems in Provençal, the people have become accustomed to the
sight of these triumphal entries of the poets into their cities. Reports
of these brilliant festivities have gone abroad into all lands. If the
love of noise and show that characterizes the southern temperament has
caused these reunions to be somewhat unfavorably criticised as
theatrical, on the other hand the enthusiasm has been genuine, and the
results real and lasting. The _Félibrées_, so they are called, have not
all taken place in France. In 1868, Mistral, Rournieux, Bonaparte-Wyse,
and Paul Meyer went to Barcelona, where they were received with great
pomp and ceremony. Men eminent in literary and philological circles in
Paris have often accepted invitations to these festivities. In 1876, a
Felibrean club, "La Cigale," was founded in the capital; its first
president was Henri de Bornier, author of _La Fille de Roland_.
Professors and students of literature and philology in France and in
other countries began to interest themselves in the Félibres, and the
Félibrige to-day counts among its members men of science as well as men
of letters.
In 1874 one of the most remarkable of the celebrations, due to the
initiative of M. de Berluc-Pérussis, was held at Vaucluse to celebrate
the fifth centenary of the death of Petrarch. At this _Félibrée_ the
Italians first became affiliated to the _idea_, and the Italian
ambassador, Nigra, the president of the Accademia della Crusca, Signor
Conti, and Professor Minich, from the University of Padua, were the
delegates. The Institute of France was represented for the first time.
This celebration was highly important and significant, and the scenes of
Petrarch's inspirations and the memories of the founder of the
Renaissance must have awakened responsive echoes in the hearts of the
poets who aimed at a second rebirth of poetry and learning in the same
region.
The following year the _Société des langues romanes_ at Montpellier
offered prizes for philological as well as purely literary works, and
for the first time other dialects than the Provençal proper were
admitted in the competitions. The Languedocian, the Gascon, the
Limousin, the Béarnais, and the Catalan dialects were thus included. The
members of the jury were men of the greatest note, Gaston Paris, Michel
Bréal, Mila y Fontanals, being of their number.
Finally, in 1876, on the 21st of May, the statutes of the Félibrige were
adopted. From them we quote the following:--
"The Félibrige is established to bring together and encourage all those
who, by their works, preserve the language of the land of _oc_, as well
as the men of science and the artists who study and work in the interest
of this country."
"Political and religious discussions are forbidden in the Felibrean
meetings."
The organization is interesting. The Félibres are divided into
_Majoraux_ and _Mainteneurs_. The former are limited to fifty in number,
and form the Consistory, which elects its own members; new members are
received on the feast of St. Estelle.
The Consistory is presided over by a Capoulié, who wears as the emblem
of his office a seven-pointed golden star, the other Majoraux, a golden
grasshopper.
The other Félibres are unlimited in number. Any seven Félibres dwelling
in the same place may ask the Maintenance to form them into a school.
The schools administer their own affairs.
Every seven years the Floral Games are held, at which prizes are
distributed; every year, on the feast of St. Estelle, a general meeting
of the Félibrige takes place. Each Maintenance must meet once a year.
At the Floral Games he who is crowned poet-laureate chooses the Queen,
and she crowns him with a wreath of olive leaves.
To-day there are three Maintenances within the limits of French soil,
Provence, Languedoc, Aquitaine.
Among other facts that should doubtless be reported here is, the list of
Capouliés. They have been Mistral (1876-1888), Roumanille (1888-1891),
and Félix Gras; the Queens have been Madame Mistral, Mlle. Thérèse
Roumanille, Mlle. Marie Girard, and the Comtesse Marie-Thérèse de
Chevigné, who is descended upon her mother's side from Laura de Sade,
generally believed to be Petrarch's Laura.
Since the organization went into effect the Félibrige has expanded in
many ways, its influence has continually grown, new questions have
arisen. Among these last have been burning questions of religion and
politics, for although discussions of them are banished from Felibrean
meetings, opinions of the most various kind exist among the Félibres,
have found expression, and have well-nigh resulted in difficulties.
Until 1876 these questions slept. Mistral is a Catholic, but has managed
to hold more or less aloof from political matters. Aubanel was a zealous
Catholic, and had the title by inheritance of Printer to his Holiness.
Roumanille was a Catholic, and an ardent Royalist. When the Félibrige
came to extend its limits over into Languedoc, the poet Auguste Fourès
and his fellows proclaimed a different doctrine, and called up memories
of the past with a different view. They affirmed their adherence to the
_Renaissance méridionale_, and claimed equal rights for the Languedocian
dialect. They asserted, however, that the true tradition was republican,
and protested vigorously against the clerical and monarchical parties,
which, in their opinion, had always been for Languedoc a cause of
disaster, servitude, and misery. The memory of the terrible crusade in
the thirteenth century inspired fiery poems among them. Hatred of Simon
de Montfort and of the invaders who followed him, free-thought, and
federalism found vigorous expression in all their productions. In
Provence, too, there have been opinions differing widely from those of
the original founders, and the third Capoulié, Félix Gras, was a
Protestant. Of him M. Jourdanne writes:--
"Finally, in 1891, after the death of Roumanille, the highest office in
the Félibrige was taken by a man who could rally about him the two
elements that we have seen manifested, sufficiently Republican to
satisfy the most ardent in the extreme Left, sufficiently steady not to
alarm the Royalists, a great enough poet to deserve without any dispute
the first place in an assembly of poets."
He, like Mistral, wrote epics in twelve cantos. His first work, _Li
Carbounié_, has on its title-page three remarkable lines:--
"I love my village more than thy village,
I love my Provence more than thy province,
I love France more than all."
Possibly no other three lines could express as well the whole spirit of
the Félibrige.
Our subject being Mistral and not Félix Gras, a passing mention must
suffice. One of his remarkable works is called _Toloza_, and recounts
the crusade of the Albigenses, and his novel, _The Reds of the Midi_,
first published in New York in the English translation of Mrs. Thomas A.
Janvier, is probably the most remarkable prose work that has been
written in Provençal.[4] Only the future can tell whether the Provençal
will pass through a prose cycle after its poetic cycle, in the manner of
all literatures. To many serious thinkers the attempt to create a
complete literature seems of very doubtful success.
The problems, then, which confront the Félibres are numerous. Can they,
with any assurance of permanence, maintain two literary languages in the
same region? It is scarcely necessary to state, of course, that no one
dreams of supplanting the French language anywhere on French soil. What
attitude shall they assume toward the "patoisants," that is, those who
insist on using the local dialect, and refuse to conform to the usage of
the Félibres? Is it not useless, after all, to hope for a more perfect
unification of the dialects of the _langue d'oc_, and, if unification is
the aim, does not logical reasoning lead to the conclusion that the
French language already exists, perfectly unified, and absolutely
necessary? In the matter of politics, the most serious questions may
arise if the desires of some find more general favor. Shall the Félibres
aim at local self-government, at a confederation something like that of
the Swiss cantons? Shall they advocate the idea of independent
universities?
As a matter of fact, none of these problems are solved, and they will
only be solved by the natural march of events. The attitude of the
leaders toward all these differing views has become one of easy
toleration. If the language of the Félibres tends already to dominate
the other dialects, if its influence is already plainly felt far beyond
Provence itself, this is due to the sheer superiority of their literary
work. If their literature had the conventional character of that of the
Troubadours, if it were addressed exclusively to a certain élite, then
their language might have been adopted by the poets of other regions,
just as in the days of the Troubadours the masters of the art of
"trobar" preferred to use the Limousin dialect. But the popular
character of the movement has prevented this. It has preached the love
of the village, and each locality, as fast as the Felibrean idea gained
ground, has shown greater affection for its own dialect.
Mistral's work has often been compared to Dante's. But Dante did not
impose his language upon Italy by the sole superiority of his great
poem. All sorts of events, political and social, contributed to the
result, and there is little reason to expect the same future for the
work of Mistral. This comparison is made from the linguistic point of
view; it is not likely that any one will compare the two as poets. At
most, it may be said that if Dante gave expression to the whole spirit
of his age, Mistral has given complete expression to the spirit of his
little _patrie_. Should the trend of events lead to a further
unification of the dialects of southern France, there is no doubt that
the Felibrean dialect has by far the greatest chance of success.
The people of Provence owe a great debt to the Félibres, who have
endowed them with a literature that comes closer to their sympathies
than the classic literature of France can ever come; they have been
raised in their own esteem, and there has been undoubtedly a great
awakening in their mental life. The Félibrige has given expression to
all that is noblest and best in the race, and has invariably led onward
and upward. Its mission has been one that commands respect and
admiration, and the Félibres to-day are in a position to point with
pride to the great work accomplished among their people. Arsène
Darmesteter has well said:--
"A nation needs poetry; it lives not by bread alone, but in the ideal
as well. Religious beliefs are weakening; and if the sense of poetic
ideals dies along with the religious sentiment, there will remain
nothing among the lower classes but material and brutal instincts.
"Whether the Félibres were conscious of this danger, or met this popular
need instinctively, I cannot say. At any rate, their work is a good one
and a wholesome one. There still circulates, down to the lowest stratum
of the people, a stream of poetry, often obscure, until now looked upon
with disdain by all except scholars. I mean folklore, beliefs,
traditions, legends, and popular tales. Before this source of poetry
could disappear completely, the Félibres had the happy idea of taking it
up, giving it a new literary form, thus giving back to the people,
clothed in the brilliant colors of poetry, the creation of the people
themselves."
And again: "As for this general renovation of popular poetry, I would
give it no other name than that of the Félibrige. To the Félibres is due
the honor of the movement; it is their ardor and their faith that have
developed and strengthened it."
[Footnote 2: _Histoire du Félibrige, par_ G. Jourdanne, _Librairie
Roumanille, Avignon, 1897_.]
[Footnote 3: The stem of the cup has the form of a palm tree, under
which two female figures, representing Catalonia and Provence, stand in
a graceful embrace. Below the figures are engraved the two following
inscriptions:--
Morta la diuhen qu'es, Ah! se me sabien entèndre!
Mes jo la crech viva. Ah! se me voulien segui!
(V. Balaguer.) (F. Mistral.)
(They say she is dead, (Ah, if they could understand
but I believe she me! Ah, if they would follow
lives.) me!)
]
[Footnote 4: In 1899, Félix Gras published a novel called _The White
Terror_. His death occurred early in 1901.]