great. But in the government of Louis-Philippe the bourgeoisie
triumphed; and Balzac hated the bourgeoisie. From 1830 to 1840 were
his greatest years, which include the _Peau de Chagrin_, _Eugenie
Grandet_, _La Recherche de l'Absolu_, _Le Pere Goriot_, and other
masterpieces. To name their titles would be to recite a Homeric
catalogue. At an early date Balzac conceived the idea of connecting
his tales in groups. They acquired their collective title, _La Comedie
Humaine_, in 1842. He would exhibit human documents illustrating the
whole social life of his time; "the administration, the church, the
army, the judicature, the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the
proletariat, the peasantry, the artists, the journalists, the men
of letters, the actors, ... the shopkeepers of every degree, the
criminals," should all appear in his vast tableau of society. His
record should include scenes from private life, scenes from Parisian,
provincial, political, military, rural life, with philosophical
studies in narrative and analytic treatises on the passions. The
spirit of system took hold upon Balzac; he had, in common with Victor
Hugo, a gift for imposing upon himself with the charlatanry of
pseudo-ideas; to observe, to analyse, to evoke with his imagination
was not enough; he also would be among the philosophers--and Balzac's
philosophy is often pretentious and vulgar, it is often banal. Outside
the general scheme of the human comedy lie his unsuccessful attempts
for the theatre, and the _Contes Drolatiques_, in which the
pseudo-antique Rabelaisian manner and the affluent power do not
entirely atone for the anachronism of a grossness more natural in
the sixteenth than in the nineteenth century.
V
Was it possible to be romantic without being lyrical? Was it possible
to produce purely objective work, reserving one's own personality,
and glancing at one's audience only with an occasional look of
superior irony? Such was the task essayed by PROSPER MERIMEE (1803-70).
With some points of resemblance in character to Beyle, whose ideas
were influential on his mind, Merimee possessed the plastic
imagination and the craftsman's skill, in which Beyle was deficient.
"He is a gentleman," said Cousin, and the words might serve for
Merimee's epitaph; a gentleman not of nature's making, or God
Almighty's kind, but constructed in faultless bearing according to
the rules. Such a gentleman must betray no sensibility, must express
no sentiment, must indulge no enthusiasm, must attach himself to no
faith, must be superior to all human infirmities, except the infirmity
of a pose which is impressive only by its correctness; he may be
cynical, if the cynicism is wholly free from emphasis; he may be
ironical, if the irony is sufficiently disguised; he may mystify his
fellows, if he keeps the pleasure of mystification for his private
amusement. Should he happen to be an artist, he must appear to be
only a dilettante. He must never incur ridicule, and yet his whole
attitude may be ridiculous.
Such a gentleman was Prosper Merimee. He had the gift of imagination,
psychological insight, the artist's shaping hand. His early romantic
plays were put forth as those of Clara Gazul, a Spanish _comedienne_.
His Illyrian poems, _La Guzla_, were the work of an imaginary
Hyacinthe Maglanovich, and Merimee could smile gently at the
credulity of a learned public. He took up the short story where Xavier
de Maistre, who had known how to be both pathetic and amiably humorous,
and Charles Nodier, who had given play to a graceful fantasy, left
it. He purged it of sentiment, he reduced fantasy to the law of the
imagination, and produced such works as _Carmen_ and _Colomba_, each
one a little masterpiece of psychological truth, of temperate local
colour, of faultless narrative, of pure objective art. The public
must not suppose that he cares for his characters or what befell them;
he is an archaeologist, a savant, and only by accident a teller of
tales. Merimee had more sensibility than he would confess; it shows
itself for moments in the posthumous _Lettres a une Inconnue_; but
he has always a bearing-rein of ironical pessimism to hold his
sensibility in check. The egoism of the romantic school appears in
Merimee inverted; it is the egoism not of effusion but of disdainful
reserve.[1]
[Footnote 1: It is one of Merimee's merits that he awakened in France
an interest in Russian literature.]
CHAPTER V
HISTORY--LITERARY CRITICISM
I
The progress of historical literature in the nineteenth century was
aided by the change which had taken place in philosophical opinion;
instead of a rigid system of abstract ideas, which disdained the
thought of past ages as superstition, had come an eclecticism guided
by spiritual beliefs. The religions of various lands and various ages
were viewed with sympathetic interest; the breach of continuity from
mediaeval to modern times was repaired; the revolutionary spirit of
individualism gave way before a broader concern for society; the
temper in politics grew more cautious and less dogmatic; the great
events of recent years engendered historical reflection; literary
art was renewed by the awakening of the romantic imagination.
The historical learning of the Empire is represented by Daunou, an
explorer in French literature; by Ginguene, the literary historian
of Italy; by Michaud, who devoted his best years to a _History of
the Crusades_. In his _De la Religion_ (1824-31) Benjamin Constant,
in Restoration days, traced the progress of the religious sentiment,
cleaving its way through dogma and ordinance to a free and full
development. Sismondi (1773-1842), in his _Histoire des Francais_,
investigated such sources as were accessible to him, studied economic
facts, and in a liberal spirit exhibited the life of the nation, and
not merely the acts of monarchs or the intrigues of statesmen. His
wide, though not profound, erudition comprehended Italy as well as
France; the _Histoire des Republiques Italiennes_ is the chart of
a difficult labyrinth. The method of disinterested narrative, which
abstains from ethical judgments, propounds no thesis, and aims at
no doctrinaire conclusion, was followed by Barante in his _Histoire
des Ducs de Bourgogne_. The precept of Quintilian expresses his rule:
"Scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum."
Each school of nineteenth-century thought has had its historical
exponents. Liberal Catholicism is represented by Montalembert,
Ozanam, De Broglie; socialism, by Louis Blanc; a patriotic Caesarism,
by Thiers; the democratic school, by Michelet and Quinet; philosophic
liberalism, by Guizot, Mignet, and Tocqueville.
AUGUSTIN THIERRY (1795-1856) nobly led the way. Some pages of
Chateaubriand, full of the sentiment of the past, were his first
inspiration; at a later time the influence of Fauriel and the novels
of Walter Scott, "the master of historical divination," confirmed
him in his sense of the uses of imagination as an aid to the scholarship
of history. For a time he acted as secretary to Saint-Simon, and under
his influence proposed a scheme for a community of European peoples
which should leave intact the nationality of each. Then he parted
from his master, to pursue his way in independence. It seemed to him
that the social condition and the revolutions of modern Europe had
their origins in the Germanic invasions, and especially in the Norman
Conquest of England. As he read the great collection of the original
historians of France and Gaul, he grew indignant against the modern
travesties named history, indignant against writers without
erudition, who could not see, and writers without imagination, who
could not depict. The conflict of races--Saxons and Normans in England,
Gauls and Franks in his own country--remained with him as a dominant
idea, but he would not lose himself in generalisations; he would
involve the abstract in concrete details; he would see, and he would
depict. There was much philosophy in abstaining from philosophy
overmuch. The _Lettres sur l'Histoire de France_ were followed in
1825 by the _Histoire de la Conquete de l'Angleterre_, in which the
art of historiography attained a perfection previously unknown.
Through charter and chronicle, Thierry had reached the spirit of the
past. He had prophesied upon the dry bones and to the wind, and the
dry bones lived. As a liberal, he had been interested in contemporary
politics. His political ardour had given him that historical
perspicacity which enabled him to discover the soul behind an ancient
text.
In 1826 Thierry, the martyr of his passionate studies, suffered the
calamity of blindness. With the aid of his distinguished brother,
of friends, and secretaries--above all, with the aid of the devoted
woman who became his wife, he pursued his work. The _Recits des Temps
Merovingiens_ and the _Essai sur l'Histoire de la Formation du Tiers
Etat_ were the labours of a sightless scholar. His passion for
perfection was greater than ever; twenty, fifteen lines a day
contented him, if his idea was rendered clear and enduring in
faultless form. Paralysis made its steady advance; still he kept his
intellect above his infirmities, and followed truth and beauty. On
May 22, 1856, he woke his attendant at four in the morning, and
dictated with laboured speech the alteration of a phrase for the
revised _Conquete_. On the same day, "insatiable of perfection,"
Thierry died. He is not, either in substance, thought, or style, the
greatest of modern French historians; but, more than any other, he
was an initiator.
The life of FRANCOIS GUIZOT--great and venerable name--is a portion
of the history of his country. Born at Nimes in 1787, of an honourable
Protestant family, he died, with a verse of his favourite Corneille
or a text of Scripture on his lips, in 1874. Austere without severity,
simple in habit without rudeness, indomitable in courage, imperious
in will, gravely eloquent, he had at once the liberality and the
narrowness of the middle classes, which he represented when in power.
A threefold task, as he conceived, lies before the historian: he must
ascertain facts; he must co-ordinate these facts under laws, studying
the anatomy and the physiology of society; finally, he must present
the external physiognomy of the facts. Guizot was not endowed with
the artist's imagination; he had no sense of life, of colour, of
literary style; he was a thinker, who saw the life of the past through
the medium of ideas; he does not in his pages evoke a world of animated
forms, of passionate hearts, of vivid incidents; he distinguishes
social forces, with a view to arrive at principles; he considers those
forces in their play one upon another.
The _Histoire Generale de la Civilisation en Europe_ and the _Histoire
de la Civilisation en France_ consist of lectures delivered from 1828
to 1830 at the Sorbonne.[1] Guizot recognised that the study of
institutions must be preceded by a study of the society which has
given them birth. In the progress of civilisation he saw not merely
the development of communities, but also that of the individual. The
civilisation of Europe, he held, was most intelligibly exhibited in
that of France, where, more than in other countries, intellectual
and social development have moved hand in hand, where general ideas
and doctrines have always accompanied great events and public
revolutions. The key to the meaning of French history he found in
the tendency towards national and political unity. From the tenth
to the fourteenth century four great forces met in co-operation or
in conflict--royalty, the feudal system, the communes, the Church.
Feudalism fell; a great monarchy arose upon its ruins. The human mind
asserted its spiritual independence in the Protestant reformation.
The _tiers etat_ was constantly advancing in strength. The power of
the monarchy, dominant in the seventeenth century, declined in the
century that followed; the power of the people increased. In modern
society the elements of national life are reduced to two--the
government on the one hand, the people on the other; how to harmonise
these elements is the problem of modern politics. As a capital example
for the French bourgeoisie, Guizot, returning to an early work, made
a special study of the great English revolution of the seventeenth
century. In Germany, of the preceding century, the revolution was
religious and not political. In France, of the succeeding century,
the revolution was political and not religious. The rare good fortune
of England lay in the fact that the spirit of religious faith and
the spirit of political freedom ruled together, and co-operated
towards a common result.
[Footnote 1: The _History of Civilisation in France_ closes with the
fourteenth century.]
The work of FRANCOIS MIGNET (1796-1884), eminent for its research,
exactitude, clearness, ordonnance, has been censured for its
historical fatalism. In reality Mignet's mind was too studious of
facts to be dominated by a theory. He recognised the great forces
which guide and control events; he recognised also the power and
freedom of the individual will. His early _Histoire de la Revolution
Francaise_ is a sane and lucid arrangement of material that came to
his hands in chaotic masses. His later and more important writings
deal with his special province, the sixteenth century; his method,
as he advanced, grew more completely objective; we discern his ideas
through the lines of a well-proportioned architecture.
The analytic method of Guizot, supported by a method of patient
induction, was applied by ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-59) to the study
of the great phenomenon of modern democracy. Limiting the area of
investigation to America, which he had visited on a public mission,
he investigated the political organisation, the manners and morals,
the ideas, the habits of thought and feeling of the United States
as influenced by the democratic equality of conditions. He wrote as
a liberal in whom the spirit of individualism was active. He regarded
the progress of democracy in the modern world as inevitable; he
perceived the dangers--formidable for society and for individual
character--which accompany that progress; he believed that by
foresight and wise ordering many of the dangers could be averted.
The fears and hopes of the citizen guided and sustained in Tocqueville
a philosophical intelligence. Turning from America to France, he
designed to disengage from the tangle of events the true historical
significance of the Revolution. Only one volume, _L'Ancien Regime
et la Revolution_, was accomplished. It can stand alone as a work
of capital importance. In the great upheaval he saw that all was not
progress; the centralisation of power under the old regime remained,
and was rendered even more formidable than before; the sentiment of
equality continued to advance in its inevitable career; unhappily
the spirit of liberty was not always its companion, its moderator,
or its guide.
ADOLPHE THIERS (1797-1877) was engaged at the same time as Mignet,
his lifelong friend, upon a history of the French Revolution (1823-27).
The same liberal principles were held in common by the young authors.
Their methods differed widely: Mignet's orderly and compact
narration was luminous through its skilful arrangement; Thiers'
_Histoire_ was copious, facile, brilliant, more just in its general
conception than exact in statement, a plea for revolutionary
patriotism as against the royalist reaction of the day, and not
without influence in preparing the spirit of the country for the
approaching Revolution of July. His _Histoire du Consulat et de
l'Empire_ (1845-62) is the great achievement of Thiers' maturity;
journalist, orator, minister of state, until he became the chief of
stricken France in 1871 his highest claim to be remembered was this
vast record of his country's glory. He had an appetite for facts;
no detail--the price of bread, of soap, of candles--was a matter of
indifference to him; he could not show too many things, or show them
too clearly; his supreme quality was intelligence; his passion was
the pride of patriotism; his foible was the vanity of military success,
the zeal of a chauvinist. He was a liberal; but Napoleon summed up
France, and won her battles, therefore Napoleon, the great captain,
who "made war with his genius and politics with his passions," must
be for ever magnified. The _coup d'etat_ of the third Napoleon owed
a debt to the liberal historian who had reconstructed the Napoleonic
legend. The campaigns and battle-pieces of Thiers are unsurpassed
in their kind. His style in narrative is facile, abundant, animated,
and so transparent that nothing seems to intervene between the object
and the reader who has become a spectator; a style negligent at times,
and even incorrect, adding no charm of its own to a lucid presentation
of things.
JULES MICHELET, the greatest imaginative restorer of the past, the
greatest historical interpreter of the soul of ancient France, was
born in 1798 in Paris, an infant seemingly too frail and nervous to
remain alive. His early years gave him experience, brave and pathetic,
of the hardships of the poor. His father, an unsuccessful printer,
often found it difficult to procure bread or fire for his household;
but he resolved that his son should receive an education. The boy,
of a fine and sensitive organisation, knew cold and hunger; he watched
his mother toiling, and from day to day declining in health. Two
sources of consolation he found--the _Imitation_, which told him of
a Divine refuge from sorrow, and the Museum of French monuments, which
made him forget all present distress in visions of the vanished
centuries. Mocked and persecuted by his schoolfellows, he never lost
courage, and had the joy of rewarding his parents with the cross won
by his schoolboy theme. In happy country days his aunt Alexis told
him legendary tales, and read to him the old chroniclers of France.
Michelet's vocation was before long revealed, and its summons was
irresistible.
In 1827 he published his earliest works, the _Precis de l'Histoire
Moderne_, a modest survey of a wide field, in which genius illuminated
scholarship, and a translation of the _Scienza Nuova_ of Vico, the
master who impressed him with the thought that humanity is in a
constant process of creation under the influence of the Divine ideas.
The _Histoire Romaine_ and the _Introduction a l'Histoire
Universelle_ followed; the latter a little book, written with
incredible ardour under the inspiration of the days of July. His
friend Quinet had taught him to see in history an ever-broadening
combat for freedom--in Michelet's words, "an eternal July," and the
exposition of this idea was of the nature of a philosophical
entrancement.
A teacher at the Ecole Normale, appointed chief of the historical
section of the National Archives in 1831, Guizot's substitute at the
Sorbonne in 1833, professor of history and morals at the College de
France in 1838, Michelet lived in and for the life of his people and
of his land. The _Histoire de France_, begun in 1830, was completed
thirty-seven years later. After the disasters of the war of 1870-71,
with failing strength the author resumed his labours, endeavouring
to add, as it were, an appendix on the nineteenth century.
A passionate searcher among original sources, published and
unpublished, handling documents as if they were things of flesh and
blood, seeing the outward forms of existence with the imaginative
eye, pressing through these to the soul of each successive epoch,
possessed by an immense pity for the obscure generations of human
toilers, having, more than almost any other modern writer, Virgil's
gift of tears, ardent in admiration, ardent in indignation, with ideas
impregnated by emotions, and emotions quickened by ideas, Michelet
set himself to resuscitate the buried past. It seemed to him that
his eminent predecessors--Guizot, Mignet, Thiers, Thierry--had each
envisaged history from some special point of view. Each had too little
of the outward body or too little of the inward soul of history.
Michelet dared to hope that a resurrection of the integral life of
the dead centuries was possible. All or nothing was his word. It was
a bold venture, but it was a venture, or rather an act, of faith.
Thierry had been tyrannised by the idea of the race: the race is much,
but the people does not march in the air; it has a geographical basis;
it draws its nutriment from a particular soil. Michelet, at the moment
of his narrative when France began to have a life distinct from Germany,
enters upon a survey of its geography, in which the physiognomy and
the genius of each region are studied as if each were a separate living
creature, and the character of France itself is discovered in the
cohesion or the unity of its various parts. Reaching the tenth and
eleventh centuries, he feels the sadness of their torpor and their
violence; yet humanity was living, and soon in the enthusiasm of
Gothic art and the enthusiasm of the Crusades the sacred aspirations
of the soul had their manifestation. At the close of the mediaeval
period everything seems to droop and decay: no! it was then, during
the Hundred Years' War, that the national consciousness was born,
and patriotism was incarnated in an armed shepherdess, child of the
people.
By the thirteenth year of his labours--1843--Michelet had traversed
the mediaeval epoch, and reached the close of the reign of Louis XI.
There he paused. Seeing one day high on the tower of Reims Cathedral,
below which the kings of France received their consecration, a group
or garland of tortured and mutilated figures carved in stone, the
thought possessed him that the soul and faith of the people should
be confirmed within his own soul before he could trust himself to
treat of the age of the great monarchy. He leaped at once the
intervening centuries, and was at work during eight years--from 1845
to 1853--on the French Revolution. He found a hero for his
revolutionary epic in the people.
The temper of 1848 was hardly the temper in which the earlier
Revolution could be judiciously investigated. Michelet and Quinet
had added to their democratic zeal the passions connected with an
anticlerical campaign. The violence of liberalism was displayed in
_Des Jesuites_, and _Du Pretre, de la Femme et de la Famille_. When
the historian returned to the sixteenth century his spirit had
undergone a change: he adored the Middle Ages; but was it not the
period of the domination of the Church, and how could it be other
than evil? He could no longer be a mere historian; he must also be
a prophet. The volumes which treat of the Reformation, the Renaissance,
the wars of religion, are as brilliant as earlier volumes, but they
are less balanced and less coherent. The equilibrium between
Michelet's intellect and his imagination, between his ideas and his
passions, was disturbed, if not destroyed.
Michelet, who had been deprived of his chair in the College de France,
lost also his post in the Archives upon his refusal, in 1852, to swear
allegiance to the Emperor. Near Nantes in his tempest-beaten home,
near Genoa in a fold of the Apennines, where he watched the lizards
sleep or slide, a great appeasement came upon his spirit. He had
interpreted the soul of the people; he would now interpret the soul
of humbler kinsfolk--the bird, the insect; he would interpret the
inarticulate soul of the mountain and the sea. He studied other
documents--the documents of nature--with a passion of love, read
their meanings, and mingled as before his own spirit with theirs.
_L'Oiseau_, _L'Insecte_, _La Mer_, _La Montagne_, are canticles in
prose by a learned lover of the external world, rather than essays
in science; often extravagant in style, often extreme in sentiment,
and uncontrolled in imagination, but always the betrayals of genius.
Michelet's faults as an historian are great, and such as readily
strike an English reader. His rash generalisations, his lyrical
outbreaks, his Pindaric excitement, his verbiage assuming the place
of ideas, his romantic excess, his violence in ecclesiastical affairs,
his hostility to our country, his mysticism touched with sensuality,
his insistence on physiological details, his quick and irregular
utterance--these trouble at times his imaginative insight, and mar
his profound science in documents. He died at Hyeres in 1874, hoping
that God would grant him reunion with his lost ones, and the joys
promised to those who have sought and loved.
EDGAR QUINET (1803-1875), the friend and brother-in-arms of Michelet
in his attack upon the Jesuits, born at Bourg, of a Catholic father
and a Protestant mother, approached the study of literature and
history with that tendency to large _vues d'ensemble_ which was
natural to his mind, and which had been strengthened by discipleship
to Herder. Happy in temper, sound of conscience, generous of heart,
he illuminated many subjects, and was a complete master of none. A
poet of lofty intentions, in his _Ahasverus_ (1833)--the wandering
Jew, type of humanity in its endless Odyssey--in his _Napoleon_, his
_Promethee_, his vast encyclopaedic allegory _Merlin l'Enchanteur_
(1860), his poetry lacked form, and yielded itself to the rhetoric
of the intellect.
In the _Genie des Religions_ Quinet endeavoured to exhibit the
religious idea as the germinative power of civilisation, giving its
special character to the political and social idea. _La Revolution_,
which is perhaps his most important work, attempts to replace the
Revolutionary hero-worship, the Girondin and Jacobin legends, by a
faithful interpretation of the meaning of events. The principles of
modern society and the principles of the Roman Catholic Church, Quinet
regarded as incapable of conciliation. In the incompetence of the
leaders to perceive and apply this truth, and in the fatal logic of
their violent and anarchic methods, lay, as he believed, the causes
of the failure which followed the bright hopes of 1789. In 1848 Quinet
was upon the barricades; the Empire drove him into exile. In his elder
years, like Michelet, he found a new delight in the study of nature.
_La Creation_ (1870) exhibits the science of nature and that of human
history as presenting the same laws and requiring kindred methods.
It closes with the prophecy of science that creation is not yet fully
accomplished, and that a nobler race will enter into the heritage
of our humanity.
II
Literary criticism in the eighteenth century had been the criticism
of taste or the criticism of dogma; in the nineteenth century it became
naturalistic--a natural history of individual minds and their
products, a natural history of works of art as formed or modified
by social, political, and moral environments, and by the tendencies
of races. Such criticism must inevitably have followed the growth
of the comparative study of literatures in an age dominated by the
scientific spirit. If we are to name any single writer as its founder,
we must name Mme. de Stael. The French nation, she explained in
_L'Allemagne_, inclines towards what is classical; the Teutonic
nations incline towards what is romantic. She cares not to say whether
classical or romantic art should be preferred; it is enough to show
that the difference of taste results not from accidental causes, but
from the primitive sources of imagination and of thought.
The historical tendency, proceeding from the eighteenth century,
influenced alike the study of philosophy, of politics, and of
literature. While Cousin gave an historical interpretation of
philosophy, and Guizot applied history to the exposition of politics,
a third eminent professor, ABEL-FRANCOIS VILLEMAIN (1790-1870) was
illuminating literature with the light of history. An accomplished
classical scholar, a student of English, Italian, and Spanish authors,
Villemain, in his _Tableau de la Litterature au Moyen Age_, and his
more admirable _Tableau de la Litterature au XVIIIe Siecle_, viewed
a wide prospect, and could not apply a narrow rule to the measurement
of all that he saw. He did not formulate a method of criticism; but
instinctively he directed criticism towards history. He perceived
the correspondence between literary products and the other phenomena
of the age; he observed the movement in the spirit of a period; he
passed from country to country; he made use of biography as an aid
in the study of letters. His learning was at times defective; his
views often superficial; he suffered from his desire to entertain
his audience or to capture them by rhetoric. Yet Villemain served
letters well, and, accepted as a master by the young critics of the
_Globe_, he prepared the way for Sainte-Beuve.
While such criticism as that of Villemain was maintained by Saint-Marc
Girardin (1801-73), professor of French poetry at the Sorbonne, the
dogmatic or doctrinaire school of criticism was represented with rare
ability by DESIRE NISARD (1806-88). His capital work, the _Histoire
de la Litterature Francaise_, the labour of many years, is
distinguished by a magisterial application of ideas to the decision
of literary questions. Criticism with Nisard is not a natural history
of minds, nor a study of historical developments, so much as the
judgment of literary art in the light of reason. He confronts each
book on which he pronounces judgment with that ideal of its species
which he has formed in his own mind: he compares it with the ideal
of the genius of France, which attains its highest ends rather through
discipline than through freedom; he compares it with the ideal of
the French language; finally, he compares it with the ideal of
humanity as seen in the best literature of the world. According to
the result of the comparison he delivers condemnation or awards the
crown. In French literature, at its best, he perceives a marvellous
equilibrium of the faculties under the control of reason; it applies
general ideas to life; it avoids individual caprice; it dreads the
chimeras of imagination; it is eminently rational; it embodies ideas
in just and measured form. Such literature Nisard found in the great
age of Louis XIV. Certain gains there may have been in the eighteenth
century, but these gains were more than counterbalanced by losses.
To disprove the saying that there is no disputing about tastes, to
establish an order and a hierarchy in letters, to regulate
intellectual pleasures, was Nisard's aim; but in attempting to
constitute an exact science founded upon general principles, he too
often derived those principles from the attractions and repulsions
of his individual taste. Criticism retrograded in his hands; yet,
in retrograding, it took up a strong position: the influence of such
a teacher was not untimely when facile sympathies required the
guidance or the check of a director.
The admirable critic of the romantic school, CHARLES-AUGUSTIN
SAINTE-BEUVE (1804-69), developed, as time went on, into the great
critic of the naturalistic method. In his _Tableau de la Poesie
Francaise au XVIe Siecle_ he found ancestors for the romantic poets
as much older than the ancestors of classical art in France as Ronsard
is older than Malherbe. Wandering endlessly from author to author
in his _Portraits Litteraires_ and _Portraits Contemporains_, he
studied in all its details what we may term the physiology of each.
The long research of spirits connected with his most sustained work,
_Port-Royal_, led him to recognise certain types or families under
which the various minds of men can be grouped and classified. During
a quarter of a century he investigated, distinguished, defined in
the vast collection of little monographs which form the _Causeries
du Lundt_ and the _Nouveaux Lundis_. They formed, as it were, a natural
history of intellects and temperaments; they established a new method,
and illustrated that method by a multitude of examples.
Never was there a more mobile spirit; but he was as exact and
sure-footed as he was mobile. When we have allowed for certain
personal jealousies or hostilities, and for an excessive attraction
towards what may be called the morbid anatomy of minds, we may give
our confidence with scarcely a limit to the psychologist critic
Sainte-Beuve. Poet, novelist, student of medicine, sceptic, believer,
socialist, imperialist--he traversed every region of ideas; as soon
as he understood each position he was free to leave it behind. He
did not pretend to reduce criticism to a science; he hoped that at
length, as the result of numberless observations, something like a
science might come into existence. Meanwhile he would cultivate the
relative and distrust the absolute. He would study literary products
through the persons of their authors; he would examine each detail;
he would inquire into the physical characteristics of the subject
of his investigation; view him through his ancestry and among his
kinsfolk; observe him in the process of education; discover him among
his friends and contemporaries; note the moment when his genius first
unfolded itself; note the moment when it was first touched with decay;
approach him through admirers and disciples; approach him through
his antagonists or those whom he repelled; and at last, if that were
possible, find some illuminating word which resumes the results of
a completed study. There is no "code Sainte-Beuve" by which off-hand
to pronounce literary judgments; a method of Sainte-Beuve there is,
and it is the method which has best served the study of literature
in the nineteenth century.
* * * * *
Here this survey of a wide field finds its limit. The course of French
literature since 1850 may be studied in current criticism; it does
not yet come within the scope of literary history. The product of
these years has been manifold and great; their literary importance
is attested by the names--among many others--of Leconte de Lisle,
Sully Prudhomme, Verlaine, in non-dramatic poetry; of Augier and the
younger Dumas in the theatre; of Flaubert, Edmond and Jules de
Goncourt, Zola, Daudet, Bourget, Pierre Loti, Anatole France, in
fiction; of Taine and Renan in historical study and criticism; of
Fromentin in the criticism of art; of Scherer, Brunetiere, Faguet,
Lemaitre, in the criticism of literature.
The dominant fact, if we discern it aright, has been the scientific
influence, turning poetry from romantic egoism to objective art,
directing the novel and the drama to naturalism and to the study of
social environments, informing history and criticism with the spirit
of curiosity, and prompting research for laws of evolution. Whether
the spiritualist tendency observable at the present moment be a
symptom of languor and fatigue, or the indication of a new moral energy,
future years will determine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following notes are designed as an indication of some books which
may be useful to students.
Of the many Histories of French Literature the fullest and most
trustworthy is that at present in course of publication under the
editorship of M. Petit de Julleville, _Histoire de la Langue et de
la Litterature francaise_ (A. Colin et Cie.). M. Lanson's _Histoire
de la Litterature francaise_ should be in the hands of every student,
and this may be supplemented by M. Lintilhac's _Litterature
francaise_ (2 vols.).
The works of Mr. Saintsbury, Geruzez, Demogeot, are widely known,
and have proved useful during many years. Much may be learnt and learnt
pleasantly from Paul Albert's volumes on the literature of the
sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Two
volumes out of five of M. Charles Gidel's _Histoire de la Litterature
francaise_ (Lemerre) are occupied with literature from 1815 to 1886.
M. Hermann Pergamini's _Histoire generale de la Litterature
francaise_ (Alcan) sometimes gives fresh and interesting views. For
a short school history by an accomplished scholar, none is better
than M. Petit de Julleville's _Histoire de la Litterature francaise_,
which, in 555 pages, packs a great deal of information. The _Histoire
elementaire de la Litterature francaise_, by M. Jean Fleury, has been
popular; it tells much of the contents of great books, and makes no
assumption that the reader is already acquainted with them. Dr.
Warren's _A Primer of French Literature_ (Heath, Boston, U.S.A.) is
well proportioned and well arranged, but it has room for little more
than names, dates, and the briefest characterisations. Dr. Wells's
_Modern French Literature_ (Roberts, Boston, U.S.A.) sketches French
literature to Chateaubriand, and treats with considerable fulness
the literature from Chateaubriand and Mme. de Stael to the present
time. For the present century M. G. Pellissier's _Le Mouvement
litteraire au XIXe Siecle_ is valuable.
Of elder histories that by Nisard is by far the most distinguished,
the work of a scholar and a thinker. (See the final section of the
present volume.)
The student will find Merlet's _Etudes litteraires sur les Classiques
francais_ (2 vols.), revised and enlarged by M. Lintilhac, highly
instructive; the second volume is wholly occupied with Corneille,
Racine, and Moliere.
For the history of the French theatre the best introduction is M.
Petit de Julleville's _Le Theatre en France_; it may be supplemented
by M. Brunetiere's _Les Epoques du Theatre francais_. Learning wide
and exact, and original thought, characterise all the work of M.
Brunetiere; each of his many volumes should be searched by the student
for what he may need. The studies of M. Faguet on the writers of the
sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries are the
work of a critic who is penetrating in his psychological study of
authors, and who, just or unjust, is always suggestive. For numberless
little monographs the student may turn to Sainte-Beuve. Monographs
on a larger scale will be found in the admirable series of _Grands
Ecrivains francais_ (Hachette); the _Classiques populaires_ (Lecene,
Oudin et Cie.) are in some instances no less scholarly. The writings
of Scherer, of M. Jules Lemaitre, and of M. Anatole France are
especially valuable on nineteenth-century literature. The best study
of French historical literature is Professor Flint's _The Philosophy
of History_ (1893).
Provided with such books as these the student will hardly need the
general histories of French literature by German writers. I may name
Prof. Bornhak's _Geschichte der Franzosischen Literatur_, and the
more popular history by Engel (4th ed., 1897). Lotheissen's
_Geschichte der Franzosischen Literatur im XVII. Jahrhundert_ seems
to me the best book on the period. The monographs in German are
numberless.
The editions of authors in the _Grands Ecrivains de la France_ are
of the highest authority. The best anthology of French poetry is
Crepet's _Les Poetes francais_ (4 vols.). Small anthologies of French
poetry since the fifteenth century, and of French lyrical poets of
the nineteenth century, are published by Lemerre.
The list which follows is taken partly from books which I have used
in writing this volume, partly from the Bibliography in M. Lintilhac's
_Histoire de la Litterature francaise_. To name English writers and
books seems unnecessary.
THE MIDDLE AGES
_Histoire litteraire de la France_ (a vast repertory on mediaeval
literature).
GASTON PARIS. _La Litterature francaise au moyen Age_. 1890.
AUBERTIN. _Hist. de la Langue et de la Litt. francaises au moyen Age_.
2 vols. 1883.
G. PARIS. _La Poesie du moyen Age_. 2 vols. 1887.
LEON GAUTIER. _Les Epopees francaises_. 2nd edition. 4 vols. 1878-94.
J. BEDIER. _Les Fabliaux, Etudes de Litt. populaire et d'Histoire
litt. du moyen Age_. 1895.
L. SUDRE. _Les Sources du Roman de Renart_. 1893.
LENIENT. _La Satire en France au moyen Age_. 1883.
E. LANGLOIS. _Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose_. 1890.
A. DEBIDOUR. _Les Chroniqueurs_. 2 vols. 1892. (_Classiques
populaires_.)
A. JEANROY. _Les Origines de la Poesie lyrique en France_. 1889.
CLEDAT. _Rutebeuf_. 1891. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
MARY DARMESTETER. _Froissart_. 1894. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
A. SARRADIN. _Eustache Deschamps_. 1879.
C. BEAUFILS. _Etude sur la Vie et les Poesies de Charles d'Orleans_.
1861.
A. CAMPAUX. _Francois Villon_. 1859.
A. LONGNON. _Etude biographique sur. Fr. Villon_. 1877.
LECOY DE LA MARCHE. _La Chaire fr. au moyen Age_. 1886.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE. _Les Mysteres_. 2 vols. 1880.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE. _Les Comediens en Fr. au moyen Age_. 1885.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE. _La Comedie et les Moeurs en France au moyen
Age_. 1886.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE. _Repertoire du Theatre comique en France au moyen
Age_. 1885.
FAGUET. _XVIe Siecle_. 1894. (On Commines.)
MERLET. _Etudes litt._ (On Villehardouin, Froissart, Commines.)
Edited by Lintilhac. 1894.
L. CLEDAT. _La Poesie du moyen Age_. 1893. (_Classiques populaires_.)
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
A. DARMESTETER ET A. HATZFELD. _Le XVIe Siecle en France_. 1878.
FAGUET. _XVIe Siecle_. 1894.
SAINTE-BEUVE. _Tableau historique et critique de la Poesie fr. au
XVIe Siecle_.
L. FEUGERE. _Caracteres et Portraits litt. du XVIe Siecle_. 1859.
EGGER. _L'Hellenisme en France_. 1869.
FAGUET. _La Tragedie fr. au XVIe Siecle_. 1883.
E. CHASLES. _La Comedie en France au XVIe Siecle_. 1862.
E. BOURCIEZ. _Les Moeurs polies et la Litt. de Cour sous Henri II._
1886.
P. STAPFER. _Rabelais_. 1889.
R. MILLET. _Rabelais_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. GEBHART. _Rabelais, la Renaissance et la Reforme_. 1895.
HAAG ET BORDIER. _La France protestante_. 2nd edition. (Vols. i.-vi.
have appeared.)
F. BUNGENER. _Calvin, sa Vie, son OEuvre et ses Ecrits_. 1862.
A. BIRSCH-HIRSCHFELD. _Geschichte der Franzosischen Litteratur,
seit Anfang des XVI. Jahrhunderts_. Erster Band: _Das Zeitalter der
Renaissance_. 1889.
EBERT. _Entwickelungs-Geschichte der Fr. Tragodie, vornamlich im XVI.
Jahrhundert_. 1856.
F. GODEFROY. _Histoire de la Litt. fr. depuis le XVIe Siecle jusqu'a
nos Jours_. 1878.
G. MERLET. _Les grands Ecrivains du XVIe Siecle_. 1875.
C. LENIENT. _La Satire en France, ou la Litt. militante au XVIe Siecle_.
1886.
E. COUGNY. _Guillaume du Vair_. 1857.
A. SAYOUS. _Etudes litt. sur les Ecrivains fr. de la Reformation_.
1854.
A. VINET. _Moralistes des XVIe et XVIIe Siecles_. 1859.
P. STAPFER. _Montaigne_. 1895. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
P. BONNEFON. _Montaigne, l'Homme et l'OEuvre_. 1893.
SAINT-MARC GIRARDIN. _Tableau de la Litt. fr. au XVIe Siecle_. 1862.
CH. NORMAND. _Monluc_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
G. BIZOS. _Ronsard_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
GERUZEZ. _Essais d'Histoire litt._ 1853.
P. MORILLOT. _Discours sur la Vie et les OEuvres d'Agrippa d'Aubigne_.
1884.
H. PERGAMINI. _La Satire au XVIe Siecle et les Tragiques d'Agrippa
d'Aubigne_. 1881.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
F. LOTHEISSEN. _Geschichte der Franzosischen Litteratur im XVII.
Jahrhundert_. 2 vols. 1897.
A. DUPUY. _Histoire de la Litt. fr. au XVIIe Siecle_. 1892.
LE R. PERE G. LONGHAYE. _Histoire de la Litt. fr. au XVIIe Siecle_.
1895.
J. DEMOGEOT. _Tableau de la Litt. fr. au XVIIe Siecle avant Corneille
et Descartes_. 1859.
LE DUC DE BROGLIE. _Malherbe_. 1897. (_Grands Ecrivains fr_.)
V. COUSIN. _La Societe fr. au XVIIe Siecle_. 1858.
V. COUSIN. _Mme. de Sable_. 1882.
V. COUSIN. _Jacqueline Pascal_. 1878.
V. COUSIN. _La Jeunesse de Mme. de Longueville_. 1853.
V. COUSIN. _Mme. de Longueville et la Fronde_. 1859.
G. LARROUMET. Introduction to edition of _Les Precieuses ridicules_.
1884.
A. LE BRETON. _Le Roman au XVIIe Siecle_. 1890.
SAINTE-BEUVE. _Portraits de Femmes_. 1855.
A. BOURGOIN. _Valentin Conrart_. 1883.
A. BOURGOIN. _Les Maitres de la Critique au XVIIe Siecle_. 1889.
PELLISSON ET D'OLIVET. _Histoire de l'Academie fr._ 2 vols. 1858.
E. ROY. _Etude sur Charles Sorel_. 1893.
P. MORILLOT. _Scarron et le Genre burlesque_. 1888.
P. MORILLOT. _Le Roman en France depuis 1610 jusqu'a nos Jours_.
A. FOUILLEE. _Descartes_. 1893. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
F. BOUILLIER. _Histoire de la Philosophie cartesienne_. 2 vols. 1868.
E. RIGAL. _Alexandre Hardy et le Theatre fr._ 1889.
E. RIGAL. _Esquisse d'une Histoire des Theatres de Paris de 1548 a
1635_. 1887.
GUIZOT. _Corneille et son Temps_. 1880.
G. REYNIER. _Thomas Corneille, sa Vie et son Theatre_. 1892.
P. MONCEAUX. _Racine_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
SAINTE-BEUVE. _Port-Royal_. 7 vols. 1888.
E. DESCHANEL. _Le Romantisme des Classiques_. 1883.
P. STAPFER. _Racine et Victor Hugo_. 1887.
G. LARROUMET. _La Comedie de Moliere_. 1889.
H. DURAND. _Moliere_. 1889. (_Classiques populaires_.)
MAHRENHOLTZ. _Molieres Leben und Werke_. 1881.
V. FOURNEL. _Le Theatre au XVIIe Siecle: la Comedie_. 1888.
H. RIGAULT. _Hist. de la Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes_. 1856.
P. MORILLOT. _Boileau_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
G. LANSON. _Boileau_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
G. LAFENESTRE. _La Fontaine_. 1895. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
H. TAINE. _La Fontaine et ses Fables_. 1879.
PREVOST-PARADOL. _Les Moralistes fr._ 1865.
P. JANET. _Les Passions et les Caracteres dans la Litt. du XVIIe
Siecle_. 1888.
PELLISSON. _La Bruyere_. 1892. (_Classiques populaires_.)
JACQUINET. _Des Predicateurs du XVIIe Siecle avant Bossuet_. 1863.
G. LANSON. _Bossuet_. 1891. (_Classiques populaires_.)
A. FEUGERE. _Bourdaloue, sa Predication et son Temps_. 1874.
LEHANNEUR. _Mascaron_. 1878.
L'ABBE FABRE. _Flechier orateur_. 1885.
L'ABBE BAYLE. _Massillon_ 1867.
G. BIZOS. _Fenelon_. 1887. (_Classiques populaires_.)
P. JANET. _Fenelon_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
R. VALLERY RADOT. _Mme. de Sevigne_. 1888. (_Classiques
populaires_.)
G. BOISSIER. _Mme. de Sevigne_. 1887. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
CTE. D'HAUSSONVILLE. _Mme. de la Fayette_. 1891. (_Grands Ecrivains
fr._)
G. BOISSIER. _Saint-Simon_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
J. BOURDEAU. _La Rochefoucauld_. 1895. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
H. HETTNER. _Literaturgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts:
Zweiter Theil_. 1872.
VILLEMAIN. _Tableau de la Litt. au XVIIIe Siecle_. 4 vols. 1841.
DE BARANTE. _Tableau de la Litt. fr. au XVIIIe Siecle_. 1856.
BERSOT. _Etudes sur le XVIIIe Siecle_. 1852.
VINET. _Hist. de la Litt. fr. au XVIIIe Siecle_. 1853.
J. BARNI. _Hist. des Idees morales et politiques en France au XVIIIe
Siecle_. 1865.
CARO. _La Fin du XVIIIe Siecle_. 1881.
TAINE. _Les Origines de la France contemporaine_. 1882. (Vol. i.)
A. SOREL. _Montesquieu_. 1889. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
H. LEBASTEUR. _Buffon_. 1888. (_Classiques populaires_.)
M. PALEOLOGUE. _Vauvenargues_. 1890. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
G. DESNOIRESTERRES. _Voltaire et la Societe au XVIIIe Siecle_. 8 vols.
1871-76.
E. FAGUET. _Voltaire_. 1895. (_Classiques populaires_.)
A. CHUQUET. _J.-J. Rousseau_. 1893. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
H. BEAUDOUIN. _La Vie et les OEuvres de J.-J. Rousseau_. 1871.
SAINT-MARC GIRARDIN. _J.-J. Rousseau, sa Vie et ses Ouvrages_. 2 vols.
1875.
CH. LENIENT. _La Comedie en France au XVIIIe Siecle_. 2 vols. 1888.
E. LINTILHAC. _Lesage_. 1893. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. LINTILHAC. _Beaumarchais et ses Ouvres_. 1887.
A. HALLAYS. _Beaumarchais_. 1897. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
LEO CLARETIE. _Essai sur Lesage romancier_. 1890.
LEO CLARETIE. _Florian_. 1888. (_Classiques populaires_.)
G. LARROUMET. _Marivaux, sa Vie et ses OEuvres_. 1882.
J. REINACH. _Diderot_. 1894. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
J. BERTRAND. _D'Alembert_. 1889. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
L. SAY. _Turgot_. 1889. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
REVOLUTION AND NINETEENTH CENTURY
E. GERUZEZ. _Hist. de la Litt. fr. pendant la Revolution_. 1881.
E. ROUSSE. _Mirabeau_. 1891. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
DE LESCURE. _Rivarol et la Societe fr. pendant la Revolution et
l'Emigration_. 1883.
DE LESCURE. _Bernardin de Saint-Pierre_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
DE LESCURE. _Chateaubriand_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
G. MERLET. _Tableau de la Litt. fr._ 1800-1815. 1883.
ARVEDE BARINE. _Bernardin de Saint-Pierre_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains
fr._)
SAINTE-BEUVE. _Chateaubriand et son Groupe litt._ 2 vols. 1889.
A. BARDOUX. _Chateaubriand_. 1893. (_Classiques populaires_.)
A. SOREL. _Mme. de Stael_. 1893. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
G. BRANDES. _Die Hauptstromungen der Litteratur des 19 Jahrhundert_.
Vol. v. 1894.
E. FAGUET. _Politiques et Moralistes du XIXe Siecle_. 1891.
G. PELLISSIER. _Le Mouvement litteraire au XIXe Siecle_. 1893.
TH. GAUTIER. _Histoire de Romantisme_. 1874.
E. ROD. _Lamartine_. 1893. (_Classiques populaires_.)
E. DESCHANEL. _Lamartine_. 2 vols. 1893.
E. BIRE. _Victor Hugo avant_ 1830. 1883.
E. DUPUY. _V. Hugo, l'Homme et le Poete_. 1887.
M. PALEOLOGUE. _Alfred de Vigny_. 1891. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
DORISON. _Alfred de Vigny, Poete et Philosophe_. 1892.
A. BARINE. _Alfred de Musset_. 1893. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
A. CLAVEAU. _Alfred de Musset_. (_Classiques populaires_.)
M. DU CAMP. _Theophile Gautier_. 1890. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
G. COGORDAN. _Joseph de Maistre_. 1894. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. SPULLER. _Lamennais, sa Vie et ses OEuvres_. 1893.
J. SIMON. _Victor Cousin_. 1887. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. CARO. _George Sand_. 1887. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. ROD. _Stendhal_. 1892. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
F. CORREARD. _Michelet_. 1887. (_Classiques populaires_.)
P. DE REMUSAT. _Thiers_. 1889. (_Grands Ecrivains fr._)
E. ZEVORT. _Thiers_. 1892. (_Classiques populaires_.)
A. FILON. _Merimee et ses Amis_. 1894.
BRUNETIERE. _L'Evolution de la Poesie lyrique en France au XIXe
Siecle_. 2 vols. 1894.
INDEX
Abondance, Jean d', 75
Adam de la Halle, 26, 27, 72
Alarcon, 167
Alberic de Briancon, 17
_Alexis, Vie de Saint_, 4
_Amadis des Gaules_, 23, 92
_Amis et Amiles_, 12
Amyot, Jacques, 96-97
Andrieux, 336
Anne of Austria, 201
Argenson, Marquis d', 304 _note_
Armentieres, Peronne d', 59
Arnauld, Antoine, 153, 156-157, 184, 185, 215
Arnauld, Jacqueline, 155
Arnault, 335
Arouet, _see_ Voltaire
Aubigne, Agrippa d', 112, 113, 115, 117-119
_Aucassin et Nicolette_, 22
Aulnoy, Mme. d', 243
Auvergne, Martial d', 63
Baif, Antoine de, 98, 103
Ballanche, 357
Baltus, 245
Balzac, Guez de, 149-150, 177
Balzac, Honore de, 404-408
Baour-Lormian, 336, 337
Barante, 412
Barbier, Auguste, 391
Barbieri, Nicolo, 198
_Barlaam et Joasaph_, 5
Barnave, 339
Baron, 207, 229, 262
Bartas, Du, 117
Barthelemy, Abbe, 329
Basoche, La, 76
Bassompierre, 239
Batteux, Charles, 306
Baude, Henri, 63
Bayle, Pierre, 245-247
Beaulieu, Geoffroy de, 51
Beaumarchais, 265, 323-325
Bejart, Armande, 200
Bejart, Madeleine, 198
Bellay, Jean du, 88
Bellay, Joachim du, 98, 99, 100, 104-105
Belleau, Remi, 98, 103-104
Benedictines, the, 254
Benoit de Sainte-More, 15
Benserade, 140, 208
Beranger, J.-P. de, 366-367
Bercuire, Pierre, 46
Bernard, 258
Bernard, Saint, 44
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, 272, 325-329
Bernay, Alexandre de, 16
Bernis, 258
Beroul, 19
Bertaut, Jean, 106
Bertin, 258
Beyle, Henri, 366, 398-399
Beze, Theodore de, 94, 107
Bichat, 341
_Bien-Avise, Mal-Avise_, 72
Blanc, Louis, 412
Blois, Gui de, 54
Bodel, Jean, 67
Bodin, Jean, 111
Boetie, La, 96, 122
Boileau, Nicolas, 183-189, 241, 242
Boisguillebert, 304
Boissonade, J.-F., 354
Bolingbroke, 284
Bonald, Vicomte de, 357
Bonnet, Charles, 302 _note_
Bossuet, Jacques-Benigne, 139, 153, 202, 219-226, 233, 276
Bouillon, Duchesse de, 190, 191, 214
Bounin, Gabriel, 107
Bourdaloue, 202, 227
Boursault, 207
Brantome, 113-114
Bretel, Jacques, 26
Brizeux, Auguste, 391
Buchanan, 106
Bude, Guillaume, 82, 87
Buffon, 308-310, 327
Bunbury, Lydia, 373
Bussy-Rabutin, 176, 179
Cabanis, 301
Calas, Jean, 287
Calvin, Jean, 92-94
Campan, Mme. de, 253
Campistron, 259
Camus, Bishop, 132, 141
Cantillon, 305
Cato, Angelo, 56
Caumartin, de, 283
Caumartin, Mme. de, 176
Caylus, Count de, 329
Caylus, Mme. de, 253
_Cent Nouvelles nouvelles_, 66
Chamfort, 322
Chapelain, Jean, 141, 147, 149, 162, 177, 186
Chapelle, 153, 184, 192
Charles, Mme., 368
Charron, Pierre, 126-127
Chartier, Alain, 60-61
Chastelain, Georges, 65
Chateaubriand, 328, 343, 348-353
Chatelain de Couci, the, 27
Chatelet, Mme. du, 285, 286
Chaulieu, 256
Chenedolle, 337
Chenier, Andre, 329-331, 338
Chenier, Marie-Joseph, 335, 337
Chesterfield, Lord, 275
Chrestien, 116
Chretien de Troyes, 17, 21
Christine de Pisan, 60
Clari, Robert de, 49
Clermont, Mlle. de, 275
Collin d'Harleville, 336
Commines, Philippe de, 55-57
Comte, Auguste, 255, 360-361
Condillac, 301
Condorcet, 255, 303-304
Confrerie de la Passion, 68, 71, 160
Conon de Bethune, 27
Conrart, Valentin, 147
Constant, Benjamin, 345, 411
Coquillard, 63
Coras, 214
Corneille, Pierre, 139, 163-170, 204
Corneille, Thomas, 171-172, 206
Cotin, 186, 205
Coulanges, Abbe de, 177
Coulanges, Mme. de, 179
Courier, Paul-Louis, 354-355
Cousin Victor, 358-359
Crebillon, P. J. de, 259-260
Cretin, 65
Creuse de Lesser, 337
Cuvier, 341
_Cuvier, Le_, 75
Cyrano de Bergerac, 145-146, 197
Dacier, Mme., 243
D'Aguesseau, 299
D'Alembert, 254, 295
Danchet, 259
Dancourt, 262
Dangeau, 239
Daniel, 254
_Danse Macabre_, 63
Danton, 338, 339
Daubenton, 309
Daunou, 411
Daurat, Jean, 98
_Debats, Journal de_, 338
De Belloy, 261
De Broglie, 412
_Decade Philosophique_, 338
De Feletz, 342
Deffand, Mme. du, 253, 322
Deforis, 221
Delatouche, 401
Delavigne, Casimir, 395
Delille, 257-258
Desaugiers, 336
Desbordes-Valmore, Mme., 391
Descartes, Rene, 150-153
Deschamps, Antony, 366
Deschamps, Emile, 366
Desfontaines, 300
Desmarets de St.-Sorlin, 141, 142, 144, 197, 241
Des-Masures, Loys, 107
Desmoulins, Camille, 338
Desportes, Philippe, 105-106, 137
Despreaux, _see_ Boileau
Destouches, 263
Diderot, Denis, 254, 265, 272, 294-299, 302, 313
Digulleville, Guillaume de, 43
Dollinger, 180
Dorat, 258
Dubos, Abbe, 305
Duche, 259
Ducis, 261
Duclos, 253
Dudevant, Mme., _see_ Sand, George
Dufresny, 262, 274
Dumas, Alexandre, 394, 397
Dumont, Abbe, 370
Dupont de Nemours, 304
Duplessis-Mornay, 115
Du Ryer, 162, 170
Dussault, 342
Duval, 336
_Eneas_, 16
Enfants san Souci, 74, 76
Epinay, Mme. d', 253, 314
Estienne, Henri, 101 _note_, 110, 115
Estissac, Geoffroy d', 87
Estoile, Pierre de l', 114 _note_
Etienne, 336
Fabre d'Eglantine, 336
Fantosme, Jordan, 47
Fauchet, Claude, 110
Fauriel, 341
Fayette, Mme. de la, 174, 179, 180-182
Fenelon, 153, 230-234
Flechier, 140, 228
Fleury, 225
_Floovent_, 8
Florian, 259, 272
Fontanes, 337, 349
Fontenelle, 242, 243-245
Foucher, Adele, 375
Fougeres, Etienne de, 42
Foulechat, Denis, 46
Fouquet, 190, 200
Fourier, 359
Fournival, Richard de, 41
_Franc-Archer de Bagnolet_, 74
Francis I., 82
Frederick the Great, 286, 288
Freron, 300
Froissart, Jean, 53-55
Furetiere, Antoine, 145, 211
Gace Brule, 27
Gaimar, 47
Gaime, Abbe, 312
Galiani, 254, 305
Galland, 274
Garnier, Robert, 108
Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, 6, 47
Gassendi, Pierre, 153
Gautier, Theophile, 365, 387-390, 392
Gautier de Coinci, 6
Gelee, Jacquemart, 31
_Gens Nouveaux_, 74
Geoffrin, Mme., 254
Geoffroi of Brittany, 28
Geoffroy, 342
Gerson, 44, 45
Gilbert, 258-259, 300
Gillot, 116
Ginguene, 341, 411
Girardin, M. de, 315
Girardin, Saint-Marc, 425
Godeau, 139
Goethe, 297, 345
Gombault, 142
Gomberville, 142
Gournay, 305
Gournay, Mlle. de, 123
_Grandes Chroniques_, 50
Greban, Arnoul, 69
Greban, Simon, 69
Grecourt, 258
Gresset, 258, 260, 263
Grevin, 107
Grignan, Mme. de, 178
Grimm, Melchior, 307
Gringoire, Pierre, 74
_Griselidis, Histoire de_, 68
Guenee, Abbe, 300
Guevara, 267
Guillaume le Clerc, 42
_Guillaume le Marechal, Vie de_, 47
_Guirlande de Julie_, 140
Guizot, Francois, 412, 414-416
Guyon, Mme., 224, 230
Hamilton, Anthony, 256
Hardouin, 254
Hardy, Alexandre, 161
Helgaire, 8
Helvetius, 301
Henault, 261
Henri le Glichezare, 30
Herberay des Essarts, 92
Hoffman, 342
Holbach, Baron d', 302
Hospital, Michel de l', 100, 115
Hotman, Francois, 114
Houdetot, Mme. d', 314, 318
Huet, 242
Hugo, Victor, 365, 375-383, 391-393, 396
Hume, David, 315
Jacot de Forest, 16
Jansen, 156
Jeannin, President, 114 _note_
Jehan de Thuin, 16
Jobelins, 140
Jodelle, 98, 103, 107
Joinville, Jean de, 50-52
Joubert, Joseph, 342-343, 349
Jouffroy, Theodore, 359
La Barre, 288
Labe, Louise, 97
La Beaumelle, 179
Laboureur, Louis le, 141
La Bruyere, 235-238, 242
La Calprenede, 142, 143
Lacordaire, 357, 358
La Fare, 256
La Fontaine, Jean de, 189-195
La Fosse, 259
Lagrange, 302
La Grange-Chancel, 259
Laharpe, 261, 306-307
_La Haye, Fragment of_, 9
Lally, Count, 288
Lamarck, 341
Lamartine, Alphonse de, 329, 367-371
Lambert, Marquise de, 254, 269
Lambert le Tort, 16
Lamennais, 357-358
La Mettrie, 300-301
Lamoignon, de, 202
La Motte-Houdart, 243, 256, 260
Languet, Hubert, 114
Lanoue, 113
Laplace, 341
Larivey, Pierre de, 109
La Rochefoucauld, 173-175, 181, 182
Latini, Brunetto, 41
Laya, Louis, 336
Le Bel, Jean, 53
Lebrun, Ecouchard, 258, 337
Le Clerc, 214
Lecomte, Valleran, 160
Lefranc de Pompignan, 256
Lefranc, Martin, 62
Legouais, Chretien, 17, 58
Legouve, 335
Le Maire de Belges, Jean, 84
Lemercier, Nepomucene, 336, 337
Lemierre, 258, 260
Lemoyne, 141
_L'Empereur qui tua son Neveu_, 73
Leroy, Pierre, 116
Lesage, 262, 266-268
Lespinasse, Mlle. de, 254, 322
Letourneur, 261
Le Vasseur, Therese, 313
Lille, Alain de, 37
Lorens, Friar, 41
Lorris, Guillaume de, 34-36
Lyonne, Abbe de, 266
Mably, 255
Machaut, Guillaume de, 59
Maillard, Olivier, 45
Maine de Biran, 341
Maintenon, Mme. de, 118, 145, 179-180, 216, 217
Mairet, Jean de, 162, 165, 196
Maistre, Joseph de, 355-356
Maistre, Xavier de, 409
Malebranche, Nicolas de, 153
Malherbe, Francois de, 100, 106, 134-136, 331
Mallet du Pin, 338
Marbode, Bishop, 41
Marguerite of Navarre, 82-84
Marguerite of Navarre (wife of Henri IV.), 114
Marie de France, 20, 28
Marivaux, 262, 269-271
Marmontel, 253, 260, 272, 300, 305-306
Marnix de Ste. Aldegonde, 115
Mascaron, 228
Massillon, J.-B., 228, 229
Maupertuis, 286
Maynard, 136
Melin de Saint-Gelais, 86, 105
Menage, 177, 205
_Menagier de Paris_, 41 _note_
Mendoza, 267
Menot, Michel, 45
Mercier, 265
Meri, Huon de, 43
Merimee, Prosper, 396, 408-410
Meschinot, 65
Meun, Jean de, 36-39
Mezeray, 225
Michaud, 411
Michel, Jean, 69
Michelet, Jules, 412, 418-422
Mignet, Francois, 412, 416
Millevoye, 337
Mirabeau, 339-340
Mirabeau (the elder), 281, 305
_Miracles de Notre-Dame_, 68
Moliere, Jean-Baptiste, 146, 169, 197-206
Molinet, 65
Monluc, Blaize de, 112-113
Monstrelet, 55
Montaigne, Michel de, 121-126
Montalembert, 357, 358, 412
Montchrestien, Antoine de, 120, 160
Montesquieu, 57, 111, 255, 273-280
Montfleury, 207
Montpensier, Mlle. de, 176, 235
Montreuil, Jean de, 46
Moreau, Hegesippe, 391
Morellet, 300, 305
Morelly, 255
Mornay, Mme. de, 113
Mothe le Vayer, la, 153
Motteville, Mme. de, 176
Muret, 106
Musset, Alfred de, 383-387
Naigeon, 302
Namur, Robert of, 54
Nangis, Guillaume de, 51
Napoleon I., 340
Napoleon III., 369
Navagero, 105
Nerval, Gerard de, 388, 391
Nevers, Duc de, 214
Nicole, 156, 178, 208, 209, 215
Ninon, 183
Nisard, Desire, 425-426
Nivart of Ghent, 30
Nivelle de la Chaussee, 264
Nodier, Charles, 366, 409
Novare, Philippe de, 41
Ogier, Francois, 162
Oresme, Nicole, 46
Orleans, Charles d', 61-62
Orleans, Duchess of, 180, 212
Ossat, d', 114 _note_
Ouville, d', 196
Ozanam, 412
Palissot, 300
Palissy, Bernard, 119
Pare, Ambroise, 119
Parny, 258
_Partenopeus de Blois_, 22
Pascal, Blaise, 154-159
Pasquier, Estienne, 110
Passerat, Jean, 106, 116
_Pathelin, La Farce de_, 66, 75-76
_Pelerinage de Jerusalem_, 11
Pellisson, 148
Perier, Mme., 158
Periers, Bonaventure des, 84, 91
Perrault, Charles, 241-242, 243
Perron, du, 115
Physiocrats, the, 304
Picard, 336
Piron, 258, 260, 263, 300
Pithou, 116
Pixerecourt, 336
Pomponne, 179
Ponsard, 395
Popeliniere, L. de la, 112
Poquelin. _See_ Moliere
Port-Royal, 155, 252
Pradon, 214
Presles, Raoul de, 46
Prevost, Abbe, 271-272
Proudhon, Pierre Joseph, 361-362
Provins, Guiot de, 42
Quesnay, Francois, 304, 305
Quinault, Philippe, 169, 204, 206, 207-208
Quinet, Edgar, 412, 422-423
_Quinze Joies de Mariage_, 66
Rabelais, Francois, 87-91
Racan, 136
Racine, Jean, 172, 208-218
Racine, Louis, 257
Rambouillet, Hotel de, 139
Ramee, Pierre de la, 111
Ramond, 321 _note_
Raoul de Houdan, 43
Rapin, 116
Raynal, Abbe, 321-322
Rayounard, 336, 341
Recamier, Mme., 352
_Recits d'un Menestrel de Reims_, 50
Regnard, 262
Regnier, Mathurin, 136-138
_Renard, Roman de_, 29
_Representation d'Adam_, 67
Restif de la Bretonne, 272
Retz, Cardinal de, 175-176
Riccoboni, Mme., 270 _note_
Richelieu, 147, 162, 176
Rivarol, 338
Robert de Boron, 21, 22
Rocca, Albert de, 347
Rohan, Chevalier de, 284
Rojas, 106
Roland, Mme., 253, 254, 322
_Roland, Song of_, 9-11
Rollin, 300
Romulus, 28 _note_
Ronsard, Pierre de, 97-103
Rotrou, Jean, 162, 170-171, 196
Roucher, 257
Rouget de Lisle, 337
Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste, 256, 283
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 272, 311-321, 327
Roye, Jean de, 55
Royer-Collard, 341
Rutebeuf, 42, 43
Sable, Mme. de, 173
Sabliere, Mme. de, 192
Sacy, de, 156
Sagon, 85
Saint-Amand, 144
Saint-Cyran, 156
Sainte-Beuve, 330, 365, 366, 391, 426-427
Saint-Evremond, 139, 183, 197, 209
Saint-Just, 339
Saint-Lambert, 257
Saint-Martin, 355, 357
Saint-Pierre, Abbe de, 304
Saint-Simon, Claude-Henri de, 359-360
Saint-Simon, Duc de, 238-241
Sales, Francois de, 131-132
Salle, Antoine de la, 65-66
Sand, George, 400-404
Sandeau, Jules, 401
Sannazaro, 103
Saurin, Bernard-Joseph, 261
Saurin, Jacques, 228
Scarron, Paul, 145, 197
Sceve, Maurice, 97
Schelandre, Jean de, 162
Schiller, 345
Schlegel, A. W. von, 346
Scribe, Eugene, 395
Scudery, Georges de, 142, 162, 163, 165, 170
Scudery, Mlle. de, 92, 142, 143
Sebonde, Raimond de, 122
Secchi, 199
Sedaine, 265
Segrais, 181, 213, 235
Senancourt, 341-342
Serres, Olivier de, 119, 132
Serviteur, Le Loyal, 112 _note_
Sevigne, Mme. de, 143, 177-179, 191, 210
Simon, Richard, 220, 224, 225
Sirven, 288
Sismondi, 411-412
Sorel, Charles, 144, 268
Soulie, Frederic, 394
Soyecourt, Marquis de, 200
Staal-Delaunay, Mme. de, 253
Stael, Mme. de, 343-348
Steinhoewel, 28
Stendhal. _See_ Beyle
_Strasburg Oaths_, 4
Suard, 338
Sue, Eugene, 397
Sully, Maurice de, 44
Surgeres, Helene de, 101
Tabarin, 196
Taille, Jacques de la, 107
Taille, Jean de la, 108, 109
Tedbalt, 4
Tencin, Mme. de, 245
Thaon, Philippe de, 40
_Thebes, Romance of_, 15
_Theophile_, 68
Thibaut de Champagne, 27
Thierry, Augustin, 412-414
Thiers, Adolphe, 412, 417-418
Thomas (Anglo-Norman poet), 19
Thomas, A.-L., 306, 327
Thou, De, 112
Thyard, Pontus de, 98
Tocqueville, A. de, 412, 416-417
_Tour-Landry, Livre du Chevalier de la_, 41 _note_
Touroude, 10
Tracy, Destutt de, 301
Tristan l'Hermite, 162, 170
Turgot, 255
Turnebe, Odet de, 109
Uranistes, 140
Urfe, Honore d', 92, 132-134
Vair, Guillaume de, 120, 127, 134
Valenciennes, Henri de, 49
Valliere, Louise de la, 221
Van Dale, 244
Vauban, 304
Vaugelas, 148
Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, Jean, 106
Vauvenargues, 281-282
Vaux, Mme. Clothilde de, 360
Velly, 254
Vergniaud, 339
Vertot, 254
Viau, Theophile de, 138
Vigny, Alfred de, 365, 371-374, 394, 396
Villehardouin, Geoffroy de, 48
Villemain, 424
Villon, Francois, 63-65, 74
Vincent de Paul, St., 221
Viole, Mlle. de, 104
_Violette, Roman de la_, 22
Viret, 94
Vivonne, Catherine de, 139
Voiture, Vincent, 139, 140-141
Volland, Mlle., 298
Volney, 303
Voltaire, 229, 253, 255, 260, 272, 282-293, 314
Wace, 20, 47
Walpole, Horace, 322
Warens, Mme. de, 311, 312, 318
Wenceslas, Duke, 54
THE END
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co.
at Paul's Work, Edinburgh
Short Histories of the Literatures of the World
EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE, LL.D.
Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each Volume
ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE
By Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, M.A.
FRENCH LITERATURE
By Prof. EDWARD DOWDEN, D.C.L., LL.D.
MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE
By the EDITOR
ITALIAN LITERATURE
By RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D.
SPANISH LITERATURE
By JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY
JAPANESE LITERATURE
By WILLIAM GEORGE ASTON, C.M.G., D.Lit.
BOHEMIAN LITERATURE
By THE COUNT LUTZOW, D.Litt., D.Ph.
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
By Prof. A. A. MACDONELL, M.A.
HUNGARIAN LITERATURE
By Dr. RIEDL
AMERICAN LITERATURE
By Prof. W. P. TRENT
RUSSIAN LITERATURE
By K. WALISZEWSKI
CHINESE LITERATURE
By Prof. A. GILES
ARABIC LITERATURE
By C. HUART
GERMAN LITERATURE
By CALVIN THOMAS, LL.D.
_In preparation_
LATIN LITERATURE
By MARCUS DIMSDALE, M.A.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_All rights reserved_
End of Project Gutenberg's A History of French Literature, by Edward Dowden