DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE.
CHIEF REPRESENTATIVES.
DATES.
TYPICAL WORKS.
SOME EFFECTS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Epic tales of Chivalry (Chansons de Geste)
Various Trouvères (mostly unknown)
Twelfth and thirteenth centuries
1. Romances of Charlemagne’s Paladins.
2. Romances of ancient heroes, _e.g._, _Roman de Troie_.
3. Romances of Arthur.
Allegorical Epic (Romans)
Mostly anonymous, but _Roman de la Rose_ begun by Guillaume de
Lorris and completed by Jean de Meung
Twelfth and thirteenth centuries
_Roman de Renart_ (_Reynard the Fox_), _Roman de la Rose._
Fabliaux
Generally anonymous
Twelfth and thirteenth centuries
These works and their like were practically as familiar to
the “reading public” of England as of France during the
pre-Chaucerian period, when French was the social, official,
and literary language. Some portions were contributed by
Anglo-Normans, _e.g._, Wace and Benoît de Sainte-More.
Chaucer began by translating and imitating from the French,
_e.g._, in his _Romance of the Rose_. His _Canterbury
Tales_ include a number of _fabliaux_, and also
borrowings from the _romans_. Gower is still more after
the same school. The _Romance of the Rose_ and other
allegories continued in vogue till the Renaissance.
The _Chansons de Geste_ exerted much influence on Italian
writers of romantic heroics (Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, etc.),
thence again affected England (through Spenser, etc.). The
_fabliaux_ were utilized by Boccaccio and the Italian
_novellieri_, and thence influenced Elizabethan novel and
drama.
Poetry: (Other than Drama)
Transition to Renaissance.
VILLON
1431-1500
Personal lyrics.
MAROT
1495-1544
Epistles, elegies, eclogues.
Marot and his followers, _e.g._, Saint-Gelais, were an
influence upon Wyatt, Spenser, etc. Spenser copies Marot
in eclogue.
(Till eighteenth century)
Pléiade reformers.
RONSARD
1524-1585
DU BELLAY
_ob._ 1560
Odes, sonnets
Spenser begins his poetical work by paraphrasing Du Bellay. The
school of Ronsard aided the Italian school in bringing the
so-called “classical” forms of verse into England.
Apostle of “correctness.”
MALHERBE
1556-1628
The influence of the doctrine of “correctness” on English
literature begins in the latter part of the seventeenth century,
and extends till late in the eighteenth. _See_ “Boileau” below.
VOITURE
1598-1648
SAINT-AMANT
1594-1660
Occasional verses, _vers de société_, bacchanalian verse.
Models for post-Restoration writers, _e.g._, Dorset, Sedley.
LA FONTAINE
1621-1695
_Fables_ and _Contes_
Influenced Dryden, Gay, Prior in similar compositions.
Legislator in poetic style.
BOILEAU
1636-1711
_L’Art Poétique_, satires, etc.
The authority of Boileau was almost as high in England as in
France. Pope, Addison, and the “correct” school generally follow
him. Pope’s _Essay on Criticism_ echoes Boileau.
Drama:
(_a_) Tragedy
CORNEILLE
1606-1684
_Cinna_, _Le Cid_, _Polyeucte_, etc.
RACINE
1639-1699
_Phèdre_, _Esther Attalie_, etc.
Effect of French dramatic principles appears with the re-opening
of theatres under Charles II. It is considered necessary to
recast Shakespeare, and an effort is made after the “unities.”
The “heroic plays” of Dryden’s time are due to a combination of
French tragedy with French romance (_e.g._, _Tyrannic Love_,
_Conquest of Granada_, etc.). Addison’s Cato is a full attempt
at “classical” drama in imitation of the French.
(_b_) Comedy
MOLIÈRE
1622-1673
_Le Misanthrope_, _Tartuffe_, _L’Avare_, etc.
French comedy was imitated, but debased, by Wycherley, Farquhar,
etc. Molière was much utilized by post-Restoration dramatists,
_e.g._, in Wycherley’s _Plain Dealer_ (= _Misanthrope_),
_Country Wife_ (= _L’École des Femmes_ + _L’École des
Maris_), Dryden’s _Sir Martin Mar-all_ (= _L’Elounis_).
Prose Fiction:
(_a_) Allegorical (satirical)
RABELAIS
1483-1553
_Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel._
Appreciably the precursor of Swift and Sterne.
(_b_) Heroic romances (of sentiment)
LA CALPRENÈDE
1602-1663
_Cléopâtre_, etc.
MLLE. DE SCUDÉRY
1607-1701
_Le Grand Cyrus_, etc.
These long and ranting works were translated into English and
were much read. They were imitated by Aphra Behn. Combined with
French “classical” tragedy they produced the English “heroic
plays,” _e.g._, Dryden’s _Secret Love_ (from the _Grand
Cyrus_) and Settle’s _Ibrahim_.
(_c_) Picaroon romances (adventures after Spanish models)
SCARRON
1610-1660
LESAGE
1668-1747
_Gil Blas_, _Le Diable Boiteux_
DUMAS (the elder)
1803-1870
_Three Musketeers_, etc.
This style was taken up in particular by Defoe, Fielding, and
Smollett. Of late there has been a recrudescence of Dumas in
minor English fiction.
(_d_) Character novel
MME. DE LA FAYETTE
1633-1693
_Zaide_, _Princesse de Clèves_
MARIVAUX
1688-1763
_Marianne_
BALZAC
1799-1850
Novels of the _Comédie Humaine_
Followed by Richardson (_Clarissa Harlowe_, etc.), who began
the vogue which has continued till the present.
Essays, moralizings, philosophy
MONTAIGNE
1533-1592
_Essais_
The first model of the “Essay” proper. Well known to
Elizabethans (Bacon, Shakespeare, etc.). Translated by Florio.
PASCAL
1623-1662
_Provincial Letters_, _Pensées_
DESCARTES
1596-1650
_Discours de la Méthode_
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
1613-1680
_Maxims_
LA BRUYÈRE
1639-1696
_Characters_
MONTESQUIEU
1689-1755
_Esprit des Lois_
VOLTAIRE
1694-1778
_Candide_, _Essai sur les Mœurs_, etc.
ROUSSEAU
1712-1778
_Contrat Social_, _Confessions_, etc.
CHATEAUBRIAND
1768-1848
_Génie du Christianisme_
COMTE
1798-1857
_Philosophie Positive._
All this literature was widely read and assimilated in England,
but precise effects can hardly be specified. Rousseau, however,
is the first to evoke the “Nature worship,” or the study of
natural influence upon the feelings, which becomes so prominent
in the English poetry of the early nineteenth century. The same
influence from Chateaubriand is seen in Byron.
Letter-writing
MME. DE SÉVIGNÉ
1627-1696
The model for English letter-writers of the eighteenth century,
Horace Walpole being the great exemplar for our own country.
The mock-correspondence of the _Spectator_ already shows
the vogue.
Literary Criticism
BOILEAU
1636-1711
(_See_ “Poetry”).
STE. BEUVE
1804-1869
_Portraits Littéraires_, _Causeries du Lundi_, etc.
Exponent of criticism based on wide knowledge of literature.
Matthew Arnold was his avowed disciple.
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