Chapter 17
6. 3. PIPEUR, one who whistles in imitation of birds ; _je congnois pipeur qui jargonne, I know the tricks of the bird-catcher_. 4. FOLZ NOURRIZ DE CRESME, refers perhaps to the pampered court jesters. 7. MULLET, _mulet_. 10. GECT, a counter for counting and adding (_qui nombre et somme_). 12. BOESMES, _Bohemians_; _la faults des Boesmes_ is the heresy of the followers of John Huss (1369- 1415) and Jerome of Prague (1375-1416). 16. COULEREZ ET BLESMES = _teints colorés et blêmes_»
CLEMENT MAROT.
1497-1544.
He abandoned the law to live at court and write verses. After his first successes, he became page in the household of Marguerite of Navarre, and continued to enjoy her protection and that of her brother, Francis I., though this could not save him, when accused of heresy because of the welcome that he gave to the ideas of the Reformation, from the necessity of twice fleeing to Italy for safety. In spite of some deeper notes and in spite of his translation of the first fifty Psalms, which is used in French Protestant churches, he was by no means a religious reformer. He was essentially a court poet, putting into graceful verse, ballades, rondeaux, epistles, epigrams, etc., the trifles, jests, sallies, and elegant badinage that delighted courtly society.
Works: _l'Adolescence Clémentine_, 1532; _Oeuvres de Clément Marot_, Lyon, 1538; _Trente Psaumes de David_, 1541; _Cinquante Psaumes de David_, 1543 ; _les Oeuvres de Clément Marot_, Lyon, 1544; _Oeuvres complètes de Clément Marot_, par M. Guiffrey, 1876-81 (only part has appeared); _Oeuvres complètes_, par P. Jannet, 4 vols., 1868-72; _Oeuvres choisies_, par E. Voizard, 1890.
For reference: E. Scherer, _Études littéraires sur la littérature contemporaine_, vol. viii; Emile Faguet, _le Seizième siècle_, 1893; H. Morley, _C. Marot and other studies_, London, 1871.
RONDEAU. For the form see the remarks on versification.
20. SE DEMENOIT, _expressed itself_. 21. C'ESTOIT DONNÉ TOUTE LA TERRE RONDE, i.e. it was as if one had given. 23. "They loved each other for the heart alone."
24. SI A JOUIR ON VENOIT, _if one's love was returned_. 25. s'entretenoit, _kept faith_.
7 2. FEINCTS, _feints_. OYT, from _ouïr_. 3. Qui = _si quelqu'un_. ME FONDE, _rely_.
PIERRE DE RONSARD.
1524-1585.
The greatest French poet of the Renaissance, he entered the household of the Duke of Orleans at the age of ten, spent three years as page of James V. of Scotland, and traveled much about Europe on various embassies. At eighteen, attacked by deafness, he withdrew to the college of Coqueret and was won to poetry by study of the ancients. It was then that a common love for the classical literatures and a common zeal for imitating their beauties in French bound him to the other young men who with him called themselves the Pleiad and set themselves to the task of renewing French literature in the image of the literatures of antiquity. In 1550, the year after the appearance of the manifesto of the young school, the _Défense et Illustration de la langue française_ of du Bellay, he published a volume of odes. His fame was instant and immense; he returned in glory to court, and for forty years the authority of his example was hardly questioned. His talent was exercised in almost all kinds of verse, chansons, sonnets, elegies, eclogues, hymns, epistles, and even in the epic, where, however, his experiment, _la Franciade_, was a complete failure, abandoned when but four of the proposed twelve cantos were finished. But his genius was essentially lyric. The ode was his special contribution to French verse; in it he followed the classical form with its divisions into strophe, antistrophe, and epode, sometimes in direct imitation of Pindar, Anacreon, Theocritus, or Horace. His best work is that in which he freed himself most fully from the influence of a model. His deepest and truest note's are those that celebrate the pleasures of this life, the delights of nature, and the inevitable "cold obstruction" of death.
Works: _Odes_ and _Bocage_, 1550; _Amours_, _Odes_, book v, 1552, 1553; _Hymnes_, 1555, book ii, 1556; _Meslanges_, 1555, book ii, 1559; _Oeuvres_ (_Amours, Odes, Poèmes, Hymnes_), 4 vols., 1560; _Oeuvres_, i vol., 1584; recent editions are _Oeuvres complètes_, par P. Blanchemain, 8 vols., 1857-67 (_Bibliothèque elzévirienne_); par Marty-Laveaux, 6 vols., 1887 ff.; _Oeuvres choisies_, avec notice de Sainte-Beuve, I vol.
For reference: Excellent biographical study by Marty-Laveaux in his edition of the works; Émile Faguet, _le Seizième siècle_, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xii.
7. A CASSANDRE. 8. DESCLOSE, _opened_. 10. A POINT PERDU; _ne_ was not, and still is not always, required in the question; cf. 164, 22. VESPREE = _soir_; cf. _vêpre_. 13. LAS, _hélas_. 20. FLEURONNE= _fleurit_.
8. CHANSON. 27. AMOUR, _Cupid_. 1. CHENEVIERE = _chanvre_. 3. MY-NUD, _half naked_. 19. FOL LE PELICAN; cf. for another use of this popular notion about the pelican the famous picture in the _Nuit de mai_ of Alfred de Musset, 150, 12 _ff_. A HÉLÈNE. 26. OYANT, from _ouïr_. 27. DESJA, _déjà_. 29. BENISSANT VOSTRE NOM, etc., i.e. congratulating you on being immortalized by the poet's praise.
9. 2. OMBRES MYRTEUX, _shadows of the myrtles_. ÉLÉGIE. 8. VENDEMOIS, one of the old divisions of France, on the Loire. It was the birth-place of Ronsard. 10. REMORS; has here rather the sense of regret. 13. AGEZ, _agés_ the spelling _-ez_ for _-és_ was usual. 22. CHEF = _tête_. 23. DE RECHEF = _de nouveau_. 24. PERRUQUE = _chevelure_. 26. VERDS, _strong, supple_.
10. DIEU VOUS GARD. 7. GARD, the form of the present subjunctive regularly descended from the Latin subjunctive in verbs of the first conjugation. The ending _e_, added later, is due to analogy. 8. VISTES ARONDELLES, _vites_ (_rapides_) _hirondelles_. 10. TOURTRES = _tourterelles_. 12. VERDELETS, _verts_; such diminutives were quite in favor in the language of the time; cf. _rossignolet, nouvelet, fleurettes_. 15. BOUTONS JADIS COGNUS, etc., i.e. the hyacinth and the narcissus. 29. AU PRIX DE, _in comparison with_.
11. A UN AUBESPIN. 6. LAMBRUNCHE, _a wild vine_. 10. PERTUIS, _holes_. 12. AVETTES = _abeilles_. 30. RUER = _jeter_.
12. ÉLÉGIE CONTRE LES BÛCHERONS DE LA FORÊT DE GASTINE. Cf. the poem by Laprade, p. 192. Gastine is in Haut-Poitou, in the present department of Deux-Sèvres. 14. PERSÉ, _percé_. 15. MASTIN, _mâtin_. 21. PANS, used by Ronsard in the plural as if he thought them a kind of being, like Satyrs. 22. FANS, now written _faons_, but still pronounced as if spelled _fans_. 24. PREMIER, used adverbially. 26. ESTONNER in the older language expressed a physical shock; to _stun_. 28. NEUVAINE, composed of nine. TROPE, _troupe_; the nine muses. Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, and Euterpe the muse of music and lyric poetry.
13. 3. ALTEREZ, BRUSLEZ, ETHEREZ, see note on _agez_, 9, 13. 8. DORDONEENS, referring to the forest of Dordona, in Epirus, where oracles were rendered from oak trees. According to Greek traditions the first men lived on acorns and raw flesh. 16. ET QU'EN CHANGEANT DE FORME, etc., _and that it will change its form and put on a new one_.
JOACHIM DU BELLAY.
1525-1560.
After Ronsard the foremost poet of the Pleiad. He was of an illustrious family, but, cut off from a brilliant public career by ill health and deafness, he sought consolation in letters. He even preceded Ronsard in inaugurating the literary reform, issuing the manifesto of the new movement, his _Défense et Illustration de la langue française_, his collection of sonnets called _Olive_, and a _Recueil de poésies_, all in 1549. Shortly afterwards he accompanied his cousin, Cardinal du Bellay, to Rome; the admiration which the historic associations of the city excited in him and his disgust at the intrigues of the court and the corruptions of Italian life, mingled with homesickness for the pleasant sights and quiet air of his native Anjou, inspired the two collections of sonnets which are his best, the _Antiquités romaines_, translated by Spenser in 1591, and the _Regrets_.
Works: _Olive_, _Recueil de poésies_, 1549; _Premier livre des antiquités de Rome_, 1558; _Jeux rustiques_, 1558; _les Regrets_, 1559 ; _Oeuvres_, 1569. Recent editions are : Oeuvres complètes, par Marty-Laveaux, 2 vols., 1866-67; _Oeuvres choisies_, par Becq de Fouquières, 1876.
For reference: Léon Séché, _Joachim du Bellay_, 1880; E. Faguet, _le Seizième siècle_, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. xiii; Walter Pater, _The Renaissance_, London, 1873.
13. L'IDÉAL. This is from the first collection of sonnets, _Olive_. The influence of Petrarch is evident. Compare also the lines of the sestet with the final stanzas of Lamartine's _Isolement_, p. 65. 22. En 1'eternel = _dans l'éternité_.
14. L'AMOUR DU CLOCHER. From the _Regrets_. 8. cestuy, old form of demonstrative, _celui_. The reference is of course to Jason. 9. USAGE, _experience_. 11. QUAND REVERRAY-JE, etc., cf. Homer's Odyssey, I, 58. 18. LOYRE, the name of the river is now feminine. 19. LIRÉ, a little village in Anjou, was the birth-place of du Bellay. D'UN VANNEUR DE BLÉ AUX VENTS. From the collection entitled _Jeux rustiques_.
15. 8. CESTE, cette. 10. J'AHANNE = je me fatigue.
AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNÉ.
1550-1630.
Soldier as well as poet, he was a leader of the Huguenots in the wars that ended with the accession of Henry IV. After the assassination of Henry IV., his safety became more and more threatened in France, and he withdrew finally to Geneva. His main work is a long descriptive and narrative poem, but in many parts essentially lyrical, _les Tragiques_, a fierce picture of France in the civil wars. In his lyrics, which comprise _stances, odes_, and _élégies_, he is a follower of the tradition of Ronsard.
Works: _Les Tragiques_, 1616; a recent edition is by L. Lalanne, 1857; also in the _Oeuvres complètes_, par MM. Reaume et de Caussade, 4 vols., 1873-77.
For reference: Pergameni, _la Satire au seizième siècle et les Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubignê_, 1881; E. Faguet, _le Seizième siècle_, 1893.
15. L'HYVER. 14. IRONDELLES, _hirondelles_. 19. N'ESLOIGNE, _ne s'éloigne de_.
16. 2. COMME IL FIT, i.e. _comme il alluma des flammes_. 10. SEREINES, _sirènes_. 14. USAGE, _fruition_.
JEAN BERTAUT.
1552-1611.
A man by no means of the poetic stature of Ronsard, du Bellay, and D'Aubigné; he found great favor in his day, but his lyric note was not powerful enough to endure long. He is most successful in the graceful expression of a natural melancholy, as in the example here given. He was a follower, in moderation, of the Pleiad.
Works : _Recueil des oeuvres poétiques de J. Bertaut_, l601; appeared again enlarged in 1605 ; _Recueil de quelques vers amoureux_, 1602 : both collections are included in _Oeuvres poétiques_, 1620; a recent edition is edited by A. Chenevière, 1891 (_Bibliothèque elzévirienne_). CHANSON. 27. DEMEURE, _delay_.
17. 4. FAY, _fais_.
23. VOY, _vois_.
25. VY, _vis_.
MATHURIN REGNIER.
1573-1613.
Though bred to the church and early settled in a good living, he led a life that was hardly edifying. He possessed brilliant talents, but failed to make the most of them. He was indolent and fond of good living, and was restive under discipline, as is evident in his work and in his irritation at Malherbe. He had a gift of keen observation, and his satires excelled in interest what he composed in the more lyrical forms of ode and elegy.
Works : _Oeuvres_, 1608, 1612 ; recent editions are those of Viollet le Duc, 1853 (_Bibliothèque elzévirienne_), and E. Courbet, 1875.
For reference : J. Vianey, _Mathurin Régnier_, 1896.
FRANÇOIS DE MALHERBE.
1555-1628.
He marks an epoch in the history of French letters. Boileau's famous phrase, "enfin Malherbe vint," dates from him the beginning of worthy French poetry. What did begin with him was that tradition of refinement, elegance, polish and perfect propriety of phrase that continued to rule French literature for two centuries. He lent the influence of a very positive voice to the growing demand for a standard of authority in grammar and versification and for recognized canons of criticism. The lyrical impulse in him was small, but some of his lines live in virtue of the finished propriety and harmony of expression.
Works: _Oeuvres_, 1628; the best edition is that of L. Lalanne, 5 vols., 1862-69 {_Collection des Grands Écrivains_).
For reference: G. Allais, _Malherbe_, 1891; F. Brunot, _la Doctrine de Malherbe_, 1891; F. Brunetière, _l'Évolution des genres_, vol. i, 1890; _Études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française_, vol. v, 1893.
21. CONSOLATION À M. DU PÉRIER. 5. TITHON, Tithonus, who obtained from the gods immortality but not eternal youth. After age had completely wasted and shriveled him he was changed into a grasshopper. 6. PLUTON, Pluto, god of the nether world, the abode of the dead. 8. ARCHÉMORE, Archemorus or Opheltes, son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, died in infancy from the bite of a serpent.
22. I. FRANÇOIS, Francis I.; his oldest son, Francis, born in 1517, died suddenly in 1526, and Charles V. was suspected of having had him poisoned, and dire vengeance was wreaked upon the person of Sebastian de Montecuculli, cupbearer of Charles V. The suspicions proved to be wholly groundless. 5. ALCIDE, Alcides, by which name Hercules was known till he consulted the oracle of Delphi. 9. LA DURANCE, a river in southwestern France, flowing into the Rhone below Avignon. After beginning an agressive campaign in this part of France in the summer of 1536, the Spaniards were in September forced to a disastrous retreat. 13. DE MOI, _for my own part_; Malherbe had lost his first two children, Henry in 1587 and Jourdaine in 1599. 27. LOUVRE; the palace of the Louvre, begun in 1541 by Francis
I. on the site of a royal château built by Philip Augustus, and added to by his successors, was a royal residence until the Revolution.
23. CHANSON. 20. en sa liberté, i.e. free from her pursuit. PARAPHRASE DU PSAUME CXLV. This is Psalm CXLVI in our English Bible.
JEAN RACINE.
1639-1699.
A dramatic genius of the highest order. But besides being a great dramatist he was a consummate master of language. The choruses in Esther and Athalie are excellent examples of the kind of lyric that the tendencies represented by Malherbe permitted. The extract here given is from Esther, Act III. The approach to the language of the Psalms is evident throughout.
JEAN-BAPTISTE ROUSSEAU.
1670-1741.
The chief representative of the serious lyric in the eighteenth century. This ode is a favorable example of the form which lyric utterance assumed in this philosophizing century and under the tradition of poetic dignity and propriety.
27. ODE À LA FORTUNE. 16. SYLLA (138-78 B.C.), the enemy of Marius and author of the bloody proscription against the adherents of his rival. 17. ALEXANDRE, Alexander the Great. 18. ATTILA, king of the Huns from 434 to 453, who ravaged southern and western Europe from 450 to 452 and was known as "the scourge of God."
28. 16. LE RETOUR, i.e. the adverse turn.
ÉVARISTE-DÉSIRÉ DESFORGES DE PARNY.
1753-1814.
He wrote mostly in a lighter and erotic vein. He had many admirers in his day who styled him the French Tibullus. His influence is perceptible in the style of Lamartine.
Works: _Poésies érotiques_, 1778; _Opuscules poétiques_, 1779, enlarged in succeeding editions; _les Rosicroix_, 1807; _Oeuvres_, 5 vols., 1808; _Oeuvres choisies_, 1827.
For reference : Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xv; _Portraits contemporains_, vol. iv; George Saintsbury, _Miscellaneous Essays_, London, 1892.
NICOLAS GILBERT.
1751-1780.
He has often been compared with Chatterton and has owed much of his fame to the unfounded legend that he was a child of genius brought to an untimely death by poverty and lack of recognition. His satires on the vices of his time enjoyed a temporary reputation, but his real legacy to posterity is the well-known lines here given.
Works: _Oeuvres complètes_, 1788, and frequently thereafter.
ROUGET DE L'ISLE.
1760-1836.
Though he wrote much in both prose and verse, nothing of his lives except the _Marseillaise_, which has become the national song of France. He composed both words and music in the night of April 25, 1792, while he was an officer of engineers at Strassburg. The last stanza vas added later by another hand. The name, _la Marseillaise_, comes from the fact that it was introduced to Paris by the troops from Marseilles.
Works: _Essais en vers et en prose_, 1796.
For reference: J. Tiersot, _Rouget de l'Isle, son oeuvre, sa vie_, 1892.
32. LA MARSEILLAISE. 6. Beuillé, François-Claude Amour, marquis de (1739-1800), a devoted royalist, who planned the flight of Louis XVI. When the king was captured at Varennes he fled to England, where he died.
MARIE-ANDRÉ CHÉNIER.
1762-1794.
The most genuine poet of the eighteenth century. Born at Constantinople of a Greek mother, he knew Greek early and fed himself on the Greek poets, imbibing something of their spirit. His elegies, idyls, and odes are not mere repetitions of the conventional commonplaces, but new, original, and vigorous in idea and expression. He anticipated the Romanticists in breaking over the received rules of versification and in giving greater flexibility and variety to the Alexandrine line.
Works : _Poésies_, first published by H. de Latouche, 1819; later editions are by Becq de Fouquières, 1862 and 1872; G. de Chénier, with new material, 3 vols., 1874; by Louis Moland, 2 vols., 1878-79.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits littéraires_, vol. i; _Portraits contemporains_, vols, ii and v; _Causeries du lundi_, vol. iv; _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. iii; E. Faguet, _le Dix- huitième siècle_, 1890; E. Caro, _la Fin du dix-huitième siècle_, vol. ii, 1882; J. Haraszti, _la Poésie d'André Chénier_, 1892.
32. LA JEUNE CAPTIVE. This, as well as the _Iambes_ following, was written in the Saint-Lazare prison shortly before Chénier was sent to the guillotine. The young captive was Mlle. Aimée de Coigny; she escaped the guillotine and afterwards married M. de Montrond; she died in 1820.
33. 18. PHILOMÈLE; Philomela was daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Pursued by Tereus, king of Thrace, she was changed into a nightingale. The name is frequently employed in poetry for the nightingale.
34. 16. PALÈS, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds.
35. IAMBES. 23. BAVUS, a conventional name; it is not clear who was in the poet's mind.
MARIE-JOSEPH CHENIER.
1764-1811.
A younger brother of André Chénier, enjoyed a great reputation as a dramatic poet and critic. Aside from the _Chant du départ_, which had a reputation approaching that of the _Marseillaise_, he is hardly to be considered as a lyric poet.
Works: _Oeuvres complètes_, 8 vols., 1823-1826; _Poésies_, 1844.
37. LE CHANT du DÉPART. 9. De BARRA, DE VIALA; Agricole Viala and François-Joseph Barra (properly Bara) were both young boys, thirteen and fourteen years of age, who fell fighting with the revolutionary armies, the former in the Vendée, the latter near Avignon. To both the Convention voted the honors of burial in the Pantheon. Their names are often coupled, as here.
ANTOINE-VINCENT ARNAULT.
1766-1834.
He wrote a number of tragedies and a collection of fables that were admired in their day, but his name is best preserved for the larger public by this brief elegy, which is found in most anthologies. The circumstances attending its composition, on the eve of his departure from France after his banishment in January, 1816, are related by Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. vii, in the course of his notice of Arnault, which should be consulted.
FRANÇOIS-RENÉ, VICOMTE DE CHAUTEAUBRIAND.
1768-1848.
An enormous literary force at the beginning of this century; M. E. Faguet calls him the "greatest date in French letters since the Pleiad." But the instrument of his power was prose. His attempts in verse were poor. Yet he exercised a direct influence towards the renewal of lyric poetry, as has been indicated in the introduction.
For reference: E. Faguet, _Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle_, 1887 ; F. Brunetière, _l'Évolution de la poésie lyrique au dix-neuvième siècle_, vol. i, 1894.
39. LE MONTAGNARD EXILÉ. Introduced into the prose tale, _le Dernier des Abencérages_ (1807). "J'en avais composé les paroles pour un air des montagnes d'Auvergne remarquable par sa douceur et sa simplicité." (Author's note.) 24. la Dore, a rapid stream in the department Puy- de-Dôme, flowing into the Allier. 27. l'airain, i.e. the bell.
MARIE-ANTOINE DÉSAUGIERS.
1772-1827.
He represents a domain of the lyric that has always been industriously tilled in France, that of the chanson. The tradition of the song is distinctly bacchanalian, and rarely has it claimed serious consideration as literature. But Désaugiers now and then foreshadows the larger and more serious treatment the _chanson_ was to receive at the hands of Béranger and Dupont.
Works: _Chansons et Poésies diverses_, 3 vols., 1808-1816; a _Choix de chansons_ appeared in 1858; another in 1859, and others since.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains_, vol. v; George Saintsbury, _Miscellaneous Essays_, London, 1892.
CHARLES NODIER.
1780-1844.
Promoted the romantic movement by his personal contact with the group of young writers that he drew around him more than by what he himself wrote. He was one of those who felt and transmitted the influence of Germany. He is better known by his stories than by his verse.
Works : _Essais d'un jeune barde_, 1804 ; _Poésies diverses_, 1827.
For reference : Mme. Mennessier-Nodier, _Charles Nodier, épisodes et souvenirs de sa vie_, 1867 ; Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits littéraires_, vol. i.
PIERRE-JEAN DE BÉRANGER.
1780-1857.
The first in rank of the _chansonniers_. The chanson in his hands took on a breadth, a meaning, and a seriousness that it had never before possessed, and that make him secure of a place in the literature of his country. He used the song largely as a vehicle for his political opinions, even as a political weapon. The object of his attack was the monarchy of the restoration and the pre-revolutionary ideas which it tried to revive, and his weapon was formidable because it was so well fitted to be caught up and wielded by the masses of the people. Béranger was popular in the more original sense of the word. He appealed to the masses by his ideas, which were those of the average man, and by the form which he gave them and the efficient aid of the current airs to which he wedded them, so that his words not only reached the ears of an audience far wider than that of the readers of books, but found a lodgment in their memories. Works: The successive collections of _Chansons_ appeared in 1815, 1821, 1825, 1828, 1833; _Oevres posthumes_, and _Oeuvres complètes_, 2 vols., 1857.
For reference: Saint-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains_, vol. i; _Causeries du lundi_, vols, ii, xv; _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. i; E. Caro, _Poètes et romanciers_, 1888; C. Coquelin in _The Century_, vol. xxiv, with portraits.
43. LE ROI D'YVETOT (May, 1813) is perhaps the most famous of his songs. Yvetot is a small town in Normandy, near Havre. The lords of Yvetot were given the title of king in the fifteenth century. The reference of the song to Napoleon is clear.
44. 11. BAN; _lever le ban_ means to call out one's vassals or subjects. 13. TIRER AU BLANC, to shoot at a target.
45. LE VILAIN. 30.LE LÉOPARD; the French heralds describe the device of the English coat of arms as a _lion léopardé_; so the French often use the leopard as a symbol for the English.