A Short History of French Literature Part 3

The language of these poems, as the extracts given will partly show, is neither poor in vocabulary, nor lacking in harmony of sound. It is indeed, more sonorous and stately than cla.s.sical French language was from the seventeenth century to the days of Victor Hugo, and abounds in picturesque terms which have since dropped out of use. The ma.s.sive castles of the baronage, with their ranges of marble steps leading up to the hall, where feasting is held by day and where the knights sleep at night, are often described. Dress is mentioned with peculiar lavishness.

Pelisses of ermine, ornaments of gold and silver, silken underclothing, seem to give the poets special pleasure in recording them. In no language are what have been called 'perpetual' epithets more usual, though the abundance of the recurring phrases prevents monotony. The 'clear countenances' of the ladies, the 'steely brands' of the knights, their 'marble palaces,' the 'flowing beard' of Charlemagne, the 'guileful tongue' of the traitors, are constant features of the verbal landscape. From so great a ma.s.s of poetry it would be vain in any s.p.a.ce here available to attempt to arrange specimen 'jewels five words long.'

But those who actually read the Chansons will be surprised at the abundance of fresh striking and poetic phrase.

[Sidenote: Later History.]

Before quitting the subject of the Chansons de Gestes, it may be well to give briefly their subsequent literary history. They were at first frequently re-edited, the tendency always being to increase their length, so that in some cases the latest versions extant run to thirty or forty thousand lines. As soon as this limit was reached, they began to be turned into prose, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries being the special period of this change. The art of printing came in time to a.s.sist the spread of these prose versions, and for some centuries they were almost the only form in which the Chansons de Gestes, under the general t.i.tle of romances of chivalry, were known. The verse originals remained for the most part in ma.n.u.script, but the prose romances gained an enduring circulation among the peasantry in France. From the seventeenth century their vogue was mainly restricted to this cla.s.s. But in the middle of the eighteenth the Comte de Tressan was induced to attempt their revival for the _Bibliotheque des Romans_. His versions were executed entirely in the spirit of the day, and did not render any of the characteristic features of the old Epics. But they drew attention to them, and by the end of the century, University Professors began to lecture on old French poetry. The exertions of M. Paulin Paris, of M.

Francisque Michel, and of some German scholars first brought about the re-editing of the Chansons in their original form about half a century ago; and since that time they have received steady attention, and a large number have been published--a number to which additions are yearly being made. Rather more than half the known total are now in print.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] _Gesta_ or _Geste_ has three senses: (_a_) the _deeds_ of a hero; (_b_) the _chronicle_ of those deeds; and (_c_) the _family_ which that chronicle ill.u.s.trates. The three chief gestes are those of the King, of Doon de Mayence, and of Garin de Montglane. Each of these is composed of many poems. Contrasted with these are the 'pet.i.tes gestes,' which include only a few Chansons.

[18] _La Chanson de Roland_, ed. Fr. Michel, Paris, 1837. The MS. is in the Bodleian Library (Digby 23). Another, of much later date in point of writing but representing the same text, exists at Venice. Of later versions there are six ma.n.u.scripts extant. The Chanson de Roland has since its _editio princeps_ been repeatedly re-edited, translated, and commented. The most exact edition is that of Prof. Stengel, Heilbronn, 1878, who has given the Bodleian Ma.n.u.script both in print and in photographic facsimile. The best for general use is that of Leon Gautier (seventh edition), 1877.

[19] Wace (Roman de Rou, iii. 8038 Andresen) speaks of the Norman Taillefer as singing at Hastings 'De Karlemaigne et de Rollant.' It has been sought, but perhaps fancifully, to identify this song with the existing _chanson_.

[20] 'Ci falt la geste que Turoldus declinet.' The sense of the word _declinet_ is quite uncertain, and the attempts made to identify Turoldus are futile.

[21] _Amis et Amiles_, ed. Hoffmann. Erlangen, 1852.

[22] This series is given, sometimes in whole, sometimes in extracts, by Dr. Jonckbloet, _Guillaume d'Orange_. The Hague, 1854.

[23] Ed. P. Paris. Paris, 1848.

[24] Ed. Boca. Valenciennes, 1841.

[25] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, 1877.

[26] Ed. Barrois. Paris, 1842.

[27] There exists a Provencal version of it, evidently translated from the French. The most convenient edition is that of Kroeber and Servois, Paris, 1860. There is an English fourteenth-century version published by Mr. Herrtage for the Early English Text Society, 1879.

[28] Published partially by MM. P. Paris and E. du Meril and by Herr Stengel.

[29] Ed. Le Glay. Paris, 1840.

[30] Ed. Michel. Paris, 1856.

[31] Ed. La Grange. Paris, 1864.

[32] Ed. Guessard. Paris, 1866.

[33] Ed. Guessard et Grandmaison. Paris, 1860.

[34] Ed. Michelant. Stuttgart, 1862.

[35] Ed. Michel. Paris, 1839.

[36] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, 1874.

[37] Ed. Pey. Paris, 1859.

[38] Ed. Tarbe. Rheims, 1850.

[39] Ed. Michel. London, 1836.

[40] It is very commonly said that this feature is confined to the later Chansons. This is scarcely the fact, unless by 'later' we are to understand all except _Roland_. In _Roland_ itself the presentment is by no means wholly complimentary.

[41] The Turoldus of _Roland_ has been already noticed. Of certain or tolerably certain authors, Graindor de Douai (revisions of the early crusading Chansons of 'Richard the Pilgrim,' _Antioche_, &c.), Jean de Flagy (_Garin_), Bodel (_Les Saisnes_), and Adenes le Roi, a fertile author or adapter of the thirteenth century, are the most noted.

[42] _Ferabras_ and _Betonnet d'Hanstone_. M. Paul Meyer has recently edited this latter poem under the t.i.tle of _Daurel et Beton_ (Paris, 1880). To these should be added a fragment, _Aigar et Maurin_, which seems to rank with _Girartz_.

[43] There has been some reaction of late years against the scepticism which questioned the 'Provencal Epic.' I cannot however say, though I admit a certain disqualification for judgment (see note at beginning of next chapter), that I see any valid reason for this reaction.

CHAPTER III.

PROVENcAL LITERATURE.

[Sidenote: Langue d'Oc.]

The Romance language, spoken in the country now called France, has two great divisions, the Langue d'Oc and the Langue d'Oil[44], which stand to one another in hardly more intimate relations.h.i.+p than the first of them does to Spanish or Italian. In strictness, the Langue d'Oc ought not to be called French at all, inasmuch as those who spoke it applied that term exclusively to Northern speech, calling their own Limousin, or Provencal, or Auvergnat. At the time, moreover, when Provencal literature flourished, the districts which contributed to it were in very loose relations.h.i.+p with the kingdom of France; and when that relations.h.i.+p was drawn tighter, Provencal literature began to wither and die. Yet it is not possible to avoid giving some sketch of the literary developments of Southern France in any history of French literature, as well because of the connection which subsisted between the two branches, as because of the altogether mistaken views which have been not unfrequently held as to that connection. Lord Macaulay[45] speaks of Provencal in the twelfth century as 'the only one of the vernacular languages of Europe which had yet been extensively employed for literary purposes;' and the ignorance of their older literature which, until a very recent period, distinguished Frenchmen has made it common for writers in France to speak of the Troubadours as their own literary ancestors. We have already seen that this supposition as applied to Epic poetry is entirely false; we shall see hereafter that, except as regards some lyrical developments, and those not the most characteristic, it is equally ill-grounded as to other kinds of composition. But the literature of the South is quite interesting enough in itself without borrowing what does not belong to it, and it exhibits not a few characteristics which were afterwards blended with those of the literature of the kingdom at large.

[Sidenote: Range and characteristics.]

The domain of the Langue d'Oc is included between two lines, the northernmost of which starts from the Atlantic coast at or about the Charente, follows the northern boundaries of the old provinces of Perigord, Limousin, Auvergne, and Dauphine, and overlaps Savoy and a small portion of Switzerland. The southern limit is formed by the Pyrenees, the Gulf of Lyons, and the Alps, while Catalonia is overlapped to the south-west just as Savoy is taken in on the north-east. This wide district gives room for not a few dialectic varieties with which we need not here busy ourselves. The general language is distinguished from northern French by the survival to a greater degree of the vowel character of Latin. The vocabulary is less dissolved and corroded by foreign influence, and the inflections remain more distinct. The result, as in Spanish and Italian, is a language more harmonious, softer, and more cunningly cadenced than northern French, but endowed with far less vigour, variety, and freshness. The separate development of the two tongues must have begun at a very early period. A few early monuments, such as the Pa.s.sion of Christ[46] and the Mystery of the Ten Virgins[47], contain mixed dialects. But the earliest piece of literature in pure Provencal is a.s.signed in its original form to the tenth century, and is entirely different from northern French[48]. It is arranged in _laisses_ and a.s.sonanced. The uniformity, however, of the terminations of Provencal makes the a.s.sonances more closely approach rhyme than is the case in northern poetry. Of the eleventh century the princ.i.p.al monuments are a few charters, a translation of part of St.

John's Gospel, and several religious pieces in prose and verse. Not till the extreme end of this century does the Troubadour begin to make himself heard. The earliest of these minstrels whose songs we possess is William IX, Count of Poitiers. With him Provencal literature, properly so called, begins.

[Sidenote: Periods of Provencal Literature.]

The admirable historian of Provencal literature, Karl Bartsch, divides its products into three periods; the first reaching to the end of the eleventh century, and comprising the beginnings and experiments of the language as a literary medium; the second covering the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the most flouris.h.i.+ng time of the Troubadour poetry, and possessing also specimens of many other forms of literary composition; the third, the period of decadence, including the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and remarkable chiefly for some religious literature, and for the contests of the Toulouse school of poets. In a complete history of Provencal literature notice would also have to be taken of the fitful and spasmodic attempts of the last four centuries to restore the dialect to the rank of a literary language, attempts which have never been made with greater energy and success than in our own time[49], but which hardly call for notice here.

[Sidenote: First Period.]

The most remarkable works of the first period have been already alluded to. This period may possibly have produced original epics of the Chanson form, though, as has been pointed out, no indications of any such exist, except in the solitary instance of _Girartz de Rossilho_. The important poem of Auberi of Besancon on Alexander is lost, except the first hundred verses. It is thought to be the oldest vernacular poem on the subject, and is in a mixed dialect partaking of the forms both of north and south. Hymns, sometimes in mixed Latin and Provencal, sometimes entirely in the latter, are found early. A single prose monument remains in the shape of a fragmentary translation of the Gospel of St. John. But by far the most important example of this period is the _Boethius_. The poem, as we have it, extends to 238 decasyllabic verses arranged on the fas.h.i.+on of a Chanson de Geste, and dates from the eleventh century, or at latest from the beginning of the twelfth, but is thought to be a rehandling of another poem which may have been written nearly two centuries earlier. The narrative part of the work is a mere introduction, the bulk of it consisting of moral reflections taken from the _De Consolatione_.

[Sidenote: Second Period.]

It is only in the second period that Provencal literature becomes of real importance. The stimulus which brought it to perfection has been generally taken to be that of the crusades, aided by the great development of peaceful civilisation at home which Provence and Languedoc then saw. The spirit of chivalry rose and was diffused all over Europe at this time, and in some of its aspects it received a greater welcome in Provence than anywhere else. For the mystical, the adventurous, and other sides of the chivalrous character, we must look to the North, and especially to the Arthurian legends, and the Romans d'Aventures which they influenced. But, for what has been well called 'la pa.s.sion souveraine, aveugle, idolatre, qui eclipse tous les autres sentiments, qui dedaigne tous les devoirs, qui se moque de l'enfer et du ciel, qui absorbe et possede l'ame entiere[50],' we must come to the literature of the south of France. Pa.s.sion is indeed not the only motive of the Troubadours, but it is their favourite motive, and their most successful. The connection of this predominant instinct with the elaborate and unmatched attention to form which characterises them is a psychological question very interesting to discuss, but hardly suitable to these pages. It is sufficient here to say that these various motives and influences produced the Troubadours and their literature. This literature was chiefly lyrical in form, but also included many other kinds, of which a short account may be given.

_Girartz de Rossilho_ belongs in all probability to the earliest years of the period, though the only Provencal ma.n.u.script in existence dates from the end of the thirteenth century. In the third decade of the twelfth Guillem Bechada had written a poem on the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, which, however, has perished, though the northern cycle of the Chevalier au Cygne may represent it in part. Guillem of Poitiers also wrote a historical poem on the Crusades with similar ill fate. But the most famous of historical poems in Provencal has fortunately been preserved to us. This is the chronicle of the Albigensian War, written in Alexandrines by William of Tudela and an anonymous writer. We also possess a rhymed chronicle of the war of 1276-77 in Navarre, by Guillem Anelier. In connection with the Arthurian cycle there exists a Provencal Roman d'Aventures, ent.i.tled _Jaufre_. The testimony of Wolfram von Eschenbach would appear to be decisive as to the existence of a Provencal continuation of Chrestien's _Percevale_ by a certain Kiot or Guyot, but nothing more is known of this. _Blandin de Cornoalha_ is another existing romance, and so is the far more interesting _Flamenca_, a lively picture of manners dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. In shorter and slighter narrative poems Provencal is still less fruitful, though Raimon Vidal, Arnaut de Zurca.s.ses, and one or two other writers have left work of this kind. A very few narrative poems of a sacred character are also found, and vestiges of drama may be traced. But, as we have said, the real importance of the period consists in its lyrical poetry, the poetry of the Troubadours. The names of 460 separate poets are given, and 251 pieces have come down to us without the names of their writers. We have here no s.p.a.ce for dwelling on individual persons; it is sufficient to mention as the most celebrated Arnaut Daniel, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, Cercamon, Folquet de Ma.r.s.eilha, Gaucelm Faidit, Guillem of Poitiers, Guillem de Cabestanh, Guiraut de Borneilh, Guiraut Riquier, Jaufre Rudel, Marcabrun, Peire Cardenal, Peire Vidal, Peirol, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Sordel.

[Sidenote: Forms of Troubadour Poetry.]

The chief forms in which these poets exercised their ingenuity were as follows. The simplest and oldest was called simply _vers_; it had few artificial rules, was written in octosyllabic lines, and arranged in stanzas. From this was developed the _canso_, the most usual of Provencal forms. Here the rhymes were interlaced, and the alternation of masculine and feminine by degrees observed. The length of the lines varied. Both these forms were consecrated to love verse; the Sirvente, on the other hand, is panegyrical or satirical, its meaning being literally 'Song of Service.' It consisted for the most part of short stanzas, simply rhyme, and corresponding exactly to one another. The _planh_ or Complaint was a dirge or funeral song written generally in decasyllabics. The _tenson_ or debate is in dialogue form, and when there are more than two disputants is called _torneijamens_. The narrative Romance existed in Provencal as well as the _balada_ or three-stanza poem, usually with refrain. The _retroensa_ is a longer refrain poem of later date, but in neither is the return of the same rhyme in each stanza necessarily observed, as in the French _ballade_.