A Short History of French Literature Part 5

Bien s'iert sor l'espee tenuz, Qui plus estoit tranchanz que fauz, As mains nues et si deschauz Que il ne s'est lessiez an pie Souler ne chauce n'avanpie.

De ce gueres ne s'esmaioit S'es mains et es piez se plaioit; Mialz se voloit-il mahaignier Que cheoir el pont et baignier An l'eve dont james n'issist.

A la grant dolor con li sist S'an pa.s.se outre et a grant destrece: Mains et genolz et piez se blece.

Mes tot le rasoage et sainne Amors qui le conduist et mainne: Si li estoit a sofrir dolz.

A mains, a piez et a genolz Fet tant que de l'autre part vient.

[Sidenote: Romances of Antiquity. Chanson d'Alixandre.]

About the same time as the flouris.h.i.+ng of the Arthurian cycle there began to be written the third great division of Jean Bodel, 'la matiere de Rome la grant[55].' The most important beyond all question of the poems which go to make up this cycle (as it is sometimes called, though in reality its members are quite independent one of the other) is the Romance of _Alixandre_. Of the earliest French poem on this subject only a few fragments exist. This is supposed to have been a work of the eleventh or very early twelfth century, composed in octosyllabic verses, and in the mixed dialect common at the time in the south-east, by Alberic or Auberi of Besancon or Briancon. The _Chanson d'Alixandre_ is, however, in all probability a much more important work than Alberic's.

It is in form a regular Chanson de Geste, written in twelve-syllabled verse, of such strength and grace that the term Alexandrine has cleaved ever since to the metre. Its length, as we have it[56], is 22,606 verses, and it is a.s.signed to two authors, Lambert the Short[57] and Alexander of Bernay, though doubt has been expressed whether any of the present poem is due to Lambert; if we have any of his work, it is not later than the ninth decade of the twelfth century. Lambert, Alexander, and perhaps others, are thought to have known not Alberic, but a later ten-syllabled version into Northern French by Simon of Poitiers. The remoter sources are various. Foremost among them may undoubtedly be placed the Pseudo-Callisthenes, an unknown Alexandrian writer translated into Latin about the fourth century by Julius Valerius, who fathered upon the philosopher a collection of stories partly gathered from Plutarch, Quintus Curtius, and a hundred other authorities, partly elaborated according to the fas.h.i.+on of Greek romancers. Some oriental traditions of Alexander were also in the possession of western Europe.

Out of all these, and with a considerable admixture of the floating fables of the time, Lambert and Alexander wove their work. There is, of course, not the slightest attempt at antiquity of colour. Alexander has twelve peers, he learns the favourite studies of the middle ages, he is dubbed knight, and so forth. Many interesting legends, such as that of the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, make their first appearance in the poem, and it is altogether one of extraordinary merit. A specimen _laisse_ may be given:--

En icele forest, dont vos m'oez conter, nesune male choze ne puet laianz entrer.

li home ne les bestes n'i ozent converser, onques en nesun tans ne vit hon yverner ne trop froit ne trop chaut ne neger ne geler.

ce conte l'escripture que hom n'i doit entrer, se il nen at talent de conquerre ou d'amer.

les deuesses d'amors i doivent habiter, car c'est lor paradix ou el doivent entrer, li rois de Macedoine en a o parler, qui cercha les merveilles dou mont et de la mer, et ce fist il mesmes enz ou fons avaler en un vessel de voirre, ce ne puet n'on fausser, qu'il fist faire il mesmes fort et reont et cler et enclorre de fer qu'il ne peust qua.s.ser, s'il l'esteust a roche ou aillors ahurter, et si que il poet bien par mi outre esgarder, por veoir les poissons tornoier et joster et faire lor agaiz et sovent cembeler.

et quant il vint a terre, nou mist a oubler: la prist la sapence dou mont a conquester et faire ses agaiz et sa gent ordener et conduire les oz et sagement mener, car ce fust toz li mieudres qui ainz peust monter en cheval por conquerre ne de lance joster, li gentiz et li larges et ii prex por doner.

la forest des puceles ot o deviser, cil qui tot volt conquerre i ot talent d'aler: souz ciel n'a home en terre qui l'en peust torner.

While the figure of Alexander served as centre to one group of fictions, most of which were composed in Chanson form, the octosyllabic metre, which had made the Arthurian romances its own, was used for the versification of another numerous cla.s.s, most of which dealt with the tale of Troy divine.

[Sidenote: Roman de Troie.]

Here also the poems were neither entirely fict.i.tious, nor on the other hand based upon the best authorities. Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, with some epitomes of Homer, were the chief sources of information. The princ.i.p.al poem of this cla.s.s is the _Roman de Troie_ of Benoist de Sainte More (_c._ 1160). This work[58], which extends to more than thirty thousand verses, has the redundancy and the long-windedness which characterise many, if not most, early French poems written in its metre. But it has one merit which ought to conciliate English readers to Benoist. It contains the undoubted original of Shakespeare's Cressida.

The fortunes of Cressid (or Briseida, as the French trouvere names her) have been carefully traced out by MM. Moland, Hericault[59], and Joly, and form a very curious chapter of literary history. Nor is this episode the only one of merit in Benoist. His verse is always fluent and facile, and not seldom picturesque, as the following extract (Andromache's remonstrance with Hector) will show:--

Quant elle voit qe neant iert, o ses dous poinz granz cous se fiert, fier duel demaine e fier martire, ses cheveus trait e ront e tire.

bien resemble feme desvee: tote enragiee, eschevelee, e trestote fors de son sen court pour son fil Asternaten.

des eux plore molt tendrement, entre ses braz l'encharge e prent.

vint el pales atot arieres, o il chaucoit ses genoillieres.

as piez li met e si li dit 'sire, por cest enfant pet.i.t qe tu engendras de ta char te pri nel tiegnes a eschar ce qe je t'ai dit e nuncie.

aies de cest enfant pitie: james des euz ne te verra.

s'ui a.s.sembles a ceux de la, hui est ta mort, hui est ta fins.

de toi remandra orfenins.

cruelz de cuer, lous enragiez, par qoi ne vos en prent pitiez?

par qoi volez si tost morir?

par qoi volez si tost guerpir et moi e li e vostre pere e voz serors e vostre mere?

par qoi nos laisseroiz perir?

coment porrons sens vos gerir?

la.s.se, com male destinee!'

a icest not cha pasmee a cas desus le paviment.

celle l'en lieve isnelement qi estrange duel en demeine: c'est sa seroge, dame Heleine.

[Sidenote: Other Romances on Cla.s.sical subjects.]

The poems of the Cycle of Antiquity have hitherto been less diligently studied and reprinted than those of the other two. Few of them, with the exception of _Alixandre_ and _Troie_, are to be read even in fragments, save in ma.n.u.script. _Le Roman d'Eneas_, which is attributed to Benoist, is much shorter than the _Roman de Troie_, and, with some omissions, follows Virgil pretty closely. Like many other French poems, it was adapted in German by a Minnesinger, Heinrich von Veldeke. _Le Roman de Thebes_, of which there is some chance of an edition, stands to Statius in the same relation as _Eneas_ to Virgil. And _Le Roman de Jules Cesar_ paraphrases, though not directly, Lucan. To these must be added _Athis et Prophilias_ (Porphyrias), or the Siege of Athens, a work which has been a.s.signed to many authors, and the origin of which is not clear, though it enjoyed great popularity in the middle ages. The _Protesilaus_ of Hugues de Rotelande is the only other poem of this series worth the mentioning.

Neither of these two cla.s.ses of poems possesses the value of the Chansons as doc.u.ments for social history. The picture of manners in them is much more artificial. But the Arthurian romances disclose partially and at intervals a state of society decidedly more advanced than that of the Chansons. The _bourgeois_, the country gentleman who is not of full baronial rank, and other novel personages appear.

_Note to Third Edition._--Since the second edition was published M.

Gaston Paris has sketched in _Romania_ and summarised in his _Manuel_, but has not developed in book form, a view of the Arthurian romances different from his father's and from that given in the text. In this view the importance of 'Celtic' originals is much increased, and that of Geoffrey diminished, Walter Map disappears almost entirely to make room for divers unknown French trouveres, the order of composition is altered, and on the whole a lower estimate is formed of the literary value of the cycle. The 'Celtic' view has also been maintained in a book of much learning and value, _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_ (London, 1888), by Mr. Alfred Nutt. I have not attempted to incorporate or to combat these views in the text for two reasons, partly because they will most probably be superseded by others, and partly because the evidence does not seem to me sufficient to establish any of them certainly. But having given some years to comparative literary criticism in different languages and periods, I think I may be ent.i.tled to give a somewhat decided opinion against the 'Celtic' theory, and in favour of that which a.s.signs the special characteristics of the Arthurian cycle and all but a very small part of its structure of incident to the literary imagination of the trouveres, French and English, of the twelfth century. And I may add that as a whole it seems to me quite the greatest literary creation of the Middle Ages, except the _Divina Commedia_, though of course it has the necessary inferiority of a collection by a great number of different hands to a work of individual genius.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] Nennius, a Breton monk of the ninth century, has left a brief Latin Chronicle in which is the earliest authentic account of the Legend of Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth, _circa_ 1140, produced a _Historia Britonum_, avowedly based on a book brought from Britanny by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford. No trace of this book, unless it be Nennius, can be found. _See note at end of chapter._

[52] Department of Seine-et-Marne, near Fontainebleau.

[53] Map as a person belongs rather to English than to French history.

He lived in the last three quarters of the twelfth century.

[54] These various Romances are not by any means equally open to study in satisfactory critical editions. To take them chronologically, M.

Hucher has published Robert de Borron's _Little Saint Graal_ in prose, his _Percevale_, and the _Great Saint Graal_, with full and valuable if not incontestable notes, 3 vols.; Le Mans, 1875-1878. The verse form of the _Little Saint Graal_ was published by M. F. Michel in 1841. An edition of _Artus_ was promised by M. Paulin Paris, but interrupted or prevented by his death. The great works of Map, _Lancelot_ and the _Quest_, as well as the _Mort Artus_, have never been critically edited in full; and the sixteenth-century editions being rare and exceedingly costly, as well as uncritical, they are not easily accessible, except in M. Paris' Abstract and Commentary, _Les Romans de la Table Ronde_, 5 vols., 1869-1877. _Tristan_ was published partially forty years ago by M. F. Michel. _Merlin_ was edited in 1886 by M. G. Paris and M. Ulrich.

A complete edition of Chrestien de Troyes has been undertaken by Dr.

Wendelin Forster and has preceded to its second volume (_Yvain_). This under its second t.i.tle of _Le Chevalier au Lyon_ has also been edited by Dr. Holland (third edition 1886). Besides this there is the great Romance of _Percevale_ (continued by others, especially a certain Manessier), of which M. Potvin has given an excellent edition, 6 vols., Mons, 1867-1872, including in it a previously unknown prose version of the Romance of very early date; _Le Chevalier a la Charrette_, continued by G.o.defroy de Lagny, and edited, with the original prose from _Lancelot du Lac_, by Dr. Jonckbloet (The Hague, 1850); and _Erec et enide_, by M.

Haupt (Berlin, 1860). This piecemeal condition of the texts, and the practical inaccessibility of many of them, make independent judgment in the matter very difficult. What is wanted first of all is a book on the plan of M. Leon Gautier's _Epopees Francaises_, giving a complete account of all the existing texts--for the entire editing of these latter must necessarily take a very long time. The statements made above represent the opinions which appear most probable to the writer, not merely from the comparison of authorities on the subject, but from the actual study of the texts as far as they are open to him. (_See note at end of Chapter._)

[55] This expression occurs in the _Chanson des Saisnes_, i. 6. 7: 'Ne sont que iij matieres a nul home atandant, De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant.'

[56] Ed. Michelant. Stuttgart, 1846.

[57] _Li Cors_, otherwise _li tors_ 'the crooked.' Since this book was first written M. Paul Meyer has treated the whole subject of the paragraph in an admirable monograph, _Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature Francaise du Moyen Age_, 2 vols. Paris, 1886.

[58] Ed. Joly. Rouen, 1870.

[59] Moland and Hericault's _Nouvelles du XIV'eme Siecle_. Paris, 1857.

Joly, _Op. cit._ See also P. Stapfer, _Shakespeare et l'Antiquite_. 2 vols. Paris, 1880.

CHAPTER V.

FABLIAUX. THE _ROMAN DU RENART_.

[Sidenote: Foreign Elements in Early French Literature.]

Singular as the statement may appear, no one of the branches of literature hitherto discussed represents what may be called a specially French spirit. Despite the astonis.h.i.+ng popularity and extent of the Chansons de Gestes, they are, as is admitted by the most patriotic French students, Teutonic in origin probably, and certainly in genius.

The Arthurian legends have at least a tinge both of Celtic and Oriental character; while the greater number of them were probably written by Englishmen, and their distinguis.h.i.+ng spirit is pretty clearly Anglo-Norman rather than French. On the other hand, Provencal poetry represents a temperament and a disposition which find their full development rather in Spanish and Italian literature and character than in the literature and character of France. All these divisions, moreover, have this of artificial about them, that they are obviously cla.s.s literature--the literature of courtly and knightly society, not that of the nation at large. Provencal literature gives but scanty social information; from the earlier Chansons at least it would be hard to tell that there were any cla.s.ses but those of n.o.bles, priests, and fighting men; and though, as has been said, a more complicated state of society appears in the Arthurian legends, what may be called their atmosphere is even more artificial.

[Sidenote: The Esprit Gaulois makes its appearance.]

It is far otherwise with the division of literature which we are now about to handle. The Fabliaux[60], or short verse tales of old France, take in the whole of its society from king to peasant with all the intervening cla.s.ses, and represent for the most part the view taken of those cla.s.ses by each other. Perhaps the _bourgeois_ standpoint is most prominent in them, but it is by no means the only one. Their tone too is of the kind which has ever since been specially a.s.sociated with the French genius. What is called by French authors the _esprit gaulois_--a spirit of mischievous and free-spoken jocularity--does not make its appearance at once, or in all kinds of work. In most of the early departments of French literature there is a remarkable deficiency of the comic element, or rather that element is very much kept under. The comedy of the Chansons consists almost entirely in the roughest horse-play; while the knightly notion of _gabz_ or jests is exemplified in the _Voyage de Charlemagne a Constantinople_, where it seems to be limited to extravagant, and not always decent, boasts and gasconnades.

More comic, but still farcical in its comedy, is the curious running fire of exaggerated expressions of poltroonery which the Red Lion keeps up in _Antioche_, while the names and virtues of the Christian leaders are being catalogued to Corbaran. In the Arthurian Romances also the comic element is scantily represented, and still takes the same form of exaggeration and horse-play. At the same time it is proper to say that both these cla.s.ses of compositions are distinguished, at least in their earlier examples, by a very strict and remarkable decency of language.

In the Fabliaux the state of things is quite different. The att.i.tude is always a mocking one, not often going the length of serious satire or moral indignation, but contenting itself with the peculiar ludicrous presentation of life and humanity of which the French have ever since been the masters. In the Fabliaux begins that long course of scoffing at the weaknesses of the feminine s.e.x which has never been interrupted since. In the Fabliaux is to be found for the first time satirical delineation of the frailties of churchmen instead of adoring celebration of the mysteries of the Church. All cla.s.ses come in by turns for ridicule--knights, burghers, peasants. Unfortunately this freedom in choice of subject is accompanied by a still greater freedom in the choice of language. The coa.r.s.eness of expression in many of the Fabliaux equals, if it does not exceed, that to be found in any other branch of Western literature.