Initiation into Literature Part 5

FeNELON.--Fenelon, extremely individual and original, having on every subject ideas of his own which were sometimes daring, often practical, always generous and n.o.ble, was a preacher like Bossuet; also like Bossuet, he was a dexterous, skilled, and formidable controversialist, whilst, for the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy, which had been confided to him, he became a fabulist, an author of dialogues, in some degree a romancer or epic poet in prose in his famous _Telemachus_, overadmired, then overdepreciated, and which, despite weaknesses, remains replete with strength and dazzling brilliance. Nowadays there is a marked return to this prince of the Church and of literature, whose brain was complex and even complicated, but whose heart was quite pure and his reasoning on a high level.

CHAPTER XI

THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES: ENGLAND

Dramatists: Marlowe, Shakespeare. Prose Writers: Sidney, Francis Bacon, etc. Epic Poet: Milton. Comic Poets.

ELIZABETHAN AGE: SPENSER.--In England the Elizabethan Age is the period extending from the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth to the end of her successor, James I; that is, from 1558 to 1625. This was the golden age of English literature: the epoch in which, awakened or excited by the Renaissance, her genius gave forth all its development in fruits that were marvellous.

First, there was Spenser, alike impregnated with the Italian Renaissance and gifted with the slightly fantastic imagination of his own countrymen, who wrote eclogues, in his _Shepheard's Calender_, in imitation of Theocritus and Virgil as well as of the Italians of the sixteenth century, and who gave charming descriptions in his _Faerie Queene_.

Next came Sidney, the sonnetist, at once pa.s.sionate and precious, and then that highest glory of this glorious period, the dramatic poets.

THE STAGE: MARLOWE.--As in France, the English stage in the Middle Ages had been devoted to the performance of mysteries (under the name of _miracles_), later of moralities. As in France, tragedy, strictly speaking, was const.i.tuted in the sixteenth century. Towards its close appeared Marlowe, a very great genius, still rugged but with extraordinary power, more especially lyrical. His great works are _Doctor Faustus_ and _Edward II_.

SHAKESPEARE.--Then (at the same time as the rest, for they are of about the same age, though Marlowe appeared the earlier) came William Shakespeare, who is perhaps the greatest known dramatic poet. His immense output, which includes plays carelessly put together and, one may venture to say, negligibly, also contains many masterpieces: _Oth.e.l.lo_, _Romeo and Juliet_, _Macbeth_, _Hamlet_, _The Taming of the Shrew_, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, _As You Like It_, and _The Tempest_. The _types_ and personages of Shakespeare, which have remained celebrated and are still daily cited in human intercourse, include Oth.e.l.lo, that tragic figure of jealousy; Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers separated by the feuds of their families but united in death; Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the ambitious criminals; Hamlet, the young man with a great mind and a great heart but with a feeble will which collapses under too heavy a task and comes to the verge of insanity; Cordelia, the English Antigone, the devoted daughter of the proscribed King Lear; Falstaff, glutton, coward, diverting and gay, a kind of Anglo-Saxon Panurge. A whole dramatic literature has come from Shakespeare. To France he was introduced by Voltaire and then scorned by him because he had succeeded only too well in popularising him; subsequently he was exalted, praised to hyperbole, and imitated beyond discretion by the romantics. In addition to his dramatic works, Shakespeare left _Sonnets_, some of which are obscure, but the majority are perfect.

BEN JONSON.--Ben Jonson, cla.s.sical, exact, pretty faithful imitator of the writers of antiquity, interested in unusual characters and customs, gifted with a ready and lively imagination in both comedy and tragedy like Shakespeare, succeeded especially in comedy (_Every Man in his Humour_, _The Silent Woman_, etc.). Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote in collaboration, are full of elevation, of delicacy and grace expressed in a style which is regarded by their fellow-countrymen as exceptionally beautiful.

PROSE WRITERS: LYLY; SIDNEY; BACON; BURTON.--In prose this amazing period was equally productive. Lyly, who corresponds approximately to the French Voiture, created _euphemism_: that is, witty preciosity. Sidney, in his _Arcadia_ furnished a curious example of the chivalric romance.

Further in his _Defence of Poesie_, he founded literary criticism.

Francis Bacon, historian, moralist, philosopher, perhaps collaborator with Shakespeare, has a place equally allocated to him in a history of literature as in a history of philosophical ideas. Robert Burton, moralist or rather _Meditator_, who gave himself the pseudonym of Democritus Junior because he was consumed with sadness, left a great work, but one in which there are many quotations, called _The Anatomy of Melancholy_. There is much a.n.a.logy between him and the French Senancour.

Sterne, without acknowledgment, profusely pilfered from him. He is thoroughly English. He did not create melancholy but he greatly contributed to it and made a specialty of it. Despite his pranks and whimsicality, he possessed high literary merit.

POETRY: WALLER.--The English seventeenth century, strictly speaking, virtually commencing about 1625, was inferior to the sixteenth, that has just been considered, which is easily explained by the civil wars distracting England at this period. In poetry, on the one hand, may be noticed the softened and pleasing Epicureans, of which the most prominent representative was Waller, a witty man of the world, who dwelt long in France, and was a friend of Saint-evremond (who himself spent a portion of his life in England). Waller made a very fine eulogy of his cousin Cromwell, later another of Charles II, and was told by the latter, "This is not so good as that on Cromwell," whereupon he replied, "Sire, you know that poets always succeed better in fiction than in fact." Here was a man of much wit.

HERBERT; HABINGTON.--Also must be remarked the austere and mystical such as George Herbert, with his _Temple_, a collection of religious and melancholy poems, and like Habington, sad and gloomy even as far as the thirst for dissolution, a.n.a.logous to the modern Schopenhauer: "My G.o.d, if it be Thy supreme decree, if Thou wilt that this moment be the last wherein I breathe this air, my heart obeys, happy to retire far from the false favours of the great, from betrayals where the just are preyed upon...."

DRAMATIC POETS.--Let the estimable dramatic poets be alluded to.

Davenant, perhaps a son of Shakespeare; Otway, the ill.u.s.trious author of _Venice Preserved_ and of many adaptations from the French (_t.i.tus and Berenice_, the _Tricks of Scapin_, etc.); Dryden, declamatory, emphatic, but admirably gifted with dramatic genius, author of _The Virgin Queen_, _All for Love_ (Cleopatra), _Don Sebastian_, was always hesitating between the influence of Shakespeare and that of the French, over-inclined, too, to licentious scenes but pathetic and eloquent.

MILTON.--Quite apart arose Milton, the imperishable author of _Paradise Lost_, the type and model of the religious epic permeated, in fact, with profound and ardent religious feeling, but also possessing very remarkable grandeur and philosophical breadth. Milton became a second Bible to the people to whom the Bible was the inevitable and essential daily study. To _Paradise Lost_, Milton added the inferior _Paradise Regained_ and the poem of _Samson_. Apart from his great religious poems, Milton wrote Latin poems (especially in his youth) which are extremely agreeable, and also works in prose, generally in relation to polemical politics, which came from a vigorous and exalted mind. Milton, from the aspect of his prodigious productiveness and his varied life, divided between literature and the intellectual battles of his times, is comparable to Voltaire, reservation being made for his high moral character, wherein no comparison can be entertained with the French satirist. He did himself full justice. Having become blind, he wrote:

"Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear, To outward view, of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?

The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied In Liberty's defence, my n.o.ble task, Of which all Europe rings from side to side.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask Content, though blind, had I no better guide."

NOTABLE PROSE WRITERS.--In prose must be noted, on the austere side, George Fox, founder of the sect of Quakers, impa.s.sioned and powerful popular orator, author of the _Book of Martyrs_; John Bunyan, an obstinate ascetic, author of _Grace Abounding_, a kind of edifying autobiography, and of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, which became one of the volumes of edification and of spiritual edification to the emigrant founders of the United States of America; on the side of the Libertines, Wycherley, who, thoroughly perceiving the moral lowness, fairly well concealed, which lies at the source of Moliere, carried this Gallic vein to an extreme in shameless imitations of _The School for Women_ and _The Misanthrope_ (_The Country Wife_ and _The Plain Dealer_); delightful Congreve, a far more amusing companion--witty, spiritual, sardonic, writing excellently, knowing how to create a type and charming his contemporaries whilst not failing to write for posterity in his _Old Bachelor_, _Love for Love_, and _Way of the World_.

NEWTON; LOCKE.--It must not be forgotten that at this epoch Newton and Locke, the one belonging more to the history of science and the other to the history of philosophy, both wrote in a manner entirely commensurate with their genius.

CHAPTER XII

THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES: GERMANY

Luther, Zwingli, Albert Durer, Leibnitz, Gottsched

NO RENAISSANCE.--The great originality of Germany from the literary point of view--perhaps, too, from others--is that she _had no renaissance_, no contact, at all events close, with cla.s.sic antiquity. Her temperament was no doubt hostile; the Reformation, that is, the impa.s.sioned adoption of a primitive unadulterated Christianity conservative and directly opposed to antiquity whether pagan or philosophical, added to the repugnance. However that may be, the fact remains: Germany enjoyed no renaissance.

LUTHER.--Also in the sixteenth century in Germany, as in France in the fourteenth century, there was only popular poetry, and all the prose is German, all reformist, all moralising, and has little or practically no echo of antiquity. Luther, by his translation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue, by his _prefaces_ to each book of the Bible, in his polemical writings (_The Papacy and its Members_, _The Papacy Elevated at Rome by the Devil_, etc.), by his _Sermons and Letters_, gave to Teutonic thought a direction which long endured, and to Teutonic prose a solidity, purity, sobriety, and vigour which exercised an immense influence on human minds.

THE REFORMERS.--Following Luther, Zwingli, Hutten, Eberling, Melanchthon (but in Latin), Erasmus (most frequently in Latin but sometimes in French) spread the new doctrine or doctrines in relation thereto.

ERASMUS; ALBERT DuRER; GOTTSCHED.--An exception must be made about Erasmus in what has just been observed. With a very unfettered mind, often as much in opposition to the side of Luther as to the side of Rome, and also p.r.o.ne to attack the pure humanists who styled themselves Ciceronians, Erasmus was a humanist, an impa.s.sioned student of ancient letters, so that he has one foot in the Renaissance and one in reform, and withal possessed a very original brain, and was, from every aspect, "ultra-modern."

Albert Durer must also be cited: mathematician, architect, painter, yet belonging to our subject by his _four books on the human proportion_ wherein he shows, in chastened and precise style, that he himself is nothing less than the earliest founder of Teutonic aestheticism.

The seventeenth century--extending it, as is reasonable enough, up to the region of 1730--is almost exclusively the era of French influence and a little, if desired, of Italian influence. The critic Gottsched (_Poetic Art, Grammar, Eloquence_) maintained the excellence of French literature and the necessity of drawing inspiration from it with an energy of conviction which drew on him the hatred of the succeeding generation.

LEIBNITZ.--German poetry of his period, possessing neither originality nor power, could only interest the erudite and the searchers. The domain of prose is more enthralling. Leibnitz, who wrote in Latin and French, and even in German, is pre-eminently the great thinker he is reputed to be; but though he never possessed nor even pretended to possess originality in style, he is nevertheless highly esteemed for the purity, limpidity, and facility of his language.

CHAPTER XIII

THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES: ITALY

Poets: Ariosto, Ta.s.so, Guarini, Folengo, Marini, etc. Prose Writers: Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Davila.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--Italy, after Dante and Petrarch, possessed literary strength and much literary glory in the sixteenth century.

She produced an admirable pleiad of poets and prose writers of high merit. These were Ariosto, Ta.s.so, Berni, Sannazaro, Machiavelli, Bandello, Guicciardini. Below them were a hundred distinguished writers, among which must be cited Aretino, Folengo, Bembo, Baldi, Tansillo, Dolce, Benvenuto Cellini, Hannibal Caro, and Guarini.

ARIOSTO.--Ariosto wrote _Orlando Furioso_, which is not the epic in parody, as has been too often observed, but the gay and joyous epopee of Orlando and his companions. The princ.i.p.al characters are Orlando, Charlemagne, Renaud, Agramant, Ferragus, Angelica, Bradamante, Marphisa.

The tone is extremely varied and the author is in turns joyous, satirical, pathetic, melancholy, and even tragical. Ariosto is the superlative poet of fantastic imagination combined with a foundation of good sense, reason, and benevolence. Goethe has said of him very aptly: "From a cloud of gold wisdom sometimes thunders sublime sentences, whilst to a harmonious lute, folly seems to riot in savage digressions yet all the while maintains a perfect measure." Ariosto was well read in the cla.s.sics, but fundamentally his master was Homer.

Ta.s.sO.--Torquato Ta.s.so, whose life was characterised by a thousand trials and who was long the victim of a mental malady, wrote a poem on the crusade of G.o.dfrey de Bouillon. The poem is full of the supernatural; the chief characters are Renaud, Tancred, the enchantress Armida, Clorinda. The inspiration of Ta.s.so is specially mystic and lyrical; his facility for description is delicious. The repute of _Jerusalem Delivered_ in the seventeenth century was immense, and all the literatures of Europe have innumerable references to the personages and episodes of the poem. In Italy there were fervid partisans of the superiority of Ta.s.so over Ariosto or of Ariosto over Ta.s.so, and many duels on the subject, the most bellicose being, as always happens, between those who had read neither.

BERNI.--Berni, like Ariosto, was half burlesque in the diverting portions of his works. He wrote satires which were often virulent, paradoxes such as the eulogy of the plague and of famine, and an _Amorous Orlando_ which is quite agreeable. The Bernesque type, that is, the humoristic, was created by him and bears his name.

SANNAZARO.--Sannazaro wrote both in Latin and Italian. His chief claim to fame lies in his _Arcadia_, an idyllic poem of bucolic sentiment, destined to evoke thousands of imitations. He also produced eclogues and sonnets in Italian which give sufficient grounds for regarding him as one of the chief masters of that language.

MACHIAVELLI.--Great thinker, great politician, great moral philosopher, Machiavelli possessed one of the most powerful minds ever known. He wrote _The Prince_, _Discourses upon Livius_, an _Art of War_, diplomatic letters and reports, for he was at one time secretary to the Florentine Republic, a _History of Florence_, a comedy (_The Mandrake_), romances and tales. _The Prince_ is a treatise of the art of acquiring and preserving power by all possible means and more particularly by intelligent and discreet crime. Machiavelli emphasised the separation, at times relative, at times absolute, which exists between politics and morals. His _Discourses upon Livius_ are full of sense, penetration, and profundity; his light works show a singular dexterity of thought united to a fundamental grossness which it would be impossible to misunderstand or excuse.