Chapter I: Preface

French prose and French poetry had interested me during so many years that when Mr. Gosse invited me to write this book I knew that I was qualified in one particular--the love of my subject. Qualified in knowledge I was not, and could not be. No one can pretend to know the whole of a vast literature. He may have opened many books and turned many pages; he cannot have penetrated to the soul of all books from the _Song of Roland_ to _Toute la Lyre_. Without reaching its spirit, to read a book is little more than to amuse the eye with printed type.

An adequate history of a great literature can be written only by collaboration. Professor Petit de Julleville, in the excellent _Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaise_, at present in process of publication, has his well-instructed specialist for each chapter. In this small volume I too, while constantly exercising my own judgment, have had my collaborators--the ablest and most learned students of French literature--who have written each a part of my book, while somehow it seems that I have written the whole. My collaborators are on my shelves. Without them I could not have accomplished my task; here I give them credit for their assistance. Some have written general histories of French literature; some have written histories of periods--the Middle Ages, the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth centuries; some have studied special literary fields or forms--the novel, the drama, tragedy, comedy, lyrical poetry, history, philosophy; many have written monographs on great authors; many have written short critical studies of books or groups of books. I have accepted from each a gift. But my assistants needed to be controlled; they brought me twenty thousand pages, and that was too much. Some were accurate in statement of fact, but lacked ideas; some had ideas, but disregarded accuracy of statement; some unjustly depreciated the seventeenth century, some the eighteenth. For my purposes their work had to be rewritten; and so it happens that this book is mine as well as theirs.

The sketch of mediaeval literature follows the arrangement of matter in the two large volumes of M. Petit de Julleville and his fellow-labourers, to whom and to the writings of M. Gaston Paris I am on almost every page indebted. Many matters in dispute have here to be briefly stated in one way; there is no space for discussion. Provencal literature does not appear in this volume. It is omitted from the History of M. Petit de Julleville and from that of M. Lanson. In truth, except as an influence, it forms no part of literature in the French language.

The reader who desires guidance in bibliography will find it at the close of each chapter of the History edited by M. Petit de Julleville, less fully in the notes to M. Lanson's History, and an excellent table of critical and biographical studies is appended to each volume of M. Lintilhac's _Histoire de la Litterature Francaise_. M. Lintilhac, however, omits many important English and German titles--among others, if I am not mistaken, those of Birsch-Hirschfeld's _Geschichte der Franzosichen Litteratur: die Zeit der Renaissance_, of Lotheissen's important _Geschichte der Franzosichen Litteratur im XVII. Jahrhundert_, and of Professor Flint's learned _Philosophy of History_ (1893).

M. Lanson's work has been of great service in guiding me in the arrangement of my subjects, and in giving me courage to omit many names of the second or third rank which might be expected to appear in a history of French literature. In a volume like the present, selection is important, and I have erred more by inclusion than by exclusion. The limitation of space has made me desire to say no word that does not tend to bring out something essential or characteristic.

M. Lanson has ventured to trace French literature to the present moment. I have thought it wiser to close my survey with the decline of the romantic movement. With the rise of naturalism a new period opens. The literature of recent years is rather a subject for current criticism than for historical study.

I cannot say how often I have been indebted to the writings of M. Brunetiere, M. Faguet, M. Larroumet, M. Paul Stapfer, and other living critics: to each of the volumes of _Les Grands Ecrivains Francais_, and to many of the volumes of the _Classiques Populaires_. M. Lintilhac's edition of Merlet's _Etudes Litteraires_ has also often served me. But to name my aids to study would be to fill some pages.

While not unmindful of historical and social influences, I desire especially to fix my reader's attention on great individuals, their ideas, their feelings, and their art. The general history of ideas should, in the first instance, be discerned by the student of literature through his observation of individual minds.

That errors must occur where so many statements are made, I am aware from past experience; but I have taken no slight pains to attain accuracy. It must not be hastily assumed that dates here recorded are incorrect because they sometimes differ from those given in other books. For my errors I must myself bear the responsibility; but by the editorial care of Mr. Gosse, in reading the proof-sheets of this book, the number of such errors has been reduced.

EDWARD DOWDEN.

DUBLIN, _June_ 1897.

CONTENTS

_BOOK THE FIRST_--_THE MIDDLE AGES_

CHAPTER PAGE
I. NARRATIVE RELIGIOUS POETRY--THE NATIONAL EPIC--THE EPIC OF
ANTIQUITY--ROMANCES OF LOVE AND COURTESY . . . . . . . . 3

II. LYRICAL POETRY--FABLES, AND RENARD THE FOX--FABLIAUX--THE
ROMANCE OF THE ROSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

III. DIDACTIC LITERATURE--SERMONS--HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . 40

IV. LATEST MEDIAEVAL POETS--THE DRAMA . . . . . . . . . . . . .
58

_BOOK THE SECOND_--_THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY_

I. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

II. FROM THE PLEIADE TO MONTAIGNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

_BOOK THE THIRD_--_THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY_

I. LITERARY FREEDOM AND LITERARY ORDER . . . . . . . . . . . 131

II. THE FRENCH ACADEMY--PHILOSOPHY (DESCARTES)--RELIGION
(PASCAL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

III. THE DRAMA (MONTCHRESTIEN TO CORNEILLE) . . . . . . . . . . 160

IV. SOCIETY AND PUBLIC LIFE IN LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

V. BOILEAU AND LA FONTAINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

VI. COMEDY AND TRAGEDY--MOLIERE--RACINE . . . . . . . . . . . 196

VII. BOSSUET AND THE PREACHERS--FENELON . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

VIII. TRANSITION TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . 235

_BOOK THE FOURTH_--_THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY_

I. MEMOIRS AND HISTORY--POETRY--THE THEATRE--THE NOVEL . . . 251

II. MONTESQUIEU--VAUVENARGUES--VOLTAIRE . . . . . . . . . . . 273

III. DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA--PHILOSOPHERS, ECONOMISTS,
CRITICS--BUFFON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

IV. ROUSSEAU--BEAUMARCHAIS--BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE--ANDRE
CHENIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

_BOOK THE FIFTH_--1789-1850

I. THE REVOLUTION AND THE EMPIRE--MADAME DE STAEL--
CHATEAUBRIAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

II. THE CONFLICT OF IDEAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

III. POETRY OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

IV. THE NOVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

V. HISTORY--LITERARY CRITICISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437