Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.

(5) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

ARTICLE FRENCH LITERATURE: "Froissart had been followed as a
chronicler by Enguerrand de Monstrelet (c. 1390-1453) and by the
historiographers of the Burgundian court, Chastelain, already
mentioned, whose interesting Chronique de Jacques de Lalaing is
much the most attractive part of his work ..." 'whose' amended from
'whole'.

ARTICLE FRENCH LITERATURE: "... Mesmer, St Germain and others. In
this connexion, too, may perhaps also be mentioned most
appropriately Restif de la Bretonne, a remarkably original and
voluminous writer ..." 'Restif' amended from 'Bestif'.

ARTICLE FRENCH LITERATURE: "The Anglomania which distinguished the
time was nowhere more strongly shown than in the cast and direction
of its philosophical speculations." 'strongly' amended from
'stongly'.

ARTICLE FRENCH LITERATURE: "All this literature is so far connected
purely with the knightly and priestly orders, though it is largely
composed and still more largely dealt in by classes of men ..."
'literature' amended from 'literaure'.

ARTICLE FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE: "The constitutional party in the
legislature desired a toleration of the nonjuring clergy, the
repeal of the laws against the relatives of the emigres, and some
merciful discrimination toward the emigres themselves."
'constitutional' amended from 'contitutional'.

ARTICLE FRIAR: "See Fr. Cuthbert, The Friars and how they came to
England, pp. 11-32 (1903); also F. A. Gasquet, English Monastic
Life, pp. 234-249 (1904), where special information on all the
English friars is conveniently brought together." 'conveniently'
amended from 'coveniently'.

ARTICLE FRISIAN ISLANDS: "... fine sandy beaches being formed well
suited for sea-bathing, which attract many visitors in summer."
'attract' amended from 'attracts'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME XI, SLICE II

French Literature to Frost, William

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

FRENCH LITERATURE FRIEDRICHSHAFEN
FRENCH POLISH FRIEDRICHSRUH
FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE FRIENDLY SOCIETIES
FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF
FRENCH WEST AFRICA FRIES, ELIAS MAGNUS
FRENTANI FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH
FREPPEL, CHARLES EMILE FRIES, JOHN
FRERE, SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD FRIESLAND
FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM FRIEZE
FRERE, PIERRE EDOUARD FRIGATE
FRERE-ORBAN, HUBERT WALTHER FRIGATE-BIRD
FRERET, NICOLAS FRIGG
FRERON, ELIE CATHERINE FRIGIDARIUM
FRERON, LOUIS MARIE STANISLAS FRIIS, JOHAN
FRESCO FRIMLEY
FRESCOBALDI, GIROLAMO FRIMONT, JOHANN MARIA PHILIPP
FRESENIUS, KARL REMIGIUS FRISCHES HAFF
FRESHWATER FRISCHLIN, PHILIPP NIKODEMUS
FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN JEAN FRISI, PAOLO
FRESNILLO FRISIAN ISLANDS
FRESNO FRISIANS
FRESNOY, CHARLES ALPHONSE DU FRITH, JOHN
FRET FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL
FREUDENSTADT FRITILLARY
FREUND, WILHELM FRITZLAR
FREWEN, ACCEPTED FRIULI
FREY FROBEN, JOANNES
FREYBURG FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN
FREYCINET, CHARLES DE SAULCES DE FROCK
FREYCINET, LOUIS DESAULSES DE FROEBEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST
FREYIA FROG
FREYTAG, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH FROG-BIT
FREYTAG, GUSTAV FROGMORE
FRIAR FROHLICH, ABRAHAM EMANUEL
FRIBOURG (Swiss Canton) FROHSCHAMMER, JAKOB
FRIBOURG (Swiss town) FROISSART, JEAN
FRICTION FROME
FRIDAY FROMENTIN, EUGENE
FRIEDBERG FROMMEL, GASTON
FRIEDEL, CHARLES FRONDE, THE
FRIEDLAND (town of Austria) FRONTENAC ET PALLUAU, LOUIS DE BUADE
FRIEDLAND (towns in Germany) FRONTINUS, SEXTUS JULIUS
FRIEDLAND (town of Prussia) FRONTISPIECE
FRIEDMANN, MEIR FRONTO, MARCUS CORNELIUS
FRIEDRICH, JOHANN FROSINONE
FRIEDRICHRODA FROSSARD, CHARLES AUGUSTE
FRIEDRICHSDORF FROST, WILLIAM EDWARD

FRENCH LITERATURE.

Early monuments.

Epic poetry.

_Origins._--The history of French literature in the proper sense of the term can hardly be said to extend farther back than the 11th century. The actual manuscripts which we possess are seldom of older date than the century subsequent to this. But there is no doubt that by the end at least of the 11th century the French language, as a completely organized medium of literary expression, was in full, varied and constant use. For many centuries previous to this, literature had been composed in France, or by natives of that country, using the term France in its full modern acceptation; but until the 9th century, if not later, the written language of France, so far as we know, was Latin; and despite the practice of not a few literary historians, it does not seem reasonable to notice Latin writings in a history of French literature. Such a history properly busies itself only with the monuments of French itself from the time when the so-called Lingua Romana Rustica assumed a sufficiently independent form to deserve to be called a new language. This time it is indeed impossible exactly to determine, and the period at which literary compositions, as distinguished from mere conversation, began to employ the new tongue is entirely unknown. As early as the 7th century the Lingua Romana, as distinguished from Latin and from Teutonic dialects, is mentioned, and this Lingua Romana would be of necessity used for purposes of clerical admonition, especially in the country districts, though we need not suppose that such addresses had a very literary character. On the other hand, the mention, at early dates, of certain _cantilenae_ or songs composed in the vulgar language has served for basis to a superstructure of much ingenious argument with regard to the highly interesting problem of the origin of the _Chansons de Geste_, the earliest and one of the greatest literary developments of northern French. It is sufficient in this article, where speculation would be out of place, to mention that only two such _cantilenae_ actually exist, and that neither is French. One of the 9th century, the "Lay of Saucourt," is in a Teutonic dialect; the other, the "Song of St Faron," is of the 7th century, but exists only in Latin prose, the construction and style of which present traces of translation from a poetical and vernacular original. As far as facts go, the most ancient monuments of the written French language consist of a few documents of very various character, ranging in date from the 9th to the 11th century. The oldest gives us the oaths interchanged at Strassburg in 842 between Charles the Bald and Louis the German. The next probably in date and the first in literary merit is a short song celebrating the martyrdom of St Eulalia, which may be as old as the end of the 9th century, and is certainly not younger than the beginning of the 10th. Another, the _Life of St Leger_, in 240 octosyllabic lines, is dated by conjecture about 975. The discussion indeed of these short and fragmentary pieces is of more philological than literary interest, and belongs rather to the head of French language. They are, however, evidence of the progress which, continuing for at least four centuries, built up a literary instrument out of the decomposed and reconstructed Latin of the Roman conquerors, blended with a certain limited amount of contributions from the Celtic and Iberian dialects of the original inhabitants, the Teutonic speech of the Franks, and the Oriental tongue of the Moors who pressed upwards from Spain. But all these foreign elements bear a very small proportion to the element of Latin; and as Latin furnished the greater part of the vocabulary and the grammar, so did it also furnish the principal models and helps to literary composition. The earliest French versification is evidently inherited from that of the Latin hymns of the church, and for a certain time Latin originals were followed in the choice of literary forms. But by the 11th century it is tolerably certain that dramatic attempts were already being made in the vernacular, that lyric poetry was largely cultivated, that laws, charters, and such-like documents were written, and that commentators and translators busied themselves with religious subjects and texts. The most important of the extant documents, outside of the epics presently to be noticed, has of late been held to be the _Life of Saint Alexis_, a poem of 625 decasyllabic lines, arranged in five-line stanzas, each of one assonance or vowel-rhyme, which may be as early as 1050. But the most important development of the 11th century, and the one of which we are most certain, is that of which we have evidence remaining in the famous _Chanson de Roland_, discovered in a manuscript at Oxford and first published in 1837. This poem represents the first and greatest development of French literature, the chansons de geste (this form is now preferred to that with the plural _gestes_). The origin of these poems has been hotly debated, and it is only recently that the importance which they really possess has been accorded to them,--a fact the less remarkable in that, until about 1820, the epics of ancient France were unknown, or known only through late and disfigured prose versions. Whether they originated in the north or the south is a question on which there have been more than one or two revolutions of opinion, and will probably be others still, but which need not be dealt with here. We possess in round numbers a hundred of these chansons. Three only of them are in Provencal. Two of these, _Ferabras_ and _Betonnet d'Hanstonne_, are obviously adaptations of French originals. The third, _Girartz de Rossilho_ (Gerard de Roussillon), is undoubtedly Provencal, and is a work of great merit and originality, but its dialect is strongly tinged with the characteristics of the Langue d'Oil, and its author seems to have been a native of the debatable land between the two districts. To suppose under these circumstances that the Provencal originals of the hundred others have perished seems gratuitous. It is sufficient to say that the chanson de geste, as it is now extant, is the almost exclusive property of northern France. Nor is there much authority for a supposition that the early French poets merely versified with amplifications the stories of chroniclers. On the contrary, chroniclers draw largely from the chansons, and the question of priority between _Roland_ and the pseudo-Turpin, though a hard one to determine, seems to resolve itself in favour of the former. At most we may suppose, with much probability, that personal and family tradition gave a nucleus for at least the earliest.

Chansons de Geste.

_Chansons de Geste._--Early French narrative poetry was divided by one of its own writers, Jean Bodel, under three heads--poems relating to French history, poems relating to ancient history, and poems of the Arthurian cycle (_Matieres de France, de Bretagne, et de Rome_). To the first only is the term chansons de geste in strictness applicable. The definition of it goes partly by form and partly by matter. A chanson de geste must be written in verses either of ten or twelve syllables, the former being the earlier. These verses have a regular caesura, which, like the end of a line, carries with it the licence of a mute e. The lines are arranged, not in couplets or in stanzas of equal length, but in _laisses_ or _tirades_, consisting of any number of lines from half a dozen to some hundreds. These are, in the earlier examples assonanced,--that is to say, the vowel sound of the last syllables is identical, but the consonants need not agree. Thus, for instance, the final words of a tirade of _Amis et Amiles_ (Il. 199-206) are _erbe_, _nouvelle_, _selles_, _nouvelles_, _traversent_, _arrestent_, _guerre_, _cortege_. Sometimes the tirade is completed by a shorter line, and the later chansons are regularly rhymed. As to the subject, a chanson de geste must be concerned with some event which is, or is supposed to be, historical and French. The tendency of the trouveres was constantly to affiliate their heroes on a particular _geste_ or family. The three chief _gestes_ are those of Charlemagne himself, of Doon de Mayence, and of Garin de Monglane; but there are not a few chansons, notably those concerning the Lorrainers, and the remarkable series sometimes called the _Chevalier au Cygne_, and dealing with the crusades, which lie outside these groups. By this joint definition of form and subject the chansons de geste are separated from the romances of antiquity, from the romances of the Round Table, which are written in octosyllabic couplets, and from the _romans d'aventures_ or later fictitious tales, some of which, such as _Brun de la Montaigne_, are written in pure chanson form.

Volume and changes of early epics.

Not the least remarkable point about the chansons de geste is their vast extent. Their number, according to the strictest definition, exceeds 100, and the length of each chanson varies from 1000 lines, or thereabouts, to 20,000 or even 30,000. The entire mass, including, it may be supposed, the various versions and extensions of each chanson, is said to amount to between two and three million lines; and when, under the second empire, the publication of the whole Carolingian cycle was projected, it was estimated, taking the earliest versions alone, at over 300,000. The successive developments of the chansons de geste may be illustrated by the fortunes of _Huon de Bordeaux_, one of the most lively, varied and romantic of the older epics, and one which is interesting from the use made of it by Shakespeare, Wieland and Weber. In the oldest form now extant, though even this is probably not the original, _Huon_ consists of over 10,000 lines. A subsequent version contains 4000 more; and lastly, in the 14th century, a later poet has amplified the legend to the extent of 30,000 lines. When this point had been reached, _Huon_ began to be turned into prose, was with many of his fellows published and republished during the 15th and subsequent centuries, and retains, in the form of a roughly printed chap-book, the favour of the country districts of France to the present day. It is not, however, in the later versions that the special characteristics of the chansons de geste are to be looked for. Of those which we possess, one and one only, the _Chanson de Roland_, belongs in its present form to the 11th century. Their date of production extends, speaking roughly, from the 11th to the 14th century, their palmy days were the 11th and the 12th. After this latter period the Arthurian romances, with more complex attractions, became their rivals, and induced their authors to make great changes in their style and subject. But for a time they reigned supreme, and no better instance of their popularity can be given than the fact that manuscripts of them exist, not merely in every French dialect, but in many cases in a strange macaronic jargon of mingled French and Italian. Two classes of persons were concerned in them. There was the _trouvere_ who composed them, and the _jongleur_ who carried them about in manuscript or in his memory from castle to castle and sang them, intermixing frequent appeals to his auditory for silence, declarations of the novelty and the strict copyright character of the chanson, revilings of rival minstrels, and frequently requests for money in plain words. Not a few of the manuscripts which we now possess appear to have been actually used by the jongleur. But the names of the authors, the trouveres who actually composed them, are in very few cases known, those of copyists, continuators, and mere possessors of manuscripts having been often mistaken for them.

The moral and poetical peculiarities of the older and more authentic of these chansons are strongly marked, though perhaps not quite so strongly as some of their encomiasts have contended, and as may appear to a reader of the most famous of them, the _Chanson de Roland_, alone. In that poem, indeed, war and religion are the sole motives employed, and its motto might be two lines from another of the finest chansons (_Aliscans_, 161-162):--

"Dist a Bertran: 'N'avons mais nul losir,
Tant ke vivons alons paiens ferir.'"

In Roland there is no love-making whatever, and the hero's betrothed "la belle Aude" appears only in a casual gibe of her brother Oliver, and in the incident of her sudden death at the news of Roland's fall. M. Leon Gautier and others have drawn the conclusion that this stern and masculine character was a feature of all the older chansons, and that imitation of the Arthurian romance is the cause of its disappearance. This seems rather a hasty inference. In _Amis et Amiles_, admittedly a poem of old date, the parts of Bellicent and Lubias are prominent, and the former is demonstrative enough. In _Aliscans_ the part of the Countess Guibourc is both prominent and heroic, and is seconded by that of Queen Blancheflor and her daughter Aelis. We might also mention Oriabel in _Jourdans de Blaivies_ and others. But it may be admitted that the sex which fights and counsels plays the principal part, that love adventures are not introduced at any great length, and that the lady usually spares her knight the trouble and possible indignities of a long wooing. The characters of a chanson of the older style are somewhat uniform. There is the hero who is unjustly suspected of guilt or sore beset by Saracens, the heroine who falls in love with him, the traitor who accuses him or delays help, who is almost always of the lineage of Ganelon, and whose ways form a very curious study. There are friendly paladins and subordinate traitors; there is Charlemagne (who bears throughout the marks of the epic king common to Arthur and Agamemnon, but is not in the earlier chanson the incapable and venal dotard which he becomes in the later), and with Charlemagne generally the duke Naimes of Bavaria, the one figure who is invariably wise, brave, loyal and generous. In a few chansons there is to be added to these a very interesting class of personages who, though of low birth or condition, yet rescue the high-born knights from their enemies. Such are Rainoart in _Aliscans_, Gautier in _Gaydon_, Robastre in _Gaufrey_, Varocher in _Macaire_. These subjects, uniform rather than monotonous, are handled with great uniformity if not monotony of style. There are constant repetitions, and it sometimes seems, and may sometimes be the case, that the text is a mere cento of different and repeated versions. But the verse is generally harmonious and often stately. The recurrent assonances of the endless tirade soon impress the ear with a grateful music, and occasionally, and far more frequently than might be thought, passages of high poetry, such as the magnificent _Granz doel por la mort de Rollant_, appear to diversify the course of the story. The most remarkable of the chansons are _Roland_, _Aliscans_, _Gerard de Roussillon_, _Amis et Amiles_, _Raoul de Cambrai_, _Garin le Loherain_ and its sequel _Les quatre Fils Aymon_, _Les Saisnes_ (recounting the war of Charlemagne with Witekind), and lastly, _Le Chevalier au Cygne_, which is not a single poem but a series, dealing with the earlier crusades. The most remarkable _group_ is that centring round William of Orange, the historical or half-historical defender of the south of France against Mahommedan invasion. Almost all the chansons of this group, from the long-known _Aliscans_ to the recently printed _Chancon de Willame_, are distinguished by an unwonted _personality_ of interest, as well as by an intensified dose of the rugged and martial poetry which pervades the whole class. It is noteworthy that one chanson and one only, _Floovant_, deals with Merovingian times. But the chronology, geography, and historic facts of nearly all are, it is hardly necessary to say, mainly arbitrary.

_Arthurian Romances._--The second class of early French epics consists of the Arthurian cycle, the _Matiere de Bretagne_, the earliest known compositions of which are at least a century junior to the earliest chanson de geste, but which soon succeeded the chansons in popular favour, and obtained a vogue both wider and far more enduring. It is not easy to conceive a greater contrast in form, style, subject and sentiment than is presented by the two classes. In both the religious sentiment is prominent, but the religion of the chansons is of the simplest, not to say of the most savage character. To pray to God and to kill his enemies constitutes the whole duty of man. In the romances the mystical element becomes on the contrary prominent, and furnishes, in the Holy Grail, one of the most important features. In the Carlovingian knight the courtesy and clemency which we have learnt to associate with chivalry are almost entirely absent. The _gentix ber_ contradicts, jeers at, and execrates his sovereign and his fellows with the utmost freedom. He thinks nothing of striking his _cortoise moullier_ so that the blood runs down her _cler vis_. If a servant or even an equal offends him, he will throw the offender into the fire, knock his brains out, or set his whiskers ablaze. The Arthurian knight is far more of the modern model in these respects. But his chief difference from his predecessor is undoubtedly in his amorous devotion to his beloved, who, if not morally superior to Bellicent, Floripas, Esclairmonde, and the other Carlovingian heroines, is somewhat less forward. Even in minute details the difference is strongly marked. The romances are in octosyllabic couplets or in prose, and their language is different from that of the chansons, and contains much fewer of the usual epic repetitions and stock phrases. A voluminous controversy has been held respecting the origin of these differences, and of the story or stories which were destined to receive such remarkable attention. Reference must be made to the article ARTHURIAN LEGEND for the history of this controversy and for an account of its present state. This state, however, and all subsequent states, are likely to be rather dependent upon opinion than upon actual knowledge. From the point of view of the general historian of literature it may not be improper here to give a caution against the frequent use of the word "proven" in such matters. Very little in regard to early literature, except the literary value of the texts, is ever susceptible of _proof_; although things may be made more or less _probable_. What we are at present concerned with, however, is a body of verse and prose composed in the latter part of the 12th century and later. The earliest romances, the _Saint Graal_, the _Quete du Saint Graal_, _Joseph d'Arimathie_ and _Merlin_ bear the names of Walter Map and Robert de Borron. _Artus_ and part at least of _Lancelot du Lac_ (the whole of which has been by turns attributed and denied to Walter Map) appear to be due to unknown authors. _Tristan_ came later, and has a stronger mixture of Celtic tradition. At the same time as Walter Map, or a little later, Chretien (or Chrestien) de Troyes threw the legends of the Round Table into octosyllabic verse of a singularly spirited and picturesque character. The chief poems attributed to him are the _Chevalier au Lyon_ (Sir Ewain of Wales), the _Chevalier a la Charette_ (one of the episodes of _Lancelot_), _Eric et Enide_, _Tristan_ and _Percivale_. These poems, independently of their merit, which is great, had an extensive literary influence. They were translated by the German minnesingers, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strassburg, and others. With the romances already referred to, which are mostly in prose, and which by recent authorities have been put later than the verse tales which used to be postponed to them, Chretien's poems complete the early forms of the Arthurian story, and supply the matter of it as it is best known to English readers in Malory's book. Nor does that book, though far later than the original forms, convey a very false impression of the characteristics of the older romances. Indeed, the Arthurian knight, his character and adventures, are so much better known than the heroes of the Carlovingian chanson that there is less need to dwell upon them. They had, however, as has been already pointed out, great influence upon their rivals, and their comparative fertility of invention, the much larger number of their _dramatis personae_, and the greater variety of interests to which they appealed, sufficiently explain their increased popularity. The ordinary attractions of poetry are also more largely present in them than in the chansons; there is more description, more life, and less of the mere chronicle. They have been accused of relaxing morality, and there is perhaps some truth in the charge. But the change is after all one rather of manners than of morals, and what is lost in simplicity is gained in refinement. _Doon de Mayence_ is a late chanson, and _Lancelot du Lac_ is an early romance. But the two beautiful scenes, in the former between Doon and Nicolette, in the latter between Lancelot, Galahault, Guinevere, and the Lady of Malehaut, may be compared as instances of the attitude of the two classes of poets towards the same subject.

_Romances of Antiquity._--There is yet a third class of early narrative poems, differing from the two former in subject, but agreeing, sometimes with one sometimes with the other in form. These are the classical romances--the _Matiere de Rome_--which are not much later than those of Charlemagne and Arthur. The chief subjects with which their authors busied themselves were the conquests of Alexander and the siege of Troy, though other classical stories come in. The most remarkable of all is the romance of _Alixandre_ by Lambert the Short and Alexander of Bernay. It has been said that the excellence of the twelve-syllabled verse used in this romance was the origin of the term alexandrine. The Trojan romances, on the other hand, are chiefly in octosyllabic verse, and the principal poem which treats of them is the _Roman de Troie_ of Benoit de Sainte More. Both this poem and _Alixandre_ are attributed to the last quarter of the 12th century. The authorities consulted for these poems were, as may be supposed, none of the best. Dares Phrygius, Dictys Cretensis, the pseudo-Callisthenes supplied most of them. But the inexhaustible invention of the trouveres themselves was the chief authority consulted. The adventures of Medea, the wanderings of Alexander, the Trojan horse, the story of Thebes, were quite sufficient to spur on to exertion the minds which had been accustomed to spin a chanson of some 10,000 lines out of a casual allusion in some preceding poem. It is needless to say that anachronisms did not disturb them. From first to last the writers of the chansons had not in the least troubled themselves with attention to any such matters. Charlemagne himself had his life and exploits accommodated to the need of every poet who treats of him, and the same is the case with the heroes of antiquity. Indeed, Alexander is made in many respects a prototype of Charlemagne. He is regularly knighted, he has twelve peers, he holds tournaments, he has relations with Arthur, and comes in contact with fairies, he takes flights in the air, dives in the sea and so forth. There is perhaps more avowed imagination in these classical stories than in either of the other divisions of French epic poetry. Some of their authors even confess to the practice of fiction, while the trouveres of the chansons invariably assert the historical character of their facts and personages, and the authors of the Arthurian romances at least start from facts vouched for, partly by national tradition, partly by the authority of religion and the church. The classical romances, however, are important in two different ways. In the first place, they connect the early literature of France, however loosely, and with links of however dubious authenticity, with the great history and literature of the past. They show a certain amount of scholarship in their authors, and in their hearers they show a capacity of taking an interest in subjects which are not merely those directly connected with the village or the tribe. The chansons de geste had shown the creative power and independent character of French literature. There is, at least about the earlier ones, nothing borrowed, traditional or scholarly. They smack of the soil, and they rank France among the very few countries which, in this matter of indigenous growth, have yielded more than folk-songs and fireside tales. The Arthurian romances, less independent in origin, exhibit a wider range of view, a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more extensive command of the sources of poetical and romantic interest. The classical epics superadd the only ingredient necessary to an accomplished literature--that is to say, the knowledge of what has been done by other peoples and other literatures already, and the readiness to take advantage of the materials thus supplied.

_Romans d'Aventures._--These are the three earliest developments of French literature on the great scale. They led, however, to a fourth, which, though later in date than all except their latest forms and far more loosely associated as a group, is so closely connected with them by literary and social considerations that it had best be mentioned here. This is the _roman d'aventures_, a title given to those almost avowedly fictitious poems which connect themselves, mainly and centrally, neither with French history, with the Round Table, nor with the heroes of antiquity. These began to be written in the 13th century, and continued until the prose form of fiction became generally preferred. The later forms of the chansons de geste and the Arthurian poems might indeed be well called romans d'aventures themselves. _Hugues Capet_, for instance, a chanson in form and class of subject, is certainly one of this latter kind in treatment; and there is a larger class of semi-Arthurian romance, which so to speak branches off from the main trunk. But for convenience sake the definition we have given is preferable. The style and subject of these romans d'aventures are naturally extremely various. _Guillaume de Palerme_ deals with the adventures of a Sicilian prince who is befriended by a were-wolf; _Le Roman de l'escoufle_, with a heroine whose ring is carried off by a sparrow-hawk (_escoufle_), like Prince Camaralzaman's talisman; _Guy of Warwick_, with one of the most famous of imaginary heroes; _Meraugis de Portleguez_ is a sort of branch or offshoot of the romances of the Round Table; _Cleomades_, the work of the trouvere Adenes le Roi, who also rehandled the old chanson subjects of _Ogier_ and _Berte aux grans pies_, connects itself once more with the _Arabian Nights_ as well as with Chaucer forwards in the introduction of a flying mechanical horse. There is, in short, no possibility of classifying their subjects. The habit of writing in gestes, or of necessarily connecting the new work with an older one, had ceased to be binding, and the instinct of fiction writing was free; yet those romans d'aventures do not rank quite as high in literary importance as the classes which preceded them. This under-valuation arises rather from a lack of originality and distinctness of savour than from any shortcomings in treatment. Their versification, usually octosyllabic, is pleasant enough; but there is not much distinctness of character about them, and their incidents often strike the reader with something of the sameness, but seldom with much of the naivete, of those of the older poems. Nevertheless some of them attained to a very high popularity, such, for instance, as the _Partenopex de Blois_ of Denis Pyramus, which has a motive drawn from the story of _Cupid and Psyche_ and the charming _Floire et Blanchefleur_, giving the woes of a Christian prince and a Saracen slave-girl. With them may be connected a certain number of early romances and fictions of various dates in prose, none of which can vie in charm with _Aucassin et Nicolette_ (13th century), an exquisite literary presentment of medieval sentiment in its most delightful form.

General characteristics of early narrative.

Spread of literary taste.

In these classes maybe said to be summed up the literature of feudal chivalry in France. They were all, except perhaps the last, composed by one class of persons, the trouveres, and performed by another, the jongleurs. The latter, indeed, sometimes presumed to compose for himself, and was denounced as a _troveor batard_ by the indignant members of the superior caste. They were all originally intended to be performed in the _palais marberin_ of the baron to an audience of knights and ladies, and, when reading became more common, to be read by such persons. They dealt therefore chiefly, if not exclusively, with the class to whom they were addressed. The bourgeois and the villain, personages of political nonentity at the time of their early composition, come in for far slighter notice, although occasionally in the few curious instances we have mentioned, and others, persons of a class inferior to the seigneur play an important part. The habit of private wars and of insurrection against the sovereign supply the motives of the chanson de geste, the love of gallantry, adventure and foreign travel those of the romances Arthurian and miscellaneous. None of these motives much affected the lower classes, who were, with the early developed temper of the middle- and lower-class Frenchman, already apt to think and speak cynically enough of tournaments, courts, crusades and the other occupations of the nobility. The communal system was springing up, the towns were receiving royal encouragement as a counterpoise to the authority of the nobles. The corruptions and maladministration of the church attracted the satire rather of the citizens and peasantry who suffered by them, than of the nobles who had less to fear and even something to gain. On the other hand, the gradual spread of learning, inaccurate and ill-digested perhaps, but still learning, not only opened up new classes of subjects, but opened them to new classes of persons. The thousands of students who flocked to the schools of Paris were not all princes or nobles. Hence there arose two new classes of literature, the first consisting of the embodiment of learning of one kind or other in the vulgar tongue. The other, one of the most remarkable developments of sportive literature which the world has seen, produced the second indigenous literary growth of which France can boast, namely, the fabliaux, and the almost more remarkable work which is an immense conglomerate of fabliaux, the great beast-epic of the Roman de Renart.

_Fabliaux._--There are few literary products which have more originality and at the same time more diversity than the fabliau. The epic and the drama, even when they are independently produced, are similar in their main characteristics all the world over. But there is nothing in previous literature which exactly corresponds to the fabliau. It comes nearest to the Aesopic fable and its eastern origins or parallels. But differs from these in being less allegorical, less obviously moral (though a moral of some sort is usually if not always enforced), and in having a much more direct personal interest. It is in many degrees further removed from the parable, and many degrees nearer to the novel. The story is the first thing, the moral the second, and the latter is never suffered to interfere with the former. These observations apply only to the fabliaux, properly so called, but the term has been used with considerable looseness. The collectors of those interesting pieces, Barbazan, Meon, Le Grand d'Aussy, have included in their collections large numbers of miscellaneous pieces such as _dits_ (rhymed descriptions of various objects, the most famous known author of which was Baudouin de Conde, 13th century), and _debats_ (discussions between two persons or contrasts of the attributes of two things), sometimes even short romances, farces and mystery plays. Not that the fable proper--the prose classical beast-story of "Aesop"--was neglected. Marie de France--the poetess to be mentioned again for her more strictly poetical work--is the most literary of not a few writers who composed what were often, after the mysterious original poet, named _Ysopets_. Aesop, Phaedrus, Babrius were translated and imitated in Latin and in the vernacular by this class of writer, and some of the best known of "fablers" date from this time. The fabliau, on the other hand, according to the best definition of it yet achieved, is "the recital, generally comic, of a real or possible incident occurring in ordinary human life." The comedy, it may be added, is usually of a satiric kind, and occupies itself with every class and rank of men, from the king to the villain. There is no limit to the variety of these lively verse-tales, which are invariably written in eight-syllabled couplets. Now the subject is the misadventure of two Englishmen, whose ignorance of the French language makes them confuse donkey and lamb; now it is the fortunes of an exceedingly foolish knight, who has an amiable and ingenious mother-in-law; now the deserved sufferings of an avaricious or ill-behaved priest; now the bringing of an ungrateful son to a better mind by the wisdom of babes and sucklings. Not a few of the _Canterbury Tales_ are taken directly from fabliaux; indeed, Chaucer, with the possible exception of Prior, is our nearest approach to a fabliau-writer. At the other end of Europe the prose novels of Boccaccio and other Italian tale-tellers are largely based upon fabliaux. But their influence in their own country was the greatest. They were the first expression of the spirit which has since animated the most national and popular developments of French literature. Simple and unpretending as they are in form, the fabliaux announce not merely the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ and the _Heptameron_, _L'Avocat Patelin_, and _Pantagruel_, but also _L'Avare_ and the _Roman comique_, _Gil Blas_ and _Candide_. They indeed do more than merely prophesy the spirit of these great performances--they directly lead to them. The prose-tale and the farce are the direct outcomes of the fabliau, and the prose-tale and the farce once given, the novel and the comedy inevitably follow.

Social importance of fabliaux.

The special period of fabliau composition appears to have been the 12th and 13th centuries. It signifies on the one side the growth of a lighter and more sportive spirit than had yet prevailed, on another the rise in importance of other and lower orders of men than the priest and the noble, on yet another the consciousness on the part of these lower orders of the defects of the two privileged classes, and of the shortcomings of the system of polity under which these privileged classes enjoyed their privileges. There is, however, in the fabliau proper not so very much of direct satire, this being indeed excluded by the definition given above, and by the thoroughly artistic spirit in which that definition is observed. The fabliaux are so numerous and so various that it is difficult to select any as specially representative. We may, however, mention, both as good examples and as interesting from their subsequent history, _Le Vair Palfroi_, treated in English by Leigh Hunt and by Peacock; _Le Vilain Mire_, the original consciously or unconsciously followed in _Le Medecin malgre lui_; _Le Roi d'Angleterre et le jongleur d'Eli_; _La houce partie_; _Le Sot Chevalier_, an indecorous but extremely amusing story; _Les deux bordeors ribaus_, a dialogue between two jongleurs of great literary interest, containing allusions to the chansons de geste and romances most in vogue; and _Le vilain qui conquist paradis par plait_, one of the numerous instances of what has unnecessarily puzzled moderns, the association in medieval times of sincere and unfeigned faith with extremely free handling of its objects. This lightheartedness in other subjects sometimes bubbled over into the _fatrasie_, an almost pure nonsense-piece, parent of the later _amphigouri_.

_Roman de Renart._--If the fabliaux are not remarkable for direct satire, that element is supplied in more than compensating quantity by an extraordinary composition which is closely related to them. _Le Roman de Renart_, or _History of Reynard the Fox_, is a poem, or rather series of poems, which, from the end of the 12th to the middle of the 14th century, served the citizen poets of northern France, not merely as an outlet for literary expression, but also as a vehicle of satirical comment,--now on the general vices and weaknesses of humanity, now on the usual corruptions in church and state, now on the various historical events which occupied public attention from time to time. The enormous popularity of the subject is shown by the long vogue which it had, and by the empire which it exercised over generations of writers who differed from each other widely in style and temper. Nothing can be farther from the allegorical erudition, the political diatribes and the sermonizing moralities of the authors of _Renart le Contre-fait_ than the sly naivete of the writers of the earlier branches. Yet these and a long and unknown series of intermediate bards the fox-king pressed into his service, and it is scarcely too much to say that, during the two centuries of his reign, there was hardly a thought in the popular mind which, as it rose to the surface, did not find expression in an addition to the huge cycle of _Renart_.

We shall not deal with the controversies which have been raised as to the origin of the poem and its central idea. The latter may have been a travestie of real persons and actual events, or it may (and much more probably) have been an expression of thoughts and experiences which recur in every generation. France, the Netherlands and Germany have contended for the honour of producing Renart; French, Flemish, German and Latin for the honour of first describing him. It is sufficient to say that the spirit of the work seems to be more that of the borderland between France and Flanders than of any other district, and that, wherever the idea may have originally arisen, it was incomparably more fruitful in France than in any other country. The French poems which we possess on the subject amount in all to nearly 100,000 lines, independently of mere variations, but including the different versions of _Renart le Contre-fait_. This vast total is divided into four different poems. The most ancient and remarkable is that edited by Meon under the title of _Roman du Renart_, and containing, with some additions made by M. Chabaille, 37 branches and about 32,000 lines. It must not, however, be supposed that this total forms a continuous poem like the _Aeneid_ or _Paradise Lost_. Part was pretty certainly written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud, but he was not the author of the whole. On the contrary, the separate branches are the work of different authors, hardly any of whom are known, and, but for their community of subject and to some extent of treatment, might be regarded as separate poems. The history of Renart, his victories over Isengrim, the wolf, Bruin, the bear, and his other unfortunate rivals, his family affection, his outwittings of King Noble the Lion and all the rest, are too well known to need fresh description here. It is perhaps in the subsequent poems, though they are far less known and much less amusing, that the hold which the idea of Renart had obtained on the mind of northern France, and the ingenious uses to which it was put, are best shown. The first of these is _Le Couronnement Renart_, a poem of between 3000 and 4000 lines, attributed, on no grounds whatever, to the poetess Marie de France, and describing how the hero by his ingenuity got himself crowned king. This poem already shows signs of direct moral application and generalizing. These are still more apparent in _Renart le Nouvel_, a composition of some 8000 lines, finished in the year 1288 by the Fleming Jacquemart Gielee. Here the personification, of which, in noticing the _Roman de la rose_, we shall soon have to give extended mention, becomes evident. Instead of or at least beside the lively personal Renart who used to steal sausages, set Isengrim fishing with his tail, or make use of Chanticleer's comb for a purpose for which it was certainly never intended, we have _Renardie_, an abstraction of guile and hypocrisy, triumphantly prevailing over other and better qualities. Lastly, as the _Roman de la rose_ of William of Lorris is paralleled by _Renart le Nouvel_, so its continuation by Jean de Meung is paralleled by the great miscellany of _Renart le Contre-fait_, which, even in its existing versions, extends to fully 50,000 lines. Here we have, besides floods of miscellaneous erudition and discourse, political argument of the most direct and important kind. The wrongs of the lower orders are bitterly urged. They are almost openly incited to revolt; and it is scarcely too much to say, as M. Lenient has said, that the closely following Jacquerie is but a practical carrying out of the doctrines of the anonymous satirists of _Renart le Contre-fait_, one of whom (if indeed there was more than one) appears to have been a clerk of Troyes.

Audefroit le Bastard.

Thibaut de Champagne.

Ruteboef.

Adam de la Halle.

Lais.

_Early Lyric Poetry._--Side by side with these two forms of literature, the epics and romances of the higher classes, and the fabliau, which, at least in its original, represented rather the feelings of the lower, there grew up a third kind, consisting of purely lyrical poetry. The song literature of medieval France is extremely abundant and beautiful. From the 12th to the 15th century it received constant accessions, some signed, some anonymous, some purely popular in their character, some the work of more learned writers, others again produced by members of the aristocracy. Of the latter class it may fairly be said that the catalogue of royal and noble authors boasts few if any names superior to those of Thibaut de Champagne, king of Navarre at the beginning of the 13th century, and Charles d'Orleans, the father of Louis XII., at the beginning of the 15th. Although much of this lyric poetry is anonymous, the more popular part of it almost entirely so, yet M. Paulin Paris was able to enumerate some hundreds of French chansonniers between the 11th and the 13th century. The earliest song literature, chiefly known in the delightful collection of Bartsch (_Altfranzosische Romanzen und Pastourellen_), is mainly sentimental in character. The collector divides it under the two heads of romances and pastourelles, the former being usually the celebration of the loves of a noble knight and maiden, and recounting how Belle Doette or Eglantine or Oriour sat at her windows or in the tourney gallery, or embroidering silk and samite in her chamber, with her thoughts on Gerard or Guy or Henry,--the latter somewhat monotonous but naive and often picturesque recitals, very often in the first person, of the meeting of an errant knight or minstrel with a shepherdess, and his cavalier but not always successful wooing. With these, some of which date from the 12th century, may be contrasted, at the other end of the medieval period, the more varied and popular collection dating in their present form from the 15th century, and published in 1875 by M. Gaston Paris. In both alike, making allowance for the difference of their age and the state of the language, may be noticed a charming lyrical faculty and great skill in the elaboration of light and suitable metres. Especially remarkable is the abundance of refrains of an admirably melodious kind. It is said that more than 500 of these exist. Among the lyric writers of these four centuries whose names are known may be mentioned Audefroi le Bastard (12th century), the author of the charming song of _Belle Idoine_, and others no way inferior, Quesnes de Bethune, the ancestor of Sully, whose song-writing inclines to a satirical cast in many instances, the Vidame de Chartres, Charles d'Anjou, King John of Brienne, the chatelain de Coucy, Gace Brusle, Colin Muset, while not a few writers mentioned elsewhere--Guyot de Provins, Adam de la Halle, Jean Bodel and others--were also lyrists. But none of them, except perhaps Audefroi, can compare with Thibaut IV. (1201-1253), who united by his possessions and ancestry a connexion with the north and the south, and who employed the methods of both districts but used the language of the north only. Thibaut was supposed to be the lover of Blanche of Castile, the mother of St Louis, and a great deal of his verse is concerned with his love for her. But while knights and nobles were thus employing lyric poetry in courtly and sentimental verse, lyric forms were being freely employed by others, both of high and low birth, for more general purposes. Blanche and Thibaut themselves came in for contemporary lampoons, and both at this time and in the times immediately following, a cloud of writers composed light verse, sometimes of a lyric sometimes of a narrative kind, and sometimes in a mixture of both. By far the most remarkable of these is Ruteboeuf (a name which is perhaps a nickname), the first of a long series of French poets to whom in recent days the title Bohemian has been applied, who passed their lives between gaiety and misery, and celebrated their lot in both conditions with copious verse. Ruteboeuf is among the earliest French writers who tell us their personal history and make personal appeals. But he does not confine himself to these. He discusses the history of his times, upbraids the nobles for their desertion of the Latin empire of Constantinople, considers the expediency of crusading, inveighs against the religious orders, and takes part in the disputes between the pope and the king. He composes pious poetry too, and in at least one poem takes care to distinguish between the church which he venerates and the corrupt churchmen whom he lampoons. Besides Ruteboeuf the most characteristic figure of his class and time (about the middle of the 13th century) is Adam de la Halle, commonly called the Hunchback of Arras. The earlier poems of Adam are of a sentimental character, the later ones satirical and somewhat ill-tempered. Such, for instance, is his invective against his native city. But his chief importance consists in his _jeux_, the _Jeu de la feuillie_, the _Jeu de Robin et Marion_, dramatic compositions which led the way to the regular dramatic form. Indeed the general tendency of the 13th century is to satire, fable and farce, even more than to serious or sentimental poetry. We should perhaps except the _lais_, the chief of which are known under the name of Marie de France. These lays are exclusively Breton in origin, though not in application, and the term seems originally to have had reference rather to the music to which they were sung than to the manner or matter of the pieces. Some resemblance to these lays may perhaps be traced in the genuine Breton songs published by M. Luzel. The subjects of the lais are indifferently taken from the Arthurian cycle, from ancient story, and from popular tradition, and, at any rate in Marie's hands, they give occasion for some passionate, and in the modern sense really romantic, poetry. The most famous of all is the _Lay of the Honeysuckle_, traditionally assigned to Sir Tristram.

_Satiric and Didactic Works._--Among the direct satirists of the middle ages, one of the earliest and foremost is Guyot de Provins, a monk of Clairvaux and Cluny, whose _Bible_, as he calls it, contains an elaborate satire on the time (the beginning of the 13th century), and who was imitated by others, especially Hugues de Bregy. The same spirit soon betrayed itself in curious travesties of the romances of chivalry, and sometimes invades the later specimens of these romances themselves. One of the earliest examples of this travesty is the remarkable composition entitled _Audigier_. This poem, half fabliau and half romance, is not so much an instance of the heroi-comic poems which afterwards found so much favour in Italy and elsewhere, as a direct and ferocious parody of the Carlovingian epic. The hero Audigier is a model of cowardice and disloyalty; his father and mother, Turgibus and Rainberge, are deformed and repulsive. The exploits of the hero himself are coarse and hideous failures, and the whole poem can only be taken as a counterblast to the spirit of chivalry. Elsewhere a trouvere, prophetic of Rabelais, describes a vast battle between all the nations of the world, the quarrel being suddenly atoned by the arrival of a holy man bearing a huge flagon of wine. Again, we have the history of a solemn crusade undertaken by the citizens of a country town against the neighbouring castle. As erudition and the fancy for allegory gained ground, satire naturally availed itself of the opportunity thus afforded it; the disputes of Philippe le Bel with the pope and the Templars had an immense literary influence, partly in the concluding portions of the _Renart_, partly in the _Roman de la rose_, still to be mentioned, and partly in other satiric allegories of which the chief is the romance of _Fauvel_, attributed to Francois de Rues. The hero of this is an allegorical personage, half man and half horse, signifying the union of bestial degradation with human ingenuity and cunning. Fauvel (the name, it may be worth while to recall, occurs in Langland) is a divinity in his way. All the personages of state, from kings and popes to mendicant friars, pay their court to him.

Baudouin de Sebourc.