Chapter XXVIII: Epilogue

How much author's anguish of self-tasking and of self-denial, in exploration, study, selection, rejection, condensation, retrenchment, to say nothing of the anxiety to be clear in expression, to be true, to be proportionate, to be just, finally, too, to be entertaining as well as instructive--this little book has cost the producer of it, no one is likely ever to guess that has not tried a similar task with similar application of conscience himself.

For instance, to name Ronsard, the brilliant, the once sovereign Ronsard--lately, after so long occultation of his orb, come, through the romanticists of to-day, or shall we write "of yesterday"? almost to brightness again--to name this poet, without at least giving in specimen the following celebrated sonnet from his hand, which, for the sake of making our present point the clearer, we may now show in a neat version by Mr. Andrew Lang (but why should Mr. Lang, in his fourth line, change Ronsard's "fair" to "young"?):

When you are very old, at evening
You'll sit and spin beside the fire, and say,
Humming my songs, "Ah well, ah well-a-day!
When I was young, of me did Ronsard sing."
None of your maidens that doth hear the thing,
Albeit with her weary task foredone,
But wakens at my name, and calls you one
Blest, to be held in long remembering.

I shall be low beneath the earth, and laid
On sleep, a phantom in the myrtle shade,
While you beside the fire, a grandame gray,
My love, your pride, remember and regret;
Ah, love me, love! we may be happy yet,
And gather roses while 'tis called to-day:

--then, for another instance, to pass over Boileau and not bring forward from him even so much as the following characteristic epigram, wherein this wit and satirist pays his sarcastic respects to that same poet Cotin whom (pp. 81 ff.) we showed Moliere mocking under the name of "Trissotin" (here we must do our own translating):

In vain, with thousandfold abuse,
My foes, through all their works diffuse,
Have thought to make me shocking to mankind;
Cotin, to bring my style to shame,
Has played a much more easy game,
He has his verses to my pen assigned--

to achieve, we say, these abstinences, and abstinences such as these, was a problem hard indeed to solve.

The result of all is before the reader; and, good or bad, it is, we are bound to confess, the very best that, within the given limits, we could do. Such students of our subject as we may fortunately have succeeded in making hungry for still more knowledge than we ourselves supply, we can conscientiously send, for further partial satisfaction of their desire, to that series of books, already once named by us, which has lately been published at Chicago, under the title, "The Great French Writers." Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. have done a true service to the cause of letters in general, and in particular to the cause of what may be called international letters, in reproducing this series of books. They are good books, they are well translated, and they appear in handsome form. Madame de Sevigne, Montesquieu, Bernardin de St. Pierre, and three names that, together with all of their several kinds, economists, philosophers, historians, we here have been obliged to omit, Turgot, Victor Cousin, Thiers, are in the list of authors treated in the volumes thus far issued.

An interesting doubt may, in retrospect of all, be submitted, without author's solution supplied, to entertain the speculation of the wisely considerate reader. Let the earlier still living French literature, that part of the whole body, we mean, ending, say, with the date of Montesquieu, which, in a rough approximate way, may be described as dominated by the spirit of classicism--let this be compared with the later French literature, that section in which the leaven of romanticism has strongly worked, and do you find existing an important fundamental difference in intimate quality between the one and the other? Is the later literature of a certain softer fiber, a more yielding consistence, than characterizes the earlier? Does the earlier present a harder, more quartz-like structure, a substance better fitted to resist yet for ages to come the slow but tireless tooth of time?

INDEX.

The merest approximation only can be attempted in hinting here the pronunciation of French names. In general, the French distribute the accent pretty evenly among all the syllables of their words. We mark an accent on the final syllable chiefly in order to correct a natural English tendency to slight that syllable in pronunciation. In a few cases we let a well-established English pronunciation stand. N notes a peculiar nasal sound, ue, a peculiar vowel sound, having no equivalent in English.

Ab'e-lard, Pierre (1079-1142), 13.

Academy, French, 16, 62, 119, 238, 264.

AEs'chy-lus, 77, 118, 127, 128.

AEsop, 69.

Alembert. _See_ D'Alembert.

Al-ex-an'der (the Great), 12, 103.

AM'I-EL, Henri Frederic, 313-318.

Am-y-ot' (am-e-o'), Jacques (1513-1593), 14.

An-ac're-on, 256.

Anderson, Melville B., 281.

An'ge-lo, Michael, 120, 282.

Ariosto, 208.

Ar-is-toph'a-nes, 32.

Ar-nauld' (ar-no'), Antoine (1612-1694), 94.

Arnold, Matthew, 248, 276, 291, 298, 299.

Arthur (King), 12.

Attwell, Henry, 309.

Au'-gus-tine, St., Latin Christian Father, 67.

Au-gus'tus (the emperor), 103.

Bacon, Francis, 43, 53.

Baker, Jehu, 185.

BAL'ZAC, Honore de (1799-1850), 174, 275, 293-298, 303.

Bal'zac, Jean Louis Guez de (1594-1654), 15, 16.

Beau-mar-chais' (bo-mar-sh'a), Pierre Augustin Caron de (1732-1799),
239.

BE-RAN-GER (ba-roN-zha'), Pierre Jean de (1780-1857), 13, 256-263.

Ber-si-er' (ber-see-a'), Eugene, 157

Bismarck, 244.

Boi-leau'-Des-pre-aux'(bwae-lo-da-pra-o'), Nicolas (1636-1711), 14, 17,
18, 67, 68, 127, 128, 130, 285, 311, 319.

Bolton, A. S., 57.

BOS-SU-ET' (bo-sue-a'), Jacques Benigne (1627-1704), 16, 17, 62, 63,
100, 127, 129, 137-142, 153, 154, 157, 158, 161, 162, 184, 286-293,
311.

BOUR-DA-LOUE', Louis (1632-1704), 10, 17, 63, 111, 115, 137, 140,
142-148, 150, 151, 291, 292.

Bryant, William Cullen, 69, 70.

Bryce, James, 192.

Buckle, Henry Thomas, 189.

Buffon (bue-foN), Georges Louis Leclerc de (1707-1788), 238, 309.

Bur'gun-dy, Duke of (1682-1712), 133, 136, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165.

Burke, Edmund, 43, 61, 192.

Burns, Robert, 256.

Bussy (bues-se'), Count, 106.

By'ron, Lord, 43, 307.

Caesar, Julius, 48, 103.

Calas (cae-lae'), Jean, 211.

Calvin, John (1509-1564), 13.

Carlyle, Thomas, 209, 212.

Catherine (Empress of Russia), 237.

Cham-fort' (shaeN-for'), Sebastien Nicolas (1741-1794), 69, 261, 318.

Char-le-magne (shar-le-man), 12.

Charles I. (of England), 129, 139.

Charles IX. (of France), 53.

CHA-TEAU-BRI-AND'(shae-to-bre-aeN') Francois Auguste de (1768-1848), 10,
18, 159, 175, 226, 229, 248-255, 276, 311, 315.

Cicero, 63, 310.

"Classicism," 15, 18, 275, 276.

Claude (klod), Jean (1619-1687), 137.

Coleridge, S. T., 13, 33, 38, 39.

Comines (ko-meen'), Philippe de (1445-1509), 13, 26, 29.

Conde (koN-dae'), Prince of, "The Great Conde" (1621-1686), 112.

Condillac (koN-de-yaek), Etienne Bonnot de (1715-1780), 238.

Condorcet (koN-dor-sa'), Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat de
(1743-1794), 100, 101.

Constant (koN-sto'N), Benjamin (1767-1830), 243.

Coquerel (kok-rel'), Athanase Laurent Charles (1795-1868), 157.

CORNEILLE (kor-nal'), Pierre (1606-1684), 10, 16, 17, 19, 64, 65,
117-127, 129, 137, 138, 200, 285, 291, 292.

Cotin (ko-taN') Abbe (17th century), 81, 319.

Cotton, Charles (1630-1687), 40, 43, 45.

Cousin (koo-zaN'), Victor (1792-1867), 101, 290, 291, 320.

Cowper, William, 173.

D'Alembert (dae-laeN-ber'), Jean le Rond (1717-1783), 17, 219, 238.

Dante, Alighieri, 76, 77, 91, 281.

Demosthenes, 63.

Descartes (da-kaert'), Rene (1596-1650), 16, 86, 92.

D'Holbach (dol-bak'), properly, Holbach, Paul Henri Thyry,
(1723-1789), 238.

Dickens, Charles, 33, 116, 295, 296.

DIDEROT (de-dro), Denis (1713-1784), 17, 191, 209, 236, 237, 238, 285.

Dryden, John, 43, 127.

Duclos (due-klo'), Charles Pineau (1704-1772), 238.

"_Ecrasez l'Infame_," 210.

Edward (the Black Prince), 24, 26.

Edwards, President Jonathan, 145.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 43, 45, 52.

Encyclopaedists, 17, 167, 209, 235-239, 249.

Epictetus, 54.

Erasmus, 39, 99.

Euripides, 64, 118, 127, 129.

_Fabliaux_ (fab'le-o'), 12.

Faugere (fo-zher'), Armand Prosper (1810), 101.

Felix, Pere, 157.

Fenelon (fan-loN'), Francois de Salignac de la Mothe (1651-1715), 17,
134, 137, 153, 158-173, 310, 315.

Flechier (flache-a'), Esprit (1632-1710), 137.

Foix (fwae), Count of, 27, 28.

FROISSART (frwae-sar'), Jean (1337-1410?), 13, 22-29.

Gaillard (ga-yar'), Gabriel Henri (1726-1806), 119.

Gargant'ua, 29, 34-37.

Gibbon, Edward, 118, 241.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, 184, 229, 244, 245, 281, 305, 317.

Goldsmith, Oliver, 67, 184, 269.

Grignan (green-yaeN'), Madame de, 108.

Grimm, Friedrich Melchior (1723-1807), 238.

Grimm, Herman, 244.

Guizot, Francois Pierre Guillaume (1787-1874), 199, 320.

Guyon (ge-yoN') Madame (1648-1717), 161, 172, 173.

Hallam, Henry, 21, 33.

Havet (ae-va') (editor of Pascal's works), 101.

Hawkesworth, Doctor, 169.

Hazlitt, William Carew, 43.

Helvetius (el-va-se-uess'), Claude Adrien (1715-1771), 238.

Henriette, Princess, 129, 139.

Henry of Navarre (Henri IV. of France), 53, 202.

Herodotus, 13, 22, 310.

Holbach. See D'Holbach.

Homer, 14, 31, 32, 77, 206, 208, 310.

Hooker ("The Judicious"), 158.

Horace, 32, 206, 256, 310.

HUGO (ue-go'), VICTOR Marie (1802-1885), 18, 19, 77, 256, 257, 274,
275-285, 315, 316.

Hume, David, 43, 226.

Hutson, Charles W., 21.

Hyacinthe (e'ae'saN), Pere (1827-), 157.

Job, 77, 161, 281.

Johnes, Thomas, 22.

Joinville (zhwaN-veel'), Jean de (1224?-1319?), 13.

JOUBERT (zhoo'bar), Joseph (1754-1824), 65, 307-311.

Julian (The Apostate), 135.

Juvenal, 62.

La Boetie (lae-bo-a-te'), 49, 50.

Laboulaye (la'boo-la'), Edouard Rene Lefebvre, 196.

LA BRUYERE (lae-brue-e-yer'), Jean (1646?-1696), 17, 62-64, 118, 138,
311, 318.

Lacordaire (la-kor-der'), Jean Baptiste Henri (1802-1861), 157.

LA FONTAINE (lae-foN-tan') Jean de (1621-1695), 17, 66-75.

La Harpe (lae-arp), Jean Francois de, 290.

LAMARTINE (lae-mar-ten'), Alphonse Marie Louis de (1790-1869), 18, 159,
175, 229, 263-274, 287, 289, 290, 291.

Lang, Andrew, 280, 319.

Langue d'oc, 11.

Langue d'oil, 11.

Lanier, Sidney, 27.

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (lae-rosh-foo-ko'), Francois, Duc de (1613-1680), 17,
43, 55-62, 103, 106, 114.

Longfellow, Henry W., 44.

Lotze, Rudolf Hermann, 316.

Louis IX. (1215-1270) (St. Louis), 12, 13.

Louis XI. (1423-1483), 13.

Louis XIII. (1601-1643), 15, 77, 291.

Louis XIV. (1638-1715) (Quatorze), 15, 17, 106, 130, 133, 136, 137,
138, 142, 143, 148, 149, 157, 159, 166, 167, 170, 291.

Louis XV. (1710-1774), 149, 212.

Louis XVIII. (1755-1824), 249.

Louis Napoleon (1808-1873), 193, 259, 261, 266, 277.

Louis Philippe (1773-1850), 192, 199, 249, 257, 264.

Lucan, 117, 118, 201.

Lucretius, 77, 127.

Luther, Martin, 13, 37.

Machiavelli, 192.

Maintenon (maeN-teh-noN'), Madame de (1635-1719), 130, 136, 142, 161,
162.

Maistre (metr), Joseph Marie de (1753-1821), 255.

Malherbe (mael-erb'), Francois (1555-1628), 15, 18.

Martin (mar taeN'), Henri (1810- ), 138.

MASSILLON (maes-se-yoN'), Jean Baptiste (1663-1742), 10, 17, 115, 137,
142, 147, 148-153, 157, 311.

Matthews, William, 287.

Maury, the Abbe, 290.

McCarthy, Justin, 300.

M'Crie, Thomas, 94.

Menander, 75.

Milton, John, 75, 137, 158, 207, 208.

MOLIERE (mo lei-er') (real name, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, 1622-1673)
17, 19, 67, 75-91, 100, 119, 126, 127, 176, 201, 311, 319.

Moltke, Count von, 194, 244.

Monod (mo'no'), Adolphe, 157.

Monod, Frederic, 157.

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 116.

MONTAIGNE (mon-taen'), Michel Eyquem de (1533-1592), 10, 13, 14, 40-54,
56, 61, 103, 190, 214.

Montespan (moN-tess-paN'), Madame de (1641-1707), 109.

MONTESQUIEU (moN-tes-ke-uh'), Charles de Secondat de (1689-1755,), 17,
167, 184-191, 192, 199, 311, 320.

Morley, John, 118, 203, 209, 237.

Motteux, Peter Anthony (1660-1718), 30.

MUSSET (mue-sa'), (1810-1857), Alfred de, 275, 303-307.

Musset, Paul de, 305.

Napoleon Bonaparte, 18, 153, 240, 241, 242, 244, 248, 249, 259, 282.

Nettleton, W. A., 91.

Newton, Sir Isaac, 92.

Nicole (ne-kol'), Pierre (1625-1695), 10, 114, 128.

"Obscurantism" (disposition in the sphere of the intellect to love
darkness rather than light), 210.

Pan-tag'ru-el, 29, 35, 37, 38.

Panurge (pae-nuerzh'), 37, 38.

PASCAL, Blaise (1623-1662), 10, 16, 17, 43, 52, 54, 65, 91-104, 115,
145, 310, 311, 318.

Pascal, Jacqueline, 92.

Pericles, 247.

Petrarch, Francesco, 23.

Phaedrus, 69.

Pindar, 256.

Plato, 30, 45, 188, 208, 240, 318.

"Pleiades" (ple'ya-dez), 14, 15, 18.

Plutarch, 14, 31, 42, 48, 215.

"Po-co-cu'rant-ism," 208.

Pompadour, Madame de (1721-1764), 212.

Pompey, 48.

Pope, Alexander, 43, 127.

Poquelin (po-ke-laN'). See Moliere.

Port Royal, 94, 100, 128, 287.

Pradon (prae-doN'), 129, 130.

Provencal (pro-vaN-sal), 11.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, 14.

RABELAIS (rae-bla), Francois (1495?-1553?), 10, 13, 29-39, 50, 54, 67,
113, 114.

RACINE (rae-seen'), Jean (1639-1699), 17, 64, 65, 67, 117, 118,
127-137, 153, 285, 291, 292, 311.

Rambouillet (roN-boo-ya), Hotel de, 15, 16, 81, 84, 120, 138, 288.

Recamier (ra-ka-me-a') Madame (1777-1849), 16, 239, 240, 244, 255.

Renan (reh-noN'), Joseph Ernest (1823), 285.

Richelieu (resh-le-uh'), Cardinal, (1585-1642), 15, 16, 77, 119, 291.

"Romanticism," 18, 275, 276.

Ronsard (roN-sar'), Pierre de, (1524-1585), 14, 15, 319.

Rousseau (roo-so'), Jean Baptiste (1670-1741), 212.

ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques (1712-1778), 10, 17, 18, 48, 159, 167, 175,
209, 212-228, 229, 234, 238, 239, 249, 311.

Roux (roo), Joseph (living), 318.

Ruskin, John, 60.

Rutebeuf (rue-te-buf') (b. 1230), _trouvere_, 12.

Sabliere (sae-bli-er'), Madame de la, 67, 68.

Saci (sae-se'), M. de, 54.

Saintsbury, George, 20, 49, 298, 301.

SAINTE-BEUVE (saNt-buv'), Charles Augustin (1804-1869), 15, 18, 142,
145, 148, 190, 255, 256, 275, 285-293.

SAND (saeNd), GEORGE (Madame Dudevant, 1804-1876), 10, 18, 175, 229,
234, 275, 298-303, 304.

SAURIN (so-raN'), Jacques (1677-1730), 137, 153-157.

Scott, Sir Walter, 13, 22, 26, 85.

Schlegel, August Wilhelm, 243.

Selden, John ("The learned"), 158.

Seneca, 42.

SEVIGNE (sa-ven-ya'), Madame de, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1626-1696),
16, 85, 105-117, 129, 320.

Shakespeare, 19, 43, 53, 75, 77, 91, 174, 201, 281.

Smollett, Tobias George, 176.

Socrates, 30, 227, 251.

Sophocles, 64, 118, 127, 128, 291, 310.

STAEL(-Holstein) (stae-el-ol-staN'), Anne Louise Germanie de
(1766-1817), 18, 229, 239-247, 248.

Stanislaus (King of Poland), 237.

St. John, Bayle, 48, 49, 50.

ST. PIERRE, Jacques Henri Bernardin de (1737-1814), 228-235, 311, 320,

St. Simon, 159, 160.

SWETCHINE (svetch-een'), Anne Sophie, (1782-1857), 311, 313, 318.

Swift, Dean, 35.

Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 77, 276.

Tacitus, 13, 129.

Taine, H. (1828), 188, 286.

Tasso, 208.

Thibaud (te bo'), _troubadour_ (1201-1253), 12, 13.

Thiers (te er'), Louis Adolphe (1797-1877), 320.

Thucydides, 247.

TOCQUEVILLE (tok-veel'), Alexis Charles Henri Clerel de (1805-1859),
191-199.

_Troubadour_, 11.

_Trouvere_, 11, 12.

Turgot (tuer-goe'), Anne Robert Jacques (1727-1781), 238, 320.

Urquhart, Sir Thomas, 30.

Van Laun, H., 20.

VAUVENARGUES (vo-ve-narg'), Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de (1715-1747),
64-66, 318.

Villehardouin (vel-ar-doo-aN'), Geoffroy (1165?-1213?), 13.

Villemain (vel-maN'), Abel Francois (1790-1870), 93.

Virgil, 11, 14, 65, 127, 130, 206, 310, 311.

Voiture (vwae-tur'), Vincent (1598-1648), 16.

VOLTAIRE (vol-ter'), Francois Marie Arouet de (1694-1778), 10, 17, 35,
43, 56, 65, 100, 118, 124, 125, 126, 128, 152, 167, 190, 199-212,
238, 239, 245, 248, 249, 285, 311.

Wall, C. H., 85.

Walpole, Horace, 116.

Warens (vae-raN), Madame de, 217, 218, 220, 225.

Washington, George, 250.

Webster, Daniel, 141, 290.

Wormeley, Katharine Prescott, 297, 298, 302.

Wright, Elizur, 69.

Xenophon, 310.

Young, William, 261.

End of Project Gutenberg's French Classics, by William Cleaver Wilkinson

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