down to the rank of a mere patois, or rather a number of patois, which may still be heard among the country people of Provence, Languedoc and Gascony. In the 12th century we find in the North of France four dialects of equal importance, existing side by side in Picardy, Normandy, Burgundy, and the Isle-de-France. One of these, the last-named, has risen to be the French language, but its preponderance over the others is solely due to political causes. This result was virtually secured when in 987 A. D. Hugues Capet, duke of Francia, usurped the throne. From that time the French dialect spreads, slowly at first, then more rapidly, in the same proportion as does the power of the king and the area of the royal dominions, and when the great baron who resides at Paris has become, not in name only but in fact, the king of France, the dialect which was originally that of his feudal domain has become the French language. Thus in less than three centuries the dialects of Picardy,2 Burgundy and Normandy were supplanted by that of the Isle-de-France, and though the people of these provinces refused for some time longer to accept the latter as their vernacular speech, their native dialects, being no longer written, became simple patois.' To sum up this sketch in a few words, we may say that eight centuries after the introduction of the vulgar Latin into Gaul it appears in the shape of the langue d'oil and the langue d'oc, and that one of the dialects of the former, that of the Isle-de-France, supplanted the others and in the course of the fourteenth century became the French language.3 2. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE.4 EPIC AND LYRIC POETRY. The earliest written specimens of French poetry occur in the eleventh and twelfth century; they are an outcome of that burst of religious and warlike enthusiasm which found an active vent in the partis, which took place before the Courts of Love. The most famous among them were William IX of Aquitaine, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, Bertrand de Born, Bernard de Ventadour and Pierre Vidal. The limits of these three dialects are not exactly the same as those of the provinces of the same name. The dialect of the Isle de France was originally only a branch of that of Burgundy. Cf. BURGUY, Grammaire de la langue d'Oil, p. 15 and 17. 2 However, French absorbed a great many dialectical forms, especially from the Picard, and this is one of the reasons why we so often find the same Latin word in two different shapes in French e. g. campus, F. champ, P. camp; Champagne, campagne; caput, chef, cap. The same phenomenon occurred in Spain and Italy, where Castilian and Tuscan became respectively Spanish and Italian, while the Andalusian and Navarrese dialects on the one hand, the Milanese, Sicilian etc. on the other sank to the rank of patois. We have followed GERUZEZ, Histoire de la Littérature fr., DEMOGEOT, Hist. de la Litt. fr. and NISARD, Hist. de la Litt. fr. crusades. The first epoch is that of the trouvères, a name identical with that of the troubadours of the langue d'oc and the Italian trovatore. The provençal minstrels are distinguished chiefly for their lyrical compositions, those of the North for epic poetry. Their best works, the chansons de geste, are so called because they celebrated the gesta or warlike deeds of various heroes, especially Charlemagne and his twelve peers. CARLOVINGIAN CYCLE. SONG OF ROLAND. The most famous of the rhapsodies of the Carlovingian cycle is the Song of Roland, which Théroulde or Turold composed about the second half of the 11th century. Roland is the one of Charlemagne's paladins whose name we meet with most rarely in history and most frequently in song.2 The historical groundwork of the legend is extremely simple. On the return of Charlemagne from his Spanish expedition (788), a portion of his rear-guard fell into an ambush and was cut to pieces by the Basks. This insignificant event is magnified by the legend into a grand and terrible catastrophe. The Gallo-Romans, who had now grown into the French nation, had long ago forgotten that the Franks were a people of another race who had conquered them by force of arms.3 Accordingly the poets appropriated both their great deeds and their misfortunes, exulting over the one and bewailing the other, as if they were their own. Thus the German Karl became Charlemagne, the national hero of the French, and the fall of Roland at Roncevaux grows into one of those national disasters which in the French mind imperatively demand both explanation and revenge. The explanation is easy: the invincible nephew of Charlemagne could only have perished by treason, and the revenge is secured by the extermination of the Infidel host. The traitor is found in the person of the miscreant Ganelon, who leads the flower of the army into the snare. But the Franks fight valiantly, though surrounded by legions of enemies, and all may yet be saved, if Roland will only use his olifant (ivory horn), one blast of which would call the emperor to their help; and thus the valiant Oliver advises, saying: Cumpainz Rollant, sunez vostre olifant;4 Si l'orrat Carles qui est as porze passant, But Roland rejects his counsel, as unworthy of a Christian knight: V. p. XX, n. 6. 2, Rotlandus, britannici limitis praefectus." EGINHARD, Vita Caroli Magni, Cap. IX. V. Augustin Thierry, page 534. A corruption of the latin elephas. 3 Ainsi l'ouïra. 6 Porz the mountain-passes. " Que cela soit. 7 I assure you. 8 Ja (jam) at once. 10 Que jamais j'aie été sonnant du cor. The fight goes on; Roland, Oliver and Turpin, the archbishop, achieve prodigies of valour, and strew the ground with the corpses of the Moors, but their strength fails them at last, while ever fresh battalions of the enemy appear. At length Roland is reduced to blow his horn, and instantly Charlemagne hastens back. He finds the hero dead, but as he utterly destroys the army of the infidels and puts to death the traitor Ganelon, the required revenge is obtained. CYCLE OF THE TABLE ROUND. CLASSICAL CYCLE. After the Carlovingian cycle the next in order of importance is the Arturian, which is of Breton i. e. Celtic origin. It treats of the exploits of King Arthur and the knights of the Table Round, the quest for the Holy Grail (Saint-Graal), etc., and is the original both of the Morte d'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory and of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. The leading poems of this cycle are Merlin, Tristan, Lancelot du Lac, Perceval, the two last being the work of Chrétien de Troyes, one of the most distinguished of the trouvères of this period. To the poems of these two cycles we must add a number of epics the central figure of which is Alexander the Great. The age immediately preceding had converted him into a kind of mythological hero, and he now appears with all the attributes of a knight of romance. The Roman' d'Alexandre composed towards the end of the 12th century is distinguished by the skilful use of the dodecasyllabic line, which from it has taken and kept the name alexandrin. Among those trouvères who are only chroniclers in verse the most important is ROBERT WACE (1112-1182) a native of Jersey, who composed the Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou; the former is a metrical history of the exploits of the kings of England, the latter of the dukes of Brittany. ROMAN DE LA ROSE. One of the most popular poems of the time was an allegory called the Roman de la Rose. It is the work of two successive generations and consists of two distinct portions; the first which belongs to the 13th century was the work of GUILLAUME DE LORRIS, a contemporary of Louis IX or Saint Louis (1226-1270). It is a long-winded and tiresome allegory, recounting the endeavours of the hero to pluck a rose which is defended by Danger, Félonie, Bassesse, Haine, Avarice, etc. The second part, which is really a separate poem, is even longer than the first, but is distinguished from it by much learning and a strong tinge of satire. The hero is FauxSemblant, an emblem of hypocrisy and a sort of mediæval Tartuffe,* while the range of the poem is a very wide one, treating of the vices, the superstitions, the prejudices and the learning of the age. This part was written by JEAN DE MEUNG, surnamed Clopinel, at the request of King Philippe le Bel (1285-1314). The name roman, which originally meant a composition in the Romance i. e. Provençal idiom, was extended in the Middle Ages to narrative poetry in general and is now used exclusively in the same sense as the English novel. 2 V. page 84. FABLIAUX, LAIS. Contemporary with the long romances of knighthood are a great number of shorter poems, whose character is half lyrical, half romantic; these are the poems known as fabliaux and lais. The former are short, familiar tales, often humorous or satirical, and not always very decorous. Many fabliaux appeared anonymously, but there are also a number with whose authors we are acquainted. The boldest and most skilful of these writers was RUTEBOEUF, contemporary of saint Louis. These fabliaux may be looked upon as the most perfect in their way of the works of the trouvères. The lais are tales in verse, generally of a romantic or sentimental kind. The most famous are those of MARIE DE FRANCE, a lady about whose life and circumstances we have unfortunately no information. ROMAN DE RENART. a This, the best-known and the most curious of the satirical poems of the Middle Ages, is a burlesque satire on the times, in the shape of a lengthy apologue. It is not a homogeneous composition, but consists of a series of poems, which were begun towards the end of the 12th century and finished in the 14th. The old Roman de Renart is the collective work of several trouvères, the most noteworthy of them being PIERRE DE ST-CLOUD, who wrote one of the best of the episodes which make up the poem. Renart le Nouvel, on the other hand, is the sole work of JAQUEMART GELÉE DE LILLE, who in its composition and object, followed the views of Philippe le Bel, a prince equally opposed to the temporal power of the clergy and the independence of the great barons. Among the strictly lyric poets of the age the most remarkable are QUESNES DE BETHUNE, one of the adventurous heroes of the fourth Crusade, who in 1204 founded the Latin empire at Constantinople, and Count THIBAUT OF CHAMPAGNE (1201-1253), whose chansons imitated the melodious songs of the southern troubadours. Passing from the 14th to the 15th century we mention the following: CHRISTINE DE PISAN2 (1363-1420), who composed a number of ballads and fugitive pieces conspicuous for their elegance, and a prosework Le Livre des faits et bonnes mœurs de Charles V. EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS (died 1422) treated moral and political questions of the highest interest in his noble poems, which generally assume the shape of ballads and rondeaux. OLIVIER BASSELIN, who was a cloth-maker by trade and lived at Vire, a small town in Normandy, composed a The surname Renart or Renard (Reginhard, Reynard) is the name given to the fox in the old German Thiersage or Epic of the Beasts; it became so popular in France that finally it ousted the genuine French word goupil (vulpes). Of the other personages of the Epic the most prominent are Noble, the king (the lion), Isengrin (Isegrim, the wolf), Brun (Bruin, the bear), Chanteclair (Chanticleer, the cock). The most modern and one of the best of the reproductions of the Thiersage is Goethe's Reineke Fuchs, a mock-heroïc, written in hexameter verse. 2 The daughter of Thomas de Pisan; she was born at Venice but came to France as a child and was brought up at the Royal court. number of bacchic songs full of mirth and humour, which took the name of vaux-de-vire.1 Another of the lyric poets of the 15th century was CHARLES D'ORLÉANS, the son of the duke who was murdered by order of Jean-Sans-Peur. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt (1415) and detained in England twenty-five years, during which he endeavoured to dispel by the aid of poetry the sadness and ennui of his captivity. His graceful and tender lines still breathe some of the spirit of knighthood, which then was fast waning away. The last of the mediæval poets is VILLON (1431-1500), whose principal work is the Grand Testament. Both his ideas and expressions are conspicuous for their novelty. Charles d'Orléans writes in the language of the court, Villon in that of the people. He is a true child of Paris, noisy, dissipated, and mischievous, but always gay and good-humoured, full of wit and mockery, and constantly drifting between the tavern and the jail, between starvation and the gallows. Having been driven by want to commit larceny, he was twice condemned to be hanged, but on both occasions he obtained his pardon, the first time from the parliament, the second from king Louis XI. DRAMATIC POETRY. MYSTÈRES, MIRACLE S. The first dramatic attempts in the Middle Ages were closely connected with the religion of the time. Throughout the countries of Western Europe it had become the custom to introduce into the churches scenic illustrations of scriptural events (mystères) or the lives of the saints (miracles), which gradually became regular plays acted by the clergy and their acolytes, the dialogues being diversified by musical intermezzoes. Towards the end of the 14th century these miracle-plays were detached from the liturgy; they were now no longer acted by the clergy, but by the members of certain confréries or associations, away from the church. The most famous, though one of the latest-established, of the associations, formed for the acting of mystères, was the Confrérie de la Passion et Résurrection de Notre Seigneur. It was founded by a number of Paris burghers belonging to every trade and profession, who acted dramatic scenes from the Old and New Testament as a recreation after their daily labours. They were encouraged by the church but for some time were refused leave to act by the Provost of Paris; in 1402 they obtained letters patent from Charles VI, and established themselves at the Trinity hospital near the Porte St-Denis. This name is derived from the vaux, (i. e. small valleys) near the native town of the poet, on whose slopes it is still the custom to put out to dry the cloth made by the mills on the Vire. The word vaudeville, now given to comedies in prose with musical couplets interspersed in the dialogue, is only a corruption of vaux-de-vire. |