the language and the nation. His works have been studied as models by many writers of the 17th century. As a sample of Amyot's prose we reprint a passage from his translation of the Life of Coriolanus. It is the speech made by the latter before his ennemy Tullus, the leader of the Volscians, in whose house he has taken refuge. Si tu ne me cognois point encore, Tullus, et ne crois point à me veoir, que je sois celuy que je suis, il est force que je me decelle, et me descouvre moy mesme. Je suis Gaius Martius, qui ay fait et à toy en particulier, et à tous les Volsques en general, beaucoup de maulx, lesquelz je ne puis nier pour le surnom Coriolanus que j'en porte: car je n'ay recueilly autre fruict, ni autre recompense de tant de travaux que j'ay endurez, n'y de tant de dangers ausquelz je me suis exposé, que ce surnom, lequel tesmoigne la malveillance que vous devez avoir encontre moy: il ne m'est demouré que cela seulement; tout le reste m'a esté osté par l'envie et Poultrage du peuple romain, et par la lascheté de la noblesse et des magistrats, qui m'ont abandonné, et m'ont souffert de chasser en exil, de maniere que j'ay esté contraint de recourir comme humble suppliant à ton fouyer, non ja pour sauver et asseurer ma vie, mais pour le desir que j'ay de me venger de ceulx qui m'ont ainsi chassé, ce que je commence desja à faire, en mettant ma personne entre tes mains. Parquoy si tu as cueur de te ressentir jamais des dommages que t'ont fait tes ennemis, sers toi maintenant, je te prie, de mes calamitez et fais en sorte que mon adversité soit la commune prosperité de tous les Volsques, en t'asseurant que je feray la guerre encore mieulx pour vous, que je ne l'ay jusques icy faite contre vous, d'aultant que mieulx la peuvent faire ceulx qui cognoissent les affaires des ennemis que ceulx qui n'y cognoissent rien. Mais si d'aventure tu te rends et es las de plus tenter la fortune, aussi suis-je quant à moy las de plus vivre, et ne seroit point sagement fait à toy, de sauver la vie à un qui jadis t'estoit mortel ennemy, et qui maintenant ne te sauroit plus de rien profiter ne servir." MONTAIGNE.1 MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592) was born at the castle of Montaigne in Périgord. When he had finished his classical studies at the grammar-school of Bordeaux, he read law and in 1557 became councillor at the cour des aides of Périgueux and two years later at the parliament of Bordeaux. It was there he formed a friendship with La Boétie,3 whose works he edited, after having, in 1570, resigned his place as councillor. In 1580 Montaigne began to travel about the principal countries of Europe. He had already published the two first books of his famous Essays, on which he had been at work for eight years. It was only in 1588 that Montaigne added the third book to a fresh edition of the whole work. The Essays are a work without any plan or settled subject; they consist chiefly of reminiscences of the author's readings, but ripened and mellowed by deep thought into an original work. Under the form of chapters they contain fragments of history, of ethical and metaphysical philosophy, of politics and literature. They constitute very interesting but somewhat unsatisfactory reading, the author invariably confining himself to a statement of the pros and cons on each question, without summing them up into a general conclusion. The style of the Essays is lively, fluent and versatile. 1 V. p. 503. 2 V. p. 54, n. 2. 3 LA BOETIE (1530-1563), author of the discourse De la servitude volontaire, a vehement diatribe against monarchical government. * We reprint a fragment (I, 23), in which Montaigne relates, following Seneca (De Clementia I, 9), the anecdote which supplied Corneille with the subject of Cinna (v. p. 33). L'empereur Auguste estant en la Gaule, receut certain advertissement d'une conjuration que luy brassoit L. Cinna: il delibera de s'en venger, et manda pour cet effect au lendemain le conseil de ses amis. Mais la nuict d'entre deux, il la passa avecques grande inquietude, considerant qu'il avoit à faire mourir un jeune homme de bonne maison et nepveu du grand Pompeius, et produisoit en se plaignant plusieurs divers discours: Quoy doncques, disoit-il, sera il vray que je demeureray en crainte et en alarme, et que je lairray mon meurtrier se promener ce pendant à son ayse? S'en ira il quitte, ayant assailly ma teste, que j'ay sauvée de tant de guerres civiles, de tant de battailles par mer et par terre, et aprez avoir estably la paix universelle du monde? sera il absoult, ayant deliberé non de me meurtrir1 seulement, mais de me sacrifier? car la conjuration estoit faicte de le tuer comme il feroit quelque sacrifice. Aprez cela, s'estant tenu coy quelque espace de temps, il recommenceoit d'une voix plus forte, et s'en prenoit à soy mesme: Pourquoy vis tu, s'il importe à tant de gents que tu meures? n'y aura il point de fin à tes vengeances et à tes cruautez? Ta vie vault elle que tant de dommage se face pour la conserver? - Livia, sa femme, le sentant en ces angoisses: Et les conseils des femmes y seront ils receus? luy dict elle; fay ce que font les medecins; quand les receptes accoustumees ne peuvent servir, ils en essayent de contraires. Par severité, tu n'as jusques à cette heure rien proufité; Lepidus a suyvi Salvidienus; Murena, Lepidus; Caepio, Murena; Egnatius, Caepio: commence à experimenter comment te succederont la doulceur et la clemence. Cinna est convaincu; pardonne luy de te nuire desormais, il ne pourra, et proufitera à ta gloire. Auguste feut bien ayse d'avoir trouvé un advocat de son humeur; et ayant remercié sa femme et contremandé ses amis qu'il avoit assignez au conseil, commanda qu'on feist venir à luy Cinna tout seul; et ayant faict sortir tout le monde de sa chambre, et faict donner un siege à Cinna, il luy parla en cette maniere: En premier lieu, je te demande, Cinna, paisible audience: n'interromps pas mon parler; ie te donray temps et loisir d'y respondre. Tu sçais, Cinna, que t'ayant prins au camp de mes ennemis, non seulement t'estant faict mon ennemy, mais estant nay tel, je te sauvay, je te meis entre mains touts tes biens, et t'ay enfin rendu si accommodé et si aysé, que les victorieux sont envieux de la condition du vaincu: l'office du sacerdoce que tu me demandas, je te l'octroyay, l'ayant refusé à d'aultres desquels les peres avoient toujours combattu avecques moy. T'ayant si fort obligé, tu as entreprins de me tuer. A quoy Cinna s'estant escrié qu'il estoit bien esloigné d'une si meschante pensee: Tu ne me tiens pas Cinna, ce que tu m'avois promis, suyvit Auguste; tu m'avois asseuré que je ne seroy pas interrompu. Ouy, tu as entreprins de me tuer en tel lieu, tel jour en telle compaignie, et de telle façon. Et le veoyant transy de ces nouvelles, et en silence, non plus pour tenir le marché de se taire, mais de la presse de sa conscience: Pourquoy, adjousta il, le fais tu? Est ce pour estre empereur? Vrayement il va bien mal à la chose publicque, s'il n'y a que moy qui t'empesche d'arriver à l'empire. Tu ne peulx pas seulement deffendre ta maison, et perdis dernierement un procez par la faveur d'un simple libertin. Quoy? n'as tu moyen ni pouvoir en aultre chose qu'à entreprendre Cesar? Je le quitte, s'il n'y a que moy qui empesche tes esperances. Penses tu que Paulus, que Fabius, que Meurtrir in the sense of assassiner (the old word was occire). 2 I. e. affranchi, a freedman, in the sense of the Latin libertinus. les Cosseens et Serviliens te souffrent, et une si grande troupe de nobles, non seulement nobles de nom, mais qui, par leur vertu, honorent leur noblesse? - Apres plusieurs aultres propos (car il parla a luy plus de deux heures entieres): Or va, luy dict il, je te donne, Cinna, la vie à traistre et à parricide, que je te donnay aultrefois à ennemy; que l'amitié commence de ce jourd'huy entre nous; essayons qui de nous deux de meilleure foy, moy t'aye donné ta vie, ou tu l'ayes receue. LA SATIRE MÉNIPPÉE. - We must also mention in this place de famous satire Ménippée.1 It is true, that it contains a great many verses, but in the main it is a political prose pamphlet, written to support Henry IV, after victory had declared for him, and to combat the League, when it was no longer formidable; for the Menippée was not published till 1593. It was the collective work of several men of learning and gallantry, qualities often combined by the savants of the 16th century. Their names are: Pierre LE ROY, canon of Rouen, who started the idea, PITOU, the great jurist, Nicolas RAPIN, Gilles DURAND, who practised at the bar of the parliament, Florent CHRESTIEN, a distinguished philologist, and some time tutor to Henri IV, Jean PASSERAT, professor at the Collège de France2 and Jacques GILLOT. One part of the Ménippée, called La Vertu du Catholicon, is directed against the paid adherents of Spain. The authors bring into play a couple of quacks, one being a Spaniard (the papal legate, cardinal of Placentia) the other a Lorrainer (the cardinal de Pellevé) both of whom are puffing and selling a marvellous drug, called catholicon, whose possession enables people to cheat and betray their friends, murder their enemies, etc., with perfect impunity. In the other part, called L'Abrégé des Etats de Paris, the authors introduce us to an imaginary meeting of the leading characters of the estates, and put into the mouth of the Leaguers a number of speeches in which each ingenuously betrays his own selfish motives and those of his friends. This irony characterizes all the speeches with the exception of that of d'Aubray; this, however, is serious and very eloquent withal; we reprint the portion which contains the famous apostrophe to the Paris of the day: O Paris qui n'es plus Paris, mais une spelunque de bestes farouches, une citadelle d'Espagnols, Wallons et Napolitains, un asyle et seure retraicte de voleurs, meurtriers et assassinateurs, ne veux-tu jamais te ressentir de ta dignité et te souvenir qui tu as esté, au prix de ce que tu es, ne veux tu jamais te garir de cette frenesie qui, pour un légitime et gracieux roy, t'a engendré cinquante roytelets et cinquante tyrans? Te voilà aux fers, te voilà en l'inquisition d'Espagne, plus intolerable mille fois, et plus dure à supporter aux esprits nez libres et francs, comme sont les Français, que les plus cruelles morts dont les Espagnols se sauroient aviser. Tu n'as pu supporter une legere augmentation de tailles et d'offices et quelques nouveaux edicts qui ne t'importoyent nullement; et tu endures qu'on pille tes maisons, qu'on te rançonne jusques au sang, qu'on emprisonne tes senateurs, qu'on chasse et bannis se tes bons citoyens et conseillers; qu'on pende, qu'on Menippus of Gadara, a cynical philosopher, who flourished at Thebes in the fourth century B. C. and was the author of some satires. A learned Roman, Terentius Varro, who was a contemporary of Caesar's, borrowed his name for his satires in prose and verse, which he called Menippeae. It was therefore a sort of second-hand imitation which led the French savants to call their pamphlet Menippée. 2 V. p. 409, n. 1. 1 massacre tes principaux magistrats; tu le vois et tu l'endures; tu ne l'endures pas seulement, mais tu l'approuves et le loues, et n'oserois et ne sçaurois faire aultrement. Tu n'as peu supporter ton roy si debonnaire, si facile, si familier, qui s'estoyt rendu comme concitoyen et bourgeois de ta ville, qu'il a enrichie, qu'il a embellie de somptueux bastiments, accreue de forts et superbes remparts, ornée de priviléges et exemptions honorables: que dis-je, peu supporter? c'est bien pis: tu l'as chassé de sa ville, de sa maison, de son lict: quoy chassé? tu l'as poursuivy: quoy poursuivy? tu l'as assassiné, canonizé l'assassinateur, et faict des feux de joye de sa mort; et tu vois maintenant combien ceste mort t'a prouffité!" 4. THE XVIIth CENTURY UP TO THE TIME OF CORNEILLE. EPIC AND LYRIC POETRY. That reform of French language and literature, which Ronsard and the Pleiad had vainly attempted in the middle of the 16th century was successfully accomplished at the beginning of the 17th by another poet, who took advantage of their efforts, while he avoided and strove against their eccentricities. This was MALHERBE. The advent of FRANÇOIS DE MALHERBE (1555-1528) marks an era in the history of French language and literature, a fact which Boileau has acknowledged and expressed in the fine lines beginning: Enfin Malherbe vint . . .1 Malherbe was a native of Caen in Normandy. At an early age he removed to Provence, settled there and was beginning to make a name in literature, when in 1605 Henri IV (1589-1610) attached him to his court. He also received many favours from Marie de Médici and Louis XIII (1610-1643), but he lived and died poor man, giving a great deal more of his time to poetry than to the acquisition of riches. Strength, rather than fertility of mind, soundness of judgment and severe correctness of taste, without much brilliancy of imagination, are his chief characteristics: he was a poet by culture and a grammarian by instinct. Malherbe undertook to reform both the spoken language and the poetry of his day; he purified the former by rejecting all that did not suit his taste, and improved the latter by perfecting its metrical rules. This work he pursued with extraordinary perseverance and astonishing success: during a period of nearly twenty years Malherbe exercised in France a kind of literary dictatorship, which was opposed at first by Régnier and his friends, but was universally acknowledged in the end. We may add that the verses he published proved the best support of his theories, for his odes and stanzas are full of energy, harmony and elevation. During the first half of the 17th century, the French tongue, following in the wake of the monarchy, was advancing rapidly towards unification. Malherbe's great merit is to have aided this process by the language he adopted in his writings, a language which could be appreciated In the Art poétique, canto I; v. p. 231. 2 It was Malherbe who rejected the hiatus, fixed upon the 6th syllable in the Alexandrin as the proper place for the cæsura, forbade slovenly rhymes and proscribed the enjambement, which has been reintroduced by Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. R. Platz, Manual of French Literature. D by all classes, and which was equally well adapted for the court, the town and the common people. Of his works we select the following stanzas, addressed to a friend, to console him for the loss of his daughter. (1607.) Ta douleur, du Perier, sera donc eternelle, Que te met en l'esprit l'amitié paternelle, Le malheur de ta fille au tombeau descendue Est-ce quelque dedale, où ta raison perdue Je sçais de quels appas son enfance estoit pleine, Injurieux amy, de soulager ta peine Mais elle estoit du monde, où les plus belles choses Et rose elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses, L'espace d'un matin. RACAN (1589-1670) was Malherbe's favourite pupil. His style is as graceful as his master's, but not equal to it in vigour. It may be said that his merits were considerably overestimated by his contemporaries, especially by Boileau. Racan's Bergeries, a lengthy pastoral in dramatic form, contain some fine passages, but are in the main long-winded and uninteresting. RÉGNIER. Side by side with Malherbe but in the literary camp opposed to him, we find MATHURIN REGNIER (1573-1613). He was born at Chartres and was the nephew of the poet Desportes, who taught him the principles of versification. When still young, Régnier entered the church; in 1593 he followed cardinal Joyeuse to Rome, spent ten years with him, and next became attached to the comte de Béthune, French ambassador at Rome between 1601 and 1605. It was this connexion which procured him a knowledge of the Italian language and literature. On his return to France he obtained from the liberality of king Henri IV a number of livings and persions which enabled him thenceforth to give himself up entirely to his taste for literature and pleasure. Régnier has left us five elegies and sixteen satires; the latter attack the manners of the time, without meddling, like the Satire Menippée, with politics. Régnier had a singular talent for satire: he was a keen observer, full of tact, sagacity, and common sense, and very clever at catching and reproducing the ludicrous features of things and men. His masterpiece was the portrait of Macette, a hypocritical old woman, and a sort of predecessor of Tartuffe. Against Malherbe Régnier defended the school of Ronsard, though he carefully avoided falling into their mistakes, but he identified freedom with the reformers of the Pleiad, despotism with Malherbe and his followers: |