Bonne vieille, que fais-tu là?
Il fait assez chaud sans cela;
Tu peux laisser tomber la flamme.
Ménage ton bois, pauvre femme,
Je suis séché, je n'ai plus froid.
Mais elle, qui ne veut m'entendre,
Jette un fagot, range la cendre:
"Chauffe-toi, soldat, chauffe-toi!"
Bonne vieille, je n'ai pas faim.
Garde ton jambon et ton vin;
J'ai mangé la soupe à l'étape.
Veux-tu bien m'ôter cette nappe!
C'est trop bon et trop beau pour moi.
Mais elle, qui n'en veut rien faire,
Taille mon pain, remplit mon verre:
"Refais-toi, soldat, refais-toi!"
Bonne vieille, pour qui ces draps?
Par ma foi, tu n'y penses pas!
Et ton étable? Et cette paille
Où l'on fait son lit à sa taille?
Je dormirai là comme un roi.
Mais elle qui n'en veut démordre,
Place les draps, met tout en ordre:
"Couche-toi, soldat, couche-toi!"
—Le jour vient, le départ aussi.—
Allons! adieu… Mais qu'est ceci?
Mon sac est plus lourd que la veille….
Ah! bonne hôtesse, ah! chère vieille,
Pourquoi tant me gâter, pourquoi?
Et la bonne vieille de dire,
Moitié larme, moitié sourire:
"J'ai mon gars soldat comme toi!"
J'ai vu passer aux pays froids
L'oiseau des îles merveilleuses,
Il allait frôlant les yeuses
Et les sapins mornes des bois.
Je lui dis: "Tes plages sont belles,
Ne pleures-tu pas leur soleil?"
Il répondit: "Tout m'est vermeil:
Je porte mon ciel sur mes ailes!"
Deux ombres cheminaient dans une étroite allée,
Sous le pâle couchant d'un jour mourant d'été:
L'une avait sur la lèvre un sourire enchanté;
L'autre était languissante et de crêpes voilée.
Elles allaient sans but, distraites du chemin,
Cherchant la solitude et son divin mystère;
Fiancés éternels aussi vieux que la terre:
La Douleur et l'Amour qui se donnaient la main.
Il jouait, le petit enfant
Aux blanches mains, aux lèvres roses;
Ignorant nos soucis moroses,
Il jouait, le petit enfant.
Joyeux, candide et triomphant,
Sur le tapis couvert de roses,
Il jouait, le petit enfant
Aux blanches mains, aux lèvres roses.
Il dormait, le petit enfant,
Dans son berceau de mousseline.
Fleur fatiguée et qui s'incline,
Il dormait, le petit enfant.
Et la mère, en le réchauffant,
Le berçait d'une voix câline,
Il dormait, le petit enfant,
Dans son berceau de mousseline.
Il vivait, le petit enfant,
Heureux et rose à faire envie,
Front radieux, âme ravie,
Il vivait, le petit enfant.
Le père faisait pour sa vie
De beaux rêves que Dieu défend.
Il vivait, le petit enfant,
Heureux et rose à faire envie.
Il est mort, le petit enfant;
Il s'est envolé vers les Anges.
Avec des sourires étranges,
Il est mort, le petit enfant.
Il est mort, et le coeur se fend
Devant ce linceul fait de langes.
Il est mort, le petit enfant;
Il s'est envolé vers les Anges.
J'étais enfant. J'aimais les grands combats,
Les chevaliers et leur pesante armure,
Et tous les preux qui tombèrent là-bas
Pour racheter la Sainte Sépulture.
L'Anglais Richard faisait battre mon coeur;
Et je l'aimais, quand après ses conquêtes
Il revenait, et que son bras vainqueur
Avait coupé tout un collier de têtes.
D'une Beauté je prenais les couleurs.
Une baguette était mon cimeterre;
Puis je partais à la guerre des fleurs
Et des bourgeons dont je jonchais la terre.
Je possédais au vent libre des cieux
Un banc de mousse où s'élevait mon trône.
Je méprisais les rois ambitieux,
De rameaux verts j'avais fait ma couronne.
J'étais heureux et ravi. Mais un jour
Je vis venir une jeune compagne.
J'offris mon coeur, mon royaume et ma cour,
Et les châteaux que j'avais en Espagne.
Elle s'assit sous les marronniers verts;
Or, je crus voir, tant je la trouvais belle,
Dans ses yeux bleus comme un autre univers,
Et je restai tout songeur auprès d'elle.
Pourquoi laisser mon rêve et ma gaîté
En regardant cette fillette blonde?
Pourquoi Colomb fut-il si tourmenté
Quand, dans la brume, il entrevit un monde?
L'Oiseleur Amour se promène
Lorsque les coteaux sont fleuris,
Fouillant les buissons et la plaine,
Et, chaque soir, sa cage est pleine
Des petits oiseaux qu'il a pris.
Aussitôt que la nuit s'efface
Il vient, tend avec soin son fil,
Jette la glu de place en place,
Puis sème, pour cacher la trace,
Quelques grains d'avoine ou de mil.
Il s'embusque au coin d'une haie,
Se couche aux berges des ruisseaux,
Glisse en rampant sous la futaie,
De crainte que son pied n'effraie
Les rapides petits oiseaux.
Sous le muguet et la pervenche
L'enfant rusé cache ses rets,
Ou bien sous l'aubépine blanche
Où tombent, comme une avalanche,
Linots, pinsons, chardonnerets.
Parfois d'une souple baguette
D'osier vert ou de romarin
Il fait un piège, et puis il guette
Les petits oiseaux en goguette
Qui viennent becqueter son grain.
Étourdi, joyeux et rapide,
Bientôt approche un oiselet:
Il regarde d'un air candide,
S'enhardit, goûte au grain perfide,
Et se prend la patte au filet.
Et l'oiseleur Amour l'emmène
Loin des coteaux frais et fleuris,
Loin des buissons et de la plaine,
Et, chaque soir, sa cage est pleine
Des petits oiseaux qu'il a pris.
Novembre approche,—et c'est le mois charmant
Où, devinant ton âme à ton sourire,
Je me suis pris à t'aimer vaguement,
Sans rien dire.
Novembre approche,—ah! nous étions enfants,
Mais notre amour fut beau comme un poème.
—Comme l'on fait des rêves triomphants
Lorsqu'on aime!—
Novembre approche,—assis au coin du feu,
Malade et seul, j'ai songé tout à l'heure
A cet hiver où je croyais en Dieu,
Et je pleure.
Novembre approche,—et c'est le mois béni
Où tous les morts ont des fleurs sur leur pierre,
Et moi je porte à mon rêve fini
Sa prière.
Pourquoi cet amour insensé
N'est-il pas mort avec les plantes
Qui l'enivraient, l'été passé,
D'odeurs puissantes et troublantes?
Pourquoi la bise, en emportant
La feuille jaunie et fanée,
N'en a-t-elle pas fait autant
De mon amour de l'autre année?
Les roses des rosiers en fleur,
L'hiver les cueille et les dessèche;
Mais la blanche rose du coeur,
Toujours froissée, est toujours fraîche.
Il n'en finit pas de courir,
Le ruisseau de pleurs qui l'arrose,
Et la mélancolique rose
N'en finit pas de refleurir.
Accoudé sur le bastingage
Et regardant la grande mer,
Je respire ce que dégage
De liberté ce gouffre amer.
Le large pli des houles bleues,
Que les vents poussent au hasard
D'au delà d'un millier de lieues,
Soulève le bateau qui part.
Sensation farouche et gaie,
Je vais donc vivre sans lien!
Ah! que mon âme est fatiguée
D'avoir tant travaillé pour rien!
Vains devoirs d'un monde frivole,
Plaisirs factices de deux jours,
Coupable abus de la parole,
Efforts mesquins, tristes amours,
Tout de ce qui fut moi s'efface
A l'horizon mystérieux,
Et le libre, l'immense espace,
S'ouvre à mon coeur comme à mes yeux.
O nuit, ô douce nuit d'été, qui viens à nous
Parmi les foins coupés et sous la lune rose,
Tu dis aux amoureux de se mettre à genoux,
Et sur leur front brûlant un souffle frais se pose!
O nuit, ô douce nuit d'été, qui fais fleurir
Les fleurs dans les gazons et les fleurs sur les branches,
Tu dis aux tendres coeurs des femmes de s'ouvrir,
Et sous les blonds tilleuls errent des formes blanches!
O nuit, ô douce nuit d'été, qui sur les mers
Alanguis le sanglot des houles convulsées,
Tu dis aux isolés de n'être pas amers,
Et la paix de ton ciel descend dans leurs pensées.
O nuit, ô douce nuit d'été, qui parles bas,
Tes pieds se font légers et ta voix endormante,
Pour que les pauvres morts ne se réveillent pas,
Eux qui ne peuvent plus aimer, ô nuit aimante!
Le Fantôme est venu de la trentième année.
Ses doigts vont s'entr'ouvrir pour me prendre la main,
La fleur de ma jeunesse est à demi fanée,
Et l'ombre du tombeau grandit sur mon chemin.
Le Fantôme me dit avec ses lèvres blanches:
"Qu'as-tu fait de tes jours passés, homme mortel?
Ils ne reviendront plus t'offrir leurs vertes branches.
Qu'as-tu cueilli sur eux dans la fraîcheur du ciel?"
—"Fantôme, j'ai vécu comme vivent les hommes:
J'ai fait un peu de bien, j'ai fait beaucoup de mal.
Il est dur aux songeurs, le siècle dont nous sommes,
Pourtant j'ai préservé mon intime Idéal!…."
Le Fantôme me dit: "Où donc est ton ouvrage?"
Et je lui montre alors mon rêve intérieur,
Trésor que j'ai sauvé de plus d'un noir naufrage,
—Et ces vers de jeune homme où j'ai mis tout mon coeur.
Oui! tout entier: espoirs heureux, légers caprices,
Coupables passions, spleenétique rancoeur,
J'ai tout dit à ces vers, tendres et sûrs complices.
Qu'ils témoignent pour moi, Fantôme, et pour ce coeur!
Que leur sincérité, Juge d'en haut, te touche,
Et, comme aux temps lointains des rêves nimbés d'or,
Pardonne, en écoutant s'échapper de leur bouche,
Ce cri d'un coeur resté chrétien: Confiteor!
Je suis le Chaldéen par l'Étoile conduit
Vers un but inconnu que moi-même j'ignore.
Quelle main alluma cet astre dans ma nuit?
Quel spectacle à mes yeux révélera l'Aurore?
N'importe.—Dans la nuit je vais. La nudité
Du jour blessait mes yeux. L'ombre chaste est un voile.
Ce flambeau, qu'il m'égare ou me guide, est clarté:
L'Astre, même trompeur, est toujours une étoile.
Trouverai-je en sa crèche, ainsi que dans un nid,
Un enfant? Me mettrai-je à genoux? Que m'importe!
J'ai recueilli la myrrhe et le baume bénit:
Je respire en marchant les parfums que je porte.
The full-face figures refer to the pages; the ordinary figures to the lines.
N.B. For the poets before MALHERBE the spelling has not been modernized. Some uniformity however has been sought, and accents are used when they affect final vowels.
1391-1465.
Father of Louis XII, was taken prisoner in the battle of Agincourt (1415) and passed the next twenty-five years of his life in captivity in England. In this long leisure he developed his talent for poetry, and on his return to France he made his residence at Blois a gathering-point for men of letters. His poetical work marks the utmost attainment in outward grace of expression in the treatment of conventional subjects in the traditional fixed forms. Now and then there is a more personal strain which suggests the more distinctly modern lyric of Villon; but he is not to be compared with Villon in originality of view, sincerity of feeling, or directness and intensity of utterance.
His works were not published till the eighteenth century. The best edition is that of Ch. d'Héricault, 2 vols., 1874 (Nouvelle collection Jannet-Picard). Charles d'Orléans also wrote some of his poems in English; these were published by G. W. Taylor in 1827 for the Roxburghe Club.
For reference : Constant Beaufils, Étude sur la vie et les poésies de
Charles d'Orléans, 1861; Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of
Men and Books, London, 1882.
1. BALLADE. For the form of the ballade see the remarks on versification, p. xxi. 2. ESTOYE, étais; for initial e from _es_cf. esveillera, l. 14, Esté, 3, 8. 3. AVOIENT, avaient; in the imperfect and conditional oi, from an earlier ei, continued to be written till late in the eighteenth century, long after in pronunciation it had come to have the value of ai. 4. HAYENT, haïssent, y is found frequently in the older spelling for i, especially when final. 5. DESCONFORT= découragement. 8. SI FAIS = ainsi je fais; the omission of the pronoun is common at this time; cf. 8, 24, direz. 10. NE … NE = ni … ni. GREVANCE = dommage, malheur. 14. ACCORT,accord. 16. SOYENT, soient; here of two syllables, in modern verse of one. 17. VEOIR, voir; here of two syllables. 22. SORT, evil spell. 24. LOING, loin.
2. I. VUEIL, veux, HOIR = héritier. 5. NUL NE PORTE= que nul ne porte. 6. VENT, vend. MARCHIÉ, marché. 7. TIENGNE = tienne. POUR TOUT VOIR = vraiment; let every one consider it a certain fact. RONDEL. For the form of the rondel see the remarks on versification, p. xxi. II. AVECQUES, avec. 12. COMBIEN QUE = bien que. 17. RAPAISE = s'apaise. 19. TANTOST = bientôt; s before l, m, n, and t has regularly disappeared; cf. vestu, 24, beste, 26, bruslerent, 4, 26, mesme, 5, 22, maistre, 6,1. RONDEL. "Le Temps a laissié son manteau." 22. LAISSIÉ, laissé. 24. BROUDERYE, broderie. 25. LUYANT, luisant, CLER, clair.
3. 4. LIVRÉE could be used now in the body of the line only before a word beginning with a vowel. 6. ABILLE, habille. RONDEL. "Les Fourriers d'Esté sont venus." 13. VERT, feminine ; in adjectives of two endings of the Latin third declension, like grandis, fortis, viridis, the feminine ending _e_is due to the influence of adjectives of three endings, and does not appear in Old French. 16. PIEÇA = naguère._ 18. PRENEZ PAÏS, take to the country, i.e. depart. 19. YVER, hiver.
4. RONDEL. "Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder." 2. SÇAY, sais; c was introduced into the forms of savoir under the mistaken notion that it was connected with scire. 4. UNG, un.
1431-146-?.
Poet and vagabond, he led a most irregular life, twice narrowly escaped hanging, and composed many of his poems in prison. He was a poet of great originality, for he broke away from the conventional subjects and the allegorizing habit of the Middle Ages and gave to the lyric a personal note and a depth and poignancy of feeling that made it almost a new creation, though he still adhered mainly to the traditional forms and showed a special preference for the ballade. Most of his ballades are introduced into his main works, the Petit Testament and the Grand Testament, which are entirely personal in contents.
His works were first published in 1489; Marot prepared an edition in the following century, Paris, 1533; they were not reprinted in the seventeenth century; convenient recent editions are those of P. L. Jacob (Paul Lacroix), 1854; P. Jannet (Nouvelle collection Jannet-Picard) and A. Longnon, 1892.
For reference: A. Longnon, Étude biographique sur François Villon, 1877; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xiv; Th. Gautier, les Grotesques; J. Lemaître, Impressions de théâtre, troisième série, 1889 ; Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books, London, 1882.
4. BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS. Dante Gabriel Rossetti has translated this ballade, which is perhaps the most famous one in the language. 6. DICTES, dites, n'en = ni en ; in Old French ne could be used for the simple alternative 'or.' 7. FLORA; a late tradition made of the Roman goddess of flowers and spring a wealthy and beautiful woman. 8. ARCHIPIDIA, perhaps Hipparchia is meant; THAIS, an Athenian beauty of the fourth century B.C. 10. ECHO, the nymph of classical mythology. MAINE, mène. 11. ESTAN, étang. 13. ANTAN, last year (from Latin ante annum); Rossetti translates "yesteryear". 14. HELOÏS, Heloise, or Eloise. 16. ESBAILLART, Abelard (1079-1142), a French scholar and philosopher, whose love for the beautiful and accomplished Heloise, one of his pupils, has passed into legend, which has quite transformed the fact. SAINCT-DENYS, Saint-Denis, only four and one half miles from Paris, celebrated for the cathedral of Saint-Denis in which are the tombs of the kings of France. Abelard resided for a time in the abbey of Saint-Denis. 17. ESSOYNE = peine. 18. ROYNE, reine; Marguerite de Bourgogne, wife of Louis le Hutin, is meant, the heroine of the legend of the Tour de Nesle, according to which she had her numerous lovers killed and thrown into the Seine. Buridan was more fortunate and escaped; he was afterwards a learned professor of the University of Paris. She herself was strangled in prison in 1314. 21. LA ROYNE BLANCHE, Blanche de Castille, mother of Saint Louis. 22. SEREINE, sirène. 23. BERTHE AU GRAND PIED, celebrated in the chansons de geste, was the mother of Charlemagne. BIETRIS, Beatrix de Provence, married in 1245 to Charles, son of Louis VIII. ALLYS, Alix de Champagne, married in 1160 to Louis le Jeune. 24. HAREMBOURGES, Eremburge, daughter of Elie de la Flèche, count of Maine, who died in 1110. 25. JEHANNE, Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake at Rouen in 1431.
5. 1. N'ENQUEREZ, do not seek to know. SEPMAINE,semaine. 3. QUE … NE, lest. REMAINE = reste. LAY ou PLUSTOST RONDEAU. 8. SE, si. 12. DEVIE = meure. 13. VOIRE = vraiment. JE CONNAIS TOUT FORS QUE MOI-MEME. 15. LAICT. lait. 21. BESONGNE = travaille. CHOMME, chôme. 24. GONNE, gown, a monk's garment.
6. 3. PIPEUR, one who whistles in imitation of birds ; je congnois pipeur qui jargonne, I know the tricks of the bird-catcher. 4. FOLZ NOURRIZ DE CRESME, refers perhaps to the pampered court jesters. 7. MULLET, mulet. 10. GECT, a counter for counting and adding (qui nombre et somme). 12. BOESMES, Bohemians; la faults des Boesmes is the heresy of the followers of John Huss (1369- 1415) and Jerome of Prague (1375-1416). 16. COULEREZ ET BLESMES = teints colorés et blêmes»
1497-1544.
He abandoned the law to live at court and write verses. After his first successes, he became page in the household of Marguerite of Navarre, and continued to enjoy her protection and that of her brother, Francis I., though this could not save him, when accused of heresy because of the welcome that he gave to the ideas of the Reformation, from the necessity of twice fleeing to Italy for safety. In spite of some deeper notes and in spite of his translation of the first fifty Psalms, which is used in French Protestant churches, he was by no means a religious reformer. He was essentially a court poet, putting into graceful verse, ballades, rondeaux, epistles, epigrams, etc., the trifles, jests, sallies, and elegant badinage that delighted courtly society.
Works: l'Adolescence Clémentine, 1532; Oeuvres de Clément Marot, Lyon, 1538; Trente Psaumes de David, 1541; Cinquante Psaumes de David, 1543 ; les Oeuvres de Clément Marot, Lyon, 1544; Oeuvres complètes de Clément Marot, par M. Guiffrey, 1876-81 (only part has appeared); Oeuvres complètes, par P. Jannet, 4 vols., 1868-72; Oeuvres choisies, par E. Voizard, 1890.
For reference: E. Scherer, Études littéraires sur la littérature contemporaine, vol. viii; Emile Faguet, le Seizième siècle, 1893; H. Morley, C. Marot and other studies, London, 1871.
RONDEAU. For the form see the remarks on versification.
20. SE DEMENOIT, expressed itself. 21. C'ESTOIT DONNÉ TOUTE LA TERRE RONDE, i.e. it was as if one had given. 23. "They loved each other for the heart alone."
24. SI A JOUIR ON VENOIT, if one's love was returned. 25. s'entretenoit, kept faith.
7 2. FEINCTS, feints. OYT, from ouïr. 3. Qui = si quelqu'un. ME FONDE, rely.
1524-1585.
The greatest French poet of the Renaissance, he entered the household of the Duke of Orleans at the age of ten, spent three years as page of James V. of Scotland, and traveled much about Europe on various embassies. At eighteen, attacked by deafness, he withdrew to the college of Coqueret and was won to poetry by study of the ancients. It was then that a common love for the classical literatures and a common zeal for imitating their beauties in French bound him to the other young men who with him called themselves the Pleiad and set themselves to the task of renewing French literature in the image of the literatures of antiquity. In 1550, the year after the appearance of the manifesto of the young school, the Défense et Illustration de la langue française of du Bellay, he published a volume of odes. His fame was instant and immense; he returned in glory to court, and for forty years the authority of his example was hardly questioned. His talent was exercised in almost all kinds of verse, chansons, sonnets, elegies, eclogues, hymns, epistles, and even in the epic, where, however, his experiment, la Franciade, was a complete failure, abandoned when but four of the proposed twelve cantos were finished. But his genius was essentially lyric. The ode was his special contribution to French verse; in it he followed the classical form with its divisions into strophe, antistrophe, and epode, sometimes in direct imitation of Pindar, Anacreon, Theocritus, or Horace. His best work is that in which he freed himself most fully from the influence of a model. His deepest and truest note's are those that celebrate the pleasures of this life, the delights of nature, and the inevitable "cold obstruction" of death.
Works: Odes and Bocage, 1550; Amours, Odes, book v, 1552, 1553; Hymnes, 1555, book ii, 1556; Meslanges, 1555, book ii, 1559; Oeuvres (Amours, Odes, Poèmes, Hymnes), 4 vols., 1560; Oeuvres, i vol., 1584; recent editions are Oeuvres complètes, par P. Blanchemain, 8 vols., 1857-67 (Bibliothèque elzévirienne); par Marty-Laveaux, 6 vols., 1887 ff.; Oeuvres choisies, avec notice de Sainte-Beuve, I vol.
For reference: Excellent biographical study by Marty-Laveaux in his edition of the works; Émile Faguet, le Seizième siècle, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xii.
7. A CASSANDRE. 8. DESCLOSE, opened. 10. A POINT PERDU; ne was not, and still is not always, required in the question; cf. 164, 22. VESPREE = soir; cf. vêpre. 13. LAS, hélas. 20. FLEURONNE= fleurit.
8. CHANSON. 27. AMOUR, Cupid. 1. CHENEVIERE = chanvre. 3. MY-NUD, half naked. 19. FOL LE PELICAN; cf. for another use of this popular notion about the pelican the famous picture in the Nuit de mai of Alfred de Musset, 150, 12 ff. A HÉLÈNE. 26. OYANT, from ouïr. 27. DESJA, déjà. 29. BENISSANT VOSTRE NOM, etc., i.e. congratulating you on being immortalized by the poet's praise.
9. 2. OMBRES MYRTEUX, shadows of the myrtles. ÉLÉGIE. 8. VENDEMOIS, one of the old divisions of France, on the Loire. It was the birth-place of Ronsard. 10. REMORS; has here rather the sense of regret. 13. AGEZ, agés the spelling -ez for -és was usual. 22. CHEF = tête. 23. DE RECHEF = de nouveau. 24. PERRUQUE = chevelure. 26. VERDS, strong, supple.
10. DIEU VOUS GARD. 7. GARD, the form of the present subjunctive regularly descended from the Latin subjunctive in verbs of the first conjugation. The ending e, added later, is due to analogy. 8. VISTES ARONDELLES, vites (rapides) hirondelles. 10. TOURTRES = tourterelles. 12. VERDELETS, verts; such diminutives were quite in favor in the language of the time; cf. rossignolet, nouvelet, fleurettes. 15. BOUTONS JADIS COGNUS, etc., i.e. the hyacinth and the narcissus. 29. AU PRIX DE, in comparison with.
11. A UN AUBESPIN. 6. LAMBRUNCHE, a wild vine. 10. PERTUIS, holes. 12. AVETTES = abeilles. 30. RUER = jeter.
12. ÉLÉGIE CONTRE LES BÛCHERONS DE LA FORÊT DE GASTINE. Cf. the poem by Laprade, p. 192. Gastine is in Haut-Poitou, in the present department of Deux-Sèvres. 14. PERSÉ, percé. 15. MASTIN, mâtin. 21. PANS, used by Ronsard in the plural as if he thought them a kind of being, like Satyrs. 22. FANS, now written faons, but still pronounced as if spelled fans. 24. PREMIER, used adverbially. 26. ESTONNER in the older language expressed a physical shock; to stun. 28. NEUVAINE, composed of nine. TROPE, troupe; the nine muses. Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, and Euterpe the muse of music and lyric poetry.
13. 3. ALTEREZ, BRUSLEZ, ETHEREZ, see note on agez, 9, 13. 8. DORDONEENS, referring to the forest of Dordona, in Epirus, where oracles were rendered from oak trees. According to Greek traditions the first men lived on acorns and raw flesh. 16. ET QU'EN CHANGEANT DE FORME, etc., and that it will change its form and put on a new one.
1525-1560.
After Ronsard the foremost poet of the Pleiad. He was of an illustrious family, but, cut off from a brilliant public career by ill health and deafness, he sought consolation in letters. He even preceded Ronsard in inaugurating the literary reform, issuing the manifesto of the new movement, his Défense et Illustration de la langue française, his collection of sonnets called Olive, and a Recueil de poésies, all in 1549. Shortly afterwards he accompanied his cousin, Cardinal du Bellay, to Rome; the admiration which the historic associations of the city excited in him and his disgust at the intrigues of the court and the corruptions of Italian life, mingled with homesickness for the pleasant sights and quiet air of his native Anjou, inspired the two collections of sonnets which are his best, the Antiquités romaines, translated by Spenser in 1591, and the Regrets.
Works: Olive, Recueil de poésies, 1549; Premier livre des antiquités de Rome, 1558; Jeux rustiques, 1558; les Regrets, 1559 ; Oeuvres, 1569. Recent editions are : Oeuvres complètes, par Marty-Laveaux, 2 vols., 1866-67; Oeuvres choisies, par Becq de Fouquières, 1876.
For reference: Léon Séché, Joachim du Bellay, 1880; E. Faguet, le
Seizième siècle, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux lundis, vol. xiii;
Walter Pater, The Renaissance, London, 1873.
13. L'IDÉAL. This is from the first collection of sonnets, Olive. The influence of Petrarch is evident. Compare also the lines of the sestet with the final stanzas of Lamartine's Isolement, p. 65. 22. En 1'eternel = dans l'éternité.
14. L'AMOUR DU CLOCHER. From the Regrets. 8. cestuy, old form of demonstrative, celui. The reference is of course to Jason. 9. USAGE, experience. 11. QUAND REVERRAY-JE, etc., cf. Homer's Odyssey, I, 58. 18. LOYRE, the name of the river is now feminine. 19. LIRÉ, a little village in Anjou, was the birth-place of du Bellay. D'UN VANNEUR DE BLÉ AUX VENTS. From the collection entitled Jeux rustiques.
15. 8. CESTE, cette. 10. J'AHANNE = je me fatigue.
1550-1630.
Soldier as well as poet, he was a leader of the Huguenots in the wars that ended with the accession of Henry IV. After the assassination of Henry IV., his safety became more and more threatened in France, and he withdrew finally to Geneva. His main work is a long descriptive and narrative poem, but in many parts essentially lyrical, les Tragiques, a fierce picture of France in the civil wars. In his lyrics, which comprise stances, odes, and élégies, he is a follower of the tradition of Ronsard.
Works: Les Tragiques, 1616; a recent edition is by L. Lalanne, 1857; also in the Oeuvres complètes, par MM. Reaume et de Caussade, 4 vols., 1873-77.
For reference: Pergameni, la Satire au seizième siècle et les Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubignê, 1881; E. Faguet, le Seizième siècle, 1893.
15. L'HYVER. 14. IRONDELLES, hirondelles. 19. N'ESLOIGNE, ne s'éloigne de.
16. 2. COMME IL FIT, i.e. comme il alluma des flammes. 10. SEREINES, sirènes. 14. USAGE, fruition.
1552-1611.
A man by no means of the poetic stature of Ronsard, du Bellay, and D'Aubigné; he found great favor in his day, but his lyric note was not powerful enough to endure long. He is most successful in the graceful expression of a natural melancholy, as in the example here given. He was a follower, in moderation, of the Pleiad.
Works : Recueil des oeuvres poétiques de J. Bertaut, l601; appeared again enlarged in 1605 ; Recueil de quelques vers amoureux, 1602 : both collections are included in Oeuvres poétiques, 1620; a recent edition is edited by A. Chenevière, 1891 (Bibliothèque elzévirienne). CHANSON. 27. DEMEURE, delay.
17. 4. FAY, fais.
23. VOY, vois.
25. VY, vis.
1573-1613.
Though bred to the church and early settled in a good living, he led a life that was hardly edifying. He possessed brilliant talents, but failed to make the most of them. He was indolent and fond of good living, and was restive under discipline, as is evident in his work and in his irritation at Malherbe. He had a gift of keen observation, and his satires excelled in interest what he composed in the more lyrical forms of ode and elegy.
Works : Oeuvres, 1608, 1612 ; recent editions are those of Viollet le Duc, 1853 (Bibliothèque elzévirienne), and E. Courbet, 1875.
For reference : J. Vianey, Mathurin Régnier, 1896.
1555-1628.
He marks an epoch in the history of French letters. Boileau's famous phrase, "enfin Malherbe vint," dates from him the beginning of worthy French poetry. What did begin with him was that tradition of refinement, elegance, polish and perfect propriety of phrase that continued to rule French literature for two centuries. He lent the influence of a very positive voice to the growing demand for a standard of authority in grammar and versification and for recognized canons of criticism. The lyrical impulse in him was small, but some of his lines live in virtue of the finished propriety and harmony of expression.
Works: Oeuvres, 1628; the best edition is that of L. Lalanne, 5 vols., 1862-69 {Collection des Grands Écrivains).
For reference: G. Allais, Malherbe, 1891; F. Brunot, la Doctrine de Malherbe, 1891; F. Brunetière, l'Évolution des genres, vol. i, 1890; Études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française, vol. v, 1893.
21. CONSOLATION À M. DU PÉRIER. 5. TITHON, Tithonus, who obtained from the gods immortality but not eternal youth. After age had completely wasted and shriveled him he was changed into a grasshopper. 6. PLUTON, Pluto, god of the nether world, the abode of the dead. 8. ARCHÉMORE, Archemorus or Opheltes, son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, died in infancy from the bite of a serpent.
22. I. FRANÇOIS, Francis I.; his oldest son, Francis, born in 1517, died suddenly in 1526, and Charles V. was suspected of having had him poisoned, and dire vengeance was wreaked upon the person of Sebastian de Montecuculli, cupbearer of Charles V. The suspicions proved to be wholly groundless. 5. ALCIDE, Alcides, by which name Hercules was known till he consulted the oracle of Delphi. 9. LA DURANCE, a river in southwestern France, flowing into the Rhone below Avignon. After beginning an agressive campaign in this part of France in the summer of 1536, the Spaniards were in September forced to a disastrous retreat. 13. DE MOI, for my own part; Malherbe had lost his first two children, Henry in 1587 and Jourdaine in 1599. 27. LOUVRE; the palace of the Louvre, begun in 1541 by Francis
I. on the site of a royal château built by Philip Augustus, and added to by his successors, was a royal residence until the Revolution.
23. CHANSON. 20. en sa liberté, i.e. free from her pursuit. PARAPHRASE DU PSAUME CXLV. This is Psalm CXLVI in our English Bible.
1639-1699.
A dramatic genius of the highest order. But besides being a great dramatist he was a consummate master of language. The choruses in Esther and Athalie are excellent examples of the kind of lyric that the tendencies represented by Malherbe permitted. The extract here given is from Esther, Act III. The approach to the language of the Psalms is evident throughout.
1670-1741.
The chief representative of the serious lyric in the eighteenth century. This ode is a favorable example of the form which lyric utterance assumed in this philosophizing century and under the tradition of poetic dignity and propriety.
27. ODE À LA FORTUNE. 16. SYLLA (138-78 B.C.), the enemy of Marius and author of the bloody proscription against the adherents of his rival. 17. ALEXANDRE, Alexander the Great. 18. ATTILA, king of the Huns from 434 to 453, who ravaged southern and western Europe from 450 to 452 and was known as "the scourge of God."
28. 16. LE RETOUR, i.e. the adverse turn.
1753-1814.
He wrote mostly in a lighter and erotic vein. He had many admirers in his day who styled him the French Tibullus. His influence is perceptible in the style of Lamartine.
Works: Poésies érotiques, 1778; Opuscules poétiques, 1779, enlarged in succeeding editions; les Rosicroix, 1807; Oeuvres, 5 vols., 1808; Oeuvres choisies, 1827.
For reference : Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xv; Portraits contemporains, vol. iv; George Saintsbury, Miscellaneous Essays, London, 1892.
1751-1780.
He has often been compared with Chatterton and has owed much of his fame to the unfounded legend that he was a child of genius brought to an untimely death by poverty and lack of recognition. His satires on the vices of his time enjoyed a temporary reputation, but his real legacy to posterity is the well-known lines here given.
Works: Oeuvres complètes, 1788, and frequently thereafter.
1760-1836.
Though he wrote much in both prose and verse, nothing of his lives except the Marseillaise, which has become the national song of France. He composed both words and music in the night of April 25, 1792, while he was an officer of engineers at Strassburg. The last stanza vas added later by another hand. The name, la Marseillaise, comes from the fact that it was introduced to Paris by the troops from Marseilles.
Works: Essais en vers et en prose, 1796.
For reference: J. Tiersot, Rouget de l'Isle, son oeuvre, sa vie, 1892.
32. LA MARSEILLAISE. 6. Beuillé, François-Claude Amour, marquis de (1739-1800), a devoted royalist, who planned the flight of Louis XVI. When the king was captured at Varennes he fled to England, where he died.
1762-1794.
The most genuine poet of the eighteenth century. Born at Constantinople of a Greek mother, he knew Greek early and fed himself on the Greek poets, imbibing something of their spirit. His elegies, idyls, and odes are not mere repetitions of the conventional commonplaces, but new, original, and vigorous in idea and expression. He anticipated the Romanticists in breaking over the received rules of versification and in giving greater flexibility and variety to the Alexandrine line.
Works : Poésies, first published by H. de Latouche, 1819; later editions are by Becq de Fouquières, 1862 and 1872; G. de Chénier, with new material, 3 vols., 1874; by Louis Moland, 2 vols., 1878-79.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits littéraires, vol. i; Portraits contemporains, vols, ii and v; Causeries du lundi, vol. iv; Nouveaux lundis, vol. iii; E. Faguet, le Dix- huitième siècle, 1890; E. Caro, la Fin du dix-huitième siècle, vol. ii, 1882; J. Haraszti, la Poésie d'André Chénier, 1892.
32. LA JEUNE CAPTIVE. This, as well as the Iambes following, was written in the Saint-Lazare prison shortly before Chénier was sent to the guillotine. The young captive was Mlle. Aimée de Coigny; she escaped the guillotine and afterwards married M. de Montrond; she died in 1820.
33. 18. PHILOMÈLE; Philomela was daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Pursued by Tereus, king of Thrace, she was changed into a nightingale. The name is frequently employed in poetry for the nightingale.
34. 16. PALÈS, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds.
35. IAMBES. 23. BAVUS, a conventional name; it is not clear who was in the poet's mind.
1764-1811.
A younger brother of André Chénier, enjoyed a great reputation as a dramatic poet and critic. Aside from the Chant du départ, which had a reputation approaching that of the Marseillaise, he is hardly to be considered as a lyric poet.
Works: Oeuvres complètes, 8 vols., 1823-1826; Poésies, 1844.
37. LE CHANT du DÉPART. 9. De BARRA, DE VIALA; Agricole Viala and François-Joseph Barra (properly Bara) were both young boys, thirteen and fourteen years of age, who fell fighting with the revolutionary armies, the former in the Vendée, the latter near Avignon. To both the Convention voted the honors of burial in the Pantheon. Their names are often coupled, as here.
1766-1834.
He wrote a number of tragedies and a collection of fables that were admired in their day, but his name is best preserved for the larger public by this brief elegy, which is found in most anthologies. The circumstances attending its composition, on the eve of his departure from France after his banishment in January, 1816, are related by Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. vii, in the course of his notice of Arnault, which should be consulted.
1768-1848.
An enormous literary force at the beginning of this century; M. E. Faguet calls him the "greatest date in French letters since the Pleiad." But the instrument of his power was prose. His attempts in verse were poor. Yet he exercised a direct influence towards the renewal of lyric poetry, as has been indicated in the introduction.
For reference: E. Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887 ; F. Brunetière, l'Évolution de la poésie lyrique au dix-neuvième siècle, vol. i, 1894.
39. LE MONTAGNARD EXILÉ. Introduced into the prose tale, le Dernier des Abencérages (1807). "J'en avais composé les paroles pour un air des montagnes d'Auvergne remarquable par sa douceur et sa simplicité." (Author's note.) 24. la Dore, a rapid stream in the department Puy- de-Dôme, flowing into the Allier. 27. l'airain, i.e. the bell.
1772-1827.
He represents a domain of the lyric that has always been industriously tilled in France, that of the chanson. The tradition of the song is distinctly bacchanalian, and rarely has it claimed serious consideration as literature. But Désaugiers now and then foreshadows the larger and more serious treatment the chanson was to receive at the hands of Béranger and Dupont.
Works: Chansons et Poésies diverses, 3 vols., 1808-1816; a Choix de chansons appeared in 1858; another in 1859, and others since.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. v; George
Saintsbury, Miscellaneous Essays, London, 1892.
1780-1844.
Promoted the romantic movement by his personal contact with the group of young writers that he drew around him more than by what he himself wrote. He was one of those who felt and transmitted the influence of Germany. He is better known by his stories than by his verse.
Works : Essais d'un jeune barde, 1804 ; Poésies diverses, 1827.
For reference : Mme. Mennessier-Nodier, Charles Nodier, épisodes et souvenirs de sa vie, 1867 ; Sainte-Beuve, Portraits littéraires, vol. i.
1780-1857.
The first in rank of the chansonniers. The chanson in his hands took on a breadth, a meaning, and a seriousness that it had never before possessed, and that make him secure of a place in the literature of his country. He used the song largely as a vehicle for his political opinions, even as a political weapon. The object of his attack was the monarchy of the restoration and the pre-revolutionary ideas which it tried to revive, and his weapon was formidable because it was so well fitted to be caught up and wielded by the masses of the people. Béranger was popular in the more original sense of the word. He appealed to the masses by his ideas, which were those of the average man, and by the form which he gave them and the efficient aid of the current airs to which he wedded them, so that his words not only reached the ears of an audience far wider than that of the readers of books, but found a lodgment in their memories. Works: The successive collections of Chansons appeared in 1815, 1821, 1825, 1828, 1833; Oevres posthumes, and Oeuvres complètes, 2 vols., 1857.
For reference: Saint-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. i; Causeries du lundi, vols, ii, xv; Nouveaux lundis, vol. i; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888; C. Coquelin in The Century, vol. xxiv, with portraits.
43. LE ROI D'YVETOT (May, 1813) is perhaps the most famous of his songs. Yvetot is a small town in Normandy, near Havre. The lords of Yvetot were given the title of king in the fifteenth century. The reference of the song to Napoleon is clear.
44. 11. BAN; lever le ban means to call out one's vassals or subjects. 13. TIRER AU BLANC, to shoot at a target.
45. LE VILAIN. 30.LE LÉOPARD; the French heralds describe the device of the English coat of arms as a lion léopardé; so the French often use the leopard as a symbol for the English.
46. 3. LA LIGUE, the Catholic League, a union of Catholics between 1576 and 1596, principally to secure the supremacy of their religion; it became the partisan of the Duc de Guise against Henry I. and Henry IV., fomented civil strife, allied itself with Spain, and became guilty of cruel excesses. MON HABIT 20. Socrate: the poverty of Socrates is notorious. 27. FÊTE: a person's fête is the day of the saint whose name he bears.
47. 17. DES RUBANS; little bits of ribbon are worn in the buttonhole by members of the Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon in 1802. Membership in it is a purely honorary distinction, conferred by the government for conspicuous services of any kind, civil as well as military, and usually much coveted. Béranger refused all such favors from the government. 26. METTRE POUR JAMAIS HABIT BAS, i.e. mourir.
48. LES ÉTOILES QUI FILENT, "shooting stars" (Jan., 1820). This poem is based upon the popular superstition that connects human destinies with the stars, and interprets a shooting star as the passing of a human life.
49. 2. C'ÉTAIT À QUI LE NOURRIRAIT, each strove to outdo the other in feeding him.
50. LES SOUVENIRS DU PEUPLE. This is one of the poems that contributed to increase the prestige of the name of Napoleon. 9. BIEN … QUE; the parts of the conjunction are sometimes thus separated.
51. 10. CHAMPAGNE, previous to the Revolution a political division of France, having Lorraine on the east and Burgundy on the south. Like most other provinces it belonged formerly to independent princes. It came to the kings of France by the marriage of Philip IV. in the last half of the thirteenth century. Since the Revolution all these historical divisions have been supplanted by the départements, new administrative districts intended to obliterate the old boundaries. But the old names are still familiarly used. Champagne was invaded in 1814 by an army of the powers allied against Napoléon. 18. S'ASSOIT, instead of the usual s'assied of cultivated speech, is in keeping with the unlettered condition and familar tone of the speaker.
52. LES FOUS. Perhaps the word "cranks" comes nearest to giving the force of the title. 22. SAUF À, reserving the privilege of.
53. 5. SAINT-SIMON; Claude-Henri, comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), was the founder of French socialism. He demanded the application of the principle of association to the production and distribution of wealth. 13. Francois- Marie-Charles FOURIER (1772-1837), the founder of Fourierism, advocated a social reform in the direction of communism, and proposed to reorganize society in large groups, or phalanxes, living together in a perfect community in one building, called a phalanstery. Such communities as Brook Farm were attempts at a practical application of Fourier's ideas. See O. B. Frothingham's Life of George Ripley. 21. Barthélemy-Prosper ENFANTIN (1796-1864) was a follower of Saint-Simon and developed his doctrines. His means for securing the emancipation and equality of woman was the abolition of marriage.
1782-1816.
Author of several poetical tales of chivalry and a considerable number of elegies, is remembered for hardly anything but these celebrated lines:
Works: Oeuvres, 5 vols., 1814-16; a collection of his Poésies is published in one volume, with a notice by Sainte- Beuve.
54. LA CHUTE DES FEUILLES. 19. ÉPIDAURE; Epidaurus, a town in Argolis on the Saronic gulf, the chief seat of the worship of Aesculapius, the god of the healing art.
1786-1859.
Is still ranked well among the lyric poets of the first part of the century, though the celebrity that she enjoyed for a time has passed. Though her language still has a flavor of the eighteenth century, the note of emotion is direct and sincere. The theme that best inspired her was love—love betrayed and disappointed.
Works: Poésies, 1818; les Pleurs, 1833; Pauvres Fleurs, 1839; Contes en vers pour les enfants, Lyon, 1840; Bouquets et prières, 1843; there is a selection, with notice by Sainte-Beuve, with the title: Poésies de Madame Desbordes-Valmore.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. ii; Causeries du lundi, vol. xiv; Nouveaux lundis, xii; these notices are collected in a volume: Madame Desbordes-Valmore, sa vie et sa correspondance; Montesquiou-Fezensac, Félicité, étude sur la poésie de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, 1894.
57. LES ROSES DE SAADI. Saadi (1195-1296) was a Persian poet; one of his works is the Gulistan, or Garden of Roses.
The first great poet of the century and still one of the greatest. He passed a quiet youth in the shelter of home influences on his father's estate near Mâcon, receiving his most lasting impressions from his mother's instruction, from the fields and woods, and from certain favorite books, among which were the Bible and Ossian. This education was supplemented by a visit to Italy in 1811-12, memorable for the episode of Graziella, and a short service in the royal guards. His first volume, the Méditations poétiques (1820), was something entirely new in French letters and made him famous at once. These poems were saturated with the poet's personality and informed with his emotions; and to communicate his pervading melancholy he found the secret of lines which, while they did not yet have the color, brilliancy, and variety that the Romanticists presently gave to verse, charmed the ear with a harmony and a music unattained before. His long poems, with more or less of philosophical intention, especially Jocelyn (1836), are important works, but it was as a lyric poet that he made his chief impression.
Works: Méditations poétiques, 1820; Nouvelles Méditations, 1823; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 1830; Recueillements poétiques, 1839; Poésies inédites, 1839; Poésies inédites, 1873; republished under the same names in various collected editions of his Oeuvres since 1860.
For reference: Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887; Sainte-Beuve, Premiers lundis, vol. i; Portraits contemporains, vol. i; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. i; Histoire et littérature, vol. iii, 1892; F. Reyssié, la Jeunesse de Lamartine, 1891; E. Deschanel, Lamartine, 2 vols., 1893; J. Lemaître, les Contemporains, vol. vi, 1896; E. Zyromski, Lamartine poète lyrique, 1898.
58. LE LAC. Written September 17-23, 1817; from les Méditations poétiques. The lake here celebrated is Lake Bourget in Savoy. Here the poet met in 1816 Mme. Charles, wife of the well known physicist, with whom he fell very much in love and who is immortalized by him under the names Julie and Elvire. She died Dec. 18, 1817. Cf. Anatole France, l'Elvire de Lamartine, 1893. When this poem was written Lamartine already knew that she was hopelessly ill. This experience of his colors many poems of his first two volumes. Le Lac has often been set to music; most successfully by the Swiss composer Niedermeyer (1802-1861). For interesting variants in the text see Reyssié, la Jeunesse de Lamartine, p. 201.
L'AUTOMNE. November, 1819; from les Méditations poétiques.
61. 9. PEUT ÊTRE L'AVENIR, etc.; "allusion à l'attachement sérieux que le poète avait conçu pour une jeune Anglaise qui fut depuis la compagne de sa vie." (Commentaire de l'auteur.) LE SOIR. Spring of 1819; from les Méditations poétiques.
63. LE VALLON. Summer of 1819; from les Méditations poétiques. "Ce vallon est situé dans les montagnes du Dauphiné." (Commentaire de l'auteur.)
65 9. PYTHAGORE; Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century B.C., who is said to have taught the doctrine that the "organization of the universe is an harmonious system of numerical ratios." L'ISOLEMENT. September, 1818; from
les Méditations poétiques. Reyssié in the work above cited gives interesting variants for this poem.
67 LE CRUCIFIX. 1818? From les Nouvelles Méditations. "Mon ami M. de V(irieu), qui assistait aux derniers moments de Julie, me rapporta, de sa part, le crucifix qui avait reposé sur ses lèvres dans son agonie … J'écrivis, après une année de silence et de deuil, cette élégie." (Commentaire de l'auteur.) Compare with this note the eleventh stanza of the poem, which points back to the time of the Graziella affair. See below.
70. ADIEU A GRAZIELLA. From les Nouvelles Méditations. Graziella, whose heart Lamartine won during his visit to Naples in the winter of 1811-12 and whom he abandoned, was the daughter of a Neapolitan fisherman. She died soon afterward. Later the poet idealized her and his relation to her and immortalized her memory in his works. Cf. le Premier regret below.
71. LES PRÉLUDES. 1822; from les Nouvelles Méditations. This poem, addressed to Victor Hugo, consists of several divisions, in different meters, only the last of which is here given. It inspired the symphonic poem of Liszt by the same name.
73. HYMNE DE L'ENFANT À SON RÉVEIL. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses.
76. LE PREMIER REGRET. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. It was inspired by the memory of Graziella. 7. MER DE SORRENTO, bay of Naples; Sorrento is a small town on the bay, south-east of Naples.
77. 27. NÉMI; the lake is in the hollow of an extinct volcano, in the Alban mountains, a few miles southeast of Rome.
81. STANCES. From les Nouvelles Méditations. 18. MEMNON, son of Tithonus and Eos, king of the Ethiopians, slain by Achilles. The Greeks connected with Memnon various ancient monuments and buildings, especially the great temple at Thebes and one of the colossi of Amenophis III., currently called the statue of Memnon; legend reported of it that when touched by the first rays of the dawn it gave forth a musical sound.
83. LES RÉVOLUTIONS. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Only the last of the three divisions of the poem is given here.
84. 20. SIBYLLES ANTIQUES; concerning the sibyls, sibylline books, and sibylline leaves consult a classical dictionary. 23. VERBE; used currently for the second person of the Trinity; here it goes back to a passage in the first division of the poem, where speaking of God's process of creation; he says:
"Son Verbe court sur le néant!
Il court, et la Nature à ce Verbe qui vole
Le suit en chancelant de parole en parole,
Jamais, jamais demain ce qu'elle est aujourd'hui!
Et la création, toujours, toujours nouvelle,
Monte éternellement la symbolique échelle
Que Jacob rêva devant lui! "
85. 8. LES NOEUDS, knots of nautical reckoning.
1797-1863.
One of the great poets of the century. He surpassed most, if not all, of his fellow Romanticists in the intellectual quality of his verse. His lyrics are not merely the product of a moment of passion or of a passing emotion; the strings of his lyre were not set vibrating by every breeze that blew. The personal emotion from which the lyric springs was with him subjected to the action of an intellectual solvent, was generalized and made almost impersonal before it was given form and expression. For this reason partly the bulk of his poetry is small, not exceeding the limits of one small volume. But there are few poems that one would be content to lose. One should read, besides the two given here, Moïse, la Maison du Berger and la Mort du loup. De Vigny's influence on the poetry of the latter half of the century has been considerable.
Works: Poèmes, 1822; Poèmes antiques et modernes, 1826; les Destinées, 1864; in the Oeuvres complètes_, of which several editions have appeared, the Poésies make one volume.
For reference : Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. II; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888 ; E. Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887 ; F.Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. ii ; Dorison, Alfred de Vigny, poète philosophe, 1891 ; M. Paléologue, Alfred de Vigny, 1891.
86. LE COR. 1828. The story of the surprise of the rearguard of Charlemagne by the Moors and of the death of Roland (Orlando in the Italian poems) is told in the Chanson de Roland (end of the eleventh century), the finest of the old French heroic poems. 19. FRAZONA ; this name is not found on ordinary maps or in descriptions of this region. MARBORÉ, a mountain of the Pyrenees. 21. GAVES, name given in the Pyrenees to streams that descend from the mountains.
87. 11. RONCEVAUX, a Spanish village at the entrance to one of the passes of the Pyrenees. 14. OLIVIER, Oli- ver, like Roland and Turpin mentioned later, one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne, standard figures in the old French poems that deal with Charlemagne.
88. 4. LUZ, ARGELÈS, villages in the department of Hautes- Pyrénées. 6. ADOUR, a river of France rising in the Pyrenees and flowing into the Bay of Biscay. 15. SAINT Denis is the patron saint of France. 24. Obéron, king of the fairies in mediaeval folk-lore; cf. A Midsummernight's Dream.
89. LA BOUTEILLE À LA MER, 1853. Bears the sub-title: Conseil à un jeune homme inconnu. 19. Chatterton (1752-1770), the precocious English poet who, failing to get recognition for his talents, was reduced to destitution and ended his life by poison. Wordsworth wrote of him in
The Leech-Gatherer:
"I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,
The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride."
For de Vigny he stood almost as the type of the poet; he used his career as literary material in the narrative Stello (1832) and in the drama Chatterton (1835). Gilbert, see p. 320. He is also brought into Stello. MALFILÂTRE (1732-1767), a French poet who was tempted by the praise given to his ode, le Soleil fixe au milieu des planètes, to try a literary career at Paris and died in great poverty. He has passed wrongly for an unappreciated genius.
9O. 27. TERRE-DE-FEU, Terra del Fuego.
91. 6. CES PICS NOIRS, les pics San-Diego, San-Ildefonso. (Author's note.) 13. Reims, a city in Champagne, the center of the champagne trade. 25. Aï, a town in Champagne, near Reims, noted for its wine; the name is also applied to the wine.
8. DES FLORIDES; in speaking of both coasts of Florida the French formerly used the plural.
1802-1885.
The foremost literary figure of the century in France. His commanding influence as the chief of the Romantic school and the champion of a revolution in literary doctrine and practice has led to his being generally considered in connection with the movement to which he gave such a powerful impulse. But he was not merely a great party chief and a great influence. He was also a great poet, and a great lyric poet. He was that by reason of the breadth and variety of his lyric performance, the surprising mastery of form that he showed, the new capacities for picturesque expression that he discovered in the language or created for it, the new possibilities of rhythm and melody that he opened to it, and the range, power, and sincerity of many of the thoughts and feelings to which he gave so sonorous and musical a body. No doubt in a large part of his early work, as les Orientales, the body was more to him than the spirit that it lodged. Poetry to him was an art that had its technical side, like any other. The development of its technical resources had a charm of its own, and he had the artist's delight in skillful and exquisite workmanship. The
mastery that he attained was so perfect, he seemed so fully to exhibit the utmost capacities of the language for the most various effects of rhythm and harmony, that Théodore de Banville said of la Légende des siècles that it must be the Bible and the Gospel of every writer of French verse. But he did not stop with the dexterity and virtuosity of the craftsman. More and more he used the mastery that he had achieved not for the mere pleasure of practicing or exhibiting it, but to give fitting and adequate expression to feelings and to thoughts. The domestic affections, the love of country, and the mystery of death had the deepest hold upon him, and whenever he approaches these themes he is almost sure to be genuine and sincere. His pity for the poor and unfortunate was very tender, and was the real spring of a great deal of his democracy, and he had a fine gift of wrathful indignation, which was called into exercise especially by Napoleon III. No part of his lyrical production is more spontaneous and genuine than many poems of Les Châtiments. There was from the first a bent towards philosophical reflection observable in him, and in the latter part of his life, beginning with les Contemplations and la Légende des siècles, it preponderated more and more over the lyrical impulse, though the latter was never reduced to silence for long.
Works: Odes et Poésies diverses, 1822; Nouvelles Odes, 1824; Odes et Ballades, 1826, 1828; les Orientales, 1829; les Feuilles d'Automne, 1831; les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; les Voix intérieures, 1837; les Rayons et les ombres, 1840; les Châtiments, 1853; les Contemplations, 1856; la Légende des siècles, 1859, 1876, 1883; les Chansons des rues et des bois, 1865; l'Année terrible, 1872; l'Art d'être grandpère, 1876; les Quatre Vents de l'esprit, 1881; Toute la lyre, 1889, 1893. The most convenient form in which they are now to be found is the ne varietur edition of Hetzel-Quantin in 16mo, at two francs a volume; the volumes correspond to those given above, except that the first three are all included in the one Odes et Ballades.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. i; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888; A. Barbou, Victor Hugo, 1882; E. Dupuy, Victor Hugo, l'homme et le poète, 1887; L. Mabilleau, Victor Hugo, 1893 ; E. Biré, Victor Hugo avant 1830, 1883; Victor Hugo après 1830, 2 vols., 1891; Victor Hugo après 1852, 1894; A. C. Swinburne, Victor Hugo, London, 1886; C. Renouvier, Victor Hugo, le poète, 1893; E. Dowden, Studies in Literature, London, 1878; E. Faguet, le Dix-neuvième siècle, 1887; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, 2 vols., 1894.
95. LES DJINNS. August, 1828; from les Orientales. The poem is especially noteworthy from a technical point of view. The quiet before the descent of the spirits, their approach, their fury, their receding, and the quiet that follows, are suggested by the movement of the lines. The motto is from Dante's Inferno, Canto v, 46-49; he is describing the tormented spirits of the carnal malefactors "Who reason subjugate to appetite." Djinns are spirits of Mohammedan popular belief, created of fire, and both good and evil. The vowel is not nasal.
97. 25. PROPHÈTE, Mohammed.
99. ATTENTE. 1828; from les Orientales. The motto is Spanish, "I was waiting in despair."
100. EXTASE. November, 1828; from les Orientales. The motto is from the Bible, Rev. i, 10. LORSQUE L'ENFANT PARAÎT. May 18, 1830; from les Feuilles d'Automne. Les Feuilles d'Automne were largely the reflection of the domestic affections of the poet. He had been married in 1822, and had at this time three children, Léopoldine, Charles, and Victor.
102. 17. ENNEMIS; the reference is doubtless to the literary opponents of Hugo; the struggle between the champion of tradition and the Romanticists brought many personal bitternesses. DANS L'ALCÔVE SOMBRE. Nov. 10, 1831; from les Feuilles d'Automne. The motto is from a poem, la Veillée, addressed by Sainte-Beuve to Hugo on the birth of his son François-Victor, Oct. 21, 1828.
103. 19. lys, lis; this spelling is usual with Victor Hugo and frequent in this century, especially with later writers.
1O4. 27. CHIMÈRE has here more the force of cauchemar. NOUVELLE CHANSON SUR UN VIEIL AIR. Feb. 18, 1834; from les Chants du crépuscule.
106. "PUISQU'ICI-BAS." May 19, 1836; from les Voix intérieures.