No. CCCLXXV.

VOL. LXIII.

As the title of this article sufficiently explains its object, we are spared the trouble of introductory matter which most readers are in the habit of getting over at a brisk pace. It would be more to our own wishes to introduce a narrower portion of the subject, and dwell on the lives and works of a more limited number of writers, but we consult the interests of our readers with very moderate expectations of gratitude on their parts.

Our object is, without attempting to disparage so noble a work as Hallam's, to supplement by a closer view and more detail, his general account of a particular period of French lite

rature.

The Scriptures, the classics and translations, devotional books and the romances of chivalry, were the earliest works thrown off from the press, and dearly had the literati of these good old times to pay for their "twentie bookes a-clothed in blacke and red." There was no scarcity of poetry in the second half of the sixteenth century, for the names and some circumstances of the lives of 200 poets who flourished during that period are preserved. There occurred a change, as we think for the worse, contemporaneous with the death of Rabelais, in 1553. The allegorical personages of the old mysteries representing the evil and good attributes of human nature, that figured so largely in the "Romaunt of the Rose," and other popular poems, and which

VOL. LXIII.—NO. CCCLXXV.

were afterwards turned to such good account by brave John Bunyan, gave place to Eros, Bacchus, Venus, and other disreputable importations from Athens and Rome. The old monkish jester, however, saw only the edge of the transition, dying, as we know, in the year mentioned, at the age of sixty-three.

It is nearly out of the power of the decently-speaking people of this age to realize to themselves the writer of such a work as he has left behind filling first the office of preacher in a monastery, and afterwards that of steward, reader, physician, and librarian in the household of a cardinal (Du Bellay). It is even said that the Pope and his ministers were not proof against his drolleries. Let us hope that as Curé of Meudon, in the latter part of his life, he played absentee, and had his parochial duties attended to by some one of less wit and a more edifying gravity.

The reign of Henry II. was enlivened by the lays (several minor muses being here unnoticed) of the Pleiad― Jodelle, Bellay, Baif, Thyard, Dorat, Belleau, and their chief, Pierre Ronsard. All these ambitiously cultivated the heathen mythology, renounced the romantic school of poetry, and wished to establish the reign of Apollo and the nine female members of his privy council over the new age. Ronsard's life embraced the period between 1524 and 1585, during which his lays pleased the courtiers of Francis I.,

17*

Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III. He passed two years of his youth with James V. of Scotland, who had "waled out" Magdalen of France for his Queen; and his poetry afterwards beguiled some dreary hours of the captivity of this monarch's beauteous and unfortunate daughter. His muse and his life were rather of a licentious turn; but in his old age, repentance came, and he profoundly regretted the abuse of his powers, and the probable evil effects of some of his poems, and intended henceforward to devote his poetic abilities to the cause of religion. Some complimentary epistles in verse passed between him and Charles IX., whose contributions to the correspondence boast of a certain elegance, which has caused more than one reader to wish that the pen instead of the carbine had occupied his fingers on the fatal 23rd of August.

Ronsard's funeral was honoured by a choral service, at which assisted the best musicians in the royal choir. Cardinal de Bourbon and many great people about court attended the ceremony. There was more honour paid at the time to literary merit in France than in England. We must here quote a few words from the opinion expressed concerning Ronsard's talents by the great Balzac, a writer of many letters and much criticism in the succeeding century.

“Still he is admired by three quarters of the Parliament of Paris, and generally by the other Parliaments of France. The University and the Jesuits assert his excellence in opposition to the court and the academy..... He is not a complete poet; he has merely the subject-matter and the beginning of one. We see in his works nascent and half-animated portions of a being, forming and growing, but with no sign of coming to perfection. The fountain-head is abundant, but it is troubled and muddy; the water is less abundant than the mud, and is prevented by it from gushing forth."

Ronsard and his associate Pleiades obtained an unenviable triumph in supplanting the natural and easy style of poetry which flourished in the first half of their century, Marot being the king of the sweet singers of the time. Those who have not had the pleasure of making acquaintance with his lays, can form some conception of their finesse and naïveté, by reading and pausing on the happiest

efforts of La Fontaine, who made Clement Marot his model.

Born in 1495 at Cahors, he was in his youth Valet de Chambre to Francis I., and afterwards of the household ofthat monarch's sister, Margaret, when she became Duchess of Alençon. Fighting under this nobleman he was made prisoner at the fight_of Pavia. His sympathy with the Reformers bringing him into trouble in Paris, he sought refuge in the Court of Ferrara. Francis having returned from his Spanish captivity, Marot was induced to revisit Paris, and there about the year 1536, he versified the first thirty of the Psalms, the work being afterwards completed by Theodore Beza. Though Francis aided Protestant efforts in Germany, in order to mortify his great rival Charles V., and rather patronized Protestant views in the literature of the Parisian Colleges, he laid heavy hands on individual Protestants; and though Marot was a personal favourite, he was at last obliged to decamp, and repair to the haven of Geneva. Alas! poor Clement did not find the strict moral regimen in fashion at Calvin's head-quarters at all agreeable to his pleasure-loving habits. He changed his residence for Turin, and there he died in 1544. If any admirers of French poetry find by chance the six volumes of his, and his father's, and his son's poetry, published at the Hague in 1731, they will enjoy no 66 Les mean literary treat. From Pseaumes de David, mis en Rime Françoise," 18mo, Amsterdam, 1716, and bound in everlasting shagreen, we quote the first two verses of the 23rd Psalm.

"Mon Dieu me paît sous sa puissance haute :

C'est mon Berger; de rien je n'aurai faute.

Suivant des eaux les tranquilles rivages,
Il me nourrit dans de gras pâturages;
Et sous sa main de force plus qu'humaine,
Par des sentiers applanis Il me mene.

"Je ne crains point en tenant cette voie, Que de la mort je devienne la proie. Dieu pres de moi dans sa Vallée obscure, Par sa baton me conduit, et m'assure. Même il fournit des vivres nécessaires, Ma table aux yeux de tous mes adversaires."

The reader will find in this sample a jealous care in faithfully rendering

Among the prose works of fiction available to the Parisians and Provincialists who endured existence in the second half of the sixteenth century must be reckoned the renowned "Amadis de Gaul,' written about the middle of the fourteenth century by Don Vasco de Lobeyra, of Oporto, whose death is recorded in 1403. The earliest version extant is in the

Spanish tongue, and was made by Garcia Ordoñez de Montalvo, about 1460. The original was in the possession of the Duke of Aveiro, and is supposed to have perished in the earthquake of Lisbon, 1755.

Of the fourteen books of which the entire work consists, the first four only had reference to Amadis of Gaul. These were composed by Don Lobeyra, and greatly exceed the rest in merit. The remainder containing the adventures of Esplandian, of Florisando, of Amadis of Greece, of Leandro the Fair, and others, were added by different authors, and as lovers of Cervantes will remember, were flung into the fire in the yard of the old house of La Mancha.

Amadis himself was saved from the devouring element, (though the curate's first impulse was to fling him out), as being the first hero whose adventures were printed in Spain. This same printing took place under the care of Montalvo, sometime between 1492 and 1505.* *

Nicolas de Herberay, Sieur des Essarts, published a French translation of the first eight books between 1540 and 1548, and such was the interest it excited in Paris that some men of letters of the day found it convenient to add ten more books of adventures. At a later day the Sieur de Duverdier compiled seven large volumes for the purpose of agreeably winding up sundry series of adventures left incomplete, and marrying or killing many heroes not provided for by the original authors.

The next in merit and popularity to "Amadis de Gaul" was "Palmerin of England," the French version of which was first printed at Lyons, in 1555. Southey had so high an opinion of the literary merit of this work that he made a translation of it. The authorship is uncertain, and so is the language in which it was originally written. Cervantes seems to have valued it more highly even than he did "Amadis." These are the curate's words, in Smollett's version:

"Let that Palmerin d'Oliva be hewed in`

pieces and burned, so that not so much as English "Palmerin" be defended and prea cinder of him shall remain; but let the served as an inestimable jewel, and such another casket be made for him as that which Alexander found among the spoils of Darius, and destined as a case for the works of Homer. That book, neighbour, is venerable for two reasons: first, because it is in itself excellent, and secondly, because it is said to have been composed by an ingenious king of Portugal. All the adventures at the Castle of Miraguarda are incomparable, and contrived with infinite" art, the language perspicuous and elegant, and the characters supported with great propriety of sentiment and decorum."

If any of our habitual readers devote an evening to the perusal of the work in question, there is not much probability of his subscribing this opinion of the good curate's; so powerful an influence has the prevailing taste of any epoch even on the finest individual judgment. Several persons of this nineteenth century have heard of Palmerin of England; some have even looked through the work in which his chronicle is preserved ; but, alas for the hopes of permanent celebrity, and, alas for the uncertainty of the award even of such geniuses as Sir Walter Scott and Cervantes! One item in the causes of failure of the publishing house with which the first was connected was the republication of works on his recommendation; and here is the judgment of the great Spaniard on a book which very few people of our time have heard of, and which has scarcely been seen by anyone.

"Heaven be praised!' cried the curate aloud, that we have discovered Tirante the White' in this place. Pray give it me, neighbour, for in this book I reckon I have found a treasure of satisfaction and a rich mine of amusement. Here is the famous Don Godamercy (Quirieleyson), of Mount Alban, and his brother Thomas, of Mount Alban, and the Knight Fonseca, together with the battle fought between Alano and the valiant Detriante, together with the witticisms of the young lady, Joy of my Life, with the amorous stratagems of the widow Quiet, and her Highness the Empress, who was enamoured of her Squire Hippolyto. I do assure you, upon my word, Mr. Nicholas, that in point of style this is the best book that ever was written.

Here the knights eat, sleep, and die in their beds after having made their wills, with many circumstances that are wanting in other books of the kind. Notwithstanding, the author who wrote it, deserved to be sent to the galleys for life for having spent

his time in writing so much nonsense.'

The spirit of serious and wild romance was not so influential among the French people of the sixteenth century as to save their fictional literature from the contagion of licentious stories. Three-fourths of the novels of Bandello were published in 1554, and the remainder in 1573; and though not so deeply tainted as those of Boccacio, they did sufficient mischief, and directed the taste of the reading community to that sort of debasing literature to which the Fabliaux were a flagrant contribution. The tales of Erizzo presented a laudable contrast to those of Bandello and others of his countrymen, by the strain of pure morality that pervaded them. Belleforest translated Bandello's stories into French. The collection partially taken from the trouveres and the Italian storytellers, by Margaret, Queen of Navarre, were published in 1558. Would that she had been better impressed by the good spirit of the nursery rhymes of her youth, and had employed her leisure hours as a

model queen should-"eating bread and honey in her kitchen."* Minds of an innocent and romantic bent would still prefer the more harmless, and in many respects ennobling romance of chivalry; but the majority, with imaginations of a lower pitch, and dispositions cynical and sensual, would give the preference to the vicious story, in which ordinary characters indulged their selfishness and sensuality, and in which the incidents differed but little from the ordinary occurrences within their own range of observation.

In giving a preference to Amadis, and Palmerin, and Montelion, Knight of the Oracle, we would be sorry to represent their lives as edifying studies for young people. Amadis, and the other knights of the fourteen Spanish, or twenty-four French "books of the heroes," though they claimed Princesses of the Courts of Trebizond, or Cathay, or Samarcand, or Persepolis, for their mothers, were never in a condition to produce the marriage certificates of these ladies. The knights were as faithful to their love-vows as their swords were true to their hands; but even this fidelity had its moral inconvenience. Don Bellianis, or Don Galaor, having rescued his peerless princess from the stronghold of some giant, might be some months on his way before he could restore the maid to her mother's care. The route might be long and rough, and in the course of the journey he might be obliged to rescue other captive damsels, and relieve sundry widows and orphans, by slaying their oppressors. Thus circumstanced, the ladies confident in the honour and constancy of their knights, agreed to private marriages, with the sun or moon, the aged oaks, the ancient rivers, the old hills as witnesses, and at suitable times of joy and festivity, renewed their vows in face of the Church and the world. This peculiar phase of the times of knight

errantry was described naively enough by the chroniclers, but apparently without the slightest suspicion of anything wrong in the arrangement, or its record. Of "Reynard the Fox," a work popular then, and for a long time previous, we need say no more than refer the reader to a late paper in this Magazine on the subject of that popular and not always very correct story. Fifty years since, in this island, an abridged copy, with worn type, and on bad paper, could be purchased for a British sixpence, from those great distributors of prayer and school-books, Pat. Wogan, Merchant'squay, and William Jones, 75, Thomasstreet.

We must now endeavour to ascertain what the players were about before 1600. As in our own and the other countries of Europe, the earlier dramatic performances, after the extinction of the Pagan representations, were the Mysteries and Moralities. The earliest of these represented with any effect in Paris cannot be traced to an earlier period than the end of the fourteenth century. About 1400, the Confrairie de la Passion de N.S., a regularly appointed body of performers, presented the Life of Our Saviour, the entertainment embracing some days, and supported by upwards of eighty performers, who sung as well as acted. The appointments must have been better than those known at the time in England. In the Martyrdom of St. Barbara, the principal performer was suspended by the heels, and delivered appropriate sentiments in that disagreeable situation. She (he?) was then apparently torn with pincers, and scorched with lamps, and the effect on the audience was rendered more impressive by a representation of the locality of the martyrdom in the centre of the background, with heaven above and hell yawning and belching out flames beneath. These spectacles could boast of ingenious machinery, too. As in our pantomimes, a stuffed policeman is flung into the pit; and while its denizens are expecting a descent of the blue-coated apparition on their hats and bonnets, presto! he is suddenly swept up to the top of the proscenium ;-so in the year 1437, a horrible dragon, furnished with a burning tail and tongue, and glaring through eyes of burnished steel, would

rush headlong out of hell in the background, and simulating a charge on the audience, dismay the men, and throw the women into hysterics.

66

Besides the Mysteries and Moralities, the predecessors of our farces were known in France before 1500. The original of the "Village Lawyer," Maître Patelin, was printed in Paris in 1490, and had set assemblies "in a roar" before enjoying the dignity of print. There occurred no change worthy of notice in these entertainments till 1547, when the Confrairie" was suppressed by the Parliament, on account of the marked discrepancy of their lives with the sacred subjects they represented, and the abuses attending the performances. Next year the actors purchased the Hôtel de la Bourgogne, and were permitted to produce pieces on secular subjects, of a decent character, but no more mysteries, on peril of their personal liberties.

66

So, in order to furnish poor actors with respectable employment, Etienne (Stephen) Jodelle, Seigneur de Limodin, born in 1532, sat down and wrote the tragedies of "Dido" and "Cleopatra," and among other dramatic pieces, the comedies of "Eugène" and the "Rencontre." This last piece and Cleopatra" were first performed before Henry II., in 1552. As the Confrairie were privileged by their charter of 1400 to put a veto on the performance of a play by any paid company but themselves; and as Jodelle and they were not on good terms, he was obliged to have the parts filled by his friends. After the pieces had been acted before the Court at the Hotel de Rheims, they were again performed at the College of Boncourt with unbounded applause, the windows even being filled with students, and some of the audience striving to hear the actors from outside the doors. The tragedies were strictly in the style of those of Seneca, and the comedies very licentious, as indeed were most of the old Italian and French plays.

Though Jodelle was highly popular, his life was beset with embarrassments, owing to his love of gay society. He died in 1573, having first dictated a reproachful letter to Charles IX. for having neglected him in his misery. His poetry was published in folio, in Paris, 1574, and in 12mo. in Lyons in 1597. The Cardinal du Perron had