Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/691

 SIXTEENTH CENTTTKY MORALISTS.] FRANCE 655 out with less gusto ; exuberant drollery has given way to quiet irony ; and though neither business nor pleasure is decried, they are regarded rather as useful pastimes incident to the life of man than with the eager appetite of the Renaissance. From the purely literary point of view, the style is remarkable from its absence of pedantry in construc tion, and yet for its rich vocabulary and picturesque bril liancy. The follower and imitator of Montaigne, Pierre Charron (1541-1003), carried his master s scepticism to a somewhat more positive degree. His principal book, De la Sagesse, scarcely deserves the comparative praise which Pope has given it. On the other hand Du Vair (1556- 1621), a lawyer and orator, takes the positive rather than the negative side in morality, and regards the vicissitudes in human affairs from the religious and teleological point of view in a series of works written in a style less diffuse than that of Montaigne, and characterized by the special merits which the style of great orators often though not always has when they betake themselves to literary composition. The revolutionary and innovating instinct which showed itself in the 16th century with reference to church govern ment and doctrine, and even in some respects with regard to religious principles generally, spread naturally enough to political matters. The intolerable misgovernment which prevailed during the greater part of the century in France in consequence of religious dissensions, naturally set the thinkers of the age speculating on the doctrines of govern ment in general. The favourite and general study of anti quity helped this tendency, and the great accession of royal power in all the monarchies of Europe invited a specula tive if not a practical reaction. The persecutions of the Protestants naturally provoked a republican spirit among them, and the violent antipathy of the League to the houses of Valois and Bourbon made its partisans adopt almost openly the principles of democracy and tyrannicide. The greatest political writer of the age is Jean Bodin (1550-1596), whose Rtpubliqw is founded partly on specu lative considerations like the political theories of the an cients, and partly on an extended historical inquiry. Bcdin, like most lawyers who have taken the royalist side, is for unlimited monarchy, but notwithstanding this, he condemns religious persecution and discourages slavery. In his specu lations on the connexion .between forms of government and natural causes, he serves as a link between Aristotle and Montesquieu. On the other hand, the causes which we have mentioned made a large number of writers adopt opposite conclusions. Etienne de la Boe&quot;tie (1530-1563), the friend of Montaigne s youth, composed the Contre Un or Discours de la Servitude Volontaire, a protest against the monarchical theory. The boldness of the protest and the affectionate admiration of Montaigne, have given La Boetie a much higher reputation than any extant work of his actually deserves. The Contre Un is a kind of prize essay, full of empty declamation borrowed from the ancients, and showing no grasp of the practical conditions of politics. Not much more historically based, but far more vigorous and original, is the Franco-Gallia of Hotmann, a work which appeared both in Latin and French, which extols the authority of the states-general, and represents them as direct successors of the political institutions of Gauls and Franks. In the last quarter of the century political animosity knew no bounds. The Protestants beheld a divine instrument in Poltrot de Mere&quot;, the Catholics in Jacques Clement. The Latin treatises of Languet and Buchanan formally vindi cated the first the right of rebellion, the second the &quot;right of tyrannicide. Indeed, as Montaigne confesses, divine authorization for political violence was claimed and denied by both parties acccording as the possession or the expect ancy of power belonged to each, and the excesses of the preachers and pamphleteers knew no bounds. Every one, however, was not carried away. The literary merits of the Chancellor 1 Hopital (1503-1575) are not very great, but his efforts to promote peace and moderation were unceasing. On the other side Lanoue, with far greater literary gifts, pursued the same ends, and pointed out the ruinous consequences of continued dissension. Du Plessis Mornay took a part in political discussion even more im portant than that which he bore in religious polemics, and was of the utmost service to Henri Quatre in defending his cause against the League, as was also Hurault, another author of state papers. Du Vair, already : mentioned, powerfully assisted the same cause by his successful defence of the Salic law, the disregard of which by the Leaguer states-general was intended to lead to the admission of the Spanish claim to the crown. But the foremost work against the League was the famous Satire Meni]&amp;gt;pee, in a Satire literary point of view one of the most remarkable of poli- tical works. The Menippee was the work of no single author, but was due, it is said, to the collaboration of five, Leroi, Gillot, Chretien, Rapin, and Pithou, with some assistance in verse from Passerat. The book is a kind of burlesque report of the meeting of the states-general, called for the purpose cf supporting the views of the League in 1593. It gives an account of the procession of opening, and then we have the supposed speeches of the principal characters, the Ducde Mayenne,the papal legate, the rector of the university (a ferocious Leaguer), and others. But by far the most remarkable is that attributed to Claude d Aubray, the leader of the Tiers fitat, in which all the evils of &amp;lt;the time and the malpractices of the leaders of the League are exposed and branded. The satire is extra ordinarily bitter and yet perfectly good-humoured. It re sembles in character rather that of Butler, who unquestion ably imitated it, than any other. The style is perfectly suited to the purpose, having got rid of almost all vestiges of the cumbrousness of the older tongue without losing its picturesque quaintness. It is no wonder that, as we are told by contemporaries, it did more for Henri Quatre than all other writings in his cause. In connexion with politics some mention of legal orators and writers may be necessary. In 1539 the ordinance of Villers-Cotterets enjoined the ex clusive use of the French language in legal procedure. The bar and bench of France during the, century produced, however, besides those names already mentioned in other connexions, only one deserving of special notice, that of Etienne Pasquier, author of a celebrated speech against the right of the Jesuits to take part in public teaching. This he inserted in his great work, Recherches de la France, a work dealing with almost every aspect of French history whether political, antiquarian, or literary. I6tk Century Savants. One more division, and only one, that of scientific and learned writers pure and simple, remains. Much of the work of this kind during the period was naturally done in Latin, the vulgar tongue of the learned. But in France, as in other countries, the study of the classics led to a vast number of trans lations, and it so happened that one of the translators deserves as a prose writer a rank among the highest. Many of the authors already mentioned contributed to the literature of translation. DCS Periers translated the Platonic dialogue Lysis, La Boetie some works of Xenophon and Plutarch, Du Vair&quot; the DC Corona, the In Ctesiphontem, and the Pro Milone. Salel attempted the Iliad, Belleau the false Anacreon, Baif some plays of Plautus and Terence. Besides these Lefevre gave a version of the Bible, Saliat one of Herodotus, and Louis Leroi, not to be confounded with the part author of the Menippee, many works of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek writers. But while most if not all of these translators owed the merits of their work to their originals, and deserved, much