Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/711

 RECENT PHILOLOGY.] FRANCE G75 (1770-1846), which have had a great influence, though on a somewhat limited circle. Political philosophy and its kindred sciences have naturally received a large share of attention. Towards the middle of the century there was a great development of socialist and fanciful theorizing on politics, with which the names of St Simon, Fourier, Cabet, and others are connected. As political economists Bastiat, De Lavergne, Blanqui, and Chevalier may be noticed. In De Tocqueville (1805-1859) France produced a political observer of a remarkably acute, moderate, and reflective character. The name of Lerminier (1805-1857) is of wide repute for legal and constitutional writings, and that of Jomini (1779-1869) is still more celebrated as a military historian ; while that of Lenormant (1801-1859) holds a not dissimilar position in archaeology. With the publications devoted to physical science proper we do not attempt to meddle. Philology, however, demands a brief notice. In classical studies France has not recently occu pied the position which might be expected of the country of Scaliger and Casaubon. She has, however, produced some considerable Orientalists, such as Champollion the younger, Burnouf, Silvestre de Sacy, and Stanislas Julien. In attention to the antiquities of their own country the French have been at last stimulated by the example of Germany. The foundation of Romance philology was due, indeed, to the foreigners Wolf and Diez. But early in the century the curiosity as to the older literature of France created by Barbazan, Tressan, and others continued to extend. Moon published many imprinted fabliaux, gave the whole of the French Itenart cycle, with the exception of Renart le Contrefait, and edited the Roman de la Rose. Fauriel and Raynouard dealt elaborately with Provenqal poetry as well as partially with that of the trouveres; and the latter produced his comprehensive Lexique Romane. These examples were followed by many other writers, who edited manuscript works and commented on them, always with zeal and sometimes with discretion. Foremost among these must be mentioned M. Paulin Paris, who for fifty years has served the cause of old French literature with untiring energy, great literary taste, and a pleasant and facile pen. His selections from manuscripts, nis Romancero Franeait, his editions of Garin le Loherain and Berte aux Grans Pies, and his Romans de la Table Monde may especially be men tioned. Soon, too, the Benedictine Histoire Litteraire, so long interrupted, was resumed under M. Paris s general management, and has proceeded nearly to the end of the 14th century. Among its contents M. Paris s dissertations on the later chansons de gestes and the early song writers, M. Victor Le Clerc s on the fabliaux, and M. Littre s on the romans d aventures may be specially noticed. For some time indeed the work of French editors was chargeable with a certain lack of critical and philological accuracy. This reproach, however, has recently been wiped off by the efforts of a band of young scholars, chiefly pupils of the Bcole des Chartes, with MM. Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer at their head. The Societe des Amiens Textes Fran^ais has also been formed for the purpose of publishing scholarly editions of inedited works. Yet France has as yet produced no lexicon of her older tongue to complete the admirable dictionary in which M. Littre&quot; (b. 1801), at the cost of a life s labour, has embodied the whole vocabulary of the classical French language. Meanwhile the period between the Middle Ages proper and the 17th century has not lacked its share of this revival of attention. To the literature between Villon and Regnier especial attention was paid by the early romantics, and Sainte-Beuve s Tableau Historique ct Critique de la Poesie et du Theatre au Seizie me Siedevf&s one of the manifestoes of the school. Since the appearance of that work in 1828 editions with critical comments of the literature of this period have con- stantly multiplied, aided by the great fancy for tastefully produced works which exists among the richer classes in France ; and there are probably now few countries in which works of old authors, whether in cheap reprints or in edi tions de luxe can be more readily procured. The Romantic Movement. It is time, however, to return to the literary revolution itself, and its more purely literary results. At the accession of Charles X. France possessed three writers, and perhaps only three, of already remarkable eminence, if we except Chateaubriand, who was already of a past generation. These three were Beranger (1780-1857), Btemger. Lamartine (1790-1869), and Lamennais (1782-1854). The first belongs definitely in manner, despite his striking originality of nuance, to the past. He has remnants of the old periphrases, the cumbrous mythological allusions, the poetical properties of French verse. He has also the older and somewhat narrow limitations of a French poet ; foreigners are for him mere barbarians. At the same time his extraordinary lyrical faculty, his excellent wit, which makes him a descendant of Rabelais and La Fontaine, and his occasional touches of pathos made him deserve and obtain something more than successes of occasion. Bd- ranger, moreover, was very far from being the mere impro- visatore which those who cling to the inspirationist theory of poetry would fain see in him. His studies in style and composition were persistent, and it was long before he attained the firm and brilliant manner which distinguishes him. B6ranger s talent, however, was still too much a matter of individual genius to have great literary influence, and he formed no school. It was different with Lamartine, Lamar- who was, nevertheless, like Be&quot;ranger, a typical Frenchman, tine. The Meditations and the Harmonics exhibit a remarkable transition between the old school and the new. In going direct to nature, in borrowing from her striking outlines, vivid and contrasted tints, harmony, and variety of sound, the new poet showed himself an innovator of the best class. In using romantic and religious associations, and expressing them in affecting language, he was the Chateaubriand of verse. But with all this he retained some of the vices of the classical school. His versification, harmonious as it is, is monotonous, and he does not venture into the bold lyrical forms which true poetry loves, and with which the alex andrine of Boileau could not unite itself. He has still the horror of the mot propre ; he is always spiritualizing and idealizing, and his style and thought have a double portion of the feminine and almost flaccid softness which had come to pass for grace in French. Nevertheless the Lac is a poem such as had not been written in France for 200 years. The last of the trio, Lamennais, represents an altogether bolder and rougher genius. Strongly influenced by the Catholic reaction, Lamennais also shows the strongest possible influ ence of the revolutionary spirit. His earliest work, the Lameu- Essai sur I Indiference en Matiere de Religion, was a defence nais. of the church on curiously unecclesiastical lines. It was written in an ardent style, full of illustrations, and ex tremely ambitious in character. The plan was partly critical and partly constructive. The first part disposed of the 18th century ; the second, adopting the theory of papal absolutism which De Maistre had already advocated, proceeded to base it on a supposed universal consent, which the Church of Rome was very far from accepting as a contribution to its defence. The after history of Lamennais was perhaps not an unnatural recoil from this ; but with this after history we are not concerned ; it is sufficient to point out that in his prose, especially as afterwards developed in the apocalyp tic Paroles d tin Croyant, are to be discerned many of the tendencies of the romantic school, particularly its hardy and picturesque choice of language, and the disdain of esta blished and accepted methods which it professed. The signs of the revolution itself were, as was natural, first given in