Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/713

 THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL.] FRANCE 077 of two syllables each) that tbo grand provocation was thrown to the believers in alexandrines, careful caesuras, and strictly separated couplets. Les Feuilles d Automne, Les Chants dii Crcpuscule, Les Voix Intvrieures, Les Rayons et les Ombres, the productions of the next twenty years were quieter in style and tone, but no less full of poetical spirit. The Revolution of 1848, the establishment of the empire, and the poet s exile brought about a fresh determination of his genius to lyrical subjects. Les Chdtiments and La Legende dcs Siedes, the one political, the other historical, reach perhaps the high water mark of French verse ; and they were followed by the philosophical Contemplations, the lighter Chansons des Hues et des Hois, the Annee Terrible, the second Lc/jende. des Siedes, and one or two more volumes which lead us to the present day. We have been thus par ticular because the literary productiveness of Victor Hugo himself has been the raeasureand sample of the whole literary productiveness of France on the poetical side. At five-and twenty he was acknowledged as a master, at seventy-five he is a master still. His poetical influence has been repre sented in three different schools, from which very few of the poetical writers of the century can be excluded. These few we may notice first. Alfred de Musset, a writer of great genius, felt part of the romantic inspiration very strongly, but was on the whole unfortunately influenced by Byron, and partly out of wil fulness, partly from a natural want of persevering industry and vigour, allowed himself to be careless and even slovenly in composition. Notwith standing this many of his lyrics are among the finest poems in the language, and his verse, careless as it is, has extra ordinary natural grace. Auguste Barbier, whose lambes shows an extraordinary command of nervous and masculine versification, also comes in here ; and the Breton poet Brizeux, together with Hege sippe Moreau, an unequal poet possessing some talent, and Pierre Dupont (1821-1870), one of much greater gifts, also deserve mention. Of the school of Lamartine rather than of Hugo are Alfred de Vigny (1799-18G5) and Victor de Laprade (b. 1812), the former a writer of little bulk and somewhat over-fastidious, but possessing one of the most correct and elegant styles to be found in French, the latter a meditative arid philosophical poet, like De Vigny an admirable writer, but somewhat de ficient in pith and substance, as well as in warmth and colour. The poetical schools which more directly derive from the romantic movement as represented by Hugo are three in number, corresponding in point of time with the first outburst of the movement, with the period of reaction already alluded to, and with the closing years of the second empire. Of the first by far the most distinguished member was Th6ophile Gautier (1811-1872), the most perfect poet in point of form that France has produced. The side of the romantic movement which Gautier developed was its purely pagan and Renaissance aspect. When quite a boy he devoted himself to the study of IGth century masters, and though he acknowledged the supremacy of Hugo, his own talent was of an individual order, and developed itself more or less independently. Albertus alone of his poems has much of the extravagant and grotesque character with distinguished early romantic literature. The Comedie de la Mort, the Poesies Diverses, and still more the jfrmaiix et Camecs, display a distinctly classical tendency classical, that is to say, not in the party and perverted sense, but in its true acceptation. The tendency to the fantastic and horrible may be taken as best shown by Petrus Borel (1809- 1859), a writer of singular power almost entirely wasted. Gerard Labrunie or de:Nerval (1808-1855) adopted a manner also fantastic but more idealist than Borel s, and dis tinguished himself by his Oriental travels and studies, and by his attention to popular ballads and traditions, while his style has an exquisite but unaffected strangeness hardly inferior to Gauticr s. This peculiar and somewhat quintcssenced style is also remarkable in the Gaspard de la Nuitot Louis Bertraud, a work of rhythmical prose almost unique in its character. The two Deschamps were chiefly remarkable as translators. The next generation produced three re markable poets, to whom may perhaps be added a fourth. Theodore de Banville (b. 1820), adopting the principles of Gautier, and combining with them a considerable satiric faculty, composed a large amount of verse, faultless in form, delicate and exquisite in shades and colours, but so entirely neutral in moral and political tone that it has found com paratively few admirers. Leconte de Lisle (b. 1819), carrying out the principle of ransacking foreign literatures for subjects, has gone to Celtic, classical, or even Oriental sources for his inspiration, and despite a science in verse not much inferior to De Bauville s, and a far wider range and choice of subject, has diffused an air of erudition, not to say pedantry, over his work which has disgusted some readers. Charles Baudelaire (1821-18G7), by his choice of unpopular subjects and the terrible truth of his analysis, has revolted not a few of those who, in the words of an English critic, cannot take pleasure in the re presentation if they do not take pleasure in the thing represented. Thus by a strange coincidence each of the three representatives of the second romantic generation has for various reasons been hitherto disappointed of his due fame. The fourth poet of this time, Jose phm Soulary, is probably little known in England. His sonnets, however, are of rare beauty and excellence. In 1866 a collection of poems, entitled after an old French fashion Le Parnasse Contemporain, appeared. It included contributions by many of the poets just mentioned, but the mass of the contributors were hitherto unknown to fame. A similar collection appeared in 1869, and was interrupted by the German war, but continued after it, and a third in 1876. The contributors to these collections, who have mostly pub lished separateVorks, were very numerous, and have become collectively known, half seriously and half in derision, as Les Parnassiens. From time to time aspirants to poetry, such as MM. Bouchor and Lafagette, have attempted to revolt against this society, but they have ended by being absorbed into it. The cardinal principle of the Parnassiens is, in continuation of Gautier and Baudelaire, a devotion to poetry as an art, but under this general principle there is a considerable diversity of aim and object, and a still greater diversity of subject. Francois Coppde has devoted himself chiefly to domestic and social subjects. Sully Prudhommo has a certain classical tinge. Catulle Mendes has followed Leconte de Lisle in going far afield for his subjects ; Louisa Siefert indulges in the poetry of despair ; while Albert Glatigny, a poet who lived as a strolling actor, and died young, perhaps excelled any of the others in individuality of poetical treatment. As the Parnassiens, however, muster some three or four score poets, it is impossible to deal with them at length here. It is sufficient to say that the average merit of their work is decidedly high, though it is difficult to assign the first rank to any poet among them. Assuming that their work is to be classed as minor poetry, there has assuredly not even in the Elizabethan age in England been such a school of minor poets. It is fair to add that they appear to be little read in France, and hardly at all else where. To complete the history of French poetry in the 19th century we must add that considerable efforts have been made to give ProvenQal rank once more as a literary tongue. The Gascon poet Jacques Jasmin has produced a good deal of verse in the western dialect of the language. Within the last twenty years a more cultivated and literary school of poets has arisen in Provence itself, the chief of whom are Frddoric Mistral (Mirtio, Calendau) and Theodore Aubanel.