Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/13



HE words, "Translated from the Provençal," suggest to the ordinary reader only a confused and dazzling image of mediæval life amid southern scenery,—troubadours and courts of love, knights, ladies, and tournaments. Few of us have even been aware that the long-buried root of Romance poetry has of late sent up a green and graceful shoot, and that one of the most charming episodes of recent literary history concerns what is known in France as the Provençal revival. The story is thus told by Saint-René Taillandier, in the "Revue des Deux Mondes," for October, 1859:—

"This new Provençal poetry, which has created a certain sensation of late, had a very simple and touching origin. The son of a gardener of Saint-Rémy, educated in our French schools, wrote verses at the age of twenty, as one fresh from college is apt to do,—simple, unpretending verses, by no means poésie du diable, as a witty critic calls the over-hold attempts of