FOOT-NOTES:

"PosteraPhÅ“bea lustrabat lampade terras."

The unfortunate results of the excessive use of such circumlocutions are well exemplified in the later classicists of France. Ronsard perhaps foresaw this danger, and wisely says that circumlocution, if not used judiciously, makes the style inflated and bombastic. In the first preface to theFranciade, he expresses a decided preference for the naÃ¯ve facility of Homer over the artful diligence of Virgil.[389]In the second preface, however, written a dozen years later, and published posthumously as revised by his disciple Binet, there is interesting evidence, in the preÃ«minence given to Virgil, of the rapidity with which the Latinization of culture was being effected at this period. "Our French authors," says Ronsard, "know Virgil far better than they know Homer or any other Greek writer." And again, "Virgil is the most excellent and the most rounded, the most compact and the most perfect of all poets."[390]Of the naÃ¯ve facility of Homer we hear absolutely nothing.

We are now beginning to enter the era of rules. Ronsard did not undervalue the "rules and secrets" of poetry; and Vauquelin de la Fresnaye calls his own critical poemcet Art de RÃ¨gles recherchÃ©es.[391]In regard to the imitation of the classics, Vauquelin agrees heart and soul with the PlÃ©iade that the ancients

"nous ont desja tracÃ©Un sentier qui de nous ne doit estre laissÃ©."[392]

Nothing, indeed, could be more classical than hiscomparison of poetry to a garden symmetrically laid out and trimmed.[393]Moreover, like the classicists of the next century, he affirms, as does Ronsard also, that art must fundamentally imitate and resemble nature.[394]

The imitation of the classics had also a decided effect on the technique of French verse and on the linguistic principles of the PlÃ©iade. Enjambement (the carrying over into another line of words required to complete the sense) and hiatus (the clash of vowels in a line) were both employed in Latin and Greek verse, and were therefore permitted in French poetry by the new school. Ronsard, however, anticipated the reforms of Malherbe and the practice of French classic verse, in forbidding both hiatus and enjambement, though in a later work of his this opinion is reversed. He was also probably the first to insist on the regular alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes in verse. This had never been strictly adhered to in practice, or required by stringent rule, before Ronsard, but has become the invariable usage of French poetry ever since. Ronsard regards this device as a means of making verse keep tune more harmoniously with the music of instruments. It was one of the favorite theories of the PlÃ©iade that poetry is intended, not to be read, but to be recited or sung, and that the words and the notes should be coupled lovingly together. Poetry without an accompaniment of vocal or instrumental music exhibits but a small part of its harmony or perfection; and whilecomposing verses, the poet should always pronounce them aloud, or rather sing them, in order to test their melody.[395]This conception of music "married to immortal verse" doubtless came from Italy, and is connected with the rise of operatic music. De Laudun (1598) differs from the members of the PlÃ©iade in forbidding the use of words newly coined or taken from the dialects of France, and in objecting to the use of enjambement and hiatus. It is evident, therefore, that while the influence of the PlÃ©iade is visible throughout De Laudun's treatise, his disagreement with Ronsard and Du Bellay on a considerable number of essential points shows that by the end of the century the supremacy of the PlÃ©iade had begun to wane.

The new school also attempted to introduce classical metres into French poetry. The similar attempt at using the ancient versification in Italy has already been incidentally referred to.[396]According to Vasari, Leon Battista Alberti, in his epistle,

"Questa per estrema miserabile pistola mando,"

was the first to attempt to reduce the vernacular versification to the measure of the Latins.[397]In October, 1441, theScena dell' Amiciziaof Leonardo Dati was composed and recited before the Accademia Coronaria at Florence.[398]The first two parts of this pieceare written in hexameters, the third in Sapphics, the fourth in sonnet form and rhymed. The prologues of Ariosto's comedies, theNegromanteand theCassaria, are also in classical metres. But the remarkable collection of Claudio Tolomei,Versi e Regole de la Nuova Poesia Toscana, published at Rome in 1539, marked an epoch in sixteenth-century letters. In this work the employment of classical metres in the vulgar tongue is defended, and rules for their use given; then follows a collection of Italian verse written after this fashion by a large number of scholars and poets, among them Annibal Caro and Tolomei himself. This group of scholars had formed itself into an esoteric circle, the Accademia della Nuova Poesia; and from the tone of the verses addressed to Tolomei by the members of this circle, it would seem that he regarded himself, and was regarded by them, as the founder and expositor of this poetic innovation.[399]Luigi Alamanni, whose life was chiefly spent at the Court of France, published in 1556 a comedy,La Flora, written in classical metres; and two years later Francesco Patrizzi published an heroic poem, theEridano, written in hexameters, with a defence of the form of versification employed.[400]

This learned innovation spread throughout western Europe.[401]In France, toward the close of thefifteenth century, according to Agrippa d'AubignÃ©, a certain Mousset had translated theIliadand theOdysseyinto French hexameters; but nothing else is known either of Mousset or of his translations. As early as 1500 one Michel de Bouteauville, the author of anArt de mÃ©trifier franÃ§ois, wrote a poem in classical distichs on the English war. Sibilet (1548) accepted the use of classical metres, though with some distrust, for to him rhyme seemed as essential to French poetry as long and short syllables to Greek and Latin. In 1562 Ramus, in hisGrammar, recommended the ancient versification, and expressed his regret that it had not been accepted with favor by the public. In the same year Jacques de la Taille wrote his treatise,La ManiÃ¨re de faire des Vers en franÃ§ois comme en grec et en latin, but it was not published until 1573, eleven years after his death. His main object in writing the book was to show that it is not as difficult to employ quantity in French verse as some people think, nor even any more difficult than in Greek and Latin.[402]In answer to the objection that the vulgar tongues are by their nature incapable of quantity, he argues, after the manner of Du Bellay, that such things do not proceed from the nature of a language, but from the labor and diligence of those who employ it. He is tired of vulgar rhymes, and is anxious to find a more ingenious and moredifficult path to Parnassus. He then proceeds to treat of quantity and measure in French, of feet and verse, and of figures and poetic license.[403]

The name most inseparably connected with the introduction of classical metres into France in the sixteenth century is that of Jean Antoine de BaÃ¯f. This young member of the PlÃ©iade, after publishing several unsuccessful volumes of verse, visited Italy, and was present at the Council of Trent in 1563. In Italy he doubtless learnt of the metrical innovations then being employed; and upon his return, without any apparent knowledge of Jacques de la Taille's as yet unpublished treatise, he set about to make a systematic reform in French versification. His purpose was to bring about a more perfect unison between poetry and music; and in order to accomplish this, he adopted classical metres, based as they were on a musical prosody, and accepted the phonetic reforms of Ramus. He also established, no doubt in imitation of the Accademia della Nuova Poesia, the AcadÃ©mie de PoÃ©sie et de Musique, authorized by letters patent from Charles IX. in November, 1570.[404]The purpose of this academy was to encourage and establish the metrical and musical innovations advocated by BaÃ¯f and his friends. On the death of Charles IX. the society's existence was menaced; but it was restored, with abroader purpose and function, as the AcadÃ©mie du Palais, by Guy du Faur de Pibrac in 1576, under the protection of Henry III., and it continued to nourish until dispersed by the turmoils of the League about 1585. But BaÃ¯f's innovations were not entirely without fruit. A similar movement, and a not dissimilar society, will be found somewhat later in Elizabethan England.

Some of the romantic elements in the critical theory of the PlÃ©iade have already been indicated. The new movement started, in Du Bellay'sDÃ©fense, with a high conception of the poet's office. It emphasized the necessity, on the part of the poet, of profound and solitary study, of a refined and ascetic life, and of entire separation from vulgar people and pleasures. Du Bellay himself is romantic in that he decides against thetraditions de rÃ¨gles,[405]deeming the good judgment of the poet sufficient in matters of taste; but the reason of this was that there were no rules which he would have been willing to accept. It took more than a century for the French mind to arrive at the conclusion that reason and rules, in matters of art, proceed from one and the same cause.

The feeling for nature and for natural beauty is very marked in all the members of the PlÃ©iade. Pelletier speaks of war, love, agriculture, and pastoral life as the chief themes of poetry.[406]He warnsthe poet to observe nature and life itself, and not depend on books alone; and he dwells on the value of descriptions of landscapes, tempests, and sunrises, and similar natural scenes.[407]The feeling for nature is even more intense in Ronsard; and like Pelletier, he urges the poet to describe in verse the rivers, forests, mountains, winds, the sea, gods and goddesses, sunrise, night, and noon.[408]In another place the poet is advised to embellish his work with accounts of trees, flowers, and herbs, especially those dignified by some medicinal or magical virtues, and with descriptions of rivers, towns, forests, mountains, caverns, rocks, harbors, and forts. Here the appreciation of natural beauty as introduced into modern Europe by the Italian Renaissanceâ€”the feeling for nature in its wider aspects, the broad landscape, the distant prospectâ€”first becomes visible in France. "In the painting or rather imitation of nature," says Ronsard, "consists the very soul of heroic poetry."

Ronsard also gives warning that ordinary speech is not to be banished from poetry, or too much evaded, for by doing so the poet is dealing a death-blow to "naÃ¯ve and natural poetry."[409]This sympathy for the simple and popular forms of poetry as models for the poetic artist is characteristic of the PlÃ©iade. There is a very interesting passage in Montaigne, in which the popular ballads of the peasantry are praised in a manner that recalls the famous words of Sir Philip Sidney concerningthe old song of Percy and Douglas,[410]and which seems to anticipate the interest in popular poetry in England two centuries later:â€”

"Popular and purely natural and indigenous poetry has a certain native simplicity and grace by which it may be favorably compared with the principal beauty of perfect poetry composed according to the rules of art; as may be seen in the villanelles of Gascony, and in songs coming from nations that have no knowledge of any science, not even of writing. But mediocre poetry, which is neither perfect nor popular, is held in disdain by every one, and receives neither honor nor reward."[411]

The PlÃ©iade, as has already been intimated, accepted without reserve the Platonic doctrine of inspiration. By 1560 a considerable number of the Platonic dialogues had already been translated into French. Dolet had translated two of the spurious dialogues; Duval, theLysisin 1547; and Le Roy, thePhÃ¦doin 1553 and theSymposiumin 1559. The thesis of Ramus in 1536 had started an anti-Aristotelian tendency in France, and the literature of the French Renaissance became impregnated with Platonism.[412]It received the royal favor of Marguerite de Navarre, and its influence became fixed in 1551, by the appointment of Ramus to a professorship in the CollÃ¨ge de France. Ronsard, Vauquelin, Du Bartas, all give expression to the Platonic theory of poetic inspiration. The poet must feel what he writes, as Horace says, or his reader will never be moved by his verses; and forthe PlÃ©iade, the excitement of high emotions in the reader or hearer was the test or touchstone of poetry.[413]

The national and Christian points of view never found expression in France during the sixteenth century in so marked a manner as in Italy. There are, indeed, traces of both a national and a Christian criticism, but they are hardly more than sporadic. Thus, it has been seen that Sibilet, as early as 1548, had clearly perceived the distinguishing characteristic of the French genius. He had noted that the French have only taken from foreign literature what they have deemed useful and of national advantage; and only the other day a distinguished French critic asserted in like manner that the high importance of French literature consists in the fact that it has taken from the other literatures of Europe the things of universal interest and disregarded the accidental picturesque details. Distinct traces of a national point of view may be found in the dramatic criticism of this period. Thus GrÃ©vin, in hisBref Discours(1562), attempts to justify the substitution of a crowd of CÃ¦sar's soldiers for the singers of the ancient chorus, in one of his tragedies, on the following grounds:â€”

"If it be alleged that this practice was observed throughout antiquity by the Greeks and Latins, I reply that it is permitted to us to attempt some innovation of our own, especially when there is occasion for it, or when the grace of the poem is not diminished thereby. I know well that it will be answered that the ancients employed the chorus ofsingers to divert the audience, made gloomy perhaps by the cruelties represented in the play. To this I reply that diverse nations require diverse manners of doing things, and that among the French there are other means of doing this without interrupting the continuity of a story."[414]

The Christian point of view, on the other hand, is found in Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, who differs from Ronsard and Du Bellay in his preference for scriptural themes in poetry. The PlÃ©iade was essentially pagan, Vauquelin essentially Christian. The employment of the pagan divinities in modern poetry seemed to him often odious, for the times had changed, and the Muses were governed by different laws. The poet should attempt Christian themes; and indeed the Greeks themselves, had they been Christians, would have sung the life and death of Christ. In this passage Vauquelin is evidently following Minturno, as the latter was afterward followed by Corneille:â€”

"Si les Grecs, comme vous, Chrestiens eussent escrit,Ils eussent les hauts faits chantÃ© de Iesus Christ....HÃ©! quel plaisir seroit-ce Ã cette heure de voirNos poÃ«tes Chrestiens, les faÃ§ons recevoirDu tragique ancien? Et voir Ã nos misteresLes Payens asservis sous les loixsalutairesDe nos Saints et Martyrs? et du vieux testamentVoir une tragedie extraite proprement?"[415]

Vauquelin's opinion here is out of keeping with the general theory of the PlÃ©iade, especially in that his suggestions imply a return to the mediÃ¦valmystery and morality plays. TheUranieof Du Bartas is another and more fervid expression of this same ideal of Christian poetry. In theSemaines, Du Bartas himself composed the typical biblical poem; and tragedies on Christian or scriptural subjects were composed during the French Renaissance from the time of Buchanan and Beza to that of Garnier and Montchrestien. But Vauquelin's ideal was not that of the later classicism; and Boileau, as has been seen, distinctly rejects Christian themes from modern poetry.

Although the linguistic and prosodic theories of the PlÃ©iade partly anticipate both the theory and the practice of later classicism, the members of the school exhibit numerous deviations from what was afterward accepted as inviolable law in French poetry. The most important of these deviations concerns the use of words from the various French dialects, from foreign tongues, and from the technical and mechanical arts. A partial expression of this theory of poetic language has already been seen in Du Bellay'sDÃ©fense et Illustration, in which the poet is urged to use the more elegant technical dialectic terms. Ronsard gives very much the same advice. The best words in all the French dialects are to be employed by the poet; for it is doubtless to the number of the dialects of Greece that we may ascribe the supreme beauty of its language and literature. The poet is not to affect too much the language of the court, since it is often very bad, being the language of ladies and of young gentlemen who make a profession of fighting well rather than ofspeaking well.[416]Unlike Malherbe and his school, Ronsard allows a certain amount of poetic license, but only rarely and judiciously. It is to poetic license, he says, that we owe nearly all the beautiful figures with which poets, in their divine rapture, enfranchising the laws of grammar, have enriched their works. "This is that birthright," said Dryden, a century later, in the preface of hisState of Innocence and the Fall of Man, "which is derived to us from our great forefathers, even from Homer down to Ben; and they who would deny it to us have, in plain terms, the fox's quarrel to the grapesâ€”they cannot reach it." Vauquelin de la Fresnaye follows Ronsard and Du Bellay in urging the use of new and dialect words, the employment of terms and comparisons from the mechanic arts, and the various other doctrines by which the PlÃ©iade is distinguished from the school of Malherbe. How these useless linguistic innovations were checked and banished from the French language forever will be briefly alluded to in the next chapter.

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FOOT-NOTES:[381]BrunetiÃ¨re, i. 45.[382]DÃ©fense, ii. 11.[383]Cf.RucktÃ¤schel, p. 10sq.[384]Art PoÃ©t.i. 3.[385]Ibid.i. 9.[386]Ibid.i. 10.[387]Ronsard, iii. 26sq.[388]Ibid.vii. 323.[389]Ronsard, iii. 9sq.[390]Ibid.iii. 23, 26.[391]Art PoÃ©t.iii. 1151.[392]Ibid.i. 61.[393]Art PoÃ©t.i. 22sq.[394]Ibid.i. 813.Cf.Ronsard, ii. 12.[395]Ronsard, vii. 320, 332.[396]The early Italian poetry written in classical metres has been collected by Carducci,La Poesia Barbara nei Secoli XV e XVI, Bologna, 1881.[397]Carducci, p. 2.[398]Ibid.p. 6sq.[399]Carducci, pp. 55, 87, etc.[400]Ibid.pp. 327, 443.Cf.Du Bellay,DÃ©fense, ii. 7.[401]For the history of classical metres in France,cf.Egger,HellÃ©nisme en France, p. 290sq., and Darmesteter and Hatzfeld,SeiziÃ¨me SiÃ¨cle en France, p. 113sq.[402]Estienne Pasquier, in hisRecherches de la France, vii. 11, attempts to prove that the French language is capable of employing quantity in its verse, but does not decide whether quantity or rhymed verse is to be preferred.[403]Cf.RucktÃ¤schel, p. 24sq., and Carducci, p. 413sq.[404]This academy has been made the subject of an excellent monograph by Ã‰. Fremy,L'AcadÃ©mie des Derniers Valois, Paris, n. d. The statutes of the academy will be found on page 39 of this work, and the letters-patent granted to it by Charles IX. on page 48.[405]DÃ©fense, ii. 11.[406]Art PoÃ©t.i. 3.[407]Art PoÃ©t.ii. 10; i. 9.[408]Ronsard, vii. 321, 324.[409]Ibid.iii. 17sq.[410]Sidney,Defence, p. 29.[411]Essais, i. 54.[412]Cf.theRevue d'Hist. litt. de la France, 1896, iii. 1sq.[413]Ronsard, iii. 28; Du Bellay,DÃ©fense, ii. 11.[414]Arnaud, app. ii.[415]Vauquelin,Art PoÃ©t.iii. 845;cf.iii. 33; i. 901.[416]Ronsard, vii. 322.

[381]BrunetiÃ¨re, i. 45.

[382]DÃ©fense, ii. 11.

[383]Cf.RucktÃ¤schel, p. 10sq.

[384]Art PoÃ©t.i. 3.

[385]Ibid.i. 9.

[386]Ibid.i. 10.

[387]Ronsard, iii. 26sq.

[388]Ibid.vii. 323.

[389]Ronsard, iii. 9sq.

[390]Ibid.iii. 23, 26.

[391]Art PoÃ©t.iii. 1151.

[392]Ibid.i. 61.

[393]Art PoÃ©t.i. 22sq.

[394]Ibid.i. 813.Cf.Ronsard, ii. 12.

[395]Ronsard, vii. 320, 332.

[396]The early Italian poetry written in classical metres has been collected by Carducci,La Poesia Barbara nei Secoli XV e XVI, Bologna, 1881.

[397]Carducci, p. 2.

[398]Ibid.p. 6sq.

[399]Carducci, pp. 55, 87, etc.

[400]Ibid.pp. 327, 443.Cf.Du Bellay,DÃ©fense, ii. 7.

[401]For the history of classical metres in France,cf.Egger,HellÃ©nisme en France, p. 290sq., and Darmesteter and Hatzfeld,SeiziÃ¨me SiÃ¨cle en France, p. 113sq.

[402]Estienne Pasquier, in hisRecherches de la France, vii. 11, attempts to prove that the French language is capable of employing quantity in its verse, but does not decide whether quantity or rhymed verse is to be preferred.

[403]Cf.RucktÃ¤schel, p. 24sq., and Carducci, p. 413sq.

[404]This academy has been made the subject of an excellent monograph by Ã‰. Fremy,L'AcadÃ©mie des Derniers Valois, Paris, n. d. The statutes of the academy will be found on page 39 of this work, and the letters-patent granted to it by Charles IX. on page 48.

[408]Ronsard, vii. 321, 324.

[409]Ibid.iii. 17sq.

[410]Sidney,Defence, p. 29.

[411]Essais, i. 54.

[412]Cf.theRevue d'Hist. litt. de la France, 1896, iii. 1sq.

[414]Arnaud, app. ii.

[416]Ronsard, vii. 322.

Itis a well-known fact that between 1600 and 1630 there was a break in the national evolution of French literature. This was especially so in the drama, and in France the drama is the connecting link between century and century. The dramatic works of the sixteenth century had been fashioned after the regular models borrowed by the Italians from Seneca. The change that came was a change from Italian classical to Spanish romantic models. The note of revolt was beginning to be heard in GrÃ©vin, De Laudun, and others. The seventeenth century opened with the production of Hardy's irregular drama,Les Amours de ThÃ©agÃ¨ne et CariclÃ©e(1601), and the influence of the Spanish romantic drama and the Italian pastoral, dominant for over a quarter of a century, was inaugurated in France.

The logic of this innovation was best expounded in Spain, and it was there that arguments in favor of the romantic and irregular drama were first formulated. The two most interesting defences of the Spanish national drama are doubtless theEgemplar PoÃ©ticoof Juan de la Cueva (1606) and Lope de Vega'sArte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias(1609). Their inspiration is at bottom the same. Their authors were both classicists at heart, or rather classicists in theory, yet with differences. Juan de la Cueva's conception of poetry is entirely based on the precepts of the Italians, except in what regards the national drama, for here he is a partisan and a patriot. He insists that the difference of time and circumstance frees the Spanish playwright from all necessity of imitating the ancients or obeying their rules. "This change in the drama," he says, "was effected by wise men, who applied to new conditions the new things they found most suitable and expedient; for we must consider the various opinions, the times, and the manners, which make it necessary for us to change and vary our operations."[417]His theory of the drama was entirely opposed to his conception of the other forms of poetry. According to this standpoint, as a recent writer has put it, "the theatre was to imitate nature, and to please; poetry was to imitate the Italians, and satisfy the orthodox but minute critic."[418]Lope de Vega, writing three years later, does not deny the universal applicability of the Aristotelian canons, and even acknowledges that they are the only true rules. But the people demand romantic plays, and the people, rather than the poet's literary conscience, must be satisfied by the playwright. "I myself," he says,"write comedies according to the art invented by those whose sole object it is to obtain the applause of the crowd. After all, since it is the public who pays for these stupidities, why should we not serve what it wants?"[419]

Perhaps the most interesting of all the expositions of the theory of the Spanish national drama is a defence of Lope de Vega's plays by one Alfonso Sanchez, published in 1618 in France, or possibly in Spain with a false French imprint. The apology of Sanchez is comprehended in six distinct propositions. First, the arts have their foundation in nature. Secondly, a wise and learned man may alter many things in the existing arts. Thirdly, nature does not obey laws, but gives them. Fourthly, Lope de Vega has done well in creating a new art. Fifthly, in his writings everything is adjusted to art, and that a real and living art. Lastly, Lope de Vega has surpassed all the ancient poets.[420]The following passage may be extracted from this treatise, if only to show how little there was of novelty in the tenets of the French romanticists two centuries later:â€”

"Is it said that we have no infallible art by which to adjust our precepts? But who can doubt it? We have art, we have precepts and rules which bind us, and the principal precept is to imitate nature, for the works of poets express the nature, the manners, and the genius of the age in which they write.... Lope de Vega writes in conformity with art, because he follows nature. If, on the contrary, the Spanish drama adjusted itself to the rules and laws of theancients, it would proceed against the requirements of nature, and against the foundations of poetry.... The great Lope has done things over and above the laws of the ancients, but never against these laws."

Another Spanish writer defines art as "an attentive observation of examples graded by experience, and reduced to method and the majesty of laws."[421]

It was this naturalistic conception of the poetic art, and especially of the drama, that obtained in France during the first thirty years of the seventeenth century. The French playwrights imitated the Spanish drama in practice, and from the Spanish theorists seemed to have derived the critical justification of their plays. Hardy himself, like Lope de Vega, argues that "everything which is approved by usage and the public taste is legitimate and more than legitimate." Another writer of this time, FranÃ§ois Ogier, in the preface of the second edition of Jean de Schelandre's remarkable drama ofTyr et Sidon(1628), argues for intellectual independence of the ancients much in the same way as Giraldi Cintio, Pigna, and the other partisans of theromanzihad done three-quarters of a century before. The taste of every nation, he says, is quite different from any other. "The Greeks wrote for the Greeks, and in the judgment of the best men of their time they succeeded. But we should imitate them very much better by giving heed to the tastes of our own country, and the genius of our own language, than by forcing ourselves to follow step by step both their intention and their expression." This wouldseem to be at bottom Goethe's famous statement that we can best imitate the Greeks by trying to be as great men as they were. It is interesting to note, in all of these early critics, traces of that historical criticism which is usually regarded as the discovery of our own century. But after all, the French like the Spanish playwrights were merely beginning to practise what the Italian dramatists in their prefaces, and some of the Italian critics in their treatises, had been preaching for nearly a century.

The AbbÃ© d'Aubignac speaks of Hardy as "arresting the progress of the French theatre"; and whatever practical improvements the French theatre owes to him, there can be little doubt that for a certain number of years the evolution of the classical drama was partly arrested by his efforts and the efforts of his school. But during this very period the foundations of the great literature that was to come were being built on classical lines; and the continuance of the classical tradition after 1630 was due to three distinct causes, each of which will be discussed by itself as briefly as possible. These three causes were the reaction against the PlÃ©iade, the second influx of the critical ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and the influence of the rationalistic philosophy of the period.

The reaction against the PlÃ©iade was effected, or at least begun, by Malherbe. Malherbe's power ormessage as a poet is of no concern here; in his rÃ´le of grammarian and critic he accomplished certain important and widespread reforms in French poetry. These reforms were connected chiefly, if not entirely, with the external or formal side of poetry. His work was that of a grammarian, of a prosodistâ€”in a word, that of a purist. He did not, indeed, during his lifetime, publish any critical work, or formulate any critical system. But the reforms he executed were on this account no less influential or enduring. His critical attitude is to be looked for in the memoirs of his life written by his disciple Racan, and in his ownCommentaire sur Desportes, which was not published in its entirety until very recently.[422]This commentary consists of a series of manuscript notes written by Malherbe about the year 1606 in the margins of a copy of Desportes. These notes are of a most fragmentary kind; they seldom go beyond a word or two of disapproval, such asfaible,mal conÃ§u,superflu,sans jugement,sottise, ormal imaginÃ©; and yet, together with a few detached utterances recorded in his letters and in the memoirs by Racan, they indicate quite clearly the critical attitude of Malherbe and the reforms he was bent on bringing about.

These reforms were, in the first place, largely linguistic. The PlÃ©iade had attempted to widen the sphere of poetic expression in French literatureby the introduction of words from the classics, from the Italian and even the Spanish, from the provincial dialects, from the old romances, and from the terminology of the mechanic arts. All these archaisms, neologisms, Latinisms, compound words, and dialectic and technical expressions, Malherbe set about to eradicate from the French language. His object was to purify French, and, as it were, to centralize it. The test he set up was actual usage, and even this was narrowed down to the usage of the court. Ronsard had censured the exclusive use of courtly speech in poetry, on the ground that the courtier cares more about fighting well than about speaking or writing well. But Malherbe's ideal was the ideal of French classicismâ€”the ideal of Boileau, Racine, and Bossuet. French was to be no longer a hodgepodge or a patois, but the pure and perfect speech of the king and his court. Malherbe, while thus reacting against the PlÃ©iade, made no pretensions of returning to the linguistic usages of Marot; his test was present usage, his model the living language.[423]At the same time his reforms in language, as in other things, represent a reaction against foreign innovations and a return to the pure French idiom. They were in the interest of the national traditions; and it is this national element which is his share in the body of neo-classical theory and practice. His reforms were all in the direction of that verbal and mechanical perfection, the love of which is innate in the French nature, and which forms the indigenousor racial element in French classicism. He eliminated from French verse hiatus, enjambement, inversions, false and imperfect rhymes, and licenses or cacophonies of all kinds. He gave it, as has been said, mechanical perfection,â€”

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