A Short History of French Literature
N'a mains de sousci,
Ne joie si affinee.
Car la deesse honnouree
Qui fait l'assemblee
D'amours, d'amie & d'ami,
Coppa le chief de s'espee
Qui est bien tempree,
A Dangier, mon anemi.
Onques si bonne journee, &c.
Ma dame l'enseveli
Et Amours, par fi
Que sa mort fust tost plouree.
N'onques Honneur ne souffri
(Dont je l'en merci)
Que messe li fu chantee.
Sa charongne trainee
Fu sans demouree
En un lieu dont on dit: fi!
S'en fu ma joie doublee,
Quant Honneur l'entree
Ot dou tresor de merci.
Onques si bonne journee, &c.
EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS.
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
Il me semble, a mon avis,
Que j'ay beau front et doulz viz,
Et la bouche vermeilette;
Dictes moy se je sui belle.
J'ay vers yeulx, petit sourcis,
Le chief blont, le nez traitis,
Ront menton, blanche gorgette;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle, etc.
J'ay dur sain et hault assis,
Lons bras, gresles doys aussis,
Et, par le faulx, sui greslette;
Dictes moy se je sui belle.
J'ay piez rondes et petiz,
Bien chaussans, et biaux habis,
Je sui gaye et foliette;
Dictes moy se je sui belle.
J'ay mantiaux fourrez de gris,
J'ay chapiaux, j'ay biaux proffis,
Et d'argent mainte espinglette;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
J'ay draps de soye, et tabis,
J'ay draps d'or, et blanc et bis,
J'ay mainte bonne chosette;
Dictes moy se je sui belle.
Que quinze ans n'ay, je vous dis;
Moult est mes tresors jolys,
S'en garderay la clavette;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
Bien devra estre hardis
Cilz, qui sera mes amis,
Qui ora tel damoiselle;
Dictes moy se je sui belle?
Et par dieu, je li plevis,
Que tres loyal, se je vis,
Li seray, si ne chancelle;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
Se courtois est et gentilz,
Vaillains, apers, bien apris,
Il gaignera sa querelle;
Dictes moy se je sui belle.
C'est uns mondains paradiz
Que d'avoir dame toudiz,
Ainsi fresche, ainsi nouvelle;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
Entre vous, acouardiz,
Pensez a ce que je diz;
Cy fine ma chansonnelle;
Sui-je, sui-je, sui-je belle?
ALAIN CHARTIER.
O folz des folz, et les folz mortelz hommes,
Qui vous fiez tant es biens de fortune
En celle terre, es pays ou nous sommes,
Y avez-vous de chose propre aucune?
Vous n'y avez chose vostre nes-une,
Fors les beaulx dons de grace et de nature.
Se Fortune donc, par cas d'adventur
Vous toult les biens que vostres vous tenez,
Tort ne vous fait, aincois vous fait droicture,
Car vous n'aviez riens quant vous fustes nez.
Ne laissez plus le dormir a grans sommes
En vostre lict, par nuict obscure et brune,
Pour acquester richesses a grans sommes.
Ne convoitez chose dessoubz la lune,
Ne de Paris jusques a Pampelune,
Fors ce qui fault, sans plus, a creature
Pour recouvrer sa simple nourriture.
Souffise vous d'estre bien renommez,
Et d'emporter bon loz en sepulture:
Car vous n'aviez riens quant vous fustes nez.
Les joyeulx fruictz des arbres, et les pommes,
Au temps que fut toute chose commune,
Le beau miel, les glandes et les gommes
Souffisoient bien a chascun et chascune:
Et pour ce fut sans noise et sans rancune.
Soyez contens des chaulx et des froidures,
Et me prenez Fortune doulce et seure.
Pour vos pertes, griefve dueil n'en menez,
Fors a raison, a point, et a mesure,
Car vous n'aviez riens quant vous fustes nez.
Se Fortune vous fait aucune injure,
C'est de son droit, ja ne l'en reprenez,
Et perdissiez jusques a la vesture:
Car vous n'aviez riens quant vous fustes nez.
CHARLES D'ORLEANS.
Le temps a laissie son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye,
Et s'est vestu de brouderie,
De soleil luyant, cler et beau.
Il n'y a beste, ne oyseau,
Qu'en son jargon ne chante ou crie:
Le temps a laissie son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye.
Riviere, fontaine et ruisseau
Portent, en livree jolie,
Gouttes d'argent d'orfavrerie,
Chascun s'abille de nouveau:
Le temps a laissie son manteau.
FOOTNOTES:
[110] The following is an account of these forms, in their more
important developments. The _ballade_ consists of three stanzas, and an
_envoy_, or final half-stanza, which is sometimes omitted. The number of
the lines in each stanza is optional, but it should not usually be more
than eleven or less than eight. The peculiarity of the poem is that the
last line of every stanza is identical, and that the rhymes are the same
throughout and repeated in the same order. The examples printed at the
end of this chapter from Lescurel and Chartier will illustrate this
sufficiently. There is no need to enter into the absurdity of _ballades
equivoquees_, _emperieres_, etc., further than to say that their main
principle is the repetition of the same rhyming word, in a different
sense, it may be twice or thrice at the end of the line, it may be at
the end and in the middle, it may be at the end of one line and the
beginning of the next. The _chant royal_ is a kind of major ballade
having five of the longest (eleven-lined) stanzas and an envoy of five
lines. The _rondel_ is a poem of thirteen lines (sometimes made into
fourteen by an extra repetition), consisting of two quatrains and a
five-lined stanza, the first two lines of the first quatrain being
repeated as the last two of the second, and the first line of all being
added once more at the end. The _rondeau_, a poem of thirteen, fourteen,
or fifteen lines, is arranged in stanzas of five, four, and four, five,
or six lines, the last line of the second and third stanzas consisting
of the first words of the first line of the poem. The _triolet_ is a
sort of rondel of eight lines only, repeating the first line at the
fourth, and the first and second at the seventh and eighth. Lastly, the
_villanelle_ alternates one of two refrain lines at the end of each
three-lined stanza. These are the principal forms, though there are many
others.
[111] Ed. Montaiglon. Paris, 1855.
[112] The Rondeau is not in Lescurel systematised into any regular form.
[113] Ed. L. de Mas Latrie. Societe de l'Orient Latin, Geneva, 1877.
This is a poem not much shorter than the _Voir Dit_, but continuously
octosyllabic and very spirited. The final account of the murder of
Pierre (which he provoked by the most brutal oppression of his vassals)
is full of power.
[114] Ed. P. Paris. Societe des Bibliophiles, Paris, 1875. This is a
very interesting poem consisting of more than 9000 lines, mostly
octosyllabic couplets, with ballades, etc. interspersed, one of which is
given at the end of this chapter. It is addressed either to Agnes of
Navarre, or, as M. P. Paris thought, to Peronelle d'Armentieres, and was
written in 1362, when the author was probably very old.
[115] Deschamps is said to have been also named Morel. A complete
edition of his works has been undertaken for the Old French Text Society
by the Marquis de Queux de Saint Hilaire.
[116] Ballades, 147, 149. Ed. Queux de St. Hilaire.
[117] Ed. Scheler. 3 vols. Brussels, 1870-1872.
[118] Ed. Hericault. 2 vols. Paris, 1874. Charles d'Orleans was the son
of the Duke of Orleans, who was murdered by the Burgundians, and of
Valentina of Milan. He was born in 1391, taken prisoner at Agincourt,
ransomed in 1449, and he died in 1465. His son was Louis XII.
[119] Ed. Queux de St. Hilaire. Paris, 1868.
CHAPTER X.
THE DRAMA.
[Sidenote: Origins of Drama.]
The origins of the drama in France, like most other points affecting
mediaeval literature, have been made the subject of a good deal of
dispute. It has been attempted, on the one hand, to father the mysteries
and miracle-plays of the twelfth and later centuries on the classical
drama, traditions of which are supposed to have been preserved in the
monasteries and other homes of learning. On the other hand, a more
probable and historical source has been found in the ceremonies and
liturgies of the Church, which in themselves possess a considerable
dramatic element, and which, as we shall see, were early adapted to
still more definitely dramatic purposes. Disputes of this kind, if not
exactly otiose, are not suited to these pages; and it is sufficient to
say that while Plautus and Terence at least retained a considerable hold
on mediaeval students, the natural tendencies to dramatic representation
which exist in almost every people, assisted by the stimulus of
ecclesiastical traditions, ceremonies, and festivals, are probably
sufficient to account for the beginnings of dramatic literature in
France.
[Sidenote: Earliest Vernacular Dramatic Forms.]
[Sidenote: Mysteries and Miracles.]
[Sidenote: Miracles de la Vierge.]
It so happens too that such historical evidence as we have entirely
bears out this supposition. The earliest compositions of a dramatic kind
that we possess in French, are arguments and scraps interpolated in
Latin liturgies of a dramatic character. Earlier still these works had
been wholly in Latin. The production called 'The Prophets of Christ' is
held to date from the eleventh century, and consists of a series of
utterances of the prophets and patriarchs, who are called upon in turn
to bear testimony in reference to the Messiah, according to a common
patristic habit. By degrees other portions of Old Testament history were
thrown into the dramatic or at least dialogic form. In the drama or
dramatic liturgy of _Daniel_, fragments of French make their appearance,
and the Mystery of _Adam_ is entirely in the vulgar tongue. Both these
belong to the twelfth century, and the latter appears to have been not
merely a part of the church services, but to have been independently
performed outside the church walls. It is accompanied by full directions
in Latin for the decoration and arrangement of stage and scenes. Another
important instance, already mentioned, of somewhat dubious age, but
certainly very early, is the Mystery of _The Ten Virgins_. This is not
wholly in French, but contains some speeches in a Romance dialect. These
three dramas, _Daniel_, _Adam_, and _The Ten Virgins_, are the most
ancient specimens of their kind, which, from the thirteenth century
onward, becomes very numerous and important. By degrees a distinction
was established between mystery and miracle-plays, the former being for
the most part taken from the sacred Scriptures, the latter from legends
and lives of the Saints and of the Virgin. Early and interesting
specimens of the miracle are to be found in the _Theophile_ of
Ruteboeuf and in the _Saint Nicholas_ of Jean Bodel d'Arras, both
belonging to the same (thirteenth) century[120]. But the most remarkable
examples of the miracle-play are to be found in a manuscript which
contains forty miracles of the Virgin, dating from the fourteenth
century. Selections from these have been published at different times,
and the whole is now in course of publication by the Old French Text
Society[121]. As the miracles were mostly concerned with isolated
legends, they did not lend themselves to great prolixity, and it is rare
to find them exceed 2000 lines. Their versification is at first somewhat
licentious, but by degrees they settled down into more or less regular
employment of the octosyllabic couplet. Both in them and in the
mysteries the curious mixture of pathos and solemnity on the one side,
with farcical ribaldry on the other, which is characteristic of