A Short History of French Literature
The profane mysteries may be briefly despatched. They were the natural
result of the vogue of the mysteries proper, with which they vie in
prolixity. Some of them were based on history or romance, such as, for
instance, the Mystery of _Troy_. Others corresponded pretty nearly to
the history plays of our own dramatists at a later period. Such is the
Mystery of the _Siege of Orleans_ which versifies and dramatises, at a
date very shortly subsequent to the actual events, the account of them
already made public in different chronicles.
[Sidenote: Societies of Actors.]
Of considerable interest and importance in connection with these early
forms of drama is the subject of the persons and societies by whom they
were represented, a subject upon which it is necessary to say a few
words. At first, as we have seen, the actors were members or dependents
of the clergy. As the mysteries increased in bulk and demanded larger
companies, their representation fell more and more into the hands of the
laity, even women in not a few cases acting parts, though this was
rather the exception than the rule. It became not unusual for the
guilds, which play such an important part in the social history of the
middle ages, to undertake the task, and at last regular societies of
actors were formed. The most famous of these, the _Confrerie de la
Passion_ (whose first object was to play the mystery, or rather cycle of
mysteries, known by that name), was licensed in 1402, and in the course
of the fifteenth century a very large number of rival bodies were more
or less formally constituted. The clerks of the Bazoche, or Palace of
Justice, had long been dramatically inclined, but it was not till this
time that they were recognised as, so to speak, the patentees of a
peculiar form of drama which in their case was the morality. The
_Enfants sans Souci_, young men of good families in the city, devoted
themselves rather to the Sotie, and the stock personages of that curious
form correspond to the official titles of the officers of their guild.
Besides these, many other similar but less durable and regularly
constituted societies arose, whose heads took fantastic titles, such as
Empereur de Galilee, Roi de l'Epinette, Prince de l'Etrille, and so
forth. No one of these, however, attained the importance of the
Confraternity of the Passion. This was chiefly composed of tradesmen and
citizens of Paris, and for a hundred and fifty years it continued to
play for the most part mysteries, sacred and profane alike, but the
latter, according to its name and profession, less commonly. In 1548 a
curious example of the change of times and manners took place, owing in
all probability to the influence, direct or indirect, of the
Reformation. The Confraternity had its charter renewed, but it was
expressly forbidden to play the sacred dramas which it had been
originally constituted to perform. Thenceforward secular plays only were
lawful in Paris, but the older dramas continued for a long time to be
performed in the provinces, and in Britanny have been acted within the
last half century. The Confraternity became regular actors of ordinary
farces, and as time went on were known under the title of the Comedians
of the Hotel de Bourgogne, a name which brings us at once into the
presence of Moliere. In these last sentences we have a little
outstripped the mediaeval period proper, but in dramatic matters there
is no gap between the ancient and modern theatre until we arrive at the
Pleiade.
It is not very easy to illustrate the manner of the ancient French drama
by citations within ordinary compass; but the following passages, the
first from the Mystery of the _Passion_, the second from the original
form of _Pathelin_, may serve the purpose:--
_Ici deschargent Jesus de la croix._
_Simon._ or avant donc, puis que ainsi va.
je ferai vostre voulente;
mais il me poise en verite
de la honte que vous me faictes.
o Jesus, de tous les prophettes
le plus sainct et le plus begnin,
vous venes a piteuse fin,
veue vostre vie vertueeuse
quant vostre croix dure et honteuse
pour vostre mort fault que je porte.
se c'est a tort, je m'en rapporte
a ceulx qui vous ont forjuge.
_Ici charge la croix a Simon._
_Nembroth._ Messeigneurs, il est bien charge;
cheminons, depeschons la voie.
_Salmanazar._ j'ai grant desir que je le voie
fiche en ce hault tabernacle,
a scavoir s'il fera miracle,
quant il sera cloue dessus.
_Jeroboam._ seigneurs, hastes moi ce Jesus
et ces deux larrons aux coustes.
s'ilz ne vuellent, si les battez
si bien qu'il n'y ait que redire.
_Claquedent._ a cela ne tiendra pas, sire.
nos en ferons nostre povoir.
_Ici porte Simon une partie de la croix et
Jesus l'autre et le battent les sergens._
_Dieu le pere._ Pitie doit tout cueur esmouvoir
en lamenter piteusement
le martyre et le gref tourment
que Jesus, mon chier filz, endure.
il porte detresse tant dure,
que, puis que le monde dura,
homme si dure n'endura,
laquelle ne peult plus durer
sans la mort honteuse endurer,
et n'aura son sainct corps duree
tant qu'il ait la mort enduree,
il appert, car plus va durant,
et plus est tourment endurant,
sans quelque confort qui l'alege.
si convient que la mort abrege
et de l'executer s'apreste,
pour satiffaire a la requeste
de dame Justice severe,
qui pour requeste ne priere
ne veult rien de ses drois quitter.
Michel, alles donc conforter
en ceste amere passion
mon filz, plain de dilection,
qui veult dure mort en gre predre
et va sa doulce chair estrandre
ou puissant arbre de la croix.
_Sainct Michel._ pere du ciel et roi des rois,
humblement a chere assimplie
sera parfaicte et acomplie
vostre voulente juste et bonne.
_Ici descendent les anges de paradis._
* * * * *
_Path._ ce bergier ne peut nullement
respondre aux fais que l'on propose,
s'il n'a du conseil; et il n'ose
ou il ne scet en demander.
s'il vous plaisoit moy commander
que je fusse a luy, je y seroye.
_Juge._ avecques luy? je cuideroye
que ce fust trestoute froidure:
c'est peu d'acquest. _Path._ mais je vous jure
qu'aussi n'en veuil rien avoir:
pour dieu soit. or je voys scavoir
au pauvret qu'il voudra me dire,
et s'il me scaura point instruire
pour respondre aux fais de partie.
il auroit dure departie
de ce, qui ne le secourroit.
vien ca, mon amy. qui pourroit
trouver? entens. _Berg._ bee. _Path._ quel bee, dea!
par le sainct sang que dieu crea,
es tu fol? dy moy ton affaire.
_Berg._ bee. _Path._ quel bee! oys tu tes brebis braire?
c'est pour ton prouffit; entens y.
_Berg._ bee. _Path._ et dy ouy ou nenny,
c'est bien faict. dy tousjours, feras?
_Berg._ bee. _Path._ plus haut, ou tu t'en trouveras
en grans depens, ou je m'en doubte.
_Berg._ bee. _Path._ or est plus fol cil qui boute
tel fol naturel en proces.
ha, sire, renvoyez l'en a ses
brebis; il est fol de nature.
_Drapp._ est il fol? sainct sauveur d'Esture!
il est plus saige que vous n'estes.
_Path._ envoyez le garder ses bestes,
sans jour que jamais ne retourne.
que maudit soit il qui adjourne
tels folz que ne fault adjourner.
_Drapp._ et l'en fera l'en retourner
avant que je puisse estre ouy?
_Path._ m'aist dieu, puis qu'il est foul, ouy.
pour quoy ne fera? _Drapp._ he dea, sire,
au moins laissez moy avant dire
et faire mes conclusions.
ce ne sont pas abusions
que je vous dy ne mocqueries.
_Juge._ ce sont toutes tribouilleries
que de plaider a folz ne a folles.
escoutez, a moins de parolles
la court n'en sera plus tenue.
_Drapp._ s'en iront ilz sans retenue
de plus revenir? _Juge._ et quoy doncques?
_Path._ revenir? vous ne veistes oncques
plus fol ne en faict ne en response:
et cil ne vault pas mieulx une once.
tous deux sont folz et sans cervelle:
par saincte Marie la belle,
eux deux n'en ont pas un quarat[130].
FOOTNOTES:
[120] These, as well as _The Ten Virgins_ and many other pieces soon to
be mentioned, are to be found in Monmerque and Michel, _Theatre Francois
au Moyen Age_, Paris, 1874, last ed.; _Adam_, ed. Luzarches, 1854.
[121] Vols. 1-6. Paris, 1876-1881.
[122] Ed. G. Paris and G. Raynaud. Paris, 1878.
[123] Ed. J. de Rothschild. Vols. i-iii. Paris, 1878-1881.
[124] _Mystere du Viel Testament_, i. 259-272.
[125] _Miracles de la Vierge_, ii. 1-54.
[126] See Monmerque and Michel, _op. cit._
[127] _Ancien Theatre Francais_, vols. 1-3. Paris, 1854.
[128] Paris, n. d.
[129] _Ancien Theatre Francais_, ii. 64-79.
[130] A history of the mediaeval theatre has been undertaken by M. Petit
de Julleville, of which two volumes, containing an excellent account of
the Mysteries, have appeared (Paris, 1880). Information on other points
is rather scattered, but it will be found well summarised in Aubertin,
_Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaise au Moyen Age_
(Paris, 1876-8), i. 372-570. A complete collection of farces, _soties_,
etc. is hoped for from the Old French Text Society.
CHAPTER XI.
PROSE CHRONICLES.
[Sidenote: Beginning of Prose Chronicles.]
[Sidenote: Grandes Chroniques de France.]
In all countries the use of prose for literature is chronologically
later than the use of poetry, and France is no exception to the rule.
The Chansons de Gestes were in their way historical poems, and they
were, as we have seen, soon followed by directly historical poems in
considerable numbers. It was not, however, till the prose Arthurian
romances of Map and his followers had made prose popular as a vehicle
for long narratives, that regular history began to be written in the
vulgar tongue. The vogue of these prose romances dates from the latter
portion of the twelfth century; the prose chronicle follows it closely,
and dates from the beginning of the thirteenth. It was not at first
original. The practice of chronicle writing in Latin had been frequent
during the earlier centuries, and at last the monks of three
monasteries, St. Benoit sur Loire, St. Germain des Pres, and St. Denis,
began to keep a regular register of the events of their own time,
connecting this with earlier chronicles of the past. The most famous and
dignified of the three, St. Denis, became specially the home of history.
The earliest French prose chronicles do not, however, come from this
place. They are two in number; both date from the earliest years of the
thirteenth century, and both are translations. One is a version of a
Latin compilation of Merovingian history; the other of the famous
chronicle of _Turpin_[131]. These two are composed in a southern
dialect bordering on the Provencal, and the first was either written by
or ascribed to a certain Nicholas of Senlis. The example was followed,
but it was not till 1274 that a complete vernacular version of the
history of France was executed by a monk of St. Denis--Primat--in French
prose. This version, slightly modified, became the original of a
compilation very famous in French literature and history, the _Grandes
Chroniques de France_, which was regularly continued by members of the
same community until the reign of Charles V, from official sources and
under royal authority. The work, under the same title but written by