A Short History of French Literature
and heavy, and, after the first quaintness of it wears off, it makes the
book very hard to read. It contains, however, a very large number of
short memoirs and documents of all kinds, in which the elaborate farce
of 'Vous' is perforce abandoned. It shows Sully as he was--a great and
skilful statesman: but it does not give a pleasant idea of his
character.
[Sidenote: Jeannin.]
Pierre Jeannin was, like D'Ossat, a diplomatist in the service of Henri
IV. He had previously discharged many legal functions of importance, and
subsequently he was Controller-General of the Finances. His
_Negotiations_ contain the record of his proceedings on a mission to the
Netherlands to watch over the interests of France. The book consists of
letters, despatches, treaties, and such-like documents, very clear,
precise, and written in a remarkably simple and natural style.
[Sidenote: Minor Memoir-writers.]
There were many other writers of memoirs during the period, most of
whose works are comprised in the invaluable collections of Petitot,
Michaud, Poujoulat, and Buchon. But few of them require a separate
mention here. Guillaume and Martin du Bellay, two brothers, have left a
history of Francis I.'s reign, of which the part belonging to Guillaume
is only a small fragment of an immense work which he entitled _Les
Ogdoades_, it being divided into seven batches of eight books each. The
imitation of the classics is obvious, and the constant intrusion of
classical parallels rather tedious. The Memoirs of the Duke of Guise,
composed in great part of what we should call his secretary's
letter-book, are very voluminous, but not of much literary value.
Francois de Rabutin, author of _Commentaires des Guerres de la Gaule
Belgique_, has the fault, common to his time, of enormous sentences, but
is often lively and picturesque enough, as becomes a member of the
family of Madame de Sevigne and of Bussy-Rabutin. The famous Marshal de
Tavannes, on whom more than on any single man rests the blood of St.
Bartholomew's Day, found a biographer in his son Jean de Tavannes, whose
work, though somewhat too elaborate, is interesting. Another son,
Guillaume de Saulx-Tavannes, has written his own memoirs on a smaller
scale. The memoirs of Michel de Castelnau show more of the tradition of
Comines than most of their contemporaries, and are remarkably full of
political studies. Boyvin du Villars, of whom little is known, left
voluminous memoirs which have some literary merit. The last book of
memoirs of some size which needs to be mentioned, is that of Nicholas de
Neufville, Seigneur de Villeroy, a politician of eminence and a vigorous
writer. Some short pieces may be noticed, such as the Siege of Metz, by
Bertrand de Salignac, that of St. Quentin, by Coligny himself, the only
literary monument of the Admiral (an excellent specimen of the military
writing of the time), and a very curious history of Annonay in the
Vivarais by Achille Gamon, which gives perhaps the liveliest idea
obtainable of the sufferings of the French provincial towns during the
religious wars.
[Sidenote: General Historians.]
The general histories, which make up a second class of historical
writings, are, as a rule, of very much less value than these personal
memoirs. Not till the extreme end of the period did the historical
conception take a firm hold in De Thou, and the _Thuana_ was written in
Latin, which excludes it and its author from detailed notice here.
D'Aubigne's _Histoire Universelle_ of his own time has been mentioned
for convenience' sake already. Lancelot de la Popeliniere attempted in
the last quarter of the century a general history of France, and
incidentally of Europe during his own day. He is said to have spent all
his fortune on getting together the materials, but his literary powers
were small. About the same time Bernard Girard, Seigneur du Haillan,
published a history of France from the earliest times, which an extract
of Thierry's, giving the speeches of Charamond and Quadrek, Merovingians
of Du Haillan's own creation, who speak on the advantages of different
forms of government at the election of Pharamond, has made known to many
persons who never saw the original. The source of this grotesque
imagination is of course obvious to readers of Herodotus, and similar
imitation of classical models is frequent in Du Haillan's work. Francois
de Belleforest also wrote a general history of France, which was long
read, and the names of Du Tillet, Jean de Serres, Charron, Dupleix, etc.
may be mentioned. But they represent writers of little importance,
either from the point of view of history, or from that of literature.
FOOTNOTES:
[213] The standard edition until recently has been that of Le Clerc (4
vols. Paris, 1866). That of Louandre in the Bibliotheque Charpentier is
handy and useful. MM. Courbet and Roger have begun a handsome edition.
[214] The references are to the edition of Louandre.
[215] _De la Sagesse._ 2 vols. Paris, 1789.
[216] Ed. 1641.
[217] Ed. 1578.
[218] Ed. Feugere. Paris, 1846.
[219] Ed. Buchon. 2 vols. Paris, 1839. The Societe de l'Histoire de
France has a voluminous edition on hand. Merimee, who was a great
admirer of Brantome, began an edition for the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne,
but left it unfinished.
[220] Montluc's _Memoirs_, as well as most of those mentioned below,
will be found in the collection of Michaud and Poujoulat.
[221] The earlier editions of this writer are not complete. In 1875 a
full reprint was begun.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE _SATYRE MENIPPEE_. REGNIER.
[Sidenote: Satyre Menippee.]
The period of the Renaissance in France closed with two works (one for
the most part in prose and due to various authors, the other wholly in
verse and the work of one only) which exhibit the highest excellence.
The _Satyre Menippee_ and the satires of Regnier are separated in point
of date of publication by some fifteen years, and the contributors to
the first-named work belong for the most part to an earlier generation,
and represent a less accomplished state of the language than the great
satirist who, after fifteen centuries, took up the traditions of his
Roman masters. But both are satirical in substance, though the
_Menippee_ is almost wholly political, and Regnier busies himself with
social and moral subjects only. Both possess in a high degree the
characteristics of the period which they close. Both exhibit a
remarkable power of treating ephemeral subjects in a manner calculated
to make their interest something more than ephemeral. Both have met with
the just reward of continuing to be popular even at times when the most
unjust unpopularity rested on work scarcely less excellent but less
calculated to please the taste of those who, however much they may
sympathise with the fashions of their own day, are unable to sympathise
with those of a day which is not theirs.
The _Satyre Menippee_[222] was a remarkable, and, for those who take an
interest both in literature and in politics, a most encouraging instance
of the power of literary treatment at certain crises of political
matters. It appeared in 1594, at the crucial period of the League. For
years there had existed the party known for the most part
uncomplimentarily as _Les Politiques_. These persons professed
themselves unable to find, in the simple difference of Catholic _v._
Protestant, a _casus belli_ for Frenchmen against Frenchmen. Their
influence, however, though it occasionally rose to the surface in the
days of Charles IX. and Henri III., had never been lasting, and they
laboured under the charge of being Laodiceans, trimmers, men who cared
for nothing but hollow peace and material prosperity. The assassination
of Henri III., and the open confederation between the Leaguers and the
Spanish party, at last gave them their opportunity, and it was seized
with an adroitness which would have been remarkable in a single man, but
which is still more remarkable in a group of men of very different
antecedents, professions, ages, and beliefs. The _Satyre Menippee_ is,
in fact, the first and most admirable example of the theory of the
modern newspaper--the theory that the combined ability of many men is
likely, on the whole, to treat complicated and ephemeral affairs better
than the limited, though perhaps individually greater, ability of any
one man. The _Menippee_, prose and verse, was due to the working of a
new Pleiade--Leroy, Gillot, Passerat, Rapin, Chrestien, Pithou, and
Durant. Most of them were lawyers, a few were more or less connected
with the Church. Pierre Leroy, a canon of Rouen, of whom nothing is
known, but whose character De Thou praises, is said to have planned the
book, and to have acted in some way as editor. Jacques Gillot,
clerk-advocate of the Parliament, received the literary conspirators in
his house. Passerat and Rapin represented the mixed classical and French
culture of the immediate companions of Ronsard. Florent Chrestien was a
converted Huguenot, much given to translation of ancient authors. Pithou
(the writer of the harangue of Claude d'Aubray, the most important piece
of the whole and containing the moral and idea of the book) was, like
Chrestien, a convert. He ranks as one of the most distinguished members
of the French bar, and had a deserved reputation for every kind of
learning in his time. Lastly, Durant, who contributed rather to the
appendix of the book than to the book itself, was an Auvergnat
gentleman, who preferred poetry to law, and justified his preference by
some capital work, partly of a satirical kind, partly of an elegant and
tender gallantry, anticipating, as has been justly said, the eighteenth
century in elegance, and excelling it in tenderness.
The plan of the _Menippee_ (the title of which, it is hardly necessary
to say, is borrowed from the name of the cynic philosopher celebrated by
Lucian) is for the time singularly original and bold; but the spirit in
which the subject is treated is more original still. Generally speaking,
the piece has the form of a _compte-rendu_ of the assembly of the states
at Paris. The full title is _De la Vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne et de
la Tenue des Etats de Paris_. The preface contains a sarcastic harangue
in orthodox charlatan style on the merits of the new Catholicon or
Panacea. Then comes a description (in which, as throughout the work,
actual facts are blended inextricably with satirical comment) of the
opening procession. To this succeeds a sketch of the tapestries with
which the hall of meeting was hung, all of which are, of course,
allegorical, and deal with murders of princes, betrayal of native
countries to foreigners, etc. Next comes _L'Ordre tenu pour les
Seances_, in which the chief personages on the side of the League are
enumerated in a long catalogue, every item of which contains some bitter
allusion to the private or public conduct of the person named. Seven
solemn speeches are then delivered by the Duke de Mayenne as lieutenant,
by the legate, by the Cardinal de Pelve, by the bishop of Lyons, by
Rose, the fanatical rector of the University, by the Sieur de Rieux, as
representative of the nobility; and, lastly, by a certain Monsieur
d'Aubray, for the _Tiers-Etat_. A burlesque _coda_ concludes the volume,
the joints of which are, first, a short verse satire on Pelve; secondly,
a collection of epigrams due to Passerat; and, thirdly, Durant's _Regret
Funebre a Mademoiselle ma Commere sur le Trepas de son Ane_, a
delightful satire on the Leaguers, which did not appear in the first
edition, but which yields to few things in the book.
It has been said that the plan of the _Menippee_ has of itself not a
little originality. Satirical comment and travesty devoted to political
affairs had been common enough almost for centuries in France, but no