A Short History of French Literature
to the main Carlovingian cycle. _Gerard de Roussillon_[30] ranks as a
poem with the best of all the Chansons. _Hugues Capet_[31], though very
late, is attractive by reason of the glimpses it gives us of a new
spirit supplanting that of chivalry proper. In it the heroic distinctly
gives place to the burlesque. _Macaire_[32], besides being written in a
singular dialect, in which French is mingled with Italian, supplies the
original of the well-known dog of Montargis. _Huon de Bordeaux_[33],
already mentioned, was not only more than usually popular at the time of
its appearance, but has supplied Shakespeare with some of the dramatis
personae of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, and Wieland and Weber with the
plot of a well-known poem and opera. _Jourdains de Blaivies_, the sequel
to _Amis et Amiles_, contains, besides much other interesting matter,
the incident which forms the centre of the plot of _Pericles_. _Les
Quatre Fils Aymon_ or _Renaut de Montauban_[34] is the foundation of one
of the most popular French chap-books. _Les Saisnes_[35] deals with
Charlemagne's wars with Witekind. _Berte aus grans Pies_[36] is a very
graceful story of womanly innocence. _Doon de Mayence_[37], though not
early, includes a charming love-episode. _Gerard de Viane_[38] contains
the famous battle of Roland and Oliver. The _Voyage de Charlemagne a
Constantinople_[39] is semi-burlesque in tone and one of the earliest in
which that tone is perceptible.
[Sidenote: Social and Literary Characteristics.]
In these numerous poems there is recognisable in the first place a
distinct family likeness which is common to the earliest and latest, and
in the second, the natural difference of manners which the lapse of
three hundred years might be expected to occasion. There is a sameness
which almost amounts to monotony in the plot of most Chansons de Gestes:
the hero is almost always either falsely accused of some crime, or else
treacherously exposed to the attacks of Saracens, or of his own
countrymen. The agents of this treachery are commonly of the blood of
the arch-traitor Ganelon, and are almost invariably discomfited by the
good knight or his friends and avengers. The part[40] which Charlemagne
plays in these poems is not usually dignified: he is represented as
easily gulled, capricious, and almost ferocious in temper, ungrateful,
and ready to accept bribes and gifts. His good angel is always Duke
Naimes of Bavaria, the Nestor of the Carlovingian epic. In the earliest
Chansons the part played by women is not so conspicuous as in the later,
but in all except _Roland_ it has considerable prominence. Sometimes the
heroine is the wife, daughter, or niece of Charlemagne, sometimes a
Saracen princess. But in either case she is apt to respond without much
delay to the hero's advances, which, indeed, she sometimes anticipates.
The conduct of knights to their ladies is also far from being what we
now consider chivalrous. Blows are very common, and seem to be taken by
the weaker sex as matters of course. The prevailing legal forms are
simple and rather sanguinary. The judgment of God, as shown by ordeal of
battle, settles all disputes; but battle is not permitted unless several
nobles of weight and substance come forward as sponsors for each
champion; and sponsors as well as principal risk their lives in case of
the principal's defeat, unless they can tempt the king's cupidity. These
common features are necessarily in the case of so large a number of
poems mixed with much individual difference, nor are the Chansons by any
means monotonous reading. Their versification is pleasing to the ear,
and their language, considering its age, is of surprising strength,
expressiveness, and even wealth. Though they lack the variety, the
pathos, the romantic chivalry, and the mystical attractions of the
Arthurian romances, there is little doubt that they paint, far more
accurately than their successors, an actually existing state of society,
that which prevailed in the palmy time of the feudal system, when war
and religion were deemed the sole subjects worthy to occupy seriously
men of station and birth. In giving utterance to this warlike and
religious sentiment, few periods and classes of literature have been
more strikingly successful. Nowhere is the mere fury of battle better
rendered than in _Roland_ and _Fierabras_. Nowhere is the valiant
indignation of the beaten warrior, and, at the same time, his humble
submission to providence, better given than in _Aliscans_. Nowhere do we
find the mediaeval spirit of feudal enmity and private war more
strikingly depicted than in the cycle of the Lorrainers, and in _Raoul
de Cambrai_. Nowhere is the devout sentiment and belief of the same time
more fully drawn than in _Amis et Amiles_.
[Sidenote: Authorship.]
The method of composition and publication of these poems was peculiar.
Ordinarily, though not always, they were composed by the Trouvere, and
performed by the Jongleur. Sometimes the Trouvere condescended to
performance, and sometimes the Jongleur aspired to composition, but not
usually. The poet was commonly a man of priestly or knightly rank, the
performer (who might be of either sex) was probably of no particular
station. The Jongleur, or Jongleresse, wandered from castle to castle,
reciting the poems, and interpolating in them recommendations of the
quality of the wares, requests to the audience to be silent, and often
appeals to their generosity. Some of the manuscripts which we now
possess were originally used by Jongleurs, and it was only in this way
that the early Chanson de Geste was intended to be read. The process of
hawking about naturally interfered with the preservation of the poems in
their original purity, and even with the preservation of the author's
name. In very few cases[41] is the latter known to us.
The question whether the Chansons de Gestes were originally written in
northern or southern French has often been hotly debated. The facts are
these. Only three Chansons exist in Provencal. Two of these[42] are
admitted translations or imitations of Northern originals. The third,
_Girartz de Rossilho_, is undoubtedly original, but is written in the
northernmost dialect of the Southern tongue. The inference appears to be
clear that the Chanson de Geste is properly a product of northern
France. The opposite conclusion necessitates the supposition that either
in the Albigensian war, or by some inexplicable concatenation of
accidents, a body of original Provencal Chansons has been totally
destroyed, with all allusions to, and traditions of, these poems. Such a
hypothesis is evidently unreasonable, and would probably never have been
started had not some of the earliest students of Old French been
committed by local feeling to the championship of the language of the
Troubadours. On the other hand, almost all the dialects of Northern
French are represented, Norman and Picard being perhaps the
commonest[43].
[Sidenote: Style and Language.]
The language of these poems, as the extracts given will partly show, is
neither poor in vocabulary, nor lacking in harmony of sound. It is
indeed, more sonorous and stately than classical French language was
from the seventeenth century to the days of Victor Hugo, and abounds in
picturesque terms which have since dropped out of use. The massive
castles of the baronage, with their ranges of marble steps leading up to
the hall, where feasting is held by day and where the knights sleep at
night, are often described. Dress is mentioned with peculiar lavishness.
Pelisses of ermine, ornaments of gold and silver, silken underclothing,
seem to give the poets special pleasure in recording them. In no
language are what have been called 'perpetual' epithets more usual,
though the abundance of the recurring phrases prevents monotony. The
'clear countenances' of the ladies, the 'steely brands' of the knights,
their 'marble palaces,' the 'flowing beard' of Charlemagne, the
'guileful tongue' of the traitors, are constant features of the verbal
landscape. From so great a mass of poetry it would be vain in any space
here available to attempt to arrange specimen 'jewels five words long.'
But those who actually read the Chansons will be surprised at the
abundance of fresh striking and poetic phrase.
[Sidenote: Later History.]
Before quitting the subject of the Chansons de Gestes, it may be well to
give briefly their subsequent literary history. They were at first
frequently re-edited, the tendency always being to increase their
length, so that in some cases the latest versions extant run to thirty
or forty thousand lines. As soon as this limit was reached, they began
to be turned into prose, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries being
the special period of this change. The art of printing came in time to
assist the spread of these prose versions, and for some centuries they
were almost the only form in which the Chansons de Gestes, under the
general title of romances of chivalry, were known. The verse originals
remained for the most part in manuscript, but the prose romances gained
an enduring circulation among the peasantry in France. From the
seventeenth century their vogue was mainly restricted to this class. But
in the middle of the eighteenth the Comte de Tressan was induced to
attempt their revival for the _Bibliotheque des Romans_. His versions
were executed entirely in the spirit of the day, and did not render any
of the characteristic features of the old Epics. But they drew attention
to them, and by the end of the century, University Professors began to
lecture on old French poetry. The exertions of M. Paulin Paris, of M.
Francisque Michel, and of some German scholars first brought about the
re-editing of the Chansons in their original form about half a century
ago; and since that time they have received steady attention, and a
large number have been published--a number to which additions are yearly
being made. Rather more than half the known total are now in print.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] _Gesta_ or _Geste_ has three senses: (_a_) the _deeds_ of a hero;
(_b_) the _chronicle_ of those deeds; and (_c_) the _family_ which that
chronicle illustrates. The three chief gestes are those of the King, of
Doon de Mayence, and of Garin de Montglane. Each of these is composed of
many poems. Contrasted with these are the 'petites gestes,' which
include only a few Chansons.
[18] _La Chanson de Roland_, ed. Fr. Michel, Paris, 1837. The MS. is in
the Bodleian Library (Digby 23). Another, of much later date in point of
writing but representing the same text, exists at Venice. Of later
versions there are six manuscripts extant. The Chanson de Roland has
since its _editio princeps_ been repeatedly re-edited, translated, and
commented. The most exact edition is that of Prof. Stengel, Heilbronn,
1878, who has given the Bodleian Manuscript both in print and in
photographic facsimile. The best for general use is that of Leon Gautier
(seventh edition), 1877.
[19] Wace (Roman de Rou, iii. 8038 Andresen) speaks of the Norman
Taillefer as singing at Hastings 'De Karlemaigne et de Rollant.' It has
been sought, but perhaps fancifully, to identify this song with the
existing _chanson_.
[20] 'Ci falt la geste que Turoldus declinet.' The sense of the word
_declinet_ is quite uncertain, and the attempts made to identify
Turoldus are futile.
[21] _Amis et Amiles_, ed. Hoffmann. Erlangen, 1852.
[22] This series is given, sometimes in whole, sometimes in extracts, by
Dr. Jonckbloet, _Guillaume d'Orange_. The Hague, 1854.
[23] Ed. P. Paris. Paris, 1848.
[24] Ed. Boca. Valenciennes, 1841.
[25] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, 1877.
[26] Ed. Barrois. Paris, 1842.
[27] There exists a Provencal version of it, evidently translated from