A Short History of French Literature
place she simply expresses the current political ideas of her day, and,
in the second place, she goes decidedly beyond those ideas in the
direction of sympathy. Her treatment of some of her own equals leaves
much more to desire. The account of Madame de Brinvilliers'
sufferings--unworthy of much pity as the victim was--is callous to
brutality, and it seems to be sufficient for any one to have ever
offended Madame de Grignan, or to have spoken slightingly of her, to put
him, or her, out of the pale of even ordinary human sympathy. But no
other fault can be found. For vivid social portraiture the book equals
Saint Simon at his best, while it is far more uniformly good. The
letters describing the engagement of La Grande Mademoiselle to Lauzun,
the death of Vatel, the trial of Fouquet, the Vichy sojourn, the meeting
of the states of Britanny, and many others, are not to be surpassed in
this respect. Unlike Saint Simon, too, Madame de Sevigne has no fixed
idea--except that of Madame de Grignan's perfections, which rarely
interferes--to prevent her from taking fresh, original, and acute views
of things in general as distinguished from mere court intrigues. Her
literary criticism is excellent, and if she somewhat overvalues
moralists like Nicole and novelists like Mademoiselle de Scudery, who
ministered to her peculiar tastes, her remarks on the great preachers,
on La Fontaine, on Corneille and Racine, display a singular insight as
well as a singular power of expression. She is, indeed, except in
politics, on which few persons of her class had at the time any clear or
distinct ideas, never superficial; and this union of just thought with
accurate observation and exceptional power of expression makes her
position in literature.
[Sidenote: Tallemant des Reaux.]
Madame de Sevigne, so to speak, dwarfs all other letter-writers of her
time. Yet many of those already mentioned under the head of memoirs left
letters which have been preserved, and which are of merit. It is,
however, not necessary to specify any except Madame de Maintenon, whose
correspondence is voluminous and important both as history and as
literature. It has not the charm of Madame de Sevigne, but it displays
the great intellectual powers of the writer[262]. Of a very different
kind, but not less worthy of notice are the letters of Guy Patin, which
are for the most part violent _Mazarinades_, and full of scandalous
anecdotes, but full also of lively wit. Scandal, indeed, was very much
the order of the day, as appears from the large and curious collection
of broadsheets and pamphlets republished by the late M. Fournier in his
_Varietes Historiques et Litteraires_[263]. These, most of which refer
to the present period, form a kind of appendix to historical and
biographical writing of the more serious kind. There is, however, one
remarkable work which remains to be noticed, and which, for want of a
better place for it, must be noticed here, the _Historiettes_ of
Tallemant des Reaux[264]. The author of this singular book, Gedeon
Tallemant des Reaux, was born at La Rochelle about 1619, and died in
1692. He was of a family not noble but wealthy and well connected, and
he himself was able, by marriage with a cousin who was an heiress, to
live without any profession, and to purchase an estate and seignory of
some importance. Little, however, is known of his life except that he
was much at the Hotel de Rambouillet in his youth, and that in his old
age he underwent some not clearly defined misfortune or disgrace. The
_Historiettes_ were written in the years immediately preceding 1660, and
form an almost complete commentary on the persons most celebrated in
society and literature for three quarters of a century before that date.
There is no other book to which they can be exactly compared, though
they have, with much less literary excellence, a certain resemblance in
form to the work of Brantome. They are, as published by Monmerque, 376
in number, filling five (nominally ten) stout volumes. Each is as a rule
headed with the name of a single person, though there are a few general
or subject headings. The articles themselves are not regular
biographies, but collections of anecdotes, not unfrequently of the most
scandalous kind. Tallemant, though by no means of small ability, appears
to have been a somewhat malicious person, and not too careful to examine
the value of the stories he tells, especially when they bear heavily on
the old nobility, of whom, as a new man, he was very jealous. Yet his
sources of information were in many cases good, and his statements are
confirmed by independent evidence sufficiently often to show that, if
they are in other cases to be accepted with caution, they are not the
work of a mere libeller. No one, even in that century of unstinted
personal revelations, has taken us so much behind the scenes, and
certainly no one has left a more amusing book of its kind or (with the
proper precautions) a more valuable one.
[Sidenote: Historical Antiquaries.]
[Sidenote: Du Cange.]
The class of learned investigators into the sources of history cannot be
omitted in any account of French literature; though their work was
chiefly in Latin, and though even when it was not it was rather of value
as material for future literature than as literature itself. This
century and the earlier part of the succeeding one were the palmy time
of really laborious erudition--the work of the Benedictines and
Bollandists, and of many isolated writers worthy of being ranked with
the members of these famous communities. The individuals composing this
class are, however, too numerous, and, from the purely literary view,
too unimportant to detain us. Exceptions may be made in favour of Andre
Duchesne, whose collections of French and Norman Chronicles, and his
genealogical histories of the houses of Laval and Vergi, are valuable
examples of their kind; of Mabillon, famous for his labours in
hagiology, in the history of France, and above all in that of Italy; and
lastly, of Du Cange. The last-named has a special right to a place here
because, both directly and indirectly, he did much towards the
rediscovery of old French literature. Du Cange was his seignorial style,
his personal name being Charles Dufresne. He devoted himself to the
study of the middle ages generally, and particularly of the Byzantine
Empire. He edited Joinville, wrote a history of the Latin Empire, and in
his most famous work, the _Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis_,
contributed not a little to the study of the oldest form of French.
FOOTNOTES:
[253] The following paragraph contains, except as far as Mezeray is
concerned, chiefly second-hand information. I have hitherto been unable
to devote the time necessary to enable me to speak at first hand of
these books, which are very bulky, not as a rule interesting or
important in manner, and for the most part long obsolete in matter.
[254] The legend, familiar probably to most readers, is that Vertot
required documents for his account of a certain military operation.
Tired with waiting for them, he constructed the history out of his own
head, and when they arrived made the ejaculation in the text.
[255] This, with some other of the pieces here mentioned, will be found
in two volumes of the _Collection Didot_, entitled _Petits Chefs
d'oeuvre Historiques_.
[256] Ed. Feillet, Gourdault and Chantelauze. Paris (in progress).
[257] Ed. Gilbert et Gourdault. Paris, 1868-81.
[258] Ed. Feuillet de Conches. 19 vols. Paris, 1854-61.
[259] Memoirs, ed. Cheruel. 20 vols. Paris, 1873. Now being re-edited by
M. de Boislisle. Miscellaneous works are also appearing.
[260] Ed. Bertrand et de Cosnac. Vol. i. Paris, 1882.
[261] Ed. Monmerque. 14 vols. Paris, 1861-66, to which must be added 2
vols. of _Lettres Inedites_ discovered and published by M. Capmas.
[262] A full and excellently edited selection has been given by A.
Geffroy. 2 vols. Paris, 1887.
[263] 10 vols. Paris, 1855-63.
[264] 10 vols. in 5. Ed. Monmerque. Third edition. Paris, n. d.
CHAPTER V.
ESSAYISTS, MINOR MORALISTS, CRITICS.
The enormous popularity which the Essays of Montaigne enjoyed could not
fail to raise up imitators and followers in the century succeeding their
publication. But Montaigne's influence on the production of short
pieces, complete in themselves and having for the most part an ethical
bearing, was supplemented by the feature of the time so often referred
to, the fancy for literary _coteries_, and for wit combats between the
members of those _coteries_. For this latter purpose pieces of moderate
length in prose, corresponding to the sonnets, the madrigals, and
such-like things in verse, were well suited. The Academy, too, with its
competitions and its ordinary critical occupations, stimulated literary
production in the same direction. The essay was therefore much
cultivated in the seventeenth century, and not a few minor styles of
composition descended from it. Such were the _Pensee_, a short essay on
some definite and briefly handled point; the _Conversation_, an essay or
sketch in dialogue; the _Portrait_, a sketch of personal character; the
_Maxime_, a condensed _Pensee_, just as the _Pensee_ was a condensed
essay. In these various styles some of the most excellent work existing
in French literature was composed during the time which we are at
present handling; and four names of the first, or almost the first rank
in literary history, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, and Saint
Evremond, belong to this division, besides not a few others of less
importance. Pascal, indeed, might be almost as well treated in either of
the two following chapters as in the present; but if the substance of
his work is for the most part philosophical or theological, the form of
it seems to fall more suitably under the present head. He does not,
however, open the series of Essayists.
[Sidenote: Balzac.]
Something of Montaigne's manner, as well as of his peculiar sceptical
doubt, which nevertheless does not transcend the limits of orthodoxy,
was continued far into the century by La Mothe le Vayer, a man of
talent, but of some deliberate eccentricity and archaism in costume and
manners as in style. But the most important name in the history of
French prose next after that of Montaigne is that of Jean Guez de
Balzac, who occupies nearly the same place in it as Malherbe does in
that of French poetry. Balzac was a gentleman of rank and fortune in the
province of Angoumois, where he was born towards the end of the
sixteenth century, and where he died in 1655. In his younger days he
served in some diplomatic employments, then for a long time resided in
Paris, and finally retired to his country seat. Balzac's works are
almost entirely of the essay character, though they are sufficiently
diverse, and for the most part rather artificial in form. The most
considerable part of them is composed of letters--not such letters as
have been discussed in the preceding chapter, but elaborate epistles
written deliberately for the sake of writing, and with a definite
attempt at style. Besides these, which are very numerous, Balzac was
also the author of discourses on various subjects and of certain
nondescript works of an ethico-political character, the principal and
best known of which is the _Socrate Chretien_. In all, his work was
sufficient to fill two folio volumes when it was collected[265]. Balzac
is a really remarkable figure in literary history, because he is, in his
own tongue and nation, almost the first person who deliberately wrote
for the sake of writing, and not because he had anything particular to
say. The practice is perhaps not one to be commended to the general run
of men at any time, or even to exceptional men, except at a peculiar