A Short History of French Literature
with which most of his predecessors had been wont to load their sermons,
as well as the occasional oddities of gesticulation and anecdote which
had once been fashionable. His style is simple, straightforward, and yet
extremely elegant. In the commonplaces of French literary history of the
old school he is called the Racine of the pulpit, a compliment
determined by the extreme purity and elegance of his style, but not
otherwise very applicable, inasmuch as one chief characteristic of
Massillon is an energy and masculine vigour of expression in which
Racine is, for the most part, wanting.
[Sidenote: Bourdaloue.]
If we have postponed Bourdaloue to Massillon, despite the order of
chronology, it has been in accordance with Bourdaloue's own remark when
Massillon made his first reputation, 'He must increase, but I must
decrease.' This remark is characteristic of the disposition of the man,
which was as stainless as Massillon's own. Louis Bourdaloue was born at
Bourges on the 20th August, 1632, and was thus not many years the junior
of Bossuet. He entered the Society of Jesus early, and served it as
professor of philosophy and kindred subjects. But his superiors soon
discovered his talents as a preacher, and he was sent to make his way
before the court, where he became a great favourite, especially with
Madame de Sevigne, who was no mean critic. He died in 1704.
The chief characteristic of Bourdaloue's eloquence is a remarkable
absence of ornament, and a strict adherence to dialectical order. None
of the great French preachers admit of logical abstraction and _precis_
so well as he. Another peculiarity is his preference for ethical
subjects. More than any of his contemporaries he was an expounder of
Christian morality, and his sermons are wont to deal with simple virtues
and vices rather than with points of devotional piety. He was, like
Massillon, and even more than Massillon, absolutely fearless and
uncompromising, preaching against adultery in the very face of Louis
XIV. in his early days, and sparing no vice or folly of the court. But,
perhaps owing to the somewhat severe and exclusively intellectual
character of his oratory, it does not appear to have produced the
effects, salutary doubtless for the hearers, but somewhat inconvenient
for the preacher, which attended the more cunningly-aimed attacks of
Massillon.
The example of the three great preachers--Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and
Massillon--raised up many imitators, some of whom, such as De la Rue,
Cheminais, and others, were popular in their day. There are, however,
four orators--two Roman Catholics, and two belonging to the French
Protestant Church--to whom is usually and rightly accorded the second
rank, while sectarian partiality sometimes claims even the first for
them. These were Flechier, Mascaron, Claude, and Saurin.
[Sidenote: Minor Preachers.]
Esprit Flechier was born at Pesmes in 1632. For a time he was a member
of the congregation of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine, which,
however, on an alteration of its constitution by a new superior-general
(he had been introduced to it by his uncle, who held that office), he
quitted. He then went to Paris and tried various methods of gaining a
livelihood, such as writing verses in Latin and French, and teaching in
a school. In these early days he indulged in various forms of
miscellaneous literature. The most curious and interesting of these
works is a little account of the _Grands Jours d'Auvergne_, a sort of
provincial assize which he visited. This has much liveliness, and the
sketches of character and manners show a good deal of skill. But at
length he found his proper sphere in the pulpit. He acquired reputation
by his _Oraison Funebre_ on Turenne. He became a member of the Academy
(being admitted on the same day as Racine); and he was appointed, first,
to the bishopric of Lavaur, then to that of Nimes, where, in a very
difficult position (for the revocation of the edict of Nantes had
exasperated the Protestants, who were numerous in the diocese), he made
himself universally beloved. He died in 1710. The most famous of
Flechier's discourses are those on Madame de Montausier (the heroine of
the _Guirlande de Julie_[282] and the idol of the Hotel de Rambouillet),
that on Madame de Montausier's husband, and that on Turenne. Flechier
represents a somewhat older style of diction and expression than either
of his great contemporaries, Bossuet and Bourdaloue; and his style,
unlike some other work of this older school, is not characterised by
many striking occasional phrases, but his sermons as a whole are
vigorous and well expressed.
Jean Mascaron was born at Marseilles in 1634. It is worth noticing that
almost all these orators came from the south of France. He preached
frequently before the king, and did not hesitate to rebuke his vices,
notwithstanding or because of which he was appointed to the bishopric of
Tulle, whence he was afterwards translated to Agen. He died in 1703.
Mascaron is chiefly remembered for his _Oraison_ on that same death of
Turenne which gave occasion to so many orators. He is usually reproached
with a certain affectation of style, and there is justice in the
reproach.
Of the two Protestant divines who have been mentioned Claude was the
less distinguished, though he sustained on pretty even terms a public
controversy with Bossuet himself. Jacques Saurin was of less political
influence with his own sect, but he possessed greater eloquence, and
critics of his own persuasion in France and Switzerland have equalled
him to Bossuet. His works, moreover, long continued to be the most
popular body of household divinity with French Protestants. He was born
at Nimes, 1677, and was thus considerably younger even than Massillon.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes (which had formed the subject of
some of Claude's most famous discourses) prevented him from making a
name for himself in France. He was at first appointed, in 1701, after
studying at Geneva, to a Walloon congregation in London, but soon moved,
in consequence of weak health, to the Hague. He there became a victim of
the petty dissensions which seem to have been more frequent among Dutch
Protestant sects than anywhere else, and to the vexation of these is
said to have been partly due his comparatively early death in 1730. He
left a very considerable number of sermons and some theological
treatises. He was admittedly a great orator, excelling in striking
pictures and forcible imagery.
It will have been observed that, though this age contributes more to
theology of the literary kind than almost any other, its most memorable
contributions are almost exclusively oratorical. Incidentally, however,
much that was intended to be read, not heard, was of course written. But
less of it has been thought worthy the attention of posterity. The chief
theological names in this department have already been named in naming
those of the other. Of the school of Port Royal, who preached little but
wrote much, J. J. Duguet, a man of great talent and saintly life,
deserves mention.
FOOTNOTES:
[279] Bossuet's works are extremely voluminous. The most important of
them are easily obtainable in the _Collection Didot_ and similar
libraries.
[280] There is a fairly representative edition of Fenelon in five vols.
large 8vo. Didot. Separate works are easily accessible.
[281] Edition as in Fenelon's case. Selections of all the orthodox
sermon-writers are abundant.
[282] This was an album to which the poets of the day, from Corneille
downwards, contributed verses, each on a different flower.
INTERCHAPTER III.
SUMMARY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE.
The tendencies of the period which has been surveyed in the foregoing
book must be sufficiently obvious from the survey itself. They had been,
as far as the unsatisfactory result of them went, indicated with
remarkably prophetic precision by Regnier in lines quoted above[283].
The work, not merely of Malherbe, which the satirist had directly in
view, but of Boileau, who succeeded Malherbe and completed his task, had
tended far too much in the direction of substituting a formal regularity
for an elastic freedom and of discouraging the more poetical utterances
of thought. In prose, however, the operation of not dissimilar
tendencies had been almost wholly good. For it is in the nature of prose
not to admit of too absolute regulation, and it is at the same time in
its nature to require that regulation up to a certain point. If the
French vocabulary had been somewhat impoverished, it had been
considerably refined. All good authorities admit that the influence of
the salon-coteries and the _precieuses_--mischievous as it was in some
ways--was of no small benefit in purifying not merely manners but
speech. A single book, the _Historiettes_ of Tallemant des Reaux, shows
sufficiently the need of this double purification. French literature has
at no time been distinguished by prudery, but from the fifteenth to the
middle of the seventeenth century (for, as has been pointed out, the
courtly literature at least of the middle ages is free from this defect)
it had added to its liberty in choice and treatment of subjects a
liberty which amounted to the extremest licence in the choice of words.
It had become in fact exceedingly coarse. The poetry of the Pleiade was
not as a rule open to this charge, but the early poetry and prose of the
seventeenth century must submit to it. One effect of the process of
correction and reform was a decided improvement in this matter.
But the vocabulary was by no means the only thing that underwent
revision. Other constituents of literature shared in the same
experience, and much more beneficially, for the expurgation of the
dictionary was unfortunately made to involve the weeding out of many
terms which were not open to the slightest exception, and the loss of
which deprived the tongue of much of its picturesqueness. No such
concomitant defect attended the reformations in grammar which, begun by
the grammarians of the sixteenth century, were pursued still more
systematically by Vaugelas and his followers. There can hardly be too
much precision observed in matters of accidence and syntax; while it is
desirable that the vocabulary should be as rich as possible, provided
that its terms are vernacular or properly naturalised. The same may be
said of some at least of the reforms of Malherbe in prosody and the
minutiae of poetical art. So too the advance made to something like a
uniform orthography was of no small importance. The result of this
general criticism was the group (or rather groups, for they may be
divided into at least two, the earlier comprising Descartes, Corneille,
Pascal, Saint Evremond, La Rochefoucauld, Bossuet, Madame de Sevigne, La
Fontaine, and Moliere, in other words, most of the greatest names)
illustrating the so-called _Grand Siecle_, or Siecle de Louis Quatorze.
The two names that stand first in this list, Descartes and Corneille,
represent at once the initial change and in addition the greatest
accomplishment in the direction of change effected by any individual.
The others worthily followed where they led. This group, as has been
more than once pointed out, does not shine in poetry proper. But it has
hardly a rival in prose and in that measured and declamatory or easy and
pedestrian verse which is half prose, half poetry.
Long, however, before the century ended, the evils which invariably
attend upon a critical period, especially--it is paradoxical but
true--when it is at the same time a period of considerable creative
power, began to manifest themselves. These evils may be briefly
described as the natural results of the drawing up of too straight and
definite rules for each department of literature, and the following with