FRAITCE
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FRANCE
bative. In the " Barbier de Seville" the impertinent
Figaro rails at the privileges of the aristocracy. In
the " Mariage de Figaro" the satire becomes more vio-
lent; the famous monologue of the fifth act is a bitter
invective against the aristocracy, against the inequal-
ity of social conditions and the restrictions imposed
on liberty of thought.
finally, with Andre Ch^nier, lyric poetry revives, after the neglect of the eighteenth century, which had looked upon verse-writing as a mere diversion and a frivolous toying with syllables. By returning to an- cient, and especially Greek, models, in his " Eclogues " and his " Elegies" (1785-91), Ch^nier begins Ijy bring- ing into his poetry a new note; at the very outset he renews Ronsard's experiment; later on the Revolu- tion affords him a more vigorous inspiration. In pres- ence of the horrors of the Terror, stirred up by wrath and impelled by indignation, he composed his " lani- bes" (1794). In recovering the sincerity of emotion and gravity of thought which were wanting to the versifiers of the eighteenth century (Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Delille and even Voltaire), Andre Chenier restored to French poetry the true voice of the lyre.
From 1789 to 1800.— In the throes of the Revolu- tion there is an abundance of writing, but these works, mere imitation of great writers who flourished during the century, are valueless; the sole author of note is Chf5nier (d. 1794). It is true that under the influence of events, a new literary genre arises, that of political eloquence. The isolated protestations of the States- General under the monarchy afforded no genuine op- portunity for public speaking; it was in other modes, notably through the pulpit, that the elocjuence for which a strictly appropriate platform was lacking must perforce manifest itself in that period. But the great Revolutionary assemblies favoured the develop- ment of remarkable oratorical gifts. The most famous among the orators — and he was one who really pos- sessed genius — was Mirabeau. The blemishes of his style — a congeries of violent contrasts — the incoher- ency of his figures and the discordance of his shades of meaning — all these defects vanished in the mighty onrush of his eloquence, swept away in an over- mastering current of oratorical inspiration.
The Xiiicteenth Century. — It is yet too early to at- tempt the task of determining the due place of the nineteenth century in the literary history of France; the men and the affairs of that century are still near to us, and in the study of literature a true perspective can be obtained only from a certain distance. A few general characteristics, however, may be taken as already fairly ascertained.
The nineteenth century was one of renascence in literature: in it, following immediately upon great events, a great intellectual movement came into being, and at one definitely assignable moment there ap- peared a splendid efflorescence of genius; most of all, this movement was a renascence because it rid itself of those theories, adopted by the preceding century, which had been the death of that century's impover- ished literature. Imagination and feeling reappear in literature, and out of the.se qualities lyric poetry and the romance develop. At the same time the sciences, daily acquiring more importance, exercise a greater influence on thought, so that minds take a new mould.
We may distinguish three periods in the nineteenth century: the first, the period of preparation, is that of the First Empire; the second, that of intellectual efflorescence, extends from 1820 to 1850; lastly, the modern period, which seems to us in these days less brilliant because the works produced in it have not yet attained the prestige that comes with age.
From 1800 to 1820.— Chateaubriand is the great originator of nineteenth-century French literature; from him proceed nearly the whole line of nineteenth- century writers. In 1802 appeared his "G6nie du ChrLstianisme"; in this work Chateaubriand not only
defends Christianity, towards which the intellects of
the eighteenth century had been vaguely hostile — not
only shows that Christianity is the greatest source of
inspiration to letters and the arts — but also -sets forth
certain literary theories of his own. He asserts the
necessity of breaking with classical tradition, which
has had its day and is exhausted, and of opening a new
way for art. This is one of the great ideas developed
by this author, and thenceforth all is over with Classi-
cism. But Chateaubriand's work and his influence
were not limited to this; constantly calling attention
to the interest offered by the study of the Middle Ages,
as he does in " Le G^nie du Christianisme", he en-
gages both history and poetry in new directions. On
another side, where he displays his own personal suf-
ferings in "Ren6" (1805), he develops the sentiment
of the Ego, already affirmed by Rousseau, from which
modern lyricism springs. Lastly, in the many beau-
tiful pages of " Les Martyrs" or of his descriptions of
travels, he furnishes models of a magnificent prose
style, full of colour, rhythmical, well fitted to repro-
duce the most brilliant aspects of nature and to ex-
press the deepest emotions of the heart.
Side by side with Chateaubriand, another great figure dominates this first period, that of Madame de Stael. Where Chateaubriand personifies the reaction against the eighteenth centiuy, Mme de Stael, on the con- trary, is the incarnation of eighteenth-century tradi- tions. Hers is the school of the Iileologues, lineal representatives of the Encyclopedists. And yet in many respects she must be regarded as an innovator. In her book " De la Litterature ", she lays the founda- tions of that modern literary criticism which aims to study each work in its own particular conditions of origin. In her "Considerations sur la Revolution fran9aise" (1818), she is the first to inquire into the cau.ses of that great social effect, thus leading the way where many of the great historians of the nineteenth century are to follow. Lastly, in her principal work, "De rAlleraagne" (1810), she reveals to France a whole literature then unknown in that country, the influence of which is to make itself felt in the Romantic writers.
From 1820 to 1850. — In this period those literary ideas of which the germs had been in Chateaubriand found their fullest expression with the Romantic school. Almost all the writers whose works appeared between 1820 and 1850 were connected with this school. Its theories may best be defined as the oppo- site of the Classicist doctrine. The Classics were idealists; they held that art should above all be the representation of the beautiful ; the Romantics were now about to claim from the municipality of literature a full license to give public representations of hideous and grotesque things.
The Classics hold that the reason is the ruling fac- ulty in poetry; the Romantics protest in the name of imagination and fantasy. The Classics go to antiq- uity for the models of their art and the sources of their inspiration; the Romantics are inspired by contem- porary foreign literatures, by Goethe, Schiller, and Byron ; they will reach the point of swearing by the example of Shakespeare as men in the seventeenth century swore by the words of Aristotle. For pagan mythology they will substitute the Christian art of the MiddleAges, will extol the Gothic cathedral and put the troubadours in the place of the rhapsodists. 'The same system applies in respect to form: where the Classics prized clarity and precision above all things, the Romantics will seek rather glitter and colour and carry their taste for effect, for contrast, and for an- tithesis to the point of mania.
Though the Romantic doctrine had its manifesta- tions in every form of literature, its first applications were in poetry. Lamartine, with the publication of his " Meditations poeti()ues ' ' ( 1820), gave the signal for the movement, and presented the first monument of
