the narratives, or as the artistic mastery shown in their form. It has
sometimes been objected that the view of human character which La
Fontaine expresses is unduly dark, and resembles too much that of
La Rochefoucauld, for whom the poet certainly had a profound
admiration. The discussion of this point would lead us too far here.
It may only be said that satire (and La Fontaine is eminently a
satirist) necessarily concerns itself with the darker rather than with
the lighter shades. Indeed the objection has become pretty nearly
obsolete with the obsolescence of what may be called the sentimental-ethical
school of criticism. Its last overt expression was made by
Lamartine, excellently answered by Sainte-Beuve. Exception has
also been taken to the Fables on more purely literary, but hardly less
purely arbitrary grounds by Lessing. Perhaps the best criticism
ever passed upon La Fontaine’s Fables is that of Silvestre de Sacy,
to the effect that they supply three several delights to three several
ages: the child rejoices in the freshness and vividness of the story,
the eager student of literature in the consummate art with which it is
told, the experienced man of the world in the subtle reflections on
character and life which it conveys. Nor has any one, with the
exception of a few paradoxers like Rousseau and a few sentimentalists
like Lamartine, denied that the moral tone of the whole is as fresh
and healthy as its literary interest is vivid. The book has therefore
naturally become the standard reading book of French both at
home and abroad, a position which it shares in verse with the
Télémaque of Fénelon in prose. It is no small testimony to its merit
that not even this use or misuse has interfered with its popularity.
The general literary character of La Fontaine is, with allowance made for the difference of subject, visible equally in the Fables and in the Contes. Perhaps one of the hardest sayings in French literature for an English student is the dictum of Joubert to the effect that “Il y a dans La Fontaine une plénitude de poésie qu’on ne trouve nulle part dans les autres auteurs français.” The difficulty arises from the ambiguity of the terms. For inventiveness of fancy and for diligent observation of the rules of art La Fontaine deserves, if not the first, almost the first place among French poets. In his hands the oldest story becomes novel, the most hackneyed moral piquant, the most commonplace details fresh and appropriate. As to the second point there has not been such unanimous agreement. It used to be considered that La Fontaine’s ceaseless diversity of metre, his archaisms, his licences in rhyme and orthography, were merely ingenious devices for the sake of easy writing, intended to evade the trammels of the stately couplet and rimes difficiles enjoined by Boileau. Lamartine in the attack already mentioned affects contempt of the “vers boiteux, disloqués, inégaux, sans symmétrie ni dans l’oreille ni sur la page.” This opinion may be said to have been finally exploded by the most accurate metrical critic and one of the most skilful metrical practitioners that France has ever had, Théodore de Banville; and it is only surprising that it should ever have been entertained by any professional maker of verse. La Fontaine’s irregularities are strictly regulated, his cadences carefully arranged, and the whole effect may be said to be (though, of course, in a light and tripping measure instead of a stately one) similar to that of the stanzas of the English pindaric ode in the hands of Dryden or Collins. There is therefore nothing against La Fontaine on the score of invention and nothing on the score of art. But something more, at least according to English standards, is wanted to make up a “plenitude of poesy,” and this something more La Fontaine seldom or never exhibits. In words used by Joubert himself elsewhere, he never “transports.” The faculty of transporting is possessed and used in very different manners by different poets. In some it takes the form of passion, in some of half mystical enthusiasm for nature, in some of commanding eloquence, in some of moral fervour. La Fontaine has none of these things: he is always amusing, always sensible, always clever, sometimes even affecting, but at the same time always more or less prosaic, were it not for his admirable versification. He is not a great poet, perhaps not even a great humorist; but he is the most admirable teller of light tales in verse that has ever existed in any time or country; and he has established in his verse-tale a model which is never likely to be surpassed.
La Fontaine did not during his life issue any complete edition of his works, nor even of the two greatest and most important divisions of them. The most remarkable of his separate publications have already been noticed. Others were the Poëme de la captivité de St Malc (1673), one of the pieces inspired by the Port-Royalists, the Poëme du Quinquina (1692), a piece of task work also, though of a very different kind, and a number of pieces published either in small pamphlets or with the works of other men. Among the latter may be singled out the pieces published by the poet with the works of his friend Maucroix (1685). The year after his death some posthumous works appeared, and some years after his son’s death the scattered poems, letters, &c., with the addition of some unpublished work bought from the family in manuscript, were carefully edited and published as Œuvres diverses (1729). During the 18th century two of the most magnificent illustrated editions ever published of any poet reproduced the two chief works of La Fontaine. The Fables were illustrated by Oudry (1755–1759), the Contes by Eisen (1762). This latter under the title of “Edition des Fermiers-Généraux” fetches a high price. During the first thirty years of the 19th century Walckenaer, a great student of French 17th-century classics, published for the house of Didot three successive editions of La Fontaine, the last (1826–1827) being perhaps entitled to the rank of the standard edition, as his Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de La Fontaine is the standard biography and bibliography. The later editions of M. Marty-Laveaux in the Bibliothèque elzévirienne, A. Pauly in the Collection des classiques françaises of M. Lemerre and L. Moland in that of M. Garnier supply in different forms all that can be wished. The second is the handsomest, the third, which is complete, perhaps the most generally useful. Editions, selections, translations, &c., of the Fables, especially for school use, are innumerable; but an illustrated edition published by the Librairie des Bibliophiles (1874) deserves to be mentioned as not unworthy of its 18th-century predecessors. The works of M. Grouchy, Documents inédits sur La Fontaine (1893); of G. Lafenestre, Jean de La Fontaine (1895); and of Émile Faguet, Jean de La Fontaine (1900), should be mentioned. (G. Sa.)
LAFONTAINE, SIR LOUIS HIPPOLYTE, Bart. (1807–1864),
Canadian statesman and judge, third son of Antoine Ménard
LaFontaine (1772–1813) and Marie-J-Fontaine Bienvenue, was
born at Boucherville in the province of Quebec on the 4th of
October 1807. LaFontaine was educated at the Collège de
Montréal under the direction of the Sulpicians, and was called
to the bar of the province of Lower Canada on the 18th of August
1829. He married firstly Adèle, daughter of A. Berthelot of
Quebec; and, secondly, Jane, daughter of Charles Morrison,
of Berthier, by whom he had two sons. In 1830 he was elected
a member of the House of Assembly for the county of Terrebonne,
and became an ardent supporter of Louis Joseph Papineau in
opposing the administration of the governor-in-chief, which led
to the rebellion of 1837. LaFontaine, however, did not approve
the violent methods of his leader, and after the hostilities at
Saint Denis he presented a petition to Lord Gosford requesting
him to summon the assembly and to adopt measures to stem
the revolutionary course of events in Lower Canada. The
rebellion broke out afresh in the autumn of 1838; the constitution
of 1791 was suspended; LaFontaine was imprisoned for a
brief period; and Papineau, who favoured annexation by the
United States, was in exile. At this crisis in Lower Canada the
French Canadians turned to LaFontaine as their leader, and
under his direction maintained their opposition to the special
council, composed of nominees of the crown. In 1839 Lord
Sydenham, the governor-general, offered the solicitor generalship
to LaFontaine, which he refused; and after the Union of 1841
LaFontaine was defeated in the county of Terrebonne through
the governor’s influence. During the next year he obtained a
seat in the assembly of the province of Canada, and on the death
of Sydenham he was called by Sir Charles Bagot to form an
administration with Robert Baldwin. The ministry resigned
in November 1843, as a protest against the actions of Lord
Metcalfe, who had succeeded Bagot. In 1848 LaFontaine
formed a new administration with Baldwin, and remained in
office until 1851, when he retired from public life. It was during
the ministry of LaFontaine-Baldwin that the Amnesty Bill
was passed, which occasioned grave riots in Montreal, personal
violence to Lord Elgin and the destruction of the parliament
buildings. After the death of Sir James Stuart in 1853 LaFontaine
was appointed chief justice of Lower Canada and
president of the seigneurial court, which settled the vexed
question of land tenure in Canada; and in 1854 he was created
a baronet. He died at Montreal on the 26th of February 1864.
LaFontaine was well versed in constitutional history and French law; he reasoned closely and presented his conclusions with directness. He was upright in his conduct, sincerely attached to the traditions of his race, and laboured conscientiously to establish responsible government in Canada. His principal works are: L’Analyse de l’ordonnance du conseil spécial sur les bureaux d’hypothèques (Montreal, 1842); Observations sur les questions seigneuriales (Montreal, 1854); see LaFontaine, by A. DeCelles (Toronto, 1906). (A. G. D.)
LAFOSSE, CHARLES DE (1640–1716), French painter, was born in Paris. He was one of the most noted and least servile pupils of Le Brun, under whose direction he shared in the chief of the great decorative works undertaken in the reign of Louis XIV. Leaving France in 1662, he spent two years in Rome and three in Venice, and the influence of his prolonged studies of Veronese is evident in his “Finding of Moses” (Louvre), and in his “Rape of Proserpine” (Louvre), which he presented to the Royal Academy as his diploma picture in 1673. He was
