CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH VERSE AND PROSE.[1]
waning of the pleiad. malherbe—purity and correctness—verse. disciples—maynard—racan. social forces—hôtel de rambouillet—academy. independents—théophile de viau—saint-amant—mlle. de gournay and mathurin régnier. vincent voiture. heroic poems. prose-romances—d'urfé—'l'astrée'; camus—exemplary tales; heroic romance—gombauld's 'endymion'—gomberville's 'polexandre'—la calprenède—elimination of the marvellous—romantic history—madeleine de scudéry—culmination of "préciosité"—boileau's dialogue 'les héros de roman.' realism and burlesque in romance—sorel—'le berger extravagant'—'francion'—lannel—cyrano—scarron. shapers of modern french prose—balzac and the cult of style; descartes—rationalism and lucidity;—pascal—the way of the intellect and the way of the
heart. the 'memoirs'—de retz and la rochefoucauld—philosophy of the 'fronde'—'les maximes.'
The poets of the Pleiad attempted more than they Waning of
the Pleiad. were able to achieve. The ambitious programme of Du Bellay issued in no great and permanent result. There was no Pindar and no
- ↑ Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature française des Origines à 1900, Paris, 1896-1900; Lauson, Histoire de la Littérature française, Paris, 1896; Nisard, Histoire de la Littérature française, Paris, 1844; Saintsbury, A Short History of French Literature, Lond., 1898; Dowden, A History of French Literature, Lond., 1897; F. Brunetière, Manuel de la Litt. franç., Paris, 1898;
