The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-11 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

PROFESSOR ALBITES' LECTURE

ON FRENCH LITERATURE.

Professor A. Albites delivered a lecture on the sub-
ject of the Literature of France from the time of Ra-
belais up to the present period, to a fashionable and
crowded audience, at Willis's Room's, King-street,
St. James's-square, lately. He commenced by
stating that in the rapid sketch that he was
about to give of the rise and progress of the
Literature of France, of course none but authors of
first-rate merit could find a place. Before, however,
3ominencing on this part of his subject, it might be as
well, perhaps, to make a few observations on the rise,
progress, and history of the French language itself.
Gaul, at the time of the Conquest of Julius Caesar,
was peopled by tribes of the Celtic and Cimbra, and
the inhabitants of course spoke the language of those
tribes ; after the conquest of Caesar it became Roman,
and many of the ornaments of Roman literature
were by birth Gauls. The Latin language had declined
in Gaui upon the fall of the Roman empire
and the romance language, as it was denominated, bad
arisen ; Charlemagne had endeavoured to revise and
improve this language, and had ordered the celebrated
Alciun to undertake the task ; but his endeavours to
improve the language proved abortive, and with the fall
of his Empire these endeavours ceased. About
the tenth century two dialects were spoken in
France, the Langue d'Oui, which partook more of
the nature of Teutonic, to the north of the
Laire, and the Langue d'Oc, which was the softer dia-
lect, being spoken by the inhabitants of the countries
situated south of that river. These languages were
thus denominated from the words used to signify yes.
Oui being the northern, and Oc the southern word sig-
nifying assent. The Langue d'Oc was the most
harmonious and the most polished, and was the language
of the troubadours, notwithstanding which, it had now
become a mere patois, and the Langue d'Oui was the
national language of France. Various causes had
contributed to bring about the result. The Langue
d'Oui was the language of the men of Iron,
the conquering race. The war against the Albi-
genses, who spoke the Langue d'Uc, was another
great cause of the supremacy of the Langue d'Oui,
and the fall of the language of the Troubadours. The
conquest of England by William, the Norman, who
spoke the Langue d'Oui, also contributed to the supre-
macy of that language, because he commanded it to be
made the legal language throughout all his dominions,
and to be taught in all schools, in preference to every
other. In consequence of this, it might naturally be
supposed, that many of the earlier writers in the pre-
sent national language of France, would be subjects of
William, and accordingly this was found to be the
case. Robert Ware flourished in the Norman court

in the 121 h century, and in his writings may
be recognized the germ of the present French
language. In the 13th century the Roman de
!a Rose may be taken as a specimen of
the then state of the French language and litera-
tun?, while we find a specimen of the progress
h.ch it had made in the 14th century in the works of
the Sieur de Joinville, the friend and companion of Saint
Louis. In the 15th century the chronicles of Froissart fur-
nished a specimen of the prose, and the poems of Charles
Duke of Orleans, who had passed many years in Eng-
land, having been taken a prisoner at the battle of Agin-
court, showed the state of versification in that age. The
historian Philippe do Comities, was a favourable speci-
men of the prose writers of the 16th century, and Cle-
ment Marot was the principal poet—Marot wrote like
his Predecessors, but was more elegant in his verifica-
tion. Boileau, in speaking of him, says, " Imitons de
Marot !'elegant badinage ;" but we meet with some-
thing more than mere badinage in Francois. Rabelais,
who immediately followed him, the celebrated author
of " Gargantua," was brought up in a monastery near
Lyons, anby histricks frequently annoyed the monks and
was punished severely in consequence. On one occa-
sion, wishing to travel from Lyons to Paris, but being
absolutely destitute of means, he adopted the following
ingenious plan :—Having procured some ashes, he di-
vided them into three portions, and wrapped up each
carefully in paper. On one packet he wrote " Poison
for the King ;" on another, " Poison for the Queen ;"
and on the third, " Poison for the Dauphin." Having
done this, he left the packets where they would be sure
to be perceived, and the consequence was that he was
immediately arrested, and carried to Paris strongly
guarded. On his arrival there the trick was explained,
_ _

and he thus obtained his object. Montaigne flourished
immediately after Rabelais. Montaigne and Amyot,
the translator of Plutarch, may be considered as the last
representatives of the old naivete of Gaul. The lan-
guage and style underwent a great change after the
time of Montaigne. This change was in a great
measure brought about by Ronsard, who was de-
sirous of changing the character of the French
language, and of assimilating it more to the clas-
sic tongues of antiquity. But he imitated these to
such an extent, that his style became exceedingly
harsh in consennv.sa t u.....tissaisiaLhaia,,not deficient in
be forgotten that the pernsin
Of the works of Ronsard was one of the great conso-
lations of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, during
her long captivity. In the seventeenth century, the
French language and style became much more pure,
This was owing to the writings of the great Malherbe.
whose verses were the most polished of any that had yet
appeared. Boileau speaking of Malherbe, said—
" Enfin Malherbe vint, et le premiere en France
Fit seater dans les vcrs une juste cadence
D'un mot:mis en su place ensigna le pouvoir,
Et reduisit la muse aux regles du dcvoir,
Par ce sage ecrivain la langue reparee
N'offrit plus rien de rude a I'ureille epuree."
This judgment of Boileau was perfectly correct. The
French language under Malherbe may be said to
have been completely formed : while he was en-
gaged in reforming the language, his contempo-
raries Bacon and Descartes were engaged in re-
forming philosophy, by doing for it what Luther had pre-
viously done for theology, insisting on the right of reason
in opposition to authority. Blaise Pascal who as a child
was celebrated as a mathematician, followed Malherbe :
his " Lettres Provinciales," may be considered a model
for French prose. Six years after the death of Shak-
speare 111oliere was born. The French, although Cor-
neille had given them tragedies, had no comedies until
the time of Moliere. His " Precieuses Ridicules," in
which he ridicules pretensions to fashion, was one of
his earliest works. His best comedies are his " Misan-
thrope" and his " Tartuffe." Repeated obstacles were
thrown in the way of the representation of the " Tar-
tuffe," in which he satirizes the hypocrites ; but these
were all overcome through the intervention of Louis
XIV. In his " Marriage Force," he ridiculed the ab-
surdity of old men marrying young women, a fault of
which he himself was shortly after guilty, by marrying
at the age of fifty-eight a young girl of seventeen. This
unfortunate marriage occasioned him subsequently great
unhappiness. Moliere was an actor as well as an author :
his last work was the " Rlalade Imaginaire," in which a
hypochondriac becomes such a victim to his imaginary ail-
ments as to determine to be admitted a physician himself.
Moliere, although at that time in an exceedingly preca-
rious state of health, determined to act this part him-
self, but in the scene of his examination previous to his
admission, he became so ill as to be obliged to be car-
ried home, and in a few hours he had ceased to exist.
Boileau was asked by Louis XIV., who of all the great
men of his age was the one who had done the greatest
honour to his reign—" Sire, c'est Moliere," was the
reply. This great man was not of the Academie Fran-
caise, as there existed some jealousy with regard to
his admission in consequence of his being actor ; but
after his death his bust was placed in a conspicuous
part of the Hall of the Academy, with this inscription—
" Rien ne manquait asa gloire : it manquait a la notre."
Pierre Corneille, the father of French tragedy, was
was born before Moliere, and died after him. The
tragedy of the " Cid 'is his chef d'oeuvre. Cardinal
Richelieu, not content with being a great statesman,
wished also to be considered a great poet, and on the
first appearance of " Cid," envious of the fame of Cor-
neille, he desired the Academie to criticize the tragedy,
but

" En vain centre le Cid un Ministre se ligue
" Tout Paris pour Chimene a lea qeux de Rodrigue.'
C.)rneille's favourite author was Lucan ; the favourite
of Racine was Virgil. Racine's tragedy of" Andromaque,"
the model of classical tenderness, had recently been
revived, and all Paris had been enchanted by the acting
of Mademoiselle Rachel. It was difficult to determine
which could be considered the chef d'oeuvre of Racine,
and Voltaire was right when he said that at the
end of each piece should be written Beau! admirable!
mygnitique ! La Fontaine, the Moliere of fable.
flourished at this period. Ho had first of all taken
Malherbe as his model, and afterwards devoted himself
to the study of the ancients. He was a man of such
simplicity of character, and so.subject to fits of absence,
that he was absolutely incapable of taking care of him-
self, but Madame De la Sabliere provided for him an
asylum in her residence. Madame De Sevigne also
flourished in the age of Louis XIV. ; she could not be
considered as an authoress, as she never wrote with a
view to publication, but her letters were models of the
epistolary style. At the commencement of the
eighteenth century lived Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, the
eloquent preacher and historian, and Boileau Despreaux,
who took Horace for his model. Fenelon, the author
of Telemachus, and Massillon, celebrated for the
harmonious suavity of his style, also flourished at this
period, and with these great men terminated the
period of Louis XIV. Under the Regency of the
Duke of Orleans every sphere of society became agi-
tated, and literature partook of this universal feeling of
agitation. Le Sage, who lived at the commencement of
the Regency, could scarcely be said to belong to this
publicationperiod l
ofo hnteissluieu now attracted attention by the
Lettres Persannes," which resembled
in plan Goldsmith's Citizen of the World ; but he did
not continue the pursuit of light literature. His family
had long been connected with the administration. of the
laws ; be travelled to improve his mind and on his
return published his " Essai sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains," a work not unworthy the
pen
of T.acit us. T his was followed by his great work,
" Sur l'Eiprit
.Des Lois." Buffon, the naturalist, also
flourished at this period, but kept aloof from the fashion