The sun., 1881-01-23
A Primer OF French Literature.

We have often pointed out how signally
he task OF tho young student is liGhtened in
our day by the admirable handbooks for which
We are indebted to men OF hrst-rats acquire
ments and high reputation. There is now
scarcely any department Of literature or science
to which key is not supplied by somo intro
ductory manual at once lucid and trustworthy.
comprehensive and compact There is not one
OF these. however. which more completely salts
flcs a real want which surveys wider field. or
which has larger claims to be accounted n mas
terpiece Of condensation than n Primer OF
French Literature. by GEoIoE SAISTsBURY (Har-
pers). The writer's familiarity with the minor
rs well as the greater authors OF the classical
period would have alono suniced to give US a
useful and suggestive book. had he chosen to
model his essay ON previous English eXposi-
tions OF French literature. most OF which seem
to have accepted the dictum OF Boileau that no
student need look further back than Yilon in the
last hall OF tho fifteenth century. We cannot now
recall single preceding treatise purporting to
offer in small space a conspectus Of French
letters which has assigned moro than dozen
pages to the authors before Malherbe The re-
markabe feature OF Mr.. Sainsbury's work, on
the othcr hand, IL the encyclopaedia breadth
OF scope and the catholicity Of taste. How
striking and. SO to speak, revolutionary is his
attitude in these respects, may be shown by the
fact that almost one-haf OF his 200 pages are
devoted to the writer's who proceeded the begin
ming OF the classical period. which may be
roughly identified with the year 1000. To those
readers whose knowledge Of French literature
Is confined to tho stereotyped channels tine first
half OF this little book will DO in somo sort rev
elation. As regards indeed the first three chap
ters. comprising some seventy or eighty pages.
it may bo said that the materials could not have
been collected sixty years ago without n lifos
labor, and that the very names of most Of the
books and authors mentioned wero ut that time
unknown. even to well-informed Fronoh-
men. Tho "ChRnsons dc Gestes." for IN.
stance. although thoy included tho Song OF
Roland" tho noblcst epic poem composed In
the French language. were known only in late
prose versions. OF the FabliRuI" or storiea in
verse. resembling the lighter OF Chauccr's
Canterbury Tales" only nntiQuarians took
cognzanca by extract and analysis. With tho
Arthurian romances here and thore n student
might be convcrsGnt, not, however. In their
original prose or secondary worse form but in
later prose paraphraso. As to tho lyric poems
the Mysteries" and tho less noteworthy prose
works. they were virtually forgotten. Indeed
until worry lately II was customary to regard the
old French. in which prose and verso had been
composed. from. let us say. tho Song OF Ro-
land" to tho Roman do Ia Rose" as q
distinct language from modern French
separated from tho classical idom OF
Racine 10y an interval well nigh MS wide
MS that which soyors both from Provenga
OF oven from Italian. Diea, for instance. in his
comparative grammar of tho Romance Ian,
gunges troats old French as distinct type
The prevailing tendency, however. OF recent
scholarship has been to bridge over the Gull