A Short History of French Literature
Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1892 Oxford HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
After Villon the case changes. Instead of classes of chroniclers, trouvères, jongleurs, we get individual authors of eminence and individuality striking out their own way and saying their own say in the manner not that is fashionable but that seems best to them. During this time, therefore, and especially during that brilliant age of French literature, the sixteenth century, I shall proceed by authors, taking the most remarkable individually, and grouping their followers around them.
From the time of Malherbe the system of schools begins, divided according to subjects. The poet, the dramatist, the historian, have their predecessors, and either intentionally copy them or intentionally innovate upon them. Malherbe and Delille, Corneille and Lemercier, Sarrasin and Rulhière, whatever the difference of merit, stand to one another in a definite relation, and the later writers represent more or less the accepted traditions each of his school. In this part, therefore, I shall proceed by subjects, taking historians, poets, dramatists, etc., together. One difference will be noticed between the third and fourth Books, dealing respectively with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It has seemed unnecessary to allot a special chapter to theological and ecclesiastical writing in the latter, or to scientific writing in the former.
Almost all writers who have attempted literary histories in a small compass have recognised the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of treating contemporary or recent work on the same scale as older authors. In treating, therefore, of literature subsequent to the appearance of the Romantic movement, I shall content myself with giving a rapid sketch of the principal literary developments and their exponents.
There are doubtless objections to this quadripartite arrangement; but it appears to me better suited for the purpose of laying the foundations of an acquaintance with French literature than a more uniform plan.
George Saintsbury
London
HENRY FROWDE
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
FRENCH LITERATURE
GEORGE SAINTSBURY
FOURTH EDITION
PREFACE.
FOOTNOTES:
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
MEDIAEVAL LITERATURE.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGINS.
Les Serments de Strasbourg de 842.
Cantilène de Sainte Eulalie.
La Passion Du Christ.
Vie de Saint Léger.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER II.
THE CHANSONS DE GESTES.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER III.
PROVENÇAL LITERATURE.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IV.
ROMANCES OF ARTHUR AND OF ANTIQUITY.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER V.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY LYRICS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VII.
SERIOUS AND ALLEGORICAL POETRY.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VIII.
ROMANS D'AVENTURES.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IX.
LATER SONGS AND POEMS.
Jehannot de Lescurel.
Guillaume de Machault.
Eustache Deschamps.
Alain Chartier.
Charles D'orléans.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER X.
THE DRAMA.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER XI.
PROSE CHRONICLES.
Villehardouin.
Joinville.
Froissart.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER XII.
MISCELLANEOUS PROSE.
St. Bernard.
Alain Chartier.
FOOTNOTES:
INTERCHAPTER I.
SUMMARY OF MEDIAEVAL LITERATURE.
BOOK II.
THE RENAISSANCE.
CHAPTER I.
VILLON, COMINES, AND THE LATER FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER II.
MAROT AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER III.
RABELAIS AND HIS FOLLOWERS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IV.
THE PLÉIADE.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER V.
THE THEATRE FROM GRINGORE TO GARNIER.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VI.
CALVIN AND AMYOT.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VII.
MONTAIGNE AND BRANTÔME.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VIII.
FOOTNOTES:
INTERCHAPTER II.
SUMMARY OF RENAISSANCE LITERATURE.
BOOK III.
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER I.
POETS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER II.
DRAMATISTS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER III.
NOVELISTS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORIANS, MEMOIR-WRITERS, LETTER-WRITERS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER V.
ESSAYISTS, MINOR MORALISTS, CRITICS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VI.
PHILOSOPHERS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VII.
THEOLOGIANS AND PREACHERS.
FOOTNOTES:
INTERCHAPTER III.
SUMMARY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE.
FOOTNOTES:
BOOK IV.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER I.
POETS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER II.
DRAMATISTS.
CHAPTER III.
NOVELISTS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORIANS, MEMOIR-WRITERS, LETTER-WRITERS.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER V.
ESSAYISTS, MINOR MORALISTS, CRITICS.
CHAPTER VI.
PHILOSOPHERS.
CHAPTER VII.
SCIENTIFIC WRITERS.
FOOTNOTES:
INTERCHAPTER IV.
SUMMARY OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE.
BOOK V.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
FOOTNOTES:
CONCLUSION.
FOOTNOTES:
INDEX.
THE END.