THE VERSIFICATION OF THE FÉLIBRES
The versification of the Félibres follows in the main the rules observed by the French poets. As in all the Romance languages the verse consists of a given number of syllables, and the number of stressed syllables in the line is not constant. The few differences to be noted between French verse and Provençal verse arise from three differences in the languages. The Provençal has no e mute, and therefore all the syllables theoretically counted are distinctly heard, and the masculine and the feminine rhymes are fully distinguished in pronunciation. The new language possesses a number of diphthongs, and the unaccented part of the diphthong, a u or an i, constitutes a consonant either before or after a vowel in another word, being really a w or a y. This prevents hiatus, which is banished from Provençal verse as it is from French, and here again theory and practice are in accord, for the elision of the e mute where this e follows a vowel readmits hiatus into the French line, and no such phenomenon is known to the Provençal. Thirdly, the stressed syllable of each word is strongly marked, and verse exists as strongly and regularly accentual as in English or German. This is seen in the numerous poems written to be sung to an air already existing. The accents in these pieces fall with the rhythmic beat the English ear is accustomed to and which it so misses on first acquaintance with French verse. A second consequence of this stronger stress is that verse is written without rhyme; the entire Poem of the Rhone is written in ten-syllable feminine verses unrhymed.
"O tèms di vièi d'antico bounoumío,
Que lis oustau avien ges de sarraio
E que li gènt, à Coundriéu coume au nostre,
Se gatihavon, au calèu pèr rire!"
(Canto I.)
Mistral has made use of all the varieties of verse known to the French poets. One of the poems in the Isclo d'Or offers an example of fourteen-syllable verse; it is called L'Amiradou (The Belvedere). Here are the first two stanzas:—
"Au castèu de Tarascoun, i'a 'no rèino, i'a 'no fado
Au castèu de Tarascoun
I'a 'no fado que s'escound.
"Aquéu que ié durbira la presoun ounte es clavado
Aquéu que ié durbira
Belèu elo l'amara."[6]
We may note here instances of the special features of Provençal versification mentioned above. The i in i'a, the equivalent of the French il y a, is really a consonant. This i occurs again in the fourth of the lines quoted, so that there is no hiatus between que and ié. In like manner the u of belèu, in the last line, stands with the sound of the English w between this and elo. The e of ounte is elided. It will be observed that there is a cæsura between the seventh and eighth syllables of the long line, and that the verse has a marked rhythmic beat, with decided trochaic movement,—
In his use of French Alexandrine, or twelve-syllable verse, Mistral takes few liberties as to cæsura. No ternary verses are found in Mirèio, that is, verses that fall into three equal parts. In general, it may be said that his Alexandrines, except in the play La Rèino Jano, represent the classical type of the French poets. To be noted, however, is the presence of feminine cæsuras. These occur, not theoretically or intentionally, but as a consequence of pronunciation, and are an additional beauty in that they vary the movement of the lines. The unstressed vowel at the hemistich, theoretically elided, is pronounced because of the natural pause intervening between the two parts of the verse.
"Per óuliva tant d'aubre!—Hòu, tout acò se fai!"
(Mirèio, Canto I.)
In one of the divisions of Lou Tambour d'Arcolo (The Drummer of Arcole), the poet uses ten-syllable verse with the cæsura after the sixth syllable, an exceedingly unusual cæsura, imitated from the poem Girard de Roussillon.
"Ah! lou pichot tambour | devenguè flòri!
Davans touto l'arma | —do en plen soulèu,
Pèr estelà soun front | d'un rai de glòri," etc.
Elsewhere he uses this verse divided after the fourth syllable, and less frequently after the fifth.
The stanza used by Mistral throughout Mirèio and Calendau is his own invention. Here is the first stanza of the second canto of Mirèio:—
"Cantas, cantas, magnanarello,
Que la culido es cantarello!
Galant soun li magnan e s'endormon di tres:
Lis amourié soun plen de fiho
Que lou bèu tèms escarrabiho,
Coume un vòu de blóundis abiho
Que raubon sa melico i roumanin dóu gres."
This certainly is a stanza of great beauty, and eminently adapted to the language. Mistral is exceedingly skilful in the use of it, distributing pauses effectively, breaking the monotony of the repeated feminine verses with enjambements, and continuing the sense from one stanza to the next. This stanza, like the language, is pretty and would scarcely be a suitable vehicle for poetic expression requiring great depth or stateliness. Provençal verse in general cannot be said to possess majesty or the rich orchestral quality Brunetière finds in Victor Hugo. Its qualities are sweetness, daintiness, rapidity, grace, a merry, tripping flow, great smoothness, and very musical rhythm.
Mirèio contains one ballad and two lyrics in a measure differing from that of the rest of the poem. The ballad of the Bailiff Suffren has the swing and movement a sea ballad should possess. The stanza is of six lines, of ten syllables each, with the cæsura after the fifth syllable, the rhymes being abb, aba.
"Lou Baile Sufrèn | que sus mar coumando."
In the third canto occurs the famous song Magali, so popular in Provence. The melody is printed at the end of the volume. Mirèio's prayer in the tenth canto is in five-syllable verse with rhymes abbab.
The poems of the Isclo d'Or offer over eighty varieties of strophe, a most remarkable number. This variety is produced by combining in different manners the verse lengths, and by changes in the succession of rhymes. Whatever ingenuity Mistral has exercised in the creation of rhythms, the impression must not be created that inspiration has suffered through attention to mechanism, or that he is to be classed with the old Provençal versifiers or those who flourished in northern France just before the time of Marot. Artifice is always strictly subordinated, and the poet seems to sing spontaneously. No violence is ever done to the language in order to force it into artificial moulds, there is no punning in rhymes, there is nothing that can be charged against the poet as beneath the real dignity of his art.
Let us look at some of the more striking of these verse forms. The second of Li Cansoun, Lou Bastimen, offers the following form:—
"Lou bastimen vèn de Maiorco
Emé d'arange un cargamen:
An courouna de vèrdi torco
L'aubre-mestre dón bastimen:
Urousamen
Vèn de Maiorco
Lou bastimen."[7]
This stanza reproduces in the sixth line the last word of the first, and in the seventh the last word of the fourth.
An excellent example of accentual verse set to an already existing melody is seen in Li Bon Prouvençau. The air is:—
"Si le roi m'avait donné
Paris, sa grand ville."
We quote the first stanza:—
"Boufo, au siècle mounte sian
Uno auro superbo
Que vòu faire rèn qu'un tian
De tóuti lis erbo:
Nautri, li bon Prouvençau
Aparan lou vièi casau
Ounte fan l'aleto
Nòsti dindouleto."[8]
This poem scans itself with perfect regularity, and the rhythm of the tune is evident to the reader who may never have heard the actual music.
The stanza of La Tourre de Barbentano is as follows:—
"L'Evesque d'Avignoun, Mounsen Grimau,
A fa basti 'no tourre à Barbentano
Qu' enràbio vènt de mar e tremountano
E fai despoutenta l'Esprit dóu mau.
Assegurado
Sus lou roucas
Forto e carrado
Escounjurado
Porto au soulèu soun front bouscas:
Mememen i fenestro, dins lou cas
Que vouguèsse lou Diable intra di vitro,
A fa Mounsen Grimau grava sa mitro."[9]
Here is a stanza of Lou Renegat:—
"Jan de Gounfaroun, pres pèr de coursàri,
Dins li Janissàri
Sèt an a servi:
Fau, encò di Turc, avé la coudeno
Facho à la cadeno
Emai au rouvi."[10]
The stanza employed in La Cadéno de Moustié is remarkable in having only one masculine and one feminine rhyme in its seven lines:—
"Presounié di Sarrasin,
Engimbra coume un caraco,
Em' un calot cremesin
Que lou blanc soulèu eidraco,
En virant la pouso-raco,
Rico-raco,
Blacasset pregavo ansin."[11]
The "roumanso" of La Rèino Jano offers a stanza containing only five rhymes in fourteen lines:—
"Fiéu de Maiano
S'ère vengu dóu tèms
De Dono Jano,
Quand èro à soun printèms
E soubeirano
Coume èron autre-tèms,
Sènso autro engano
Que soun regard courous,
Auriéu, d'elo amourous,
Trouva, iéu benurous,
Tant fino cansouneto
Que la bello Janeto
M'aurié douna 'n mantèu
Pèr parèisse i castèu."[12]
The rhythm of the noble Saume de la Penitènci is as follows:—
"Segnour, à la fin ta coulèro
Largo si tron
Sus nosti front:
E dins la niue nosto galèro
Pico d'a pro
Contro li ro."[13]
Another peculiar stanza is exhibited in Lou Prègo-Diéu:—
"Ero un tantost d'aquest estiéu
Que ni vihave ni dourmiéu:
Fasiéu miejour, tan que me plaise,
Lou cabassòu
Toucant lou sòu,
A l'aise."[14]
Perhaps the most remarkable of all in point of originality, not to say queerness, is Lou Blad de Luno. The rhyme in lin is repeated throughout seventeen stanzas, and of course no word is used twice.
"La luno barbano
Debano
De lano.
S'entènd peralin
L'aigo que lalejo
E batarelejo
Darrié lou moulin.
La luno barbano
Debano
De lin."[15]
The little poem, Aubencho, is interesting as offering two rhymes in its nine lines.
Mistral's sonnets offer some peculiarities. He has one composed of lines of six syllables, others of eight, besides those considered regular in French, consisting, namely, of twelve syllables. The following sonnet addressed to Roumania appears to be unique in form:—
"Quand lou chaple a pres fin, que lou loup e la rùssi
An rousiga lis os, lou soulèu flamejant
Esvalis gaiamen lou brumage destrùssi
E lou prat bataié tourno lèu verdejant.
"Après lou long trepé di Turc emai di Rùssi
T'an visto ansin renaisse, o nacioun de Trajan,
Coume l'astre lusènt, que sort dóu negre eslùssi,
Emé lou nouvelun di chato de quinge an.
"E li raço latino
A ta lengo argentino
An couneigu l'ounour que dins toun sang i'avié;
"E t'apelant germano,
La Prouvenço roumano
Te mando, o Roumanio, un rampau d'óulivié."[16]
It would be a hopeless task for an English translator to attempt versions of these poems that should reproduce the original strophe forms. A few such translations have been made into German, which possesses a much greater wealth of rhyme than English. Let us repeat that it must not be imputed to Mistral as a fault that he is too clever a versifier. His strophes are not the artificial complications of the Troubadours, and if these greatly varied forms cost him effort to produce, his art is most marvellously concealed. More likely it is that the almost inexhaustible abundance of rhymes in the Provençal, and the ease of construction of merely syllabic verse, explain in great measure his fertility in the production of stanzas. Some others of the Félibres, even Aubanel, in our opinion, have produced verse that is very ordinary in quality. Verse may be made too easily in this dialect, and fluent rhymed language that merely expresses commonplace sentiment may readily be mistaken for poetry.
The wealth of rhyme in the Provençal language appears to be greater than in any other form of Romance speech. As compared with Italian and Spanish, it may be noted that the Provençal has no proparoxytone words, and hence a whole class of words is brought into the two categories possible in Provençal. Though the number of different vowels and diphthongs is greater than in these two languages, only three consonants are found as finals, n, r, s (l very rarely). The consequent great abundance of rhymes is limited by an insistence upon the rich rhyme to an extent scarcely attainable in French; in fact, the merely sufficient rhyme is very rare. It is unfortunate that so many of the feminine rhymes terminate in o. In the Poem of the Rhone, composed entirely in feminine verses, passages occur where nine successive lines end in this letter, and the verses in o vastly out-number all others. In this unrhymed poem, assonance is very carefully avoided.
The play, Queen Joanna, is remarkable among the productions of Mistral as being the only work of any length he has produced that makes extensive use of the Alexandrine. In fact, the versification is precisely that of any modern French play written in verse; and we may note here the liberties as to cæsura and enjambements which are now usual in French verse. We remark elsewhere the lack of independence in the dialect of Avignon, that its vocabulary alone gives it life. Not only has it no syntax of its own, but it really has been a difficulty of the poet in translating his own Alexandrines into French prose, not to produce verses; nor has he always avoided them. Here, for instance, is a distich which not only becomes French when translated word for word, but also reproduces exactly metre and rhyme:—
"En un mot tout me dis que lou cèu predestino
Un reviéure de glòri à terro latino.
"En un mot tout me dit que le ciel préstine
Un renouveau de gloire à terre latine."
The effectiveness, the charm, and the beauty of this verse, for those who understand and feel the language, cannot be denied; and if this poetic literature did not meet a want, it could not exist and grow as it does. The fact that the prose literature is so slight, so scanty, is highly significant. The poetry that goes straight to the heart, that speaks to the inner feeling, that calls forth a response, must be composed in the home speech. It is exceedingly unlikely that a prose literature of any importance will ever grow up in Provence. No great historians or dramatists, and few novelists, will ever write in this dialect. The people of Provence will acquire their knowledge and their general higher culture in French literature. But they will doubtless enjoy that poetry best which sings to them of themselves in the speech of their firesides. Mistral has endowed them with a verse language that has high artistic possibilities, some of which he has realized most completely. The music of his verse is the music that expresses the nature of his people. It is the music of the gai savoir. Brightness, merriment, movement, quick and sudden emotion,—not often deep or sustained,—exuberance and enthusiasm, love of light and life, are predominant; and the verse, absolutely free from strong and heavy combinations of consonants, ripples and glistens with its pretty terminations, full of color, full of vivacity, full of the sunny south.