The Gilded Age of Louis XIV
I—THE KING
1. The Story of His Life.
2. The Splendor of the Court—Compulsory residence of the nobles at Versailles; Louis's dislike and fear of Paris; effect politically of the segregation of the court.
3. The Great Ministers—Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois; relation of the king to them.
4. The Women of the Court—Louise de la Vallière, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon.
Books to Consult—Guizot: History of France. De Nolhac: Versailles. Heroes of the Nations Series: Louis XIV. A. Hassall: Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon. Lady Blennerhasset.
Study everything relating to Versailles, to which Louis moved the court; show pictures of the famous gardens, the fountain at play, the palace. Read a description of some fête: describe the Grand Trianon and its social life. Show pictures of Louis.
II—SOCIAL FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV
1. Manners of the Time—Court etiquette. Excessive fondness of the king for it, and his strict insistence on it. Quote from the numerous memoirs of the time, descriptions of the palace ceremonial (Madame de Sévigné, Saint Simon, etc.).
2. Amusements of the Court—Receptions and functions. Fêtes. Hunting. Theatricals. Card games and gambling.
3. Women of the Court—The Queen, La Grande Mademoiselle, Madame de la Vallière, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon, Madame de Sévigné and her circle. Dress of the time.
4. Social Morals—Distinction between the morals of the court and those of the common people. Growing popular dissatisfaction, and its later tragic consequences.
Books to Consult—Hassall: Louis XIV. and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. Voltaire: The Age of Louis XIV. Guizot: History of France (Vol. IV., particularly the last chapter).
A most interesting short paper might be prepared on the odd people of the time: Scarron; The Man in the Iron Mask; famous fortune-tellers. Show pictures of some of the court beauties, to illustrate the dress of the women of the period, and also a cut of Louis in his wig and high-heeled shoes, taken from any history of France.
III—PARIS UNDER LOUIS XIV
1. The City—Area and population as compared with those of to-day. Show maps of both periods. Colbert: story of his life and his remaking of Paris. The destruction of the old walls and the beginning of the boulevards. Lenôtre and his landscape-gardening (the garden of the Tuileries). Laying out of the Places Vendôme, des Victoires, du Carrousel.
2. Public Buildings—The architects Perrault and Mansart and their work. Description of buildings erected under Louis: the Invalides, Bibliothèques du Roi and Mazarin, Académie, Gobelins, Comédie Française, etc. Gates: St. Denis, St. Martin, etc. Quai d'Orsay.
3. Churches of the Day—Val-de-Grâce and the birth of Louis. St. Roch: its erection and later connection with French history. Nôtre Dame and its ceremonies. St. Denis and the royal tombs.
4. Great Events in Paris under Louis—Royal spectacles, executions, mobs.
Books to Consult—Larousse (under the word Paris, for those who read French). Hamerton: Paris in Old and Present Times. Hare: Walks in Paris. De Amicis: Studies in Paris.
The subject of the dwellings of the common people of this time deserves study: their bareness, absence of sanitation, water-supply, lack of conveniences and utensils. Also, the people's employments, food, dress, amusements, doctors and medicine and care of the sick and the relation of the priest to the family: christenings, weddings, and funerals. Material may be found in the histories, the encyclopædias (particularly Larousse), memoirs, the novels of Dumas, Dumas's Paris, etc.
IV—THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV
1. The Foreign Relations of the Reign—Mazarin and the Peace of Westphalia. Death of Philip IV. of Spain and Louis's claim to the Netherlands. League with Charles II. of England. Discuss the question whether Charles was in Louis's pay. Opposition from William III. of England.
2. Enlargement of Army and Navy—Harbors and ships of Brest, Toulon, etc. Constructive work of Louvois and Vauban. Their theories of war. Are they still held?
3. The Foreign Wars of Louis—Against Holland: Peace of Nymwegen. In the Palatinate: Peace of Ryswick. War of the Spanish Succession: Peace of Utrecht. Territories won and lost by Louis in these wars.
4. The Two Wars of the Fronde.
5. The Great Generals of Louis XIV.—Turenne, Condé, Luxembourg, Vendôme.
Books to Consult—Martin: History of France. Hassall: Louis XIV. and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. Mahon: History of the War of the Succession in Spain. Fitzpatrick: The Great Condé and the Period of the Fronde.
An interesting supplementary paper could be added to this program on The Art of Warfare in the Seventeenth Century; describe the formation of the army lines for battle; the equipment of the soldiers, the discipline, the tents, the commissariat, the cannon, swords, and other arms; the pay of the soldiers; their manners and morals; the relation of the officers to the men. Some one battle may be described in detail to illustrate the methods employed on the field.
V—LITERATURE (PART I)
1. The Academy—Unofficial founding by Conrart in 1629. Official standing six years later. Relation of Richelieu to it. Its dictionary. Total effect of this distinguished society on French literature.
2. Romances of Chivalry—Give an account of Madame de Scudéry and a description of Clélie and the Grand Cyrus. Discuss also Honore d'Urfé and the Astrée. Note the probable influence of the English writer, Lyly.
3. Moralists—La Fontaine. Saint Evremond. La Rochefoucauld. La Bruyère.
4. Philosophers—Descartes. Pascal. Malebranche. Bayle. Readings from Pascal's Pensées. (Many translations.)
5. Great Preachers—Bossuet. Fenelon. Massillon. Bourdaloue. Readings from translations, especially the famous introduction to Massillon's funeral oration on Louis XIV.
Books to Consult—Brunctière: Manual of French Literature. Dowden: History of French Literature. Van Laun: History of French Literature.
The material for this meeting is very great, especially on the biographical side. Interesting brief papers might be prepared on any of the names mentioned. Sainte-Beuve, considered by many to be the greatest of critics, has essays on all of the writers named, and readings from his Causeries de Lundi (translated now) would be delightful.
VI—THE DRAMA UNDER LOUIS XIV
1. Corneille—Story of his life. Readings from the Cid, Horace, and Polyeucte. (Translation by Nokes.)
2. Racine—Relation to Port-Royal. Ode on the marriage of the king. Classical subjects. Esther and Athalie, his masterpiece, written at the request of Madame de Maintenon for her young ladies at St. Cyr. Readings from Andromaque, Phèdre, and Athalie. (Bohn's translation.)
3. Molière—Early life as a strolling player. Rescue of his company from failure by his own writings. Paris and the favor of the Duc d'Orleans. Failure in tragedy; success in comedy. Taken up by the king. Royal fêtes. Limitations of this work. First characteristic play: L'Ecole des Femmes. Molière as the greatest of comedy-writers. Readings from Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, Le Médecin Malgré Lui. Les Femmes Savantes. (Many translations. Curtis Hidden Page's is fine.)
Books to Consult—Guizot: Corneille and His Times. Trollope: Corneille and Racine. Hatton: Life of Molière. Brander Matthews: Great Plays (French and German), with notes. (Contains Le Cid, Horace, Polyeucte, and Tartuffe.)
As Molière is unquestionably the great dramatist of the period, devote the day largely to him. Read from Chatfield-Taylor's Pathway to Fame, which gives the dramatist's life as a strolling player. Describe one of the fêtes for which he wrote his little farces and ballets. Have a brief talk on the advance in stage-setting at this time, due to the unlimited sums Louis spent on his fêtes, and the employment of the greatest artists for the scenery. Compare this with the setting of the stage in Shakespeare's theater.
VII—ART
1. Architecture—Mansart, Perrault, Lemercier. Some of the great public buildings built during this reign. Show photographs.
2. Painting—Lebrun (foundation of the Louvre collection). Lesueur, Mignard, Philippe de Champaigne, Largillière, Watteau. Portraits of the King.
3. Sculpture—Puget, Sarazin, Coysevox. Photographs of surviving examples.
4. Music—Founding of modern musical drama by Mazarin (Strozzi's opera-bouffe in the Louvre, in 1645). Cambert, L'Abbé Perrin, Lulli.
Books to Consult—Louis Hourticq: Art in France. R. G. Kingsley: History of French Art. Bourgeois: France under Louis XIV. W. H. Ward: Architecture of the Renaissance in France. Esther Singleton: French and English Furniture.
Louis was a wonderful art patron, and spent enormous sums upon artistic objects. He brought from Antwerp a group of three great engravers. He established the Beauvais and Gobelins manufactories of tapestry. Porcelain was made at Saint Cloud. Furniture was designed by Ballin and Boule. Lenôtre led the world in the art of landscape-gardening.
VIII—THE KING AND THE CHURCH
1. The King's Personal Religion—Ecclesiastical and political rather than ethical. His devotions and his morals. Effect of Madame de Maintenon's influence in later years.
2. Two Great Prelates and Their Feud—Bossuet; his ability, temper, and commanding influence. Fenelon: story of his life; influence on the Duke of Burgundy; reading from Télémaque. The fundamental difference in the two men's conception of religion.
3. New Movements—Protestantism: suppression by the state. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Jansenism: Jansen and his book; its meaning. Demolition of the Abbey of Port-Royal. Quietism: Story of Madame Guyon and reading from her life (Upham's edition).
4. The King and the Jesuits—Origin of the order and its purposes. Edicts for and against the Jesuits, and reasons for them. Power and success of Pere LeTellier. Reading from Pascal's Provincial Letters.
Books to Consult—The Cambridge Modern History: vol. v., chap. iv. Guizot: History of France: vol. iv., chap. xlvii. Jervis: History of the Church in France. Sainte-Beuve: Causeries du Lundi (many are translated).
As Louis seldom went to Paris, the chapel in the palace at Versailles became the scene of the most important ecclesiastical functions, and hence is of special interest. A description of its interior should be given, and photographs of it should be shown. A supplementary paper should take up Madame de Maintenon and her relation to the king and the Church. Lady Blennerhasset's book will be found of value in this connection.
IX—THE STORY OF PORT-ROYAL
1. The Convent—Its location, origin, and early history. Fashionable patronage and relaxation of the rules. Angélique Arnauld. The Paris House, now the Musée de Cluny.
2. Educational System—The lay brothers in the original house. Antoine Arnauld, the De Sacys, Nicole. Their text-books: grammars, geometry, logic. Place in the history of education.
3. The Jansenist Movement—Story of Jansen and his famous book. Notable people who were influenced by it. How it made trouble for Port-Royal. Antagonism of the Jesuits, reason of it, development of the feud.
4. Suppression of the Institution—Reasons for the hostility of Louis XIV. Story of the dispersion of the nuns, described at length by Schimmelpenninck. Destruction of the beautiful buildings.
Books to Consult—Charles Beard: Port-Royal. Ethel Duncan Romanes: The Story of Port-Royal. Felix Cadet: Port-Royal Education. Sainte-Beuve: Port-Royal. (In French, not translated.)
Prepare a supplementary paper on the Puritan Spirit in Human Nature. This constantly reappears in history (see the Stoics), and is represented in France in this period by this Jansenist movement. An interesting paper might be written on Jacqueline Pascal, the sister of the great philosopher, and the celebrated episode of her healing, which had far-reaching consequences.
X—FAMOUS MEMOIRS OF THE TIME
1. Cardinal de Retz—Story of his adventurous life: description of his appearance and personal characteristics. Relation to the Fronde. Richelieu's opinion of him and relation to him.
2. The Duc de Saint-Simon—Personal history. Relation to the King and the court. Reason for writing: the servile tone of the memoirs of the Marquis de Dangeau. Saint-Simon's independence and frankness of criticism. "The Tacitus of French History." Compare with Pepys. Read descriptions of court life and personal passages.
3. Madame de Sévigné—Story of her life and that of her daughter. Her education and relation to the great world. Style. Readings from her letters.
4. The Fashion of Memoir-Writing—People who wrote memoirs: Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Marquis de Dangeau. De la Porte (the King's valet de chambre). Duclos (Memoires secrets). De la Rochefoucauld. Brief biographies of these people.
Books to Consult—Duc de Saint-Simon: Memoirs. 3 vols. (Translated.) Letters of Madame de Sévigné. (Translated.) Emil Bourgeois: France under Louis XIV. G. F. Bradley: Great Days at Versailles. Imbert de Saint-Amand: The Court of Louis XIV.
Notice the striking change at this time from former dull and tedious historical writing to the brilliant and fascinating personal sketches of people and events. Read descriptions of the King and the court from Saint-Simon and Saint-Amand. The engravers whom Louis brought from the Low Countries made portraits of many of the society people of the time; show reproductions, and describe the dress of the period.