[1189] Geschichte der Poësie, v. 214.
[1190] Goujet, 245. Malherbe scratched out about half from his copy of Ronsard giving his reasons in the margin. Racan, one day looking over this, asked whether he approved what he had not effaced. Not a bit more, replied Malherbe, than the rest.
[1191] Encore aujourd’hui il est admiré par les trois quarts du parlement de Paris, et géneralement par les autres parlemens de France. L’université et les Jesuites tiennent encore son part contre la cour, et contre l’académie.... Ce n’est pas un poëte bien entier, c’est le commencement et la matière d’un poëte. On voit, dans ses œuvres, des parties naissantes, et a demi animées, d’un corps qui se forme, et qui se fait, mais qui n’a garde d’estre achevé. C’est une grande source, il faut l’avouer; mais c’est une source troublée et boueuse; une source, où non seulement il y a moins d’eau que de limon, mais où l’ordure empêche de couler l’eau. Œuvres de Balzac, i. 670, and Goujet ubi supra.
[1192] La Harpe, Biogr. Univ.
Other French poets. 51. The remaining stars of the Pleiad, except perhaps Bellay, sometimes called the French Ovid, and whose “Regrets,” or lamentations for his absence from France during a residence at Rome, are almost as querulous, if not quite so reasonable, as those of his prototype on the Ister,[1193] seem scarce worthy of particular notice; for Jodelle, the founder of the stage in France, has deserved much less credit as a poet, and fell into the fashionable absurdity of making French out of Greek. Raynouard bestows some eulogy on Baif.[1194] Those who came afterwards were sometimes imitators of Ronsard, and, like most imitators of a faulty manner, far more pedantic and far-fetched than himself. An unintelligible refinement, that every nation in Europe seems in succession to have admitted into its poetry, has consigned much then written in France to oblivion. As large a proportion of the French verse in this period seems to be amatory as of the Italian; and the Italian style is sometimes followed. But a simpler and more lively turn of language, though without the naïveté of Marot, often distinguishes these compositions. These pass the bounds of decency not seldom; a privilege which seems in Italy to have been reserved for certain Fescennine metres, and is not indulged to the solemnity of the sonnet or canzone. The Italian language is ill-adapted to the epigram, in which the French succeed so well.[1195]
[1193] Goujet, xii. 128. Augis.
[1194] “Baif is one of the poets who, in my opinion, have happily contributed by their example to fix the rules of our versification.” Journal des Savans, Feb. 1825.
[1195] Goujet devotes three volumes, the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth, of his Bibliothèque Française, to the poets of these fifty years. Bouterwek and La Harpe have touched only on a very few names. In the Recueil des Anciens Poëtes, the extracts from them occupy about a volume and a half.
Du Bartas. 52. A few may be selected from the numerous versifiers under the sons of Henry II. Amadis Jamyn, the pupil of Ronsard, was reckoned by his contemporaries almost a rival, and is more natural, less inflated and emphatic than his master.[1196] This praise is by no means due to a more celebrated poet, Du Bartas. His productions, which are numerous, unlike those of his contemporaries, turn mostly upon sacred history; but his poem on the Creation, called La Semaine, is that which obtained most reputation, and by which alone he is now known. The translation by Silvester has rendered it in some measure familiar to the readers of our old poetry; and attempts have been made, not without success, to show that Milton had been diligent in picking jewels from this mass of bad taste and bad writing. Du Bartas, in his style, was a disciple of Ronsard; he affects words derived from the ancient languages, or, if founded on analogy, yet without precedent, and has as little naturalness or dignity in his images as purity in his idiom. But his imagination, though extravagant, is vigorous and original.[1197]
[1196] Goujet, xiii. 229. Biogr. Univ.