[566] A writer quoted in Blount’s Censura Autorum, p. 859, praises the imitation of Claudian above the rest, but thinks all excellent.
Spanish prose. Gracian. 13. The style of Gongora which deformed the poetry of Spain extended its influence over prose. A writer named Gracian (it seems to be doubtful which of two brothers, Lorenzo and Balthazar) excelled Gongora himself in the affectation, the refinement, the obscurity of his style. “The most voluminous of his works,” says Bouterwek, “bears the affected title of El Criticón. It is an allegorical picture of the whole course of human life divided into Crises, that is, sections according to fixed points of view, and clothed in the formal garb of a pompous romance. It is scarcely possible to open any page of this book without recognising in the author a man who is in many respects far from common, but who, from the ambition of being entirely uncommon in thinking and writing, studiously and ingeniously, avoids nature and good taste. A profusion of the most ambiguous subtleties expressed in ostentatious language, are scattered throughout the work; and these are the more offensive, in consequence of their union with the really grand view of the relationship of man to nature and his Creator, which forms the subject of the treatise. Gracian would have been an excellent writer had not he so anxiously wished to be an extraordinary one.”[567]
[567] Hist. of Spanish Literature, p. 533.
14. The writings of Gracian seem in general to be the quintessence of bad taste. The worst of all, probably, is El Eroe, which is admitted to be almost unintelligible by the number of far-fetched expressions, though there is more than one French translation of it. El político Fernando, a panegyric on Ferdinand the catholic, seems as empty as it is affected and artificial. The style of Gracian is always pointed, emphatic, full of that which looks like profundity or novelty, though neither deep nor new. He seems to have written on a maxim he recommends to the man of the world: “if he desires that all should look up to him, let him permit himself to be known, but not to be understood.”[568] His treatise entitled Agudeza y arte di ingenio is a system of concetti, digested under their different heads, and selected from Latin, Italian, and Spanish writers of that and the preceding age. It is said in the Biographie Universelle that this work, though too metaphysical, is useful in the critical history of literature. Gracian obtained a certain degree of popularity in France and England.
[568] Si quiere que le veneren todos, permítase al conocimiento, no a la comprehensión.
French prose. Du Vair. 15. The general taste of French writers in the sixteenth century, as we have seen, was simple and lively, full of sallies of natural wit and a certain archness of observation, but deficient in those higher qualities of language which the study of the ancients had taught men to admire. In public harangues, in pleadings, and in sermons, these characteristics of the French manner were either introduced out of place, or gave way to a tiresome pedantry. Du Vair was the first who endeavoured to bring in a more elaborate and elevated diction. Nor was this confined to the example he gave. In 1607, he published a treatise on French eloquence, and on the causes through which it had remained at so low a point. This work relates chiefly to the eloquence of the bar, or at least that of public speakers, and the causes which he traces are chiefly such as would operate on that kind alone. But some of his observations are applicable to style in the proper sense; and his treatise has been reckoned the first which gave France the rules of good writing, and the desire to practice them.[569] A modern critic who censures the Latinisms of Du Vair’s style, admits that his treatise on eloquence makes an epoch in the language.[570]
[569] Gibert, Jugemens des Savans sur les auteurs qui ont traité de la rhétorique. This work is annexed to some editions of Baillet. Goujet has copied or abridged Gibert, without distinct acknowledgement, and not always carefully preserving the sense.
[570] Neufchateau, préface aux Œuvres de Pascal, p. 181.
Balzac. 16. A more distinguished æra, however, is dated from 1625, when the letters of Balzac were published.[571] There had indeed been a few intermediate works, which contributed, though now little known, to the improvement of the language. Among these, the translation of Florus by Coeffeteau was reckoned a masterpiece of French style, and Vaugelas refers more frequently to this than to any other book. The French were very strong in translations from the classical writers; and to this they are certainly much indebted for the purity and correctness they reached in their own language. These translators, however, could only occupy a secondary place. Balzac himself is hardly read. |Character of his writings.| “The polite world,” it was said a hundred years since, “knows nothing now of these works, which were once its delight.”[572] But his writings are not formed to delight those, who wish either to be merry or wise, to laugh or to learn; yet he has real excellencies, besides those which may be deemed relative to the age in which he came. His language is polished, his sentiments are just but sometimes common, the cadence of his periods is harmonious, but too artificial and uniform; on the whole, he approaches to the tone of a languid sermon, and leaves a tendency to yawn. But in his time superficial truths were not so much proscribed as at present; the same want of depth belongs to almost all the moralists in Italian and in modern Latin. Balzac is a moralist with a pure heart and a love of truth and virtue, somewhat alloyed by the spirit of flattery towards persons, however he may declaim about courts and courtiers in general, a competent erudition and a good deal of observation of the world. In his Aristippe, addressed to Christina, and consequently a late work, he deals much in political precepts and remarks, some of which might be read with advantage. But he was accused of borrowing his thoughts from the ancients, which the author of an Apology for Balzac seems not wholly to deny. This apology indeed had been produced by a book on the Conformity of the eloquence of M. Balzac with that of the ancients.
[571] The same writer fixes on this as an epoch, and it was generally admitted in the seventeenth century. The editor of Balzac’s Works in 1665, says, after speaking of the unformed state of the French language, full of provincial idioms and incorrect phrases: M. de Balzac est venu en ce temps de confusion et de désordre, où toutes les lectures qu’il faisoit, et toutes les actions qu’il entendoit lui devoient être suspectes, où il avoit à se défier de tous les maîtres et de tous les exemples; et où il ne pouvoit arriver à son but qu’en s’éloignant de tous les chemins battus, ni marcher dans la bonne route qu’après se l’être ouverte à lui même. Il l’a ouverte en effet, et pour lui et pour les autres; il y a fait entrer un grand nombre d’heureux génies, dont il étoit le guide et le modèle: et si la France voit aujourd’hui que ses écrivains sont plus polis et plus réguliers, que ceux d’Espagne et d’Italie, il faut qu’elle en rende l’honneur à ce grand homme, dont la mémoire lui doit être en vénération.... La même obligation que nous avons a M. de Malherbe pour la poésie, nous l’avons a M. de Balzac pour la prose; il lui a prescrit des bornes et des régles; il lui a donné de la douceur et de la force, il a montré que l’éloquence doit avoir des accords, aussi bien que la musique, et il a sçu mêler si adroitement cette diversité de sons et de cadences, qu’il n’est point de plus délicieux concert que celui de ses paroles. C’est en plaçant tous les mots avec tant d’ordre et de justesse qu’il ne laisse rien de mol ni de foible dans son discours, &c. This regard to the cadence of his periods is characteristic of Balzac. It has not, in general, been much practised in France, notwithstanding some splendid exceptions, especially in Bossuet. Olivet observes, that it was the peculiar glory of Balzac to have shown the capacity of the language for this rhythm. Hist. de l’Acad. Française, p. 84. But has not Du Vair some claim also? Neufchateau gives a much more limited eulogy of Balzac. Il avoit pris à la lettre les reflections de Du Vair sur la trop grande bassesse de notre éloquence. Il s’en forma une haute idée; mais il se trompe d’abord dans l’application, car il porta dans le style épistolaire qui doit être familier et leger, l’enflure hyperbolique, la pompe, et le nombre, qui ne convient qu’aux grandes déclamations et aux harangues oratoires.... Ce défaut de Balzac contribua peut être à son succès; car le gout n’étoit pas formé; mais il se corrigea dans la suite, et en parcourant son recueil on s’aperçoit des progrès sensibles qu’il faisoit avec l’age. Ce recueil si précieux pour l’histoire de notre littérature a eu long temps une vogue extraordinaire. Nos plus grands auteurs l’avoient bien étudié. Molière lui a emprunté quelques idées.