D'Urfé had been preceded by Nicolas de Montreux who, under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Olenix du Mont-Sacré, had published the five volumes entitled Les Bergeries de Juliette at Paris between 1585 and 1598: see Heinrich Koerting, Geschichte des französichen Romans im XVII. Jahrhundert (Oppeln und Leipzig), vol. i., pp. 66-68. But, though Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac declares (Œuvres complètes, Paris, 1665, vol. ii. p. 634) that Les Bergeries de Juliette was long preferred to Astrée by French provincials during the seventeenth century, Montreux found so little favour in Paris, that he abandoned pastoralism, and took to writing a history of the Turks instead: see Émile Roy, La Vie et les œuvres de Charles Sorel, sieur de Souvigny, 1602-1674 (Paris, 1891), pp. 115-116. It was d'Urfé who made the pastoral fashionable. Part of his immediate vogue may be attributed to the fact that his Euric, Galatée, Alcidon and Daphnide were supposed to represent Henri IV., Marguerite de Valois, the Duc de Bellegarde, and the Princesse de Conti. These dubious identifications, however, would not explain the enthusiasm of readers so different in taste and character, and so far apart in point of time, as St. François de Sales, Madame de Sévigné, Prévost (the author of Manon Lescaut), and Rousseau. There is no accounting for tastes, and perhaps Márquez Torres's polite Frenchman sincerely admired the Galatea; but indeed he had left a far better pastoral at home. Astrée greatly exceeds the Galatea in achievement, importance, and significance. M. Paul Morillot is within the mark in saying: "L'Astrée de d'Urfé est vraiment notre premier roman; elle est l'ancêtre, la source de tous les autres" (Le Roman en France, p. 1). He perhaps grants too much by his admission (p. 27) that "de nos jours L'Astrée est tout à fait oubliée." A useful Index de "L'Astrée" by Saint-Marc Girardin proves that the book has had passionate admirers down to our time: see the Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France (Paris, 1898), vol. v., pp. 458-483 and 629-646. The Index has an interesting prefatory note by M. Paul Bonnefon.
[102] Besides (1) the princeps, published at Alcalá de Henares by Juan Gracián in 1585 there are the following editions of the Galatea: (2) Lixboa, Impressa con licencia de la Sancta Inquisición, 1590; (3) Paris, Gilles Robinot, 1611; (4) Valladolid, Francisco Fernández de Cordona, 1617; (5) Baeza, Juan Bautista Montoya, 1617; (6) Lisboa, Antonio Álvarez, 1618; (7) Barcelona, Sebastián de Cormellas, 1618; (8) Madrid, Juan de Zúñiga (Francisco Manuel de Mena), 1736; (9) Madrid, la Viuda de Manuel Fernández, 1772; (10) Madrid, Antonio de Sancha, 1784; (11) Madrid, Imprenta de Vega, 1805; (12) Madrid, los hijos de Da. Catalina Piñuela, 1829; (13) Paris, Baudry, 1835; (14) Paris, Baudry, 1841; (15) Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1846; (16) Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1863; (17) Madrid, Gaspar y Roig, 1866; (18) Madrid, Álvarez hermanos, 1875; (19) Madrid, Nicolás Moya, 1883.
It may be well to state that in Nos. (12), (13), (14), (15), (16) and (17) the Galatea is not printed separately, but forms part of collections of Cervantes's works.
It has hitherto been uncertain whether No. (5) really existed or not. It is noted by Nicolás Antonio (op. cit., vol. ii., p. 105). This Baeza edition is also mentioned under the heading of Romans historiques by Gordon de Percel who, in all likelihood, simply copied the note from Antonio: see De l'usage des romans où l'on fait voir leur utilité & leurs differens caracteres avec une Bibliothèque des romans, accompagnée de remarques critiques sur leur choix et leurs éditions (Amsterdam, 1734), vol. ii., p. 108. Despite the imprint on the title-page, this work was actually issued at Rouen: see a valuable article in the Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France (Paris, 1900, vol. vii., pp. 546-589) by M. Paul Bonnefon who describes Gordon de Percel—the pseudonym of the Abbé Nicolas Lenglet du Fresnoy—as an odious example of an odious type, carrying on the métier d'espion sous couleur d'érudit.
There can now, apparently, be no doubt that an edition of the Galatea was printed at Baeza in 1617, for Rius (op. cit., vol. i., p. 104) states that he possesses a letter from the Marqués de Jerez, dated September 14, 1890, in which the writer explicitly says a copy of this edition was stolen from him at Irún. I do not at all understand what Rius can mean by the oracular sentence which immediately precedes this statement: "No tengo noticia de ejemplar alguno, ni sé que nadie la (i.e. la edición) haya visto."
It has been remarked in the text of this Introduction (p. xxxv) that Cervantes applies the word discreta with distressing frequency to his heroine and her sister shepherdesses. The repetition of this adjective appears to have produced a considerable impression on the Lisbon publisher, Antonio Álvarez, for his edition—No. (6) in the above list—is entitled La discreta Galatea. No. (5) is also said to be entitled La discreta Galatea. But on this point no one, save the Marqués de Jerez de los Caballeros, can speak with any certainty.
[103] Koerting (op. cit., vol. i., p. 65) states that d'Audignier translated the Galatea into French in 1618. This is a mistake. Koerting was probably thinking of the Novelas exemplares. Six of these (La Española inglesa, Las dos Doncellas, La Señora Cornelia, La Ilustre fregona, El Casamiento engañoso, and the Coloquio de los perros) were translated by d'Audignier in 1618, the remaining tales being rendered by Rosset.
[104] Now best remembered, perhaps, by Giovanni Martini's setting of the romance—
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment—
which, sung by that incomparable artist, Madame Pauline Viardot-Garcia (sister of Malibran, and wife of the well-known Spanish scholar, Louis Viardot), delighted our fathers and mothers. It may be worth noting that the song is assigned to the goatherd in Célestine: Nouvelle Espagnole. Readers of contemporary literature will remember the adaptation of the opening words by the Baron Desforges in M. Paul Bourget's Mensonges.