A Short History of French Literature Part 8

The Pastourelle is still more uniform in subject. It invariably represents the knight or the poet riding past and seeing a fair shepherdess by his road-side. He alights and woos her with or without success. In this cla.s.s of poem the stanzas are usually longer, and consist of shorter lines than is the case with the Romances, while the refrains are more usually meaningless though generally very musical. It is, however, well to add that the very great diversity of metrical arrangement in this cla.s.s makes it impossible to give a general description of it. There are Pastourelles consisting merely of four-lined stanzas with no refrain at all. The following is a good specimen of the cla.s.s:--

De Saint Quentin a Cambrai Chevalchoie l'autre jour; Les un boisson esgardai, Touse i vi de bel atour.

La colour Ot freche com rose en mai.

De cuer gai Chantant la trovai Ceste chansonnete 'En non deu, j'ai bel ami, Cointe et joli, Tant soie je brunete.'

Vers la pastoure tornai Quant la vi en son destour; Hautement la saluai Et di 'deus vos doinst bon jour Et honour.

Celle ke ci trove ai, Sens delai Ses amis serai.'

Dont dist la doucete 'En non deu, j'ai bel ami, Cointe et joli, Tant soie je brunete.'

Deles li seoir alai Et li priai de s'amour, Celle dist 'Je n'amerai Vos ne autrui par nul tour, Sens pastour, Robin, ke fiencie l'ai.

Joie en ai, Si en chanterai Ceste chansonnete: En non deu, j'ai bel ami, Cointe et joli, Tant soie je brunete.'

So various, notwithstanding the simplicity and apparent monotony of their subjects, are these charming poems, that it is difficult to give, by mere citation of any one or even of several, an idea of their beauty.

In no part of the literature of the middle ages are its lighter characteristics more pleasantly shown. The childish freedom from care and afterthought, the half unconscious delight in the beauty of flowers and the song of birds, the innocent animal enjoyment of fine weather and the open country, are nowhere so well represented. Chaucer may give English readers some idea of all this, but even Chaucer is sophisticated in comparison with the numerous, and for the most part nameless, singers who preceded him by almost two centuries in France. As a purely formal and literary characteristic, the use of the burden or refrain is perhaps their most noteworthy peculiarity. Herr Bartsch has collected five hundred of these refrains, all different. There is nothing like this to be found in any other literature; and, as readers of Beranger know, the fas.h.i.+on was preserved in France long after it had been given up elsewhere.

[Sidenote: Thirteenth Century.]

[Sidenote: Changes in Lyric.]

After the twelfth century the early lyrical literature of France undergoes some changes. In the first place it ceases to be anonymous, and individual singers--some of them, like Thibaut of Champagne, of very great merit and individuality--make their appearance. In the second place it becomes more varied but at the same time more artificial in form, and exhibits evident marks of the communication between troubadour and trouvere, and of the imitation by the latter of the stricter forms of Provencal poetry. The Romance and the Pastourelle are still cultivated, but by their side grow up French versions, often adapted with considerable independence, of the forms of the South[69]. Such, for instance, is the _chanson d'amour_, a form less artfully regulated indeed than the corresponding canzon or sestine of the troubadours, but still of some intricacy. It consists of five or six stanzas, each of which has two interlaced rhymes, and concludes with an _Envoi_, which, however, is often omitted. _Chansonnettes_ on a reduced scale are also found. In these pieces the alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes, which was ultimately to become the chief distinguis.h.i.+ng feature of French prosody, is observable, though it is by no means universal. To the Provencal _tenson_ corresponds the _jeu parti_ or verse dialogue, which is sometimes arranged in the form of a Chanson. The _salut d'amour_ is a kind of epistle, sometimes of very great length and usually in octosyllabic verse, the decasyllable being more commonly used in the Chanson. Of this the _complainte_ is only a variety. Again, the Provencal _sirvente_ is represented by the northern _serventois_, a poem in Chanson form, but occupied instead of love with war, satire, religion, and miscellaneous matters. It has even been doubted whether the _serventois_ is not the forerunner of the _sirvente_ instead of the reverse being the case. Other forms are _motets_, _rotruenges_, _aubades_. Poems called _rondeaux_ and _ballades_ also make their appearance, but they are loose in construction and undecided in form.

The thirteenth century is, moreover, the palmy time of the Pastourelle.

Most of those which we possess belong to this period, and exhibit to the full the already indicated characteristics of that graceful form. But the lyric forms of the thirteenth century are to some extent rather imitated than indigenous, and it is no doubt to the fact of this imitation that the common ascription of general poetical priority to the Langue d'Oc, unfounded as it has been sufficiently shown to be, is due in the main. The most courageous defenders of the North have wished to maintain its claims wholly intact even in this instance, but probability, if not evidence, is against them.

[Sidenote: Traces of Lyric in the Thirteenth Century.]

[Sidenote: Quesnes de Bethune.]

[Sidenote: Thibaut de Champagne.]

It has been said that the number of song writers from the end of the twelfth century to the end of the thirteenth is extremely large. M.

Paulin Paris, whose elaborate chapter in the _Histoire Litteraire_ is still the great authority on the subject, has enumerated nearly two hundred, to whose work have to be added hundreds of anonymous pieces. It would seem indeed that during a considerable period the practice of song writing was almost as inc.u.mbent on the French gentleman of the thirteenth century as that of sonnetteering on the English gentleman of the sixteenth. There are, however, not a few names which deserve separate notice. The first of these in point of time, and not the last in point of literary importance, is that of Quesnes de Bethune, the ancestor of Sully, and himself a famous warrior, statesman, and poet.

His epitaph by a poet not usually remarkable for eloquence[70] is a very striking one. It gives us approximately the date of his death, 1224; and the word _vieux_ is supposed to show that Quesnes must have been born at least as early as the middle of the twelfth century. He took part in two crusades, that of Philip Augustus and that which Villehardouin has chronicled. His poems[71] are of all cla.s.ses, historical, satirical, and amorous, some of last being addressed to Marie, Countess of Champagne; and his Chansons are, in the technical sense, some of the earliest we possess. Contemporary with Quesnes apparently was the personage who is known under the t.i.tle of Chatelain de Coucy, and whose love for the Lady of Fayel resulted in an interchange of very tender and beautiful verse; the poem known as the lady's own is one of the very best of its kind.

Long afterwards lover and lady became the hero and heroine of a romance, which has led some persons to throw doubt upon their historical existence, and the Lady of Fayel has even been deprived of her poem by a well-known kind of criticism. Of more importance is Thibaut de Champagne, King of Navarre, who is indeed the most important single figure of early French lyrical poetry. He was born in 1201, and died in 1253. His high position as a feudal prince in both north and south, the minority of St. Louis, and the intimate relations which existed between the King's mother, Blanche of Castille, and Thibaut, made him the mark for a good deal of satirical invective. There is a tradition that he was Blanche's lover, the only objection to which is that the Queen was thirty years his senior. Thibaut's poems have been more than once reprinted, the last edition being that of M. Tarbe[72]; this contains eighty-one pieces, not a few of which, however, are probably the work of others. The majority of them are Chansons d'Amour, of the kind just defined. There are, however, a good many Jeux-Partis, and a certain number of nondescript poems on miscellaneous subjects. There is more reason for the common opinion which attributes to Thibaut the marriage of the poetical qualities of northern and southern France, than the mere fact of his having been both Count of Champagne and King of Navarre. His poems have in reality something of the freshness and the individuality of the Trouveres, mixed with a great deal of the formal grace and elegance of the Troubadours. The following may serve as an example:--

Contre le tens qui desbrise Yvers, et revient este, Et la mauvis se desguise, Qui de lonc tens n'a chante Ferai chanson. Car a gre Me vient que j'aie en pense Amor, qui en moi s'est mise.

Bien m'a droit son dart gete.

Douce dame, de franchise, N'ai je point en vos trove: S'ele ne s'i est puis mise Que je ne vos esgarde, Trop avez vers moi fierte.

Mais ce fait vostre biaute, Ou il n'i a pas de devise, Tant en i a grand plante.

En moi n'a point d'astenance Que je puisse aillors penser, Pors que la, ou conoissance Ne merci ne puis trover.

Bien fui fait por li amer; Car ne m'en puis saoler.

Et quant plus aurai cheance, Plus la me convendra douter.

D'une riens sui en doutance, Que je ne puis plus celer, Qu'en li n'ait un po d'enfance.

Ce me fait deconforter, Que s'a moi a bon penser Ne l'ose ele desmontrer.

Si feist qu'a sa semblance Le poisse deviner.

Des que je li fis priere Et la pris a esgarder, Me fist amors la lumiere Des iels par le cuer pa.s.ser.

Cil conduit me fait grever: Dont je ne me soi garder: Ne ne puet torner arriere Mon cuer; miex voudrait crever.

Dame, a vos m'estuet clamer, Et que merci vos requiere.

Diex m'i laist pitie trover!

[Sidenote: Minor Singers.]

[Sidenote: Adam de la Halle.]

Besides Thibaut there are not a few other song writers of the thirteenth century, who rise out of the crowd named by M. Paulin Paris. Some of these, as might be expected, are famous for their achievements in other departments of literature. Such are Adam de la Halle, Jean Bodel, Guyot de Provins. There are, however, two, Gace Brule and Colin Muset, who survive solely but worthily as song writers. Gace Brule was a knight of Champagne, Colin Muset a professed minstrel. The former chiefly composed sentimental work; the latter, with the proverbial or professional gaiety of his cla.s.s, drew nearer to the satirical tone of the Fabliau writers.

His best-known and most usually quoted work describes the different welcome which he receives from his family on his return from professional tours, according to the success or ill-success with which he has met. Two other poets, Adam de la Halle and Ruteboeuf, are far more prominent in literary history. Adam de la Halle[73] bore the surname 'Le Bossu d'Arras,' from his native town, though the term hunchback seems to have had no literal application to him. His exact date is not known, but it must probably have been from the fourth to the ninth decade of the thirteenth century. His dramatic works, which are of signal importance, will be noticed elsewhere. But besides these he has left some seventy or eighty lyrical pieces of one kind or another.

Adam's life was not uneventful; he was at first a monk, but left his convent and married. Then he proved as faithless to his temporal as he had been to his spiritual vows. He lampooned his wife, his family, his townsmen, and, shaking the dust of Arras from his feet, retired first to Douai and then to the court of Robert of Artois, whom he accompanied to Italy. He died in that country about 1288. The style of Adam de la Halle varies from the coa.r.s.est satire to the most graceful tenderness. Of the latter the following song is a good specimen:--

Diex!

Comment porroie Trouver voie D'aler a chelui Cui amiete je sui?

Chainturelle, va-i En lieu de mi; Car tu fus sieue aussi, Si m'en conquerra miex.

Mais comment serai sans ti?

Dieus!

Chainturelle, mar vous vi; Au deschaindre m'ochies; De mes grietes a vous me confortoie, Quant je vous sentoie, Ai mi!

A le saveur de mon ami.

Ne pour quant d'autres en ai, A cleus d'argent et de soie, Pour men user.

Mais la.s.se! comment porroie Sans cheli durer Qui me tient en joie?

Canchonnete, chelui proie Qui le m'envoya, Puis que jou ne puis aler la.

Qu'il en viengne a moi, Chi droit, A jour failli, Pour faire tous ses boins, Et il m'orra, Quant il ert joins, Canter a haute vois: _Par chi va la mignotise,_ _Par chi ou je vois_.

[Sidenote: Ruteboeuf]

Ruteboeuf (whose name appears to be a nickname only) has been more fortunate than most of the poets of early France in leaving a considerable and varied work behind him, and in having it well and collectively edited[74]. Little or nothing, however, is known about him, except from allusions in his own verse. He was probably born about 1230; he was certainly married in 1260; there is no allusion in his poems to any event later than 1285. By birth he may have been either a Burgundian or a Parisian. His work which, as has been said, is not inconsiderable in volume, falls into three well-marked divisions in point of subject.

The first consists of personal and of comic poems; the second of poems sometimes satirical, sometimes panegyrical, on public personages and events; the third, which is apparently with reason a.s.signed to the latest period of his life, of devotional poems. In the first division _La Pauvrete Ruteboeuf_, _Le Mariage Ruteboeuf_, etc., are complaints of his woeful condition; complaints, however, in which there is nearly as much satire as appeal. Others, such as _Renart le Bestourne_, _Le Dit des Cordeliers_, _Frere Denise_, _Le Dit de l'Erberie_, are poems of the Fabliau kind. In all these there are many lively strokes of satire, and not a little of the reckless gaiety, chequered here and there with deeper feeling, which has always been a characteristic of a certain number of French poets. Ruteboeuf's sarcasm is especially directed towards the monastic orders. The second cla.s.s of poems, which is numerous, displays a more elevated strain of thought. Many of these poems are _complaintes_ or elaborate elegies (often composed on commission) for distinguished persons, such as Geoffroy de Sargines and Guillaume de Saint Amour. Others, such as the _Complainte d'Outremer_, the _Complainte de Constantinople_, the _Dit de la Voie de Tunes_, the _Debat du Croise et du Decroise_, are comments on the politics and history of the time, for the most part strongly in favour of the crusading spirit, and reproaching the n.o.bility of France with their degeneracy. 'Mort sont Ogier et Charlemagne' is an often-quoted exclamation of Ruteboeuf in this sense. The third cla.s.s includes _La Mort Ruteboeuf_, otherwise _La Repentance Ruteboeuf_, _La Voie de Paradis_, various poems to the Virgin, the lives of St. Mary of Egypt and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and the miracle play of _Theophile_. Ruteboeuf's favourite metres are either the continuous octosyllabic couplet, or else a stanza composed of an octosyllabic couplet and a line of four syllables, the termination of the latter being caught up by the succeeding couplet. In this the _Mariage_ is written, of which a specimen may be given:--

En l'an de l'incarnacon, VIII jors apres la nascon Jhesu qui soufri pa.s.son, en l'an soissante, qu'arbres n'a foille, oisel ne chante, fis je toute la rien dolante que de cuer m'aime: nis li musarz musart me claime.

or puis filer, qu'il me faut traime; mult ai a faire.

deus ne fist cuer tant de pute aire, tant li aie fait de contraire ne de martire, s'il en mon martire se mire, qui ne doie de bon cuer dire 'je te claim cuite.'

envoier un home en Egypte, ceste dolor est plus pet.i.te que n'est la moie; je n'en puis mais se je m'esmoie.

l'en dit que fous qui ne foloie pert sa saison: sui je marez sanz raison?

or n'ai ne borde ne maison.

encor plus fort: por plus doner de reconfort a ceus qui me heent de mort, tel fame ai prise que nus fors moi n'aime ne prise, et s'estoit povre et entreprise, quant je la pris.

a ci marage de pris, c'or sui povres et entrepris ausi comme ele, et si n'est pas gente ne bele.

cinquante anz a en s'escuele, s'est maigre et seche: n'ai pas paor qu'ele me treche.

despuis que fu nez en la greche deus de Marie, ne fu mais tele espouserie.

je sui toz plains d'envoiserie: bien pert a l'uevre.

Though he has less of the 'lyrical cry' than some others, Ruteboeuf is perhaps the most vigorous poet of his time.

[Sidenote: Lais. Marie de France.]

There is one division of early poetry which may also be noticed under this head, though it is sometimes dealt with as a kind of miniature epic. This is the _lai_, a term which is used in old French poetry with two different significations. The Trouveres of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries made of it a regular lyrical form. But the most famous of its examples, those which now pa.s.s under the name of Marie de France, are narrative poems in octosyllabic verse and varying in length considerably. It is agreed that the term and the thing are of Breton origin; and the opinion which seems most probable is that the word originally had reference rather to the style of music with which the harper accompanied his verse, than to the measure, arrangement, or subject of the latter. As to Marie herself[75], nothing is known about her with certainty. She lived in England in the reign of Henry III, and often gives English equivalents for her French words. The _lais_ which we possess, written by her and attributed to her, are fourteen in number. They bear the t.i.tles of _Gugemer_, _Equitan_, _Le Fresne_, _Le Bisclaveret_, _Lanval_, _Les Deux Amants_, _Ywenec_, _Le Laustic_, _Milun_, _Le Chaitivel_, _Le Chevrefeuille_, _Eliduc_, _Graalent_ and _L'Espine_. Mr. O'Shaughnessy has paraphrased several of these in English[76]; they are all narrative in character. Their distinguis.h.i.+ng features are fluent and melodious versification, pure and graceful language--among the purest and most graceful, though decidedly Norman in character, of the time--true poetical feeling, and a lively faculty of invention and description. After Marie there was a tendency to approximate the _lai_ to the Provencal _descort_, and at last, as we have said, it acquired rules and a form quite alien from those of its earlier examples. There is a general though not a universal inclination to melancholy of subject in the early lays, a few of which are anonymous.