French Lyrics

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His works were first published in 1489; Marot prepared an edition in
the following century, Paris, 1533; they were not reprinted in the
seventeenth century; convenient recent editions are those of P.
L. Jacob (Paul Lacroix), 1854; P. Jannet (_Nouvelle collection
Jannet-Picard_) and A. Longnon, 1892.

For reference: A. Longnon, _Etude biographique sur Francois Villon_,
1877; Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xiv; Th. Gautier, _les
Grotesques_; J. Lemaitre, _Impressions de theatre_, troisieme serie,
1889 ; Robert Louis Stevenson, _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_,
London, 1882.

4. BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS. Dante Gabriel Rossetti has
translated this ballade, which is perhaps the most famous one in the
language. 6. DICTES, _dites_, n'en = _ni en _; in Old French _ne_
could be used for the simple alternative 'or.' 7. FLORA; a late
tradition made of the Roman goddess of flowers and spring a wealthy
and beautiful woman. 8. ARCHIPIDIA, perhaps Hipparchia is meant;
THAIS, an Athenian beauty of the fourth century B.C. 10. ECHO, the
nymph of classical mythology. MAINE, _mene_. 11. ESTAN, _etang_. 13.
ANTAN, _last year_ (from Latin _ante annum_); Rossetti translates
"yesteryear". 14. HELOIS, Heloise, or Eloise. 16. ESBAILLART, Abelard
(1079-1142), a French scholar and philosopher, whose love for the
beautiful and accomplished Heloise, one of his pupils, has passed
into legend, which has quite transformed the fact. SAINCT-DENYS,
Saint-Denis, only four and one half miles from Paris, celebrated for
the cathedral of Saint-Denis in which are the tombs of the kings of
France. Abelard resided for a time in the abbey of Saint-Denis. 17.
ESSOYNE = _peine_. 18. ROYNE, _reine_; Marguerite de Bourgogne, wife
of Louis le Hutin, is meant, the heroine of the legend of the Tour
de Nesle, according to which she had her numerous lovers killed and
thrown into the Seine. Buridan was more fortunate and escaped; he was
afterwards a learned professor of the University of Paris. She herself
was strangled in prison in 1314. 21. LA ROYNE BLANCHE, Blanche de
Castille, mother of Saint Louis. 22. SEREINE, _sirene_. 23. BERTHE AU
GRAND PIED, celebrated in the _chansons de geste_, was the mother of
Charlemagne. BIETRIS, Beatrix de Provence, married in 1245 to Charles,
son of Louis VIII. ALLYS, Alix de Champagne, married in 1160 to Louis
le Jeune. 24. HAREMBOURGES, Eremburge, daughter of Elie de la Fleche,
count of Maine, who died in 1110. 25. JEHANNE, Joan of Arc, who was
burned at the stake at Rouen in 1431.

5.
1. N'ENQUEREZ, _do not seek to know_. SEPMAINE,_semaine_. 3. QUE ...
NE, _lest_. REMAINE = _reste_. LAY ou PLUSTOST RONDEAU. 8. SE, _si_.
12. DEVIE = _meure_. 13. VOIRE = _vraiment_. JE CONNAIS TOUT FORS
QUE MOI-MEME. 15. LAICT. _lait_. 21. BESONGNE = _travaille_. CHOMME,
_chome_. 24. GONNE, _gown_, a monk's garment.

6. 3. PIPEUR, one who whistles in imitation of birds ; _je congnois
pipeur qui jargonne, I know the tricks of the bird-catcher_. 4. FOLZ
NOURRIZ DE CRESME, refers perhaps to the pampered court jesters. 7.
MULLET, _mulet_. 10. GECT, a counter for counting and adding (_qui
nombre et somme_). 12. BOESMES, _Bohemians_; _la faults des Boesmes_
is the heresy of the followers of John Huss (1369- 1415) and Jerome
of Prague (1375-1416). 16. COULEREZ ET BLESMES = _teints colores et
blemes_"

CLEMENT MAROT.

1497-1544.

He abandoned the law to live at court and write verses. After his
first successes, he became page in the household of Marguerite of
Navarre, and continued to enjoy her protection and that of her
brother, Francis I., though this could not save him, when accused
of heresy because of the welcome that he gave to the ideas of the
Reformation, from the necessity of twice fleeing to Italy for safety.
In spite of some deeper notes and in spite of his translation of the
first fifty Psalms, which is used in French Protestant churches, he
was by no means a religious reformer. He was essentially a court poet,
putting into graceful verse, ballades, rondeaux, epistles, epigrams,
etc., the trifles, jests, sallies, and elegant badinage that delighted
courtly society.

Works: _l'Adolescence Clementine_, 1532; _Oeuvres de Clement Marot_,
Lyon, 1538; _Trente Psaumes de David_, 1541; _Cinquante Psaumes de
David_, 1543 ; _les Oeuvres de Clement Marot_, Lyon, 1544; _Oeuvres
completes de Clement Marot_, par M. Guiffrey, 1876-81 (only part has
appeared); _Oeuvres completes_, par P. Jannet, 4 vols., 1868-72;
_Oeuvres choisies_, par E. Voizard, 1890.

For reference: E. Scherer, _Etudes litteraires sur la litterature
contemporaine_, vol. viii; Emile Faguet, _le Seizieme siecle_, 1893;
H. Morley, _C. Marot and other studies_, London, 1871.

RONDEAU. For the form see the remarks on versification.

20. SE DEMENOIT, _expressed itself_. 21. C'ESTOIT DONNE TOUTE LA TERRE
RONDE, i.e. it was as if one had given. 23. "They loved each other for
the heart alone."

24. SI A JOUIR ON VENOIT, _if one's love was returned_. 25.
s'entretenoit, _kept faith_.

7 2. FEINCTS, _feints_. OYT, from _ouir_. 3. Qui = _si quelqu'un_. ME
FONDE, _rely_.

PIERRE DE RONSARD.

1524-1585.

The greatest French poet of the Renaissance, he entered the household
of the Duke of Orleans at the age of ten, spent three years as page
of James V. of Scotland, and traveled much about Europe on various
embassies. At eighteen, attacked by deafness, he withdrew to the
college of Coqueret and was won to poetry by study of the ancients. It
was then that a common love for the classical literatures and a common
zeal for imitating their beauties in French bound him to the other
young men who with him called themselves the Pleiad and set themselves
to the task of renewing French literature in the image of the
literatures of antiquity. In 1550, the year after the appearance of
the manifesto of the young school, the _Defense et Illustration de la
langue francaise_ of du Bellay, he published a volume of odes. His
fame was instant and immense; he returned in glory to court, and for
forty years the authority of his example was hardly questioned. His
talent was exercised in almost all kinds of verse, chansons, sonnets,
elegies, eclogues, hymns, epistles, and even in the epic, where,
however, his experiment, _la Franciade_, was a complete failure,
abandoned when but four of the proposed twelve cantos were finished.
But his genius was essentially lyric. The ode was his special
contribution to French verse; in it he followed the classical form
with its divisions into strophe, antistrophe, and epode, sometimes in
direct imitation of Pindar, Anacreon, Theocritus, or Horace. His best
work is that in which he freed himself most fully from the influence
of a model. His deepest and truest note's are those that celebrate the
pleasures of this life, the delights of nature, and the inevitable
"cold obstruction" of death.

Works: _Odes_ and _Bocage_, 1550; _Amours_, _Odes_, book v, 1552,
1553; _Hymnes_, 1555, book ii, 1556; _Meslanges_, 1555, book ii, 1559;
_Oeuvres_ (_Amours, Odes, Poemes, Hymnes_), 4 vols., 1560; _Oeuvres_,
i vol., 1584; recent editions are _Oeuvres completes_, par P.
Blanchemain, 8 vols., 1857-67 (_Bibliotheque elzevirienne_); par
Marty-Laveaux, 6 vols., 1887 ff.; _Oeuvres choisies_, avec notice de
Sainte-Beuve, I vol.

For reference: Excellent biographical study by Marty-Laveaux in his
edition of the works; Emile Faguet, _le Seizieme siecle_, 1893 ;
Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xii.

7. A CASSANDRE. 8. DESCLOSE, _opened_. 10. A POINT PERDU; _ne_ was
not, and still is not always, required in the question; cf. 164,
22. VESPREE = _soir_; cf. _vepre_. 13. LAS, _helas_. 20. FLEURONNE=
_fleurit_.

8. CHANSON. 27. AMOUR, _Cupid_. 1. CHENEVIERE = _chanvre_. 3. MY-NUD,
_half naked_. 19. FOL LE PELICAN; cf. for another use of this popular
notion about the pelican the famous picture in the _Nuit de mai_ of
Alfred de Musset, 150, 12 _ff_. A HELENE. 26. OYANT, from _ouir_. 27.
DESJA, _deja_. 29. BENISSANT VOSTRE NOM, etc., i.e. congratulating you
on being immortalized by the poet's praise.

9. 2. OMBRES MYRTEUX, _shadows of the myrtles_. ELEGIE. 8. VENDEMOIS,
one of the old divisions of France, on the Loire. It was the
birth-place of Ronsard. 10. REMORS; has here rather the sense of
regret. 13. AGEZ, _ages_ the spelling _-ez_ for _-es_ was usual.
22. CHEF = _tete_. 23. DE RECHEF = _de nouveau_. 24. PERRUQUE =
_chevelure_. 26. VERDS, _strong, supple_.

10. DIEU VOUS GARD. 7. GARD, the form of the present subjunctive
regularly descended from the Latin subjunctive in verbs of the first
conjugation. The ending _e_, added later, is due to analogy. 8.
VISTES ARONDELLES, _vites_ (_rapides_) _hirondelles_. 10. TOURTRES =
_tourterelles_. 12. VERDELETS, _verts_; such diminutives were quite
in favor in the language of the time; cf. _rossignolet, nouvelet,
fleurettes_. 15. BOUTONS JADIS COGNUS, etc., i.e. the hyacinth and the
narcissus. 29. AU PRIX DE, _in comparison with_.

11. A UN AUBESPIN. 6. LAMBRUNCHE, _a wild vine_. 10. PERTUIS, _holes_.
12. AVETTES = _abeilles_. 30. RUER = _jeter_.

12. ELEGIE CONTRE LES BUCHERONS DE LA FORET DE GASTINE. Cf. the
poem by Laprade, p. 192. Gastine is in Haut-Poitou, in the present
department of Deux-Sevres. 14. PERSE, _perce_. 15. MASTIN, _matin_.
21. PANS, used by Ronsard in the plural as if he thought them a kind
of being, like Satyrs. 22. FANS, now written _faons_, but still
pronounced as if spelled _fans_. 24. PREMIER, used adverbially. 26.
ESTONNER in the older language expressed a physical shock; to _stun_.
28. NEUVAINE, composed of nine. TROPE, _troupe_; the nine muses.
Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, and Euterpe the muse of music
and lyric poetry.

13. 3. ALTEREZ, BRUSLEZ, ETHEREZ, see note on _agez_, 9, 13. 8.
DORDONEENS, referring to the forest of Dordona, in Epirus, where
oracles were rendered from oak trees. According to Greek traditions
the first men lived on acorns and raw flesh. 16. ET QU'EN CHANGEANT DE
FORME, etc., _and that it will change its form and put on a new one_.

JOACHIM DU BELLAY.

1525-1560.

After Ronsard the foremost poet of the Pleiad. He was of an
illustrious family, but, cut off from a brilliant public career by
ill health and deafness, he sought consolation in letters. He even
preceded Ronsard in inaugurating the literary reform, issuing the
manifesto of the new movement, his _Defense et Illustration de la
langue francaise_, his collection of sonnets called _Olive_, and a
_Recueil de poesies_, all in 1549. Shortly afterwards he accompanied
his cousin, Cardinal du Bellay, to Rome; the admiration which the
historic associations of the city excited in him and his disgust
at the intrigues of the court and the corruptions of Italian life,
mingled with homesickness for the pleasant sights and quiet air of his
native Anjou, inspired the two collections of sonnets which are his
best, the _Antiquites romaines_, translated by Spenser in 1591, and
the _Regrets_.

Works: _Olive_, _Recueil de poesies_, 1549; _Premier livre des
antiquites de Rome_, 1558; _Jeux rustiques_, 1558; _les Regrets_,
1559 ; _Oeuvres_, 1569. Recent editions are : Oeuvres completes, par
Marty-Laveaux, 2 vols., 1866-67; _Oeuvres choisies_, par Becq de
Fouquieres, 1876.

For reference: Leon Seche, _Joachim du Bellay_, 1880; E. Faguet, _le
Seizieme siecle_, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. xiii;
Walter Pater, _The Renaissance_, London, 1873.

13. L'IDEAL. This is from the first collection of sonnets, _Olive_.
The influence of Petrarch is evident. Compare also the lines of the
sestet with the final stanzas of Lamartine's _Isolement_, p. 65. 22.
En 1'eternel = _dans l'eternite_.

14. L'AMOUR DU CLOCHER. From the _Regrets_. 8. cestuy, old form of
demonstrative, _celui_. The reference is of course to Jason. 9. USAGE,
_experience_. 11. QUAND REVERRAY-JE, etc., cf. Homer's Odyssey, I, 58.
18. LOYRE, the name of the river is now feminine. 19. LIRE, a little
village in Anjou, was the birth-place of du Bellay. D'UN VANNEUR DE
BLE AUX VENTS. From the collection entitled _Jeux rustiques_.

15. 8. CESTE, cette. 10. J'AHANNE = je me fatigue.

AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNE.

1550-1630.

Soldier as well as poet, he was a leader of the Huguenots in the wars
that ended with the accession of Henry IV. After the assassination of
Henry IV., his safety became more and more threatened in France, and
he withdrew finally to Geneva. His main work is a long descriptive
and narrative poem, but in many parts essentially lyrical, _les
Tragiques_, a fierce picture of France in the civil wars. In his
lyrics, which comprise _stances, odes_, and _elegies_, he is a
follower of the tradition of Ronsard.

Works: _Les Tragiques_, 1616; a recent edition is by L. Lalanne, 1857;
also in the _Oeuvres completes_, par MM. Reaume et de Caussade, 4
vols., 1873-77.

For reference: Pergameni, _la Satire au seizieme siecle et les
Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubigne_, 1881; E. Faguet, _le Seizieme siecle_,
1893.

15. L'HYVER. 14. IRONDELLES, _hirondelles_. 19. N'ESLOIGNE, _ne
s'eloigne de_.

16. 2. COMME IL FIT, i.e. _comme il alluma des flammes_. 10. SEREINES,
_sirenes_. 14. USAGE, _fruition_.

JEAN BERTAUT.

1552-1611.

A man by no means of the poetic stature of Ronsard, du Bellay, and
D'Aubigne; he found great favor in his day, but his lyric note was not
powerful enough to endure long. He is most successful in the graceful
expression of a natural melancholy, as in the example here given. He
was a follower, in moderation, of the Pleiad.

Works : _Recueil des oeuvres poetiques de J. Bertaut_, l601; appeared
again enlarged in 1605 ; _Recueil de quelques vers amoureux_, 1602 :
both collections are included in _Oeuvres poetiques_, 1620; a
recent edition is edited by A. Cheneviere, 1891 (_Bibliotheque
elzevirienne_). CHANSON. 27. DEMEURE, _delay_.

17. 4. FAY, _fais_.

23. VOY, _vois_.

25. VY, _vis_.

MATHURIN REGNIER.

1573-1613.

Though bred to the church and early settled in a good living, he led
a life that was hardly edifying. He possessed brilliant talents, but
failed to make the most of them. He was indolent and fond of good
living, and was restive under discipline, as is evident in his work
and in his irritation at Malherbe. He had a gift of keen observation,
and his satires excelled in interest what he composed in the more
lyrical forms of ode and elegy.

Works : _Oeuvres_, 1608, 1612 ; recent editions are those of Viollet
le Duc, 1853 (_Bibliotheque elzevirienne_), and E. Courbet, 1875.

For reference : J. Vianey, _Mathurin Regnier_, 1896.

FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE.

1555-1628.

He marks an epoch in the history of French letters. Boileau's famous
phrase, "enfin Malherbe vint," dates from him the beginning of worthy
French poetry. What did begin with him was that tradition of refinement,
elegance, polish and perfect propriety of phrase that continued to rule
French literature for two centuries. He lent the influence of a very
positive voice to the growing demand for a standard of authority in
grammar and versification and for recognized canons of criticism. The
lyrical impulse in him was small, but some of his lines live in virtue
of the finished propriety and harmony of expression.

Works: _Oeuvres_, 1628; the best edition is that of L. Lalanne, 5 vols.,
1862-69 {_Collection des Grands Ecrivains_).

For reference: G. Allais, _Malherbe_, 1891; F. Brunot, _la Doctrine
de Malherbe_, 1891; F. Brunetiere, _l'Evolution des genres_, vol. i,
1890; _Etudes critiques sur l'histoire de la litterature francaise_,
vol. v, 1893.

21. CONSOLATION A M. DU PERIER. 5. TITHON, Tithonus, who obtained from
the gods immortality but not eternal youth. After age had completely
wasted and shriveled him he was changed into a grasshopper. 6. PLUTON,
Pluto, god of the nether world, the abode of the dead. 8. ARCHEMORE,
Archemorus or Opheltes, son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, died in
infancy from the bite of a serpent.

22. I. FRANCOIS, Francis I.; his oldest son, Francis, born in 1517,
died suddenly in 1526, and Charles V. was suspected of having had him
poisoned, and dire vengeance was wreaked upon the person of Sebastian
de Montecuculli, cupbearer of Charles V. The suspicions proved to be
wholly groundless. 5. ALCIDE, Alcides, by which name Hercules was known
till he consulted the oracle of Delphi. 9. LA DURANCE, a river in
southwestern France, flowing into the Rhone below Avignon. After
beginning an agressive campaign in this part of France in the summer of
1536, the Spaniards were in September forced to a disastrous retreat.
13. DE MOI, _for my own part_; Malherbe had lost his first two children,
Henry in 1587 and Jourdaine in 1599. 27. LOUVRE; the palace of the
Louvre, begun in 1541 by Francis

I. on the site of a royal chateau built by Philip Augustus, and added
to by his successors, was a royal residence until the Revolution.

23. CHANSON. 20. en sa liberte, i.e. free from her pursuit. PARAPHRASE
DU PSAUME CXLV. This is Psalm CXLVI in our English Bible.

JEAN RACINE.

1639-1699.

A dramatic genius of the highest order. But besides being a great
dramatist he was a consummate master of language. The choruses in
Esther and Athalie are excellent examples of the kind of lyric that
the tendencies represented by Malherbe permitted. The extract here
given is from Esther, Act III. The approach to the language of the
Psalms is evident throughout.

JEAN-BAPTISTE ROUSSEAU.

1670-1741.

The chief representative of the serious lyric in the eighteenth
century. This ode is a favorable example of the form which lyric
utterance assumed in this philosophizing century and under the
tradition of poetic dignity and propriety.

27. ODE A LA FORTUNE. 16. SYLLA (138-78 B.C.), the enemy of Marius and
author of the bloody proscription against the adherents of his rival.
17. ALEXANDRE, Alexander the Great. 18. ATTILA, king of the Huns from
434 to 453, who ravaged southern and western Europe from 450 to 452
and was known as "the scourge of God."

28. 16. LE RETOUR, i.e. the adverse turn.

EVARISTE-DESIRE DESFORGES DE PARNY.

1753-1814.

He wrote mostly in a lighter and erotic vein. He had many admirers
in his day who styled him the French Tibullus. His influence is
perceptible in the style of Lamartine.

Works: _Poesies erotiques_, 1778; _Opuscules poetiques_, 1779,
enlarged in succeeding editions; _les Rosicroix_, 1807; _Oeuvres_, 5
vols., 1808; _Oeuvres choisies_, 1827.

For reference : Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xv;
_Portraits contemporains_, vol. iv; George Saintsbury, _Miscellaneous
Essays_, London, 1892.

NICOLAS GILBERT.

1751-1780.

He has often been compared with Chatterton and has owed much of his
fame to the unfounded legend that he was a child of genius brought to
an untimely death by poverty and lack of recognition. His satires on
the vices of his time enjoyed a temporary reputation, but his real
legacy to posterity is the well-known lines here given.

Works: _Oeuvres completes_, 1788, and frequently thereafter.

ROUGET DE L'ISLE.

1760-1836.

Though he wrote much in both prose and verse, nothing of his lives
except the _Marseillaise_, which has become the national song of
France. He composed both words and music in the night of April 25,
1792, while he was an officer of engineers at Strassburg. The last
stanza vas added later by another hand. The name, _la Marseillaise_,
comes from the fact that it was introduced to Paris by the troops from
Marseilles.

Works: _Essais en vers et en prose_, 1796.

For reference: J. Tiersot, _Rouget de l'Isle, son oeuvre, sa vie_,
1892.

32. LA MARSEILLAISE. 6. Beuille, Francois-Claude Amour, marquis de
(1739-1800), a devoted royalist, who planned the flight of Louis XVI.
When the king was captured at Varennes he fled to England, where he
died.

MARIE-ANDRE CHENIER.

1762-1794.

The most genuine poet of the eighteenth century. Born at Constantinople
of a Greek mother, he knew Greek early and fed himself on the Greek
poets, imbibing something of their spirit. His elegies, idyls, and odes
are not mere repetitions of the conventional commonplaces, but new,
original, and vigorous in idea and expression. He anticipated the
Romanticists in breaking over the received rules of versification and
in giving greater flexibility and variety to the Alexandrine line.

Works : _Poesies_, first published by H. de Latouche, 1819; later
editions are by Becq de Fouquieres, 1862 and 1872; G. de Chenier, with
new material, 3 vols., 1874; by Louis Moland, 2 vols., 1878-79.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits litteraires_, vol. i;
_Portraits contemporains_, vols, ii and v; _Causeries du lundi_, vol.
iv; _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. iii; E. Faguet, _le Dix- huitieme siecle_,
1890; E. Caro, _la Fin du dix-huitieme siecle_, vol. ii, 1882; J.
Haraszti, _la Poesie d'Andre Chenier_, 1892.

32. LA JEUNE CAPTIVE. This, as well as the _Iambes_ following, was
written in the Saint-Lazare prison shortly before Chenier was sent
to the guillotine. The young captive was Mlle. Aimee de Coigny; she
escaped the guillotine and afterwards married M. de Montrond; she died
in 1820.

33. 18. PHILOMELE; Philomela was daughter of Pandion, king of Athens.
Pursued by Tereus, king of Thrace, she was changed into a nightingale.
The name is frequently employed in poetry for the nightingale.

34. 16. PALES, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds.

35. IAMBES. 23. BAVUS, a conventional name; it is not clear who was in
the poet's mind.

MARIE-JOSEPH CHENIER.

1764-1811.

A younger brother of Andre Chenier, enjoyed a great reputation as a
dramatic poet and critic. Aside from the _Chant du depart_, which had
a reputation approaching that of the _Marseillaise_, he is hardly to
be considered as a lyric poet.

Works: _Oeuvres completes_, 8 vols., 1823-1826; _Poesies_, 1844.

37. LE CHANT du DEPART. 9. De BARRA, DE VIALA; Agricole Viala and
Francois-Joseph Barra (properly Bara) were both young boys, thirteen
and fourteen years of age, who fell fighting with the revolutionary
armies, the former in the Vendee, the latter near Avignon. To both the
Convention voted the honors of burial in the Pantheon. Their names are
often coupled, as here.

ANTOINE-VINCENT ARNAULT.

1766-1834.

He wrote a number of tragedies and a collection of fables that were
admired in their day, but his name is best preserved for the larger
public by this brief elegy, which is found in most anthologies. The
circumstances attending its composition, on the eve of his departure
from France after his banishment in January, 1816, are related by
Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. vii, in the course of his
notice of Arnault, which should be consulted.

FRANCOIS-RENE, VICOMTE DE CHAUTEAUBRIAND.

1768-1848.

An enormous literary force at the beginning of this century; M. E.
Faguet calls him the "greatest date in French letters since the
Pleiad." But the instrument of his power was prose. His attempts in
verse were poor. Yet he exercised a direct influence towards the
renewal of lyric poetry, as has been indicated in the introduction.

For reference: E. Faguet, _Etudes litteraires sur le dix-neuvieme
siecle_, 1887 ; F. Brunetiere, _l'Evolution de la poesie lyrique au
dix-neuvieme siecle_, vol. i, 1894.

39. LE MONTAGNARD EXILE. Introduced into the prose tale, _le Dernier
des Abencerages_ (1807). "J'en avais compose les paroles pour un air
des montagnes d'Auvergne remarquable par sa douceur et sa simplicite."
(Author's note.) 24. la Dore, a rapid stream in the department Puy-
de-Dome, flowing into the Allier. 27. l'airain, i.e. the bell.

MARIE-ANTOINE DESAUGIERS.

1772-1827.

He represents a domain of the lyric that has always been industriously
tilled in France, that of the chanson. The tradition of the song
is distinctly bacchanalian, and rarely has it claimed serious
consideration as literature. But Desaugiers now and then foreshadows
the larger and more serious treatment the _chanson_ was to receive at
the hands of Beranger and Dupont.

Works: _Chansons et Poesies diverses_, 3 vols., 1808-1816; a _Choix de
chansons_ appeared in 1858; another in 1859, and others since.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains_, vol. v; George
Saintsbury, _Miscellaneous Essays_, London, 1892.

CHARLES NODIER.

1780-1844.

Promoted the romantic movement by his personal contact with the group
of young writers that he drew around him more than by what he himself
wrote. He was one of those who felt and transmitted the influence of
Germany. He is better known by his stories than by his verse.

Works : _Essais d'un jeune barde_, 1804 ; _Poesies diverses_, 1827.

For reference : Mme. Mennessier-Nodier, _Charles Nodier, episodes et
souvenirs de sa vie_, 1867 ; Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits litteraires_,
vol. i.

PIERRE-JEAN DE BERANGER.

1780-1857.

The first in rank of the _chansonniers_. The chanson in his hands took
on a breadth, a meaning, and a seriousness that it had never before
possessed, and that make him secure of a place in the literature of
his country. He used the song largely as a vehicle for his political
opinions, even as a political weapon. The object of his attack was the
monarchy of the restoration and the pre-revolutionary ideas which it
tried to revive, and his weapon was formidable because it was so
well fitted to be caught up and wielded by the masses of the people.
Beranger was popular in the more original sense of the word. He
appealed to the masses by his ideas, which were those of the average
man, and by the form which he gave them and the efficient aid of the
current airs to which he wedded them, so that his words not only
reached the ears of an audience far wider than that of the readers of
books, but found a lodgment in their memories. Works: The successive
collections of _Chansons_ appeared in 1815, 1821, 1825, 1828, 1833;
_Oevres posthumes_, and _Oeuvres completes_, 2 vols., 1857.

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