A Short History of French Literature. Saintsbury George

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ 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. Tarbé72; 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 Trouvères, 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 passer.

      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!

      Minor Singers.

      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 Brulé and Colin Muset, who survive solely but worthily as song writers. Gace Brulé 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 class, 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 Rutebœuf, are far more prominent in literary history. Adam de la Halle73 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 coarsest 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 lasse! 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.

      Rutebœuf

      Rutebœuf (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 edited74. 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 СКАЧАТЬ