FRANCE
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FRANCE
the sixteenth century was copious, many of its terms
were not of the purest; these Malherbe severely inter-
dicted. AVith reaaril to prosodj', he lays down the
strictest rules. Malherbe's reform, therefore, aims at
purifying the terminology- of the language, and fixing
set forms for prosody. Unluckily, it must be secured
at a heavy price; subordinated unduly to inflexible
rule, its freedom of movement impeded, IjtIc poetry
is finally crushed out of life. Two centuries must
elapse before it revives and shakes off the yoke of
Malherbe. Nor was the rule of Malherbe established
without resistance. Of the writers of that time, none
were less disposed to submit to it than Mathurin
R^gnier (1579-1613), a poet who in many ways recalls
the sixteenth century. His satires are one long pro-
test against the theory so dear to Malherbe. An
enemy to rule and constraint, Regnier again and again
insists upon the absolute freedom of the poet; the poet
must write as the spirit moves him ; let every writer be
what he is, is the only principle he accepts. A numer-
ous group of poets shared Regnier's views, those known
pressions; they have helped to develop the taste for
precision and subtilty in psychological analysis.
They favoured also, though in an indirect way, that
study of the human heart which was the grand theme
of seventeenth century literature.
Authority also, as represented by Richelieu, en- rolled itself in the crusade of reform and added its sanc- tion to the new disciplinary laws. Under the patron- age of the great minister, and by his inspiration, the French Academy was foimded in the year 1635. In virtue of its origin and of its aims, the Academy exer- cised officially the same influence as the salon. It watched over the purity of the language and over its regular development. One of its members, Vaugelas, the great grammarian of that age, contributed m an especial way towards the achievement of this object. If the new ideal found its first expression in poetry, prose also was soon to share in the advantages of the reform. Balzac, in his "Lettres" (1624), created French prose. He is said to have furnished the rules of French prose composition; in fact it is his chief
cE Deschamps Presenting Chahles \I with his History
Miniature of 13S3
by the name of /rs Orotrsqucs. Such are Saint-Amant,
Theophile de Viau, the direct heirs of the Pleiade; and
Scarron, whose poetry is the very incarnation of the
burlesque form imported from Italy.
Malherbe would perhaps have been unable to com- bat this opposition, had not two other forces come to his assistance in checking the flood of licence that was spreading with Regnier and his associates. The first of these was the culture of French society. The rise of a cultured class and of its life of refinement, which took place toward the end of the reign of Henry IV, Ls one of the striking facts of the first half of the seventeenth century. A new institution, the salon, presided over by women, now makes its appearance; here men of the world meet literary men to discuss serious questions with women. The salon will prove of service to writers, though sometimes a hindrance or a lure to false paths, and the next two centuries of literature will show evidence of its influence. The first salon was that of the Marquise de Rambouillet; for more than twenty years people of superior intellect and culture were wont to gather there. By exacting from its guests refinement and elegant manners it contrib- uted to chasten the language and to strip it of all low and grotesque wortls. It is in the salon that the over- refinement called preciosity budded and bloomed. However, the influence of the Prccieuses was perhaps more harmless than some would have us believe. They have enriched the lanugage with many clever ex-
merit to have taught his own age, along with the art of
composition, what the greatest minds of the sixteenth
century — what Rabelais and Montaigne — had not
known: the rhythm, the flow, and the harmony of the
period. In this way, he has fashioned the magnificent
form, which the great prose writers of the last half of
the seventeenth century will find at their disposal
when they seek to give outward shape to the sublime
conceptions of their minds.
At the same time, Voiture, one of the habitufe of the Hotel de Rambouillet, gave to French prose its raci- ness, its vigour and its ease of movement. Balzac and Voiture, of the great writers of that time, are masters of styles in the seventeenth century, but Descartes, whose "Discours de la Methode" appeared in 1673, has left his mark deeply stamped on French classical literature. ThLs could not be otherwise; the principles which gained distmction for him were the same as those invoked for the literary reform. But reason, whose sovereign authority Descartes proclaimed, and whose power he demonstrated, was the same reason whose absolutLsm Malherbe sought to estalilish in literature. The abstract tone, the surety of inference proceeding directly to the solution of one or two questions clearly laid down, permitting no chance thoughts to lead it away from the straight line, the determination to take up only one subject, master- ing it completely, to simplify everything, to see in man only an abstract soul, without a body, and in
