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DIDACTIC LITERATURE—SERMONS—HISTORY IV. LATEST MEDIÆVAL POETS—THE DRAMA   BOOK THE SECOND—THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY I. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION II. FROM THE PLÉIADE TO MONTAIGNE   BOOK THE THIRD—THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY I. LITERARY FREEDOM AND LITERARY ORDER II. THE FRENCH ACADEMY—PHILOSOPHY (DESCARTES)—RELIGION (PASCAL) III. THE DRAMA (MONTCHRESTIEN TO CORNEILLE) IV. SOCIETY AND PUBLIC LIFE IN LETTERS V. BOILEAU AND LA FONTAINE VI. COMEDY AND TRAGEDY—MOLIÈRE—RACINE VII. BOSSUET AND THE PREACHERS—FÉNELON VIII. TRANSITION TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY   BOOK THE FOURTH—THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY I. MEMOIRS AND HISTORY—POETRY—THE THEATRE—THE NOVEL II. MONTESQUIEU—VAUVENARGUES—VOLTAIRE III. DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA—PHILOSOPHERS, ECONOMISTS, CRITICS—BUFFON IV. ROUSSEAU—BEAUMARCHAIS—BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE—ANDRÉ CHÉNIER   BOOK THE FIFTH—1789-1850 I. THE REVOLUTION AND THE EMPIRE—MADAME DE STAËL—CHATEAUBRIAND II. THE CONFLICT OF IDEAS III. POETRY OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL IV. THE NOVEL V. HISTORY—LITERARY CRITICISM     BIBLIOGRAPHY   INDEX

BOOK THE FIRST

THE MIDDLE AGES

CHAPTER I

The literature of the Middle Ages is an expression of the spirit of feudalism and of the genius of the Church. From the union of feudalism and Christianity arose the chivalric ideals, the new courtesy, the homage to woman. Abstract ideas, ethical, theological, and those of amorous metaphysics, were rendered through allegory into art. Against these high conceptions, and the overstrained sentiment connected with them, the positive intellect and the mocking temper of France reacted; a literature of satire arose. By degrees the bourgeois spirit encroached upon and overpowered the chivalric ideals. At length the mediæval conceptions were exhausted. Literature dwindled as its sources were impoverished; ingenuities and technical formalities replaced imagination. The minds of men were prepared to accept the new influences of the Renaissance and the Reformation.

I

The oldest monument of the French language is found in the Strasburg Oaths (842); the oldest French poem possessing literary merit is the Vie de Saint Alexis, of which a redaction belonging to the middle of the eleventh century survives. The passion of piety and the passion of combat, the religious and the warrior motives, found early expression in literature; from the first arose the Lives of Saints and other devout writings, from the second arose the chansons de geste. They grew