Contemporary French Literature

Contemporary French LiteratureNouveaux Essais de Littérature Contemporaine by Georges PellissierReview by: F. M. WarrenModern Language Notes, Vol. 10, No. 6 (Jun., 1895), pp. 180-185Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2918674 .

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359 June, 1895. MODERN LANGUA GE NOTES. Vol. x, No. 6. 360

*Dominicellum-dameisel. This word must be excluded, since the Folk-

Latin form was domnus, ifalling between mn-n; the compound would naturally be built on the popular form. This explains the presence of the e in dameisel, the mnu requiring a support- ing vowel.

Pitiditatem-pute6,3o nitiditatem-nete6, 30 *arboriscellum-arbroissel, *nidificare-nicher, *planiturosum-plantureux,31 *auctoricare-ot- tieiier.32

3. Words combounded withi prepfosilions. This list includes only those compounded

forms which have not the simplex as an inde- pendent word in French. In every case the development indicates that the secondary accent was on the first syllable of the last mem- ber. *Allecticare--allecher,*apprivitiare--apprivoi-

ser, *assMditare-assetter, *attitulare(?)-atteler *delAbulare - d6lTbrer, *exfundulare - effon- drer, *expandicare-epancher, *expufliciare- 6pucer, *exp0ventare-6paventer, *exradicare -esraichier, impddicare-empecher, intami- nare-entamer, *imprumutuare - emprunter, interrogare-enterver, recuperare-recouvrer, reprobicare-reprocher, ad rnint(ern) habere amentevoir.33 4. Words co;iforrning to the accent law bud

futrnishinig onaly negative evidence, since th'ey are exf licab5le by analogy. *Aureleanensis-Orlenois, (cf. Orleans), *Vi-

gilantivus-Veillantif, (cf. veiller), *expflficare -6plucher (cf. expildicat),34 *pedltlcVi1are-p6- tiller (cf. pediticuilat), *movyftinare-mutiner35 (cf. movitfnat), *soll1citare-soucier (cf. solli- citat), joculatorem-jogleor (cf. nom. joglere), predYcatorem-pr6cheur (cf. precher), semaina-

3o For the seeming exception to Darmesteter's Law, cf. Darmies., 1. C., p. I50.

3I The i in this word presents a violation of Darmesteter's Law that indicates it is half-learned.

32 This word seems to indicate that the second pretonic fell before the protonic. This last then remains as a support- ing vowel. Mr. Darmesteter, 1. c., p. 153, explains the word from a third pers. sing. ezuclorcaft, bhit there is no sufficient reason for the accent in this form to rest on the penult.

33 Cited because the parts do not develop as if they were separate words.

34 Wlhere the i, being protonic, falls.

35 For the u, cf. naulin.

torem-semeur (cf. semer), med'camentum,- megement, *medicaticium, megeis, *medica- trissam,-megerisse (cf. meges). 5. Words lizal throwv no light on the qneslion,

but offer no ofifosilion to initial accentua- tion. C6nqulsltionem-cuisengon, *gravamenatare

-guermenter, *inv6luftuare-envelopper, orn- pelargum-orpres, aedificare-aigier, friuct'fi- care-frotigier, *frigidulosum-frileux.

The last word, in spite of its irregularity, would point to initial accent were it not that we should write it *frtigdulosuiin (cf. dominicellum, szura, col. 359, 1. I, aInd so it has only two pretonic syllables.

Our discussion thus far has included only words with three pretonic syllables. What of those that have more ? I lhave found only five such words, and they are worthless as test words:

*Apparicuflare-appareiller (cf. pareil), *ped- iticutlare-p6tiller (cf. 3rd person sing.),*exped- ticiAlare-6pouiller (cf. 3rd person sing.), *ex- aequactilare-6gailler (cf. 3rd person sing.), *excollufbricare-escolorgier (cf. 3rd person sing.).

We have now completed the list of words that bear on the question and find that the law fits all cases arising under it. But, after all, its main feature, initial accent, was annoulnced by Mr. Meyer-Luibke several years ago. Yet it is since then that Darmesteter's grammar, positinlg binary accent, appeared, and that Schwan, in the second edition of his grammar, reasserted his theory. In view of this, and especially as none of the evidence in the matter had been givenl, I have deemed this examination of the question justifiable. If it has confirmed one of the theories already an- nounced, I am glad that such is the case rather than to add a nlew theory to the list already too large.

E. C. ARMSTRONG. Jotins Hopkins Unziversily.

CO NTEMPORAR Y FRENCH LI ITERA- TURE.

Nouveazix essais de lilliralure conltempo- rainie, by GEORGES PELLISSIER. Paris: I895. i8mO, 382 pp.

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36r June, 1895. MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. Vol. x, No. 6. 362

IN this second volume of essays Pellissier considers the work of Alfred de Vigny, the Younger Dumas, Taine, Zola, J. H. Rosny, Marcel Pr6vost, Abel Hermant, Paul Bourget, Paul Hervieu, Jules Lemaitre, Loti and Ana- tole France. The scope of his treatment varies from a discussion of the author as re- presented in his entire writings (de Vigny, Dumas, Rosny, Hermant, France) to the review of his latest productions (Zola, Pr6vost, Bourget). De Vigny, whom we did not ex- pect to find among contemporary authors, appears here on account of his alleged relations to the symbolist school, while Taine receives a passing mention in connection with his standards of literary criticism.

Of the genuine contemporaries Rosny, who supports the plots of his books with erudition fuirnished by the natural sciences, Prevost, who attained temporary notoriety by his argument against the " Americanizing " of French manners, or nmorals (Demni- Vierges), Her- mant, whilom disciple of Zola, now in revolt and a psychologist, or anatomist of the mental attributes of man; and Hervieu,whose sketches of fashionable society have extended his repu- tation beyond local limits, are still to be classed among the second or even third-rate writers, and as such possess few attractions for foreigners. France and Lemaitre may be more rightfully studied as critics; but it is in their capacity as novelists that they are re- viewed here, Lemaitre in his story les Rois- partly " philosophical " and partly idyllic, and interesting principally for the way it reflects the personality of its author-France, under the plea he himself presents, that " criticism is a kind of novel-writing, since every novel is an autobiography." Pellissier's remarks on this eclectic wit (" delicious sophist " he terms him) are among the keenest and most judicious of the collection. They form also one of its longest chapters.

There remain, after these deductions, four authors, the most prominent, the most widely read at home and abroad, Dumas fils, Zola, Bourget and Loti. The first of these and the oldest in years, Dumas has recently published an essay on the status of the modern family,and this paper occasions Pellissier's study of Du- mas' attitude towards the family in his dramas.

When Dumas first appealed to the suifrages of a Parisian audience, he had already made his choice of subject and decided on the tendency of his life-work. He had determined to bring before his nation in the most effective way, appealing both to the ear and eye, the unnatural pass to which the laws governing the relations of the family among its members had brought that nation, or rather the society of the nation. Since these laws deviated from the laws of nature, and were no longer based oni the foundations of justice, he would devote all his energies to their inodification, and to a warfare with the conventionalities which sup- ported them. By obtaining their recasting, so that they should conform to the natural ties of man, he would thus redeem society and insure its perpetuity. Consequently, Dumas is not to be regarded as a revolutionary agitator, but as a prudent conservative. His first plays re- vealed his doctrine: Love which conitinued outside of wedlock was vain, contrary to the decrees of nature; nor could the courtesan, however deep her repentance and pure her affection, hope for an honorable union in this life, to the detriment of the family (la Dame aux came'lias). The same reasoning under somewhat different circumstances-the woman being older, having been once married and seeking to fortify her new respectability with another marriage-obtains in le Demi- Monde.

Later, the other side of the question is brought forward, and the young girl who has erred through ignorance or deceit may redeem herself, and take her place among the matrons of the land (les ZdEes de Nme Au- bray, I)enise). Even the wife, who hides for the child's sake a sini antecedent to her marriage, may receive a full pardon from a just husband (Monsieur Alphonse). But the pun- ishment of the adulterer of either sex is swift and sure (la Femmnze de Claude, la Princesse Georges,l'tlIrang?re,Francillon). Finally,the father's duty towards hlis illegitimate offspring is emphatically proclaimed (le Fils nalurel).

Any one familiar with Frenich social prejudices, with the laws governing the responsi- bilities of unmarried parents-where all the burdens are thrown upoIn the women-and with the traditions of the French drama (most

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363 Junze, 1895. MfODERN LANG UA GE NO TES. Vol. x, No. 6. 364

important of all in the present case), will understand what a task Dumas set for himself. Pellissier sees in this long struggle, lastinig a whole generation, the desire of the dra- matist to defend the interest of society:

" le seul interet qui le preoccupe, c'est l'in- te'ret sup6rieur de la socie't, et commne la soci6te a potur base la famille, c'est atn releve- ment de lesprit familial qu'il a partotit et tou- jouirs travaill6" (p. 93).

Btut we are inclined to differ somewhat fr-om our critic, and find back of this desire some- tlhinig more personal, more intimlate. DuLmas' oWtv position as regards society, the muLtual relationis of his parents, the Bohemian circle outside of social barriers in which his youith was passed, the impression mcade upoIn hiis mind by the fate of Marie Duplessis (MNaroule- rite GaLltier), are niot these the determiniing motives for hiis unremittiing assaults oni lhumian conventionialities, where they lhad grown axway i from natuLre ? Aniother man in the sanme situl- ationi would very likely have become ani eniemy of society. But Dumas is a logician above everything, and also an observer. He couLld, beinig comlfortable in material thinigs (for vei-y few niihilists are finianicially at ease), separate himiiself from-l hiis tlhenme. Thus enabled to see I botlh si(les of the quiestioi, lhe can argue pa- i tienitly for the modificationi of social statUtes anid opinlionls. Therefore, he is nlot ac destroyer of the presenit social statuLs, buLt a reformer of it. That he nlowv thinkls the famiiily in a disinite gr-atinig state, anid looks forward to its Llltimate blending with hUmanity may, perhiaps, be placed to the credit of socialistic theories, thouLgh I ratlier stuspect it is mainly duLe to the chaniges wrought in Frenlclh society by the inivasioni of Aniglo-Saxoni conceptions of family relationis.

Du)nmas (lefendcls society as he WoUld liave it Zola is indcliffer-enit to it, posing nieitlher as its detractor nor advocator, bUt as a delinieator of its latter-day passions. Pellissier, in clealinig witlh this wr-iter, conisidlers onily la flebacle anid le Docle7u- Pascal. Buit sinice the latter had beeni lheralded by the novelist as the croxvwniiig volumne of his work, anid in fact closed the long series of the RouLgonI-MacqUart, it may very well be taken as ani epitome of the wvhole. Pellissier naturally looks upon it ini this li gut,

and welcomes the opportunity of discussing Zola's propositioni uniderlyinig the series: the influelnce of heredity oni the differenit members of the samne family groLup. It is niow nearly a quarter of a cenittury sinice Zola formulated this law for his work, and thouglh the ideas oni whiclh it vas based h-ave become somewlhat trite, have reached the state of accepted be- liefs anid are assignied to their place in the genieral mass of hlUman coniceptionis, yet the RouLgon-Macquiart family hlas conitinutied to develop almost wholly along these niovel (to 1870) linies. T o be sture, Pellissier finids little trouLble in tracinig the inifluence of otlher opinlionls onl the leadinig one. From the position of a pas- sioniless positivist that death is the enid of existenice, Zola lhas advaniced to the state of ani inquirer inito the meaninlg of life, lookinig beyond the fact, (Iwellinig oni the mystery. Pascal is at timiies a (lisciple of occultism even .

Still the typical positivist, personified by this unllcertaini plhysiciani, overcomiies the mystic, typified by hiis wvard, by initiatin-g her inito thie dletails of her family history-a conversion not at all plauisible to thie reacler. It seemiis ratlher like begginig the enitire quLestioni. And it is possible that Zola himl.self is conlscious of of hiis sleight-of-lhanid victory, for in le iDocfe/r Ptasc(al lhe brinigs forwvard more definiitely andcl per-sistenitly thani ever before hlis thleory of the good, the moral good, attainied by the nmere continuity of physical life. Cani it be that thie supreme good of the Rouigon-Mac- quLart series is life? Life niot in its living, bLut in its tranismiiissioni, the imiere SLuccessioll of geinerationis, soii following on father? This is the lessoni of le Docleurii Pascal. 13y the tranis- milissioin of life, the mlost decided positivist is made comparatively immortal, coexistenit with the earthi and(- the animiials it breeds. And in this creationi of niew lives, this propagation of the species, virtue anid vice are reconciled.

Mly attenltioni wk-as first drawn to this new conception of the nlovelist's by the concluLIdilng chapters of Geiminaj l. 'T'lhe hope wlhichi tlhei-e a)pears, the hIope of tlle uLltimllate triump)h of thie righit, thlrouLgh thle pr-ogressionl of hlUmanity, stood oLut ill distinict colors wviieni contrasted to the moral that sin is (leatlh of l'Assomz)noii- and Nan,a. After 6cimiinal the original (loc-

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365 June, I895. MODERN LANGGUAGE No TES. Vol. x, No. 6. 366

trine was taken up again by la TeriYe and la BPRe hiunaine. With l'Arg,enl, however, the dogma of worldly immortality reappears, is transmitted to la D,bacle and applied to the regeneration of a people, and, finally, is ex- panded into a Zolaesque code of ethics in le Docteur Pascal. It is the great man of the family,who would naturally affirm most strong- ly the first idea of the series, that qualifies it and undermines it with this phantom of a con- tinued life beyond the grave, but on the earth: an earthly life the result of earthly affection.

This position is not positivism, as we under- stanid it, yet it cannot be considered as in itself alien to Zola's belief in heredity. His preface to la Fortune des Rotugon dated July Ist, 1871 is hlis manifesto:

"Je veux expliquer comment une famille . se comporte dans une soci&t6 en s'epa-

nouissant . . Je tacherai de trouver et de suivre, en r6solvant la double question des temp6raments et des milieux, le fil qui conduit math6matiquement d'un homme 'a un autre homme . . ." The last creation is, however, to be an exception to the rule, and Pascal is to study his family traits, as though he were niot of it. The source of Zola's inspiration is evident. He is a true disciple of Taine. He desired, like his master, to apply to man the undeviating rules of nature, "math6matiquement" as he says. Anid he adhered to this, in the maill, most uncompromisinigly. Even after Germi- nal, in P(iEuvre, where the opportunity to anticipate the leading principle of le Docteur Pascal presented itself! he resisted the temp- tation, anid closed the volume with " allons travailler," as the panacea for right and wrong.

More recently he broadens his view. The legacy of life is essential to the fact of heredity. Therefore the tranismiiission of life is the chief duLty of man-provided he allows the de- sirability of continiued human existence-and also the ethics of the Rougon-Macquart, just as the law of temperaments and environment was its psychology. The bearing of this doctrine on practical morality is direct, and the cu)nsequenice somewhat startling. For it would place the vicious and the virttuous on the same planie, and would jlstify them both by their success in propagatinlg their kind. Thus conI-

duct and character are effectually removed from the field of moral science. Still,we must endeavor to read between the lines in this matter, and release our novelist from the strict application of his doctrine. For it is quite possible that he really intends to uphold the evolutionist theory of evil, and look for the gradual disappearance of wrong, worn away by the continuationi of life through countless generations.

But, as the facts stand, Zola is guilty in his crowning volume of a persistent self-conitradic- tioni. He choses to consider men as aniimals merely-indeed the dumb beast is our elder brother-and allows no difference between man and the other forms of animal life. In other words, he nieglects the peculiarities of the species, its sympathies, prejudices, manners, ideals. He sets his best man and best woman in the midst of an organized society, and makes them live like isolated savages on a desert island. They violate the principle of the family, as Dumas would claim, and in ne- glecting the formal observance of human customs (or the requirements of nature herself?) they are ostracised, ruined, starved out. And all this, not for the sake of principle, because they believe marriage is contrary to the interest of mankinid, but from indolenice, ne- glect, "innocence," perhaps Zola would say. It is this stripping man of the usual, ordinary attributes of the species that leads some to condemn Zola's whole program as thie reverse of " natural " and " scientific. " He takes a general law of nature, and applies it without reservations or modifications to the most ex- ceptional, indepenidenit type known in nature. But is there anything in the world pure, un- modified ? Light even comes to us through a medium.

From Zola to Bourget is not a long step. Botlh are naturalists, followers of Taine, posi- tivists. Only Bourget is a mental naturalist usually, while Zola is generally a physical one. One of Bourget's recent books (Cosmobolis) rather approaches Zola's standpoint of view, and analyzes the influence of heredity on personages that are typical each of its nation. It is a refined, interniationial Pot BouWille-with all deference to Bourget.

Still with the greater nulmber of Bourget's

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367 june, I895. MODERN I AATGUAGE NOTES. Vol. x, No. 6. 368

characters the study of individual emotions and experienices predominates. The dissec- tion of the minds of his heroes and heroines is his chief occupation; and the motives which actuate them the object of his re- searches. In the earlier novels this was the end of the story. But the later ones are yield- ing to the new tendency of coniverting their sinners, and do not close until they are safely within the fold of the church. Onie of the books that Pellissier reviews (Terre pr-omtzise) is slightly more complicated, and chooses for its plot one of Dtumas' favorite problems-the claims of the natural child on its father.

rhe question, which natuLrally arises in re- gard to BouLrget's new view, is how deep this religious sentiment goes, how fruitful fronm the spirituLal stanidpoint are these conversions. All the evidence at hand wouLld indicate a literary fad, rather than a heart-felt longing. The persual of Bourget's novels tenids not to edi- fication. He puts before us a picture of sinl, analyzinig the desires and tlhoughts of his characters, who are actuated mainly by sen- sual emotions. When these emotions are exhausted, when the sinners are thoroughly disillusionied with the world and bored with life, then the novelist varies their miionotony by opening to thiem the portals of the chtirch. That thie sinners are comparatively youtlhful wvhen converted is no merit at all, since they hiave lived fast and ruLn throtug all the physical sensations possible.

Pellissier sees in this twofold direction of BoLurget's more recent stories the working of a tender hieart upon a scientific nind. Pos- sibly there nmay also be in it the echo of the lhumanitarianisnm whliclh was proclaimed by the Russian novelists, or even the inevitable reaction againist the creeds of positivisnm and natuLralism. And possibly also it may come from Bourget himself, anid represent a genuinie belief on hiis part in the efficacy of riglhteouls- ness and faith. Le Ci-inie d'arnoutrproclaime(d the redenmption of sinners througlh pity, wlhile le Disciple slhowed a convert by reasoni. It miay be that a futLure voluLnme (Tere peromise contains one original, unstained believer) will take up this qLuestion of nman's relations to his fellowmeni and hlis Creator, atnd by the process of ancalysis disclose to uIS the workings of a

pure and upright soul, bent on the evangeli zation of the family and society. A chlampior of the Churclh militanit would not be an un- welcome character in a pyschological novel

Bourget is an observer, a stuident of man out, side of himself. Loti is also an observer, bul an observer who is mainily cotncerned with his ownl emotions. Like Bourget and Zola he isa naturalist in his methods. Unllike them he shares in the sentiments he portrays, lives the life of his characters, breathes inito them, whatever their conidition anid station, his own aspirations anid his own terrors. For Loti kinows the meanitng of terror-this is the theeme of Pellissier's review-and that terror is the one ever presenit with humnianity, the terror of deatlh. It is, perhaps, this overwlhelnm- ing senise of the transitoriniess of all thinigs wlhich nmakes Loti the writer that lhe is, indeed makes him a writer at all, as Pellissier would claim. For besides his marvelous aptitucle for reflecting the outside world, the linies and hlues of nature and art, to a degree of accuracy wlhich can hardly be surpassed by the clevices of photographic art itself, lhe lhas the facUlty of casting arouLnd these reproduLctions of facts a shade of melancholy, of retrospect and forebocling, which niever fails to react oni the puLlse of lhis reader, however commoni andI ordinary reason and scienice may deenm the tlheme. I only wonder that Loti has not been enrolled by force amonig the symbolists, so great is the twofold impression of fact anid yearning that his words create.

Whlat is the burdeni of this sceptic's sonig? The truism that we die wlhile living, that every fleeting moment bears somethlinlg of ourselves away, and every departure of friend or ac- dlLainitanice, every removal of habode, destroys a certaini portion of ouLr personality. This we all know and accept more or less consciously, looking forwvard to a life beyond, eternally complete. Not so with Loti. He knows, be- lieves nothinig beyond the grave. For hiim deathl is oblivion, the vital spirit a part of the ambient air into whlich it vaniislhes. From SuIclh a clestiniy lhe shrinks-for he is no stoic- with sickening dread. It wouLld be less paini- fuLl to himii to allow a compromise, to favor the fancies of occuLltisnm or take refuge in the sur- vival of the species, truLsting to the laws of

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369 J?ne, 1895. MODERN LANGGUA GE NOTES. Vol. x, N'o. 6. 370

heredity for some slight existence through the coming generations. Bsut he rejects all these comforts. He refuses to believe what he cannot see. The passing moments, the seasons gliding by, the day life of summer insects, the longer existence of the larger animals, all remind him that his end comes sooni (le Livre de la Pifi el de la Mort). For they all are a part of him through his contact with them.

To save what he can of himself from de- strtiction (Pellissier's argument), Loti turns in desperation to literatuire. And what he con- signs of himself to the more enduring sub- stance of books he considers, at least for a time, as rescued from annihilation. Here is the key to Loti's writings. They are autobio- graphies, in fact if not in name, descriptions of the different phases of the author's career) the places he has visited, the people he has met, the joys and sorrows he has occasioned or shared. Even his dreams are not disre- garded in this category of emotions. Througl all the changes of such a varied existence, tinging all these pictures of phenomena and art, runs the stream of his great, absorbing pity, pity for the brute beasts which die under his eyes, pity for Sylvestre and Gaud and Aziyad6, pity for springtime and autumn, pity above all for himself. He pities humanity, he suffers at the thought of humanity's earthly goal, but he pities and suffers obstinately, re- fusing succor. He adheres to facts. He im- parts to facts symbols for this life. He denies to them symbols for a life beyond. By this constancy to his belief in the annihilation of the soul, in the similarity of man and beast, Loti remains today almost the only prominent defender of positivism aind naturalism in literature. Even Dumas, who in the succes- sive plays of his theatre did not swerve fronm the formula he had adopted at the outset, has doubts of his future state, anid adnmits, indeed hopes, that some day he may be restored to that father, from whom it has been his lasting regret that he was separated (' Epitre " at the head of les T7rois Mouts uzte1aires).

It would be rather difficult to draw a genieral moral from this new collection of Pellis- sier's, or even to coinjecture from a study of these four leading writers what tendencies are to characterize the literature of the immediate

future. They all belong to the past. Their inspiration came from that wave of scientific investigation and deduction which submerged Europe during the reign of the Third Napol- eon. That wave-so much their writings and indecisions teach-has now spent its force. It will apparently bear no other author to honor and renown, and as yet it has had no follower. The fluctuations of the later writers, Rosny, Herniant, Lemaitre, France (to cite only from Pellissier), their seekings for something new, or their eclecticism and opportunism, amply prove that no new ideas have come to arouse the sleeping forces of literature. Wheii the ideas do come there will be no seeking, no hesitations, no quackery. Fads will have had their day. And poets will sing, dramatists plan, novelists portray as the colnsenisus of humani opinion compels them.

F. M. WARREN. Adelbert College.

OLD FRENCH TEXTS,

L'Espurgaloire Sehil Pairiz of Marie de France. An Old-French Poem of the twelfth century, published with an Intro- duction and a Study of the language of the author. Dissertation presented to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, by THOMAS ATKIN-

SON JENKINS. Philadelphia: Press of Alfred J. Ferris, I894. Svo, pp. vi, I51.

WITH comparative rapidity the little band of widely scattered students of Romance philol- ogy in America are coming to cherish a feeling of espril de corps, are beginninig to recognize that there exists in this country somethinig of a fellowship of kindred minds into which may be welcomed with cordiality younlger aspirants for the honors and (can we say ?) emoluments of a department of University activity pecul- iarly remote from the practical applications of daily life. Into such a fellowship, by the present well-chosen, well-conceived, and well- executed piece of work, Dr. Jenkinis (who will not resent being classed among the younger scholars, since his " Vita " informs us that he was born in i868) has shown good and sufficient reason to be welcomed. Nor is the free-

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