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Toward a Definition of the French Renaissance Novel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

A. Maynor Hardee
A. Maynor Hardee*
Affiliation:
Texas Technological College
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Extract

General criticism has considered the French novel of the sixteenth century as having followed an unpiloted course, and in the majority of cases it may seem as if the average author was inspired more by the trend of popular taste than by an aesthetic code or academic instruction regarding form and technique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 15 , 1968 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1968

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References

1 ‘Piéce liminaire', L'histoire palladienne (Paris, 1955), quoted in Margaret A. Harris, A Study of Thiodose Valentiniaris Atncmt resusciti de la mort d'amour (Genève, Droz, 1966), p. 107.

2 Lesjeux, Paris, 1573, section Passetemps, p. 16, quoted in Harris, op. tit., p. 66, n. 4.

3 Oeuvres complètes, ed. A. Thibaudet et M. Rat, Bibliotheque de la Pléiade, 1965; ‘De l'institution des enfans’ (Liv. I, Ch. 26, p. 175); ‘Des livres’ (Liv. II, Ch. 10, p. 389); ‘De l'affection des peres aux enfans’ (Liv. II, Ch. 8, p. 381).

4 François de La Noue, Discourspolitique; et militaires (Baske, 1587), Discours 6; Oeuvres completes de Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantome, ed. L. Lalanne (Paris, J. Renouard, 1864-82), Liv. 8, ‘Les Dames Galantes'; Les Dialogues de Iaques Tahureau (Paris, G. Buon, 1568), Premier Dialogue.

5 Among major studies on the novel consider the following: Reynier, G., Les origines du roman realiste (Paris, Hachette, 1912)Google Scholar, Le roman réaliste au XVIIe siècle (Paris, Hachette, 1914), and Le roman sentimental avant I'Astrée (Paris, Colin, 1908); Magendie, M., Le roman francais au XVIIe siècle (Paris, Droz, 1932);Google Scholar M. Ratner, Theory and Criticism of the Novel in France from L'Astrée to 1750 (n.p., 1938); Green, F. C., French Novelists; Manners and Ideas from the Renaissance to the Revolution (London, 1928)Google Scholar; Koerting, H., Geschichte des französischen Romans XVII.Jahrhundert (Oppeln und Leipzig, Georg Maske, 1891)Google Scholar, II; G. Saintsbury, History of the French Novel (London, MacMillan, 1917), 1.

6 A demain les affaires’ (Liv. II, Ch. 4, p. 344).

7 A conviction already expressed by Rabelais in the ‘Prologue’ to both Gargantua and Pantagruel.

8 For example, Pierre Delaudun, Art poétique françois, 1597, ed. J. Dedieu (Toulouse, Facultes libres, 1909), IV, ix, 146; Jacques Amyot, ded. and ‘Aux Lecteurs’ to Les Vies des Hommes Illustres Grecs & Romains (Paris, M. de Vascosan, 1559); Pierre de Ronsard, first preface to La Franciade (Paris, G. Buon, 1572); Ronsard, third preface to La Franciade (Paris, G. Buon, 1587); Jean de La Taille, ‘De l'art de la Trag^die', pref. to Saul le Furieux (Paris, F. Morel, 1572).

9 For an analysis of Chapelain's ‘Lettre’ and discussion of his place in seventeenthcentury criticism, see ‘La Preface de Chapelain á l'Adonis’ by Bovet, E., Aus Romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen (Halle, M. Niemeyer, 1905), pp. 1–52.Google Scholar

10 See The Geography of Strabo, transl. H. L.Jones, The Loeb Classical Library (London and N.Y., 1917), Book 1, 1, 73. Though Strabo is known mainly as a geographer, his work contains many enlightening guidelines for poetry and prose, especially for the adornment of plots by combining myth and fact.

11 Amyot's preface has apparently escaped the notice of all scholars, because in a recent essay on verisimilitude in the novel before 1830 E. F. Sterling states: ‘With a single exception [Somaize], the question of the relationship between plot structure and verisimilitude was never raised, to my knowledge, before 1670.’ (“The Theory of Verisimilitude in the French Novel prior to 1830', French Review, XL [April 1967], 614). Amyot's conception of the verisimilar in the novel stresses that which is credible to the human eye or mind: ‘… comme en la pourtraicture les tableaux sont estimez les rneilleurs, & plaisent plus aux yeux á ce cognoissans, qui representent mieux la verité du naturel.’ He insists repeatedly on the ‘vray semblable apparence’ of the ‘tout ensemble', including content and art, without which a good mind will not be attracted. Works lacking this quality ‘ne sçauroient auoir la grace, ny la force de delecter le loisir d'un bon entendement.'

12 a Op. at. (Liv. II, Ch. 10, p. 392).

13 Thomas Sebilet, An Poçtique Françoys, 1548, ed. Felix Gaifle (Paris, Corçly et cie, 1910), p. 31.

14 In Octaves complètes dej. DuBellay (Paris, Revue de la Renaissance, 1903), 1, Ch. v., Pt a,31.

15 Peletier du Mans, L'Art Poëtique, 1555, ed. A. Boulanger (Paris, Belles Lettres, 1930), Liv. II, Ch. viii, p. 201.

16 Ibid., pp. 201-202.

17 ‘Reliquus tractus aequabilis, sed interruptus rerum novitate: quae tamen aut partes sint argumenti, aut ad ipsum pertineant.’ Poetices libri septem (Ioannem Crispinum, 1561), Ch. xcvi, col. 1, p. 144.

18 Ed. crit. par G. Pellissier (Paris, Gamier, 1885), Liv. II, vv. 263-264, 267-268. Though Vauquelin does not specify any particular novels, he is probably referring to those which followed the ab ovo development where the whole story was spun out in chronological order which, according to Scaliger, is more likely to induce boredom than the artistic expression and structure found in the in medias res and simultaneous episodes in Hehodorus. Ronsard had also distinguished between an artistic arrangement and the chronological ‘de fil en fil, comme les historiens', in the ‘Au Lecteur’ of his Franciade, 1572.

19 On translations and influences of foreign novels in France at this time see G. Reynier, Les origines du ronton realiste and Le ronton sentimental avant l;Astrée; M. Magendie, Du nouveau sur l'Astrée.

20 One must remain aware of the basic differences in form of the ‘roman’ and the 'conte', but for the needs of nationalizing the romanesque prose genre in this period writers of these two forms concurred.

21 ‘Qu'est-il done besoin de mendier chez les anciens, les tesmoignages des effects de 1'amour… ?’ His answers are clear: ‘Les temps ont pour fils legitimes des subiects modenies qui ne mandient rien de 1'antiquity pour enrichir la posterity.’ And further, ‘Ce que le passe1 a peu offiir, nous le pouuions dormer, & s'il a eu quelque chose de remarquable, nous en auons de recommandable, & n'a rien eu de si rare, que nous n'ayons de precieux.' La Regnerye at the beginning of his Amours de Lintason ... (1601) explains the problem thus: ‘… bien qu'il n'y aye auiourd'huy nation au monde de laquelle le Francois en doiue mandier, pour les rares euenemens, qui naissent tous les iours parmy nous, tant des effects de la fortune, que de l'Amour. Ce n'est pas que nous n'ayons des yeux pour les voir, mais peu s'en seruent, tant ce vice de curiosite’ … est bien-venu chez nous.'

22 Noël du Fail, Propos mstiques (1547), Balivemeries d'Eutrapel (1548), Contes et Discours d'Eutrapel (1585); Guillaume Bouchet, Series (Liv. 1, 1584; n, 1597; III, 1598).

23 L'Acadimie de l'Art Poëtique (Paris, 1610), pp. 253-254.

24 Reynier, , Le toman sentimental avant l'Astrëe (Paris, Colin, 1908), p. 272, n I.Google Scholar