Page images
PDF
EPUB

the foolish tendency to imitate, and the slavery in which Paris has ever held all France, soon propagated through her provinces. Concini and his followers imported a large number of Italian words, of which a few, like "courrier, cavalier, spadassin, cadenas, aviser," and others, were naturalized, whilst some, like "fillette, peccadille, bouchelette, and vermeillettre," are to be found only in contemporary authors. Charles IX., and his passionate fondness of Tasso, and Louis XIII., with his partiality for Marini, gave additional countenance to their "Courtisans Italianizants," whilst the great Cardinal, when he placed himself at the head of the French army to invade Italy, made, for his own use, the word, “Généralissime," which soon became a model for similar titles.

66

But among the many instances of the power of fashion, and its effects upon language, which French history affords, none is probably more generally known than the innovations of the “Précieuses,” of whom Molière, in his comedy of that name, has left us an exquisite picture. Some "bégueules" of the Court, and the Marais, under the protection of Marie de Mancini, made an attempt to change the orthography of a language, so that ladies might be able to write as easily and correctly as gentlemen." Of course, all other considerations were sacrificed to ease and facility, and yet the efforts of the greatest men of that age were ineffectual in resisting the power of persons whose only but efficient weapon was fashion. Editions of Corneille, Pascal, and Molière, published during that period, show the state of transition, and the efforts made to resist, for instance, the introduction of the Italian sound for the French oi. Thus Racine, in his Mithridate, still rhymes "reconnois" with

THE PRÉCIEUSES.

155

"fois," and in his Plaideurs "exploit " with "lisoit," but Courval Sinnet says already:

"Et que dirai-je plus? Il faut dire ; il allèt,
Je crè, Françès, anglais, il disèt, il parlait."

The spelling did not always follow the sound, as the present form of "crois, Français, allait," will show, but in some cases the etymologic appearance of words was entirely changed by such innovations. Thus the word "étrécir" belongs to the time when courtiers called "étroit" "étrèt," as in the verses of Fontenelle :

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

and from it derived the new verb; the latter has remained, "étroit" has recovered its original form and sound. It is well known that the caprice of Voltaire made this "ai" classic in some words, whilst others remained arbitrarily unchanged, as simple fashion or frequent use had preferred. The French say still "Danois, Suédois," because these names were much less frequently mentioned by the fashionable world, than the names of their better known neighbors, the "Anglais et Hollandais," and the name "Polonais" was left undisturbed and unaffected by fashion, simple "Polonois,” until Henry III. was chosen King of Poland, and that country and its elections became an interesting subject of conversation at court. It is to fashion, also, that the French owes its beautiful but foreign sound of the "gn"; up to the days of Lafontaine the g was, if not quite, at least

nearly silent, and thus "maligne" rhymed with "machine," "hymenée" with "assignée;" but when Louis XIII. brought home his Spanish bride, her soft and liquid pronunciation of those letters, in imitation of the Spanish ñ, was at once imitated by all courtiers and "gens de monde," and soon became a permanent sound even in French words.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

LITERATURE OPERATING ON LANGUAGE.

Poets-Dante-Luther-Predominant Dialects.

Of all such influences, however, which are brought to bear upon Language, and continue from age to age incessantly to form and fashion it, none can be considered more powerful and more improving than that exercised by the poet, the "maker” of language. Controlling a hitherto lawless tongue, checking its wild growth, freeing it from arbitrary, violent use, a Dante or a Luther may well be said to have created, or, at least to have formed a language. It matters not how rude and imperfect the dialect be, how little adapted, how unable to express what agitates the human heart and fills the aspiring mind of man, the eternal and innate idea of the Beautiful, possessed by the poet and the earnest seeker after truth, strives incessantly to gain an outward form, to bend the rough implement to its lofty purpose, and thus gradually improves, polishes, and refines the humble and imperfect instrument. The expression, it is

LANGUAGE AND POETRY.

157

well known, is not born with the idea; it is created by it. The art of the poet is, therefore, the highest art of Language, because its perfection consists in the success with which it gives to the internally revealed idea an outward form and life. Poetry knows no higher aim than to make the external form harmoniously correspond with the heaven-inspired perception, as it is reflected on the soul of the poet, and besides the requisites of intrinsic worth and a clear conception of the idea, it needs, for all practical purposes most, a harmonious form of expression.

For the poet, to be a true poet, must be able to speak to all, and not to one class of society, or to men of one way of thinking only. He must lay aside all that is foreign; for, to speak to the heart of others, his own words ought to come from the heart, and neither abstract wisdom nor scholar-like erudition will do his work. Shakspeare, who advanced English poetry more than all poets before him, knew nothing of Anglo-Saxon, never read Layamon or Wickliffe's Bible, and studied no English or Anglo-Saxon grammar, for none was then written. Martin Luther knew not that the Niebelungen Lied was in existence, and Goethe did not study Ulfilas or Otfried to write his Faust.

Even in an ancient literary language, the influence of the poet is continually felt, as he preserves its purity and refines and elevates his mother tongue. Every idiom has its purer forms and stricter constructions for the poet or the orator, by the side of a less constrained and less stately style for the fireside and the busy marts of life, where language is clipped and shortened down to the indispensable, and moves leisurely, in dressinggown and slippers, in the easy flow of familiar conversation.

At other times it is poetry, and literature generally, that decide in favor of rival dialects. Wherever many contend for supremacy, as in Germany and Italy, or, all are crowded into a space too narrow for equal development, as in the British Isles, poetry favors some, which it protects against being smothered and crowded out, as air and light will favor one branch more than others, on a thickly-grown oak. Originally, every dialect is equally capable of being developed into a national and literary language. Which of several is to obtain the supremacy over others depends not so much on their intrinsic beauty or power, as on the mental superiority or historical importance of that part of a race by which it is spoken. Thus the Saxon and the Suabian dialect contended long for the supreme rule in Germany. As Suabian or Saxon Emperors ruled the land, so the one or the other was spoken, sung, and written. The unexpected but well-founded preference of M. Luther for his native dialect soon gained for the so-called middle German an eminence, which the more richly endowed rivals have never been able to reach. Men of lofty genius and great deeds may secure immortality even to a dialect, but generally they prefer and choose the best means for their great purposes. Thus all the different dialects of Greece had once their own literature; but the Attic, employed for literary purposes much later than the Doric and Æolic, soon overcame them all, and produced the greatest works of Greek genius and Greek science.

Each author, moreover, naturally seeks that style and such forms as suit his fancy or promise to forward his purposes best. At the time of the so-called Renaissance, Rabelais, who was still upon Gallic ground, and as yet very little of the Frenchman,

« PreviousContinue »