Frederic Mistral Part 8

In connection with the revival of all these dialects the opinion of two men, eminent in the science of education, is of the greatest interest.

Eugene Lintilhac approves the view of a professor of Latin, member of the Inst.i.tute, who had often noticed the superiority of the peasants of the frontier regions over those from the interior, and who said, "It is not surprising, do they not pa.s.s their lives translating?" Michel Breal considers the patois a great help in the study of the official language, on the principle that a term of comparison is necessary in the study of a language. As between Provencal and French this comparison would be between words, rather than in syntax. Often the child's respect for his home would be increased if he sees the antiquity of the speech of his fireside; if, as Breal puts it, he is shown that his dialect conforms frequently to the speech of Henri IV or St. Louis. "If the province has authors like Jasmin, Roumanille, or Mistral, let the child read their books from time to time along with his French books; he will feel proud of his province, and will love France only the more. The clergy is well aware of this power of the native dialect, and knows how to turn it to account, and your culture is often without root and without depth, because you have not recognized the strength of these bonds that bind to a locality. The school must be fast to the soil and not merely seem to be standing upon it. There need be no fear of thereby shaking the authority of the official language; the necessity of the latter is continually kept in sight by literature, journalism, the administration of government."

The revival of this speech could not fail to interest lovers of literature. If not a lineal descendant, it is at least a descendant, of the language that centuries ago brought an era of beauty and light to Europe, that inspired Dante and Petrarch, and gave to modern literatures the poetic forms that still bear their Provencal names. The modern dialect is devoted to other uses now; it is still a language of brightness and sunshine, graceful and artistic, but instead of giving expression to the conventionalities of courtly love, or tending to soften the natures of fierce feudal barons, it now sings chiefly of the simple, genuine sentiments of the human heart, of the real beauties of nature, of the charm of wholesome, outdoor life, of healthy toil and simple living, of the love of home and country, and brings at least a message of hope and cheer at a time when greater literatures are burdened with a weight of discouragement and pessimism.

[Footnote 5: The edition of _Mireio_ published by Lemerre in 1886 contains an _Avis sur la p.r.o.nonciation provencale_ wherein numerous errors are to be noted. Here the statement is made that _all the letters are p.r.o.nounced_; that _ch_ is p.r.o.nounced _ts_, as in the Spanish word _muchacho_. The fact about the p.r.o.nunciation of the _ch_ is that it varies in different places, having at Maillane the sound _ts_, at Avignon, for instance, the sound in the English _chin_. It is stated further on that _ferramento_, _capello_, _febre_, are p.r.o.nounced exactly like the Italian words _ferramento_, _capello_, _febbre_. The truth is that they are each p.r.o.nounced somewhat differently from the Italian words. Provencal knows nothing of double consonants in p.r.o.nunciation, and the vowels are not precisely alike in each pair of words.

Later this sentence occurs: "Dans les triphthongues, comme _biais_, _piei_, _vuei_, _niue_, la voix doit dominer sur la voyelle intermediaire, tout en faisant sentir les autres." Only the first two of these four words contain a triphthong. _Vuei_ is a descending diphthong, the _ue_ representing the French _eu_. _Niue_ offers the same two vowel sounds inverted, with the stress on the second.

Lastly, the example is given of the name Jeuse. It is spelled without the accent mark, and the reader is led to infer that it is p.r.o.nounced as though it were a French name. Here the _eu_ is a diphthong. The first vowel is the French _e_, the second the Italian _u_. The stress is on the first vowel.]

CHAPTER IV

THE VERSIFICATION OF THE FeLIBRES

The versification of the Felibres follows in the main the rules observed by the French poets. As in all the Romance languages the verse consists of a given number of syllables, and the number of stressed syllables in the line is not constant. The few differences to be noted between French verse and Provencal verse arise from three differences in the languages.

The Provencal has no _e mute_, and therefore all the syllables theoretically counted are distinctly heard, and the masculine and the feminine rhymes are fully distinguished in p.r.o.nunciation. The new language possesses a number of diphthongs, and the unaccented part of the diphthong, a _u_ or an _i_, const.i.tutes a consonant either before or after a vowel in another word, being really a _w_ or a _y_. This prevents hiatus, which is banished from Provencal verse as it is from French, and here again theory and practice are in accord, for the elision of the _e mute_ where this _e_ follows a vowel readmits hiatus into the French line, and no such phenomenon is known to the Provencal.

Thirdly, the stressed syllable of each word is strongly marked, and verse exists as strongly and regularly accentual as in English or German. This is seen in the numerous poems written to be sung to an air already existing. The accents in these pieces fall with the rhythmic beat the English ear is accustomed to and which it so misses on first acquaintance with French verse. A second consequence of this stronger stress is that verse is written without rhyme; the entire _Poem of the Rhone_ is written in ten-syllable feminine verses unrhymed.

"O tems di viei d'antico bounoumio, Que lis oustau avien ges de sarraio E que li gent, a Coundrieu coume au nostre, Se gatihavon, au caleu per rire!"

(Canto I.)

Mistral has made use of all the varieties of verse known to the French poets. One of the poems in the _Isclo d'Or_ offers an example of fourteen-syllable verse; it is called _L'Amiradou_ (The Belvedere). Here are the first two stanzas:--

"Au casteu de Tarascoun, i'a 'no reino, i'a 'no fado Au casteu de Tarascoun I'a 'no fado que s'escound.

"Aqueu que ie durbira la presoun ounte es clavado Aqueu que ie durbira Beleu elo l'amara."[6]

We may note here instances of the special features of Provencal versification mentioned above. The _i_ in _i'a_, the equivalent of the French _il y a_, is really a consonant. This _i_ occurs again in the fourth of the lines quoted, so that there is no hiatus between _que_ and _ie_. In like manner the _u_ of _beleu_, in the last line, stands with the sound of the English _w_ between this and _elo_. The _e_ of _ounte_ is elided. It will be observed that there is a caesura between the seventh and eighth syllables of the long line, and that the verse has a marked rhythmic beat, with decided trochaic movement,--

/_u/_u/_u/_|/_u/_u/_u/_u

In his use of French Alexandrine, or twelve-syllable verse, Mistral takes few liberties as to caesura. No ternary verses are found in _Mireio_, that is, verses that fall into three equal parts. In general, it may be said that his Alexandrines, except in the play _La Reino Jano_, represent the cla.s.sical type of the French poets. To be noted, however, is the presence of feminine caesuras. These occur, not theoretically or intentionally, but as a consequence of p.r.o.nunciation, and are an additional beauty in that they vary the movement of the lines. The unstressed vowel at the hemistich, theoretically elided, is p.r.o.nounced because of the natural pause intervening between the two parts of the verse.

"Per ouliva tant d'aubre!--Hu, tout ac se fai!"

(Mireio, Canto I.)

In one of the divisions of _Lou Tambour d'Arcolo_ (The Drummer of Arcole), the poet uses ten-syllable verse with the caesura after the sixth syllable, an exceedingly unusual caesura, imitated from the poem _Girard de Roussillon_.

"Ah! lou pichot tambour | devengue flri!

Davans touto l'arma | --do en plen souleu, Per estela soun front | d'un rai de glri," etc.

Elsewhere he uses this verse divided after the fourth syllable, and less frequently after the fifth.

The stanza used by Mistral throughout _Mireio_ and _Calendau_ is his own invention. Here is the first stanza of the second canto of _Mireio_:--

"Cantas, cantas, magnanarello, Que la culido es cantarello!

Galant soun li magnan e s'endormon di tres: Lis amourie soun plen de fiho Que lou beu tems escarrabiho, Coume un vu de bloundis abiho Que raubon sa melico i roumanin dou gres."

This certainly is a stanza of great beauty, and eminently adapted to the language. Mistral is exceedingly skilful in the use of it, distributing pauses effectively, breaking the monotony of the repeated feminine verses with enjambements, and continuing the sense from one stanza to the next. This stanza, like the language, is pretty and would scarcely be a suitable vehicle for poetic expression requiring great depth or stateliness. Provencal verse in general cannot be said to possess majesty or the rich _orchestral_ quality Brunetiere finds in Victor Hugo. Its qualities are sweetness, daintiness, rapidity, grace, a merry, tripping flow, great smoothness, and very musical rhythm.

_Mireio_ contains one ballad and two lyrics in a measure differing from that of the rest of the poem. The ballad of the _Bailiff Suffren_ has the swing and movement a sea ballad should possess. The stanza is of six lines, of ten syllables each, with the caesura after the fifth syllable, the rhymes being _abb, aba_.

"Lou Baile Sufren | que sus mar coumando."

In the third canto occurs the famous song _Magali_, so popular in Provence. The melody is printed at the end of the volume. Mireio's prayer in the tenth canto is in five-syllable verse with rhymes _abbab_.

The poems of the _Isclo d'Or_ offer over eighty varieties of strophe, a most remarkable number. This variety is produced by combining in different manners the verse lengths, and by changes in the succession of rhymes. Whatever ingenuity Mistral has exercised in the creation of rhythms, the impression must not be created that inspiration has suffered through attention to mechanism, or that he is to be cla.s.sed with the old Provencal versifiers or those who flourished in northern France just before the time of Marot. Artifice is always strictly subordinated, and the poet seems to sing spontaneously. No violence is ever done to the language in order to force it into artificial moulds, there is no punning in rhymes, there is nothing that can be charged against the poet as beneath the real dignity of his art.

Let us look at some of the more striking of these verse forms. The second of _Li Cansoun, Lou Bastimen_, offers the following form:--

"Lou bastimen ven de Maiorco Eme d'arange un cargamen: An courouna de verdi torco L'aubre-mestre don bastimen: Urousamen Ven de Maiorco Lou bastimen."[7]

This stanza reproduces in the sixth line the last word of the first, and in the seventh the last word of the fourth.

An excellent example of accentual verse set to an already existing melody is seen in _Li Bon Prouvencau_. The air is:--

"Si le roi m'avait donne Paris, sa grand ville."

We quote the first stanza:--

"Boufo, au siecle mounte sian Uno auro superbo Que vu faire ren qu'un tian De touti lis erbo: Nautri, li bon Prouvencau Aparan lou viei casau Ounte fan l'aleto Nsti dindouleto."[8]

This poem scans itself with perfect regularity, and the rhythm of the tune is evident to the reader who may never have heard the actual music.

The stanza of _La Tourre de Barbentano_ is as follows:--

"L'Evesque d'Avignoun, Mounsen Grimau, A fa basti 'no tourre a Barbentano Qu' enrabio vent de mar e tremountano E fai despoutenta l'Esprit dou mau.

a.s.segurado Sus lou roucas Forto e carrado Escounjurado Porto au souleu soun front bouscas: Mememen i fenestro, dins lou cas Que vouguesse lou Diable intra di vitro, A fa Mounsen Grimau grava sa mitro."[9]

Here is a stanza of _Lou Renegat_:--

"Jan de Gounfaroun, pres per de coursari, Dins li Janissari Set an a servi: Fau, enc di Turc, ave la coudeno Facho a la cadeno Emai au rouvi."[10]

The stanza employed in _La Cadeno de Moustie_ is remarkable in having only one masculine and one feminine rhyme in its seven lines:--

"Presounie di Sarrasin, Engimbra coume un caraco, Em' un calot cremesin Que lou blanc souleu eidraco, En virant la pouso-raco, Rico-raco, Blaca.s.set pregavo ansin."[11]

The "roumanso" of _La Reino Jano_ offers a stanza containing only five rhymes in fourteen lines:--

"Fieu de Maiano S'ere vengu dou tems De Dono Jano, Quand ero a soun printems E soubeirano Coume eron autre-tems, Senso autro engano Que soun regard courous, Aurieu, d'elo amourous, Trouva, ieu benurous, Tant fino cansouneto Que la bello Janeto M'aurie douna 'n manteu Per pareisse i casteu."[12]

The rhythm of the n.o.ble _Saume de la Penitenci_ is as follows:--