graphy and definite
grammatical form. The appearance of a master-work had given a wonderful
impulse. The exuberance of the southern temperament responded quickly to
the call for a manifestation of patriotic enthusiasm. The Catalan poets
joined their brothers beyond the Pyrenees. The Floral games were
founded. The Felibrige passed westward beyond the Rhone and found
adherents in all south France. The centenary of Petrarch celebrated at
Avignon in 1874 tended to emphasize the importance and the glory of the
new literature.

The definite organization of the Felibrige into a great society with its
hierarchy of officers took place in 1876, with Mistral as _Capoulie_
(Chief or President). In this same year also the poet married Mdlle.
Marie Riviere of Dijon, and this lady, who was named first Queen of the
Felibrige by Albert de Quintana of Catalonia, the poet-laureate of the
year 1878 at the great Floral Games held in Montpellier, has become at
heart and in speech a Provencale.

A third poem, _Nerto_, appeared in 1884, and showed the poet in a new
light; his admirers now compared him to Ariosto. This same year he made
a second journey to Paris, and was again the lion of the hour. The
_Societe de la Cigale_, which had been founded in 1876, as a Paris
branch of the Felibrige, and which later became the _Societe des
Felibres de Paris_, organized banquets and festivities in his honor, and
celebrated the Floral Games at Sceaux to commemorate the four hundredth
anniversary of the day when Provence became united, of her own
free-will, with France. Mistral was received with distinction by
President Grevy and by the Count of Paris, and his numerous Parisian
friends vied in bidding him welcome to the capital. His new poem was
crowned by the French Academy, receiving the Prix Vitet, the
presentation address being delivered by Legouve. Four years later, _Lou
Tresor dou Felibrige_, a great dictionary of all the dialects of the
_langue d'oc_, was completed, and in 1890 appeared his only dramatic
work, _La Reino Jano_ (Queen Joanna). In 1897 he produced his last long
poem, epic in form, _Lou Pouemo dou Rose_ (the Poem of the Rhone). At
present he is engaged upon his _Memoirs_.

Aside from his rare journeys to Paris, a visit to Switzerland, and
another to Italy, Mistral has rarely gone beyond the borders of his
beloved region. He is still living quietly in the little village of
Maillane, in a simple but beautiful home, surrounded with wor