f all the most
noted Felibres, a series of elaborately written notes that discuss or
set forth many questions relating to the general theme, a very large
bibliography of the subject, comprising long lists of works that have
been written in the dialect or that have appeared in France and in other
countries concerning the Felibres, a copy of the constitution of the
society and of various statutes relating to it. It not only contains
all the material that is necessary for the study of the Felibrige, but
it is worthy of the highest praise for the spirit in which it is
written. It is an honest attempt to explain the Felibrige, and to
present fairly and fully all the problems that so remarkable a movement
has created. A perusal of the book makes it evident that the author
believes in future political consequences, and while well aware that it
is unsafe to prophesy, he has a chapter on the future of the movement.

His history endeavors to show that the Felibrean renaissance was not a
spontaneous springing into existence. On the purely literary side,
however, it certainly bears the character of a creation; as writers, the
Provencal poets may scarcely be said to continue any preceding school or
to be closely linked with any literary past. In its inception it was a
mere attempt to write pleasing, popular verse of a better kind in the
dialect of the fireside. But the movement developed rapidly into the
ambition to endow the whole region with a real literature, to awaken a
consciousness of _race_ in the men of the south; these aims have been
realized, and a change has come over the life of Provence and the land
of the _langue d'oc_ in general. The author believes and adduces
evidences to show that all this could not have come about had the seed
not fallen upon a soil that was ready.

The Felibrige dates from the year 1854, but the idea that lies at the
bottom of it must be traced back to the determination of Roumanille to
write in Provencal rather than in French. He produced his _Margarideto_
in 1847 and the _Sounjarello_ in 1851. In collaboration with Mistral and
Anselme Mathieu, he edited a collection of poems by living writers under
the title _Li Prouvencalo_. During these years, too, there were meetings
of Provencal writers for the purpose of discussing questions of grammar
and spelling. These meetings, including even the historic one of May 21,
1854, were, however, really little more than friendly, social
gatherings, where a