Laveaux. 2 vols. Paris, 1866-7.

[196] Ed. Gouverneur. 3 vols. Paris, 1866.

[197] Not recently re-edited in full. In selection by Becq de
Fouquieres. Paris, 1874.

[198] Recently edited in 5 vols. by Courbet. Paris, v. d.

[199] Ed. Blanchemain. 2 vols. Geneva, 1869.

[200] Du Bartas, always unjustly treated in France, probably from a
curious tradition of mingled sectarian and literary jealousy, has not
been reprinted of late years. The edition used is that of 1610-1611.
Paris, 2 vols, folio.

[201] Ed. Reaume and de Caussade. Vols. 1-4. Paris, 1873-7. There is
another volume to follow.

[202] Here are these celebrated lines:--

Ronsard, qui le suivit, par une autre methode
Reglant tout, brouilla tout, fit un art a sa mode,
Et toutefois longtemps eut un heureux destin.
Mais sa muse en Francais parlant Grec et Latin
Vit dans l'age suivant, par un retour grotesque,
Tomber de ses grands mots le faste pedantesque.
Ce poete orgueilleux, trebuche de si haut,
Rendit puis retenus Desportes et Bertaut.

_Art Poet._, Chant i.

[203] Ed. Michiels. Paris, 1858.

[204] He was not a courtier for nothing. He held numerous abbacies, and
Charles IX. is said to have given him 800 gold pieces, Henri III. 10,000
crowns of silver, in each case for a poetical offering of very small
bulk.

CHAPTER V.

THE THEATRE FROM GRINGORE TO GARNIER.

[Sidenote: Gringore.]

It so happened that the mediaeval theatre closed, as far as its
exclusive possession of the stage is concerned, with one of the most
remarkable of all its writers. Pierre Gringore[205], who towards the
close of his career preferred the spelling Gringoire, was a Norman by
birth. His poetical and dramatic capacity has been considerably
exaggerated by the learned but crotchety scholar who was at first
charged with the joint editorship of his works in the Bibliotheque
Elzevirienne. But, when the hyperboles of M. Charles d'Hericault are
reduced to their simplest terms, Gringore remains a remarkable figure.
It is to him that we owe the only complete and really noteworthy
tetralogy, composed of _cry_, sotie, morality, and farce, which exists
to show the final result of the mediaeval play--the _Jeu du Prince des
Sots_. To him is also due the most remarkable of the sixteenth-century
mysteries, that of _Saint Louis_; and his miscellaneous poems, as yet
not fully collected, show us a man of letters possessed of no small
faculty