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Romanticism in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George R. Havens
George R. Havens*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Extract

In France, romanticism is first of all a revolt against a firmly entrenched classicism. In this respect, French romanticism is markedly different from romanticism in England, Germany, or Spain, where classicism had been less in accord with the national temper and had not risen to the glorious heights of the century of Corneille, Racine, and Molière. It is not surprising therefore that classicism, having produced so rich a literature of profound psychological insight, should have prolonged its dominance in France, to a considerable degree, even into the early years of the nineteenth century. It is significant too that in France, romanticism established itself first in prose with Rousseau and his successors, then in poetry with Lamartine, and only at last in drama with the final triumph of Hugo's Hernani in 1830. This sequence corresponds to the degree of resistance in these three literary forms. The victory over the codified rules of classic tragedy could come in France only after a long fight extending over more than a hundred years. This explains why so much of French debate about the theories of romanticism turns about the drama.

Type
Romanticism: A Symposium
Information
PMLA , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1940 , pp. 10 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1940

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References

54 Cf. Hofstaetter and Peters, Sachwörterbuch der Deutschkunde, ii, 1023.

1 As for Italy, Professor McKenzie points out in a later article of this series that ancient classical literature remained always closer at hand than in other European countries, while at the same time certain tendencies which may be called romantic also flourished from the Middle Ages on.

2 G. Lanson, Histoire de la littérature française, 23rd ed., n.d. (about 1928), p. 936.

3 Cf. Louis Reynaud, Le Romantisme: ses origines anglo-germaniques (Paris: Armand Colin, 1926).

4 Paul Hazard, La Crise de la conscience européenne (1680–1715), 3 vols. (Paris, 1935), ii, 288.

5 Ibid., ii, 263–264.

6 J.-J. Rousseau, Œuvres (Hachette), viii, 157.

7 Albert Thibaudet, Histoire de la littérature française de 1789 à nos jours (Paris, 1936), p. 116.

8 Alexis François, “Où en est ‘Romantique’?” Mélanges Baldensperger (Paris, 1930), i, 322. Cf. also Fernand Baldensperger, “‘Romantique,’ ses analogues et ses équivalents: tableau synoptique de 1650 à 1810,” Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, xix (1937), 13–105.

9 Alexis François, op. cit., i, 324.

10 Thibaudet, op. cit., p. 116.

11 Ibid.

12 Alexis François, op. cit., i, 327–328. Cf. Thibaudet, p. 117.

13 Maurice Souriau, Histoire du romantisme en France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1927), i, 100–101, 230–235.

14 Ibid., i, 239–240.

15 René Bray, Chronologie du romantisme (Paris, 1932), pp. 47–48.

16 Ibid., p. 46.

17 Cf. R. Noli, Les Romantiques français et l'Italie (Dijon, 1928), pp. 255–256. Cf. Vial et Denise, Idées et doctrines littéraires du XIX e siècle, 3rd ed. (Paris: Delagrave, 1931), pp. 182–189.

18 Cited in condensed form, from Vial and Denise, op. cit., p. 90.

19 Bray, op. cit., p. 100.

20 Ibid.

21 Cf. Edmond Estève, Byron et le romantisme français (Paris, 1907), pp. 118, 134, 137.

22 Louis Maigron, Le Roman historique à l'époque romantique (Paris, 1898), p. 108, n. 1, and p. 126, n. 2.

23 Bray, op. cit., p. 171.

24 Virgile Rossel, Histoire des relations littéraires entre la France et l'Allemagne (Paris, 1897), p. 145.

25 J.-L. Borgerhoff, Le Théâtre anglais à Paris sous la Restauration (Paris, 1913), p. 14.

26 Ernest Martinenche, L'Espagne et le Romantisme français (Paris, 1922), p. 64.

27 Victor Hugo, Préface de Cromwell, Souriau ed. (Paris, n.d.), pp. 183–184, 222.

28 Ibid., pp. 191, 195, 199, 223, etc.

29 Ibid., p. 223.

30 Vial et Denise, op. cit., p. 98.

31 Ibid., p. 100.

32 Sainte-Beuve, Tableau de la poésie française au XVI e siècle (1828), (Paris, 1869), p. 283. But it should be noted that only the first edition of 1828 can give us the author's first spontaneous reaction. Later editions are filled with “retouches” and “repentirs.”

33 Paul Hazard, “Les Caractères originaux du lyrisme romantique français,” Revue des Cours et Conférences, Dec. 15, 1935, pp. 2–5.

34 Ibid., Feb. 29, 1936, pp. 486–494.

35 “Prends l'Eloquence et tords-lui son cou!” exclaims Verlaine in his Art poétique.

36 Paul Hazard, op. cit., Dec. 15, 1935, pp. 2–9.

37 Cf. Fernand Baldensperger: “Je résiste au paradoxe qui taxerait M. Lasserre de romantisme impénitent parce qu'il voudrait lui-même éliminer du ‘fait social’ ce qu'il appelle ‘un siècle et demi de perversion romantique’.” Etudes françaises, 1er février 1927, p. 14.