{"id":19371,"date":"2015-06-07T01:13:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T06:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=19371"},"modified":"2015-06-07T13:09:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T18:09:08","slug":"shakespeares-formless-plays-and-the-degenerate-18th-century-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=19371","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare's formless plays and the degenerate 18th century in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on the grammar published in 1780 by C.F. Lhomond<\/a>, I took a look at the La Grammarie Gen\u00e9rale et Raison\u00e9e de Port-Royal, Par Arnauld et Lancelot<\/a>. But\u00a0the edition that Gallica steered me to<\/a> turned out to be preceded by an \"Essai sur l'origine et les progr\u00e8s de la Langue fran\u00e7oise\", by Claude Bernard Petitot<\/a> (1772-1825).<\/p>\n

This introductory essay is\u00a0246 pages long, so it took me a while to page through it to find the actual Port-Royal grammar. And as it scrolled by, it revealed itself as a\u00a0curious screed, with essentially no connection with the grammar that it introduces. In the guise\u00a0of a history of French literature, M. Petitot argues\u00a0that French language, literature and culture became sadly\u00a0degenerate in the 18th century. And apparently it was all the fault of the barbaric English, aided by those villains Voltaire and Rousseau.<\/p>\n

[Warning:\u00a0I found this interesting, as a reflection of one influential intellectual bureaucrat's thinking in the France of 1803 — the year of the Louisiana Purchase, the Haitian Revolution, and the start of the Napoleonic Wars<\/a>. It's surprising that in 1803, just 14 years after the French revolution, the man in charge of public education in\u00a0the Paris area is pining in print for the perfect politeness of Louis XIV's court, and railing against the \"empty theories\" of 18th-century political philosophy. Petitot's opinions about socio-culture degeneration strike me as\u00a0analogous, mutatis mutandis,\u00a0to those of some figures on the current American political scene. But you\u00a0may well disagree, certainly about the interest and perhaps also\u00a0about the analogy.]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Petitot was apparently a failed writer who became a successful educational bureaucrat<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Il devint, en 1800, chef de bureau de l\u2019instruction publique de la Seine. Apr\u00e8s avoir pass\u00e9 quelques ann\u00e9es dans la retraite, il fut nomm\u00e9 par Fontanes inspecteur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des \u00e9tudes (1809) et remplit, sous la Restauration, les fonctions de secr\u00e9taire g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de la commission de l\u2019instruction publique, de conseiller de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 (1821) et de directeur de l\u2019Instruction publique (1824).<\/span><\/p>\n

He became, in 1800, head of the office of public instruction of the [department of the] Seine. After some years of retirement, he was named by Fontanes inspector general of studies (1809) and filled, under the Restoration, the functions of secretary general of the commission of public instruction, councillor of the University (1821) and director of public instruction (1824).<\/span><\/p>\n

His essay\u00a0starts this way:<\/p>\n

Les progr\u00e8s et la d\u00e9cadence d'une langue\u00a0sont ins\u00e9parables des progr\u00e8s et de la d\u00e9cadence\u00a0du gout. Pour s'assurer de l'\u00e9tat\u00a0d'une langue, il faut examiner si, depuis\u00a0sa fixation,\u00a0l'on n'a point alt\u00e9r\u00e9 son g\u00e9nie, en introduisant de mauvaises constructions,\u00a0en inventant de nouveaux mots,\u00a0en d\u00e9tournant l'acception des termes admis, en confondant les genres de style :\u00a0voil\u00e0 les signes auxquels on reconno\u00eet la\u00a0d\u00e9cadence des langues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The progress and the decay of a language are inseparable from the progress and the decay of taste. In order to guarantee the state of a language, we must test\u00a0that, since its establishment, users have not\u00a0degraded its spirit, by introducing bad constructions, by inventing new words, by\u00a0distorting the meaning of accepted terms, by mixing up\u00a0different kinds of style : those are the signs by which we recognize the decay of languages.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a couple of hundred pages in which he chronicles the rise of the French language to the pinnacle represented by Corneille, Racine, and Moli\u00e8re, he describes an aesthetic disaster:<\/p>\n

Apr\u00e8s ce beau si\u00e8cle, les moeurs chang\u00e8rent,\u00a0et le go\u00fbt changea avec elles. Les orgies de la r\u00e9gence\u00a0succ\u00e9d\u00e8rent aux f\u00eates nobles de Louis xiv;\u00a0le langage cynique, o\u00f9 l'oubli des biens\u00e9ances fut\u00a0souvent port\u00e9 \u00e0 l'exc\u00e8s, rempla\u00e7a la langue d\u00e9cente\u00a0d'une cour o\u00f9 la politesse avoit \u00e9t\u00e9 perfectionn\u00e9e.\u00a0Bient\u00f4t on trouva de la monotonie\u00a0dans les chefs-d'oeuvres; et, pour flatter le go\u00fbt\u00a0d'un public blas\u00e9, on eut recours aux tours de\u00a0force, aux termes ampoul\u00e9s, aux sentimens exag\u00e9r\u00e9s;\u00a0les jeux de mots, les expressions d\u00e9tourn\u00e9es\u00a0de leurs v\u00e9ritables acceptions, les frivoles\u00a0jeux d'esprit, firent oublier la ga\u00eet\u00e9 franche et\u00a0na\u00efve de nos bonnes com\u00e9dies.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After this beautiful century, customs changed, and taste changed with them. The orgies of the regency replaced the noble celebrations of Louis XIV; cynical language, where the lapse of manners was often taken to excess, replaced the decent language of a court where politeness had been perfected. Masterpieces were found to be boring; and, to pander to\u00a0the taste of a jaded\u00a0public, writers resorted to spectacular effects, with overblown wording, exaggerated opinions. Word play, expressions twisted away\u00a0from their true interpretation, frivolous witticisms, made the public forget the candid\u00a0and naive joyfulness\u00a0of our good comedies.<\/span><\/p>\n

What caused this catastrophe? Voltaire and his introduction of English literature to a French audience:<\/p>\n

Voltaire fut le premier qui fit conno\u00eetre aux\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois la litt\u00e9rature angloise. L'enthousiasme\u00a0qu'il excita pour les philosophes de cette nation,\u00a0donna une nouvelle force \u00e0 l'esprit de doute et\u00a0d'innovation qui commen\u00e7oit \u00e0 se r\u00e9pandre. La\u00a0hardiesse des id\u00e9es politiques n'eut plus de\u00a0bornes, et tout annon\u00e7a un changement prochain\u00a0dans les lois et dans le gouvernement de\u00a0la France. Les anciennes institutions devinrent\u00a0des objets de ris\u00e9e, toutes les classes de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9\u00a0se confondirent, et l'on se fit une gloire\u00a0d'abandonner les usages nationaux pour se livrer\u00a0\u00e0 une licence dont les attraits cachoient le\u00a0danger. L'anglomanie se r\u00e9pand\u00eet\u00a0avec autant de\u00a0rapidit\u00e9 sur la litt\u00e9rature. Le th\u00e9\u00e2tre informe de Shakespeare fut traduit; les \u00e9diteurs annonc\u00e8rent\u00a0avec une\u00a0confiance fastueuse, que le po\u00ebte\u00a0anglois avoit seul\u00a0connu l'art de la trag\u00e9die, et que les trag\u00e9dies de Corneille et de Racine n'\u00e9toient que de belles amplifications. Toute la France admira les pi\u00e8ces monstrueuses de Shakespeare; l'exag\u00e9ration, l'emphase et le faux go\u00fbt se mirent\u00a0en possession de notre th\u00e9\u00e2tre, et g\u00e2t\u00e8rent presque tous les ouvrages modernes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voltaire was the first to make English literature known to the French. The enthusiasm that he stimulated for the philosophers of that nation gave new force to the spirit of doubt and innovation that began to spread. The boldness of political ideas had no bounds, and everything\u00a0forecast an imminent change in the laws and the government of France. The traditional institutions became\u00a0the butt of jokes, all the classes of society became mixed together, and people took pride in abandoning national customs to surrender themselves\u00a0to a licentiousness\u00a0whose attractions hid its dangers. Anglomania spread with equal rapidity throughout literature. The shapeless plays of Shakespeare were translated; the editors announced with luxurious confidence that the English poet was the only one to understand the art of tragedy, and that the tragedies of Corneille and Racine were merely pretty footnotes. All of France admired the hideous plays of Shakespeare; exaggeration, pomposity, and bad taste took possession of our theater, and spoiled nearly all modern works.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ce go\u00fbt effr\u00e9n\u00e9 pour la litt\u00e9rature angloise peut \u00eatre consid\u00e9r\u00e9 comme une des principales causes de la d\u00e9cadence de notre litt\u00e9rature. Voltaire le reconnut\u00a0<\/span>enfin, et il s'\u00e9leva souvent contre une manie qu'il pouvoit se reprocher d'avoir introduite. M. de Laharpe, dans des dissertations pleines de chaleur et de logique, a d\u00e9montr\u00e9 jusqu'\u00e0 l'\u00e9vidence les absurdit\u00e9s du po\u00ebte anglois; et l'on doit \u00e0 ce grand litt\u00e9rateur d'\u00eatre revenu de l'aveugle admiration que l'on avoit\u00a0con\u00e7ue pour des pi\u00e8ces barbares.<\/span><\/p>\n

This frantic appetite for English literature may be considered as one of the main causes of the decay of our literature. Voltaire finally recognized this, and he stood up often against a mania that he could reproach himself for having introduced. M. de Laharpe, in many works full of warmth and logic, has conclusively shown the absurdities of the English poet; and we owe to this great man of letters to have returned from the blind admiration that had been felt for those barbaric plays.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Petitot, Rousseau added a sort of double whammy of decadence:<\/p>\n

L'\u00e9loquence de Rousseau se ressentit de l'esp\u00e8ce\u00a0de charlatanisme qu'il employoit. Elle ne\u00a0fut point franche et naturelle, comme celle de\u00a0Bossuet. L'affectation, l'emphase, un faux enthousiasme\u00a0s'y firent trop souvent remarquer.\u00a0Ces d\u00e9fauts ne furent pas m\u00eames aper\u00e7us \u00e0 une \u00e9poque o\u00f9 le go\u00fbt commen\u00e7oit \u00e0 d\u00e9g\u00e9n\u00e9rer,\u00a0aux yeux de plusieurs personnes, ils pass\u00e8rent\u00a0pour des beaut\u00e9s. Rousseau exer\u00e7a une\u00a0grande influence sur son si\u00e8cle. Les hommes\u00a0n\u00e9s avec un caract\u00e8re s\u00e9rieux et m\u00e9ditatif,\u00a0que les plaisanteries de Voltaire ne s\u00e9duisoient\u00a0pas, lurent avidement les ouvrages du philosophe\u00a0de Gen\u00e8ve ; les \u00e2mes honn\u00eates se laiss\u00e8rent\u00a0facilement entra\u00eener sous les \u00e9tendards d'un\u00a0homme qui sembloit porter jusqu'\u00e0 l'exc\u00e8s l'amour\u00a0de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9 et de la vertu, et qui, surtout,\u00a0ne n\u00e9gligeoit aucun moyen pour \u00e9mouvoir\u00a0et attendrir le coeur. La mode de mettre\u00a0par-tout de la sensibilit\u00e9<\/em>, paro\u00eet avoir commenc\u00e9\u00a0\u00e0 Rousseau. Personne n'abusa plus que\u00a0lui du go\u00fbt qu'il avoit su inspirer aux lecteurs,\u00a0pour des r\u00eaveries vagues auxquelles on attacha\u00a0une grande importance lorsqu'on exag\u00e9ra les\u00a0d\u00e9lices de la m\u00e9lancolie<\/em>. Une grande partie des\u00a0livres du temps, quel que f\u00fbt le sujet que l'on y\u00a0trait\u00e2t, port\u00e8rent ce caract\u00e8re sentimental et\u00a0m\u00e9lancolique, dont les bons esprits ont commenc\u00e9 de nos jours \u00e0 faire sentir le ridicule.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rousseau's eloquence suffers from the type of charlatanism that he practiced. [His eloquence]\u00a0was not at all frank and natural, like Bossuet's. Affectation, pomposity, false enthusiasm were too often present. These faults were not perceived at the time when taste began to decay, and they seemed beauties to many people. Men born with a serious and contemplative character, who were not seduced by Voltaire's jokes, were avid readers of the philosopher from Geneva ; decent\u00a0men easily let themselves be enlisted under the banners of a man who seemed even excessively committed to the love of truth and virtue, and who, especially, neglected no method of moving and softening the heart. The style of putting sensitivity above all seems to have started with Rousseau. No one abused more than him the taste that he was able to inspire in readers, for vague dreams to which a great importance was attached by exaggerating the delights of melancholy. Many of the books of the time, whatever subject they dealt with, took on this sentimental and melancholy character, of which the better minds of our days have begun to sense the absurdity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Petitot closes on an upbeat note, appropriate for the politician that he apparently was:<\/span><\/p>\n

J'ai cherch\u00e9 \u00e0 pr\u00e9senter un tableau fid\u00e8le des\u00a0progr\u00e8s de la langue fran\u00e7oise, et des causes\u00a0de sa d\u00e9cadence. On a vu que les nouveaux\u00a0syst\u00e8mes qui se sont succ\u00e9d\u00e9s si rapidement dans\u00a0le dix-huiti\u00e8me si\u00e8cle, ont contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 la faire\u00a0d\u00e9g\u00e9n\u00e9rer. Le commencement du dix-neuvi\u00e8me,\u00a0signal\u00e9 par l'oubli de toutes ces vaines th\u00e9ories, par le retour aux bons principes, et par\u00a0l'aurore du bonheur public, dont l'\u00e2ge du h\u00e9ros\u00a0qui pr\u00e9side aux destin\u00e9es de la France nous\u00a0garantit la dur\u00e9e, annonce la renaissance des\u00a0lettres, et promet \u00e0 la patrie de Corneille et et de Racine, une \u00e9poque semblable \u00e0 ces temps\u00a0heureux o\u00f9 la langue latine reprit son ancienne\u00a0<\/span>gloire sous les auspices glorieux de Titus et de\u00a0Trajan.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have tried to present a true picture of the progress of the french language, and of the causes of its decay. We've seen that the new systems that sprang up so rapidly in the 18th century have contributed to cause this decay. The start of the 19th century, marked by the oblivion of these empty theories, by the return of sound principles, and by the dawn of public happiness, for\u00a0which the age of the hero now guiding the destiny of France guarantees a long duration, announces the rebirth of literature, and promises to the country of Corneille and Racine an era like those happy times when the Latin language regained its former glory under the glorious auspices of Titus and Trajan.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on the grammar published in 1780 by C.F. Lhomond, I took a look at the La Grammarie Gen\u00e9rale et Raison\u00e9e de Port-Royal, Par Arnauld et Lancelot. But\u00a0the edition that Gallica steered me to turned out to be preceded by an \"Essai sur l'origine et les progr\u00e8s de la Langue fran\u00e7oise\", by Claude Bernard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-and-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19371"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19421,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19371\/revisions\/19421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}