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A Literary Controversy of the Second Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2021
In one form or another, the issue of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes is forever recurring in French literature. Whether the various forms of literature, and in particular poetry and the drama, shall follow the models offered by classical antiquity or shall resolutely draw their inspiration from contemporary civilization, is a question that has more than once caused passionate argument and unloosed floods of eloquence. The problem rose again toward the middle of the last century. It has been customary to say that there was at that time a reaction against the romanticists (i. e. the moderns) resulting in the establishment of the Parnassian school whose spirit was largely classical. That, however, is not the whole truth. At the time when Leconte de Lisle, Ménard, and others were struggling for recognition as poets, there existed also a group which, far from condemning the romanticists as too modern, considered them not sufficiently modern, and called for a reform in French poetry through a utilization of modern industry as a source of inspiration. The contrast between this group and the Parnassians is even more striking than that between either of them and the romanticists. The chief object of this article is to show how the suggestion of a rapprochement between poetry and modern industry came to be made, and to relate the controversy which followed. The latter centered in a book little known today: Les Chants Modernes by Maxime Du Camp. The secondary object of this paper is, therefore, to place Les Chants Modernes in their true historical light.
I am indebted to Professor André Morize for suggesting this study.
2 See his volume entitled Heures de Poésie.
3 Note the esthetic judgment.
4 See La Lyre d'Airain, published in Satires et Poèmes, 1837.
5 See La Maison du Berger, 1844.
6 See his volume Colères, 1844.
6a Particularly the Belgian poets Mathieu, Van Hasselt, and Weustenraad.
7 “Quelques Vérités sur la Situation en Littérature,” Revue des Deux Mondes, July 1, 1843.
8 The same article appeared in La Fabrique, la Ferme et l'Atdier (1851), tome 1, p. 362.
9 Des Lettres et des Arts au point de vue industriel.
10 There were other expressions of opinion, Cf. Pierre Dupont, Preface of his Chansons, 1851. Cf. also Michelet's Le Banquet, 1854. We have, for lack of space, limited ourselves to Du Camp's associates on the Revue de Paris.
11 Published in Revue de Paris, somewhat abbreviated, Feb. 1, 1855. The book is listed in the Bibliographie de la France under date of March 31, 1855.
12 For a discussion of this point, see M. A. Leblond, Leconte de Lisle, pp. 336-7.
13 Du Camp uses the word féeries; cf. the title of Cormenin's article.
14 I omit here a lengthy diatribe against the Academy. It does not directly concern us.
15 Cf. Gautier, Emaux et Camées, A L. Sextius:
. . . . . . et Vulcain, plein d'ardeur
Souffle ses forges rougissantes.
16 The volume of poetry is divided into three parts: the first, to which the author has given no collective title; then, the Chants de la Matière; finally, the Chants d'Amour.
17 Cf. Melancholia, in Les Contemplations.
18 Souvenirs littéraires, II, 417. It seems to us possible that the preface of the Chants Modernes may have caused the slackening of the ties of affection that had hitherto bound Du Camp and Flaubert. Even if one assumes that the cause was rather Du Camp's frank and probably tactless criticism of the first Tentation de Saint-Antoine, one may still admit the preface as a contributory factor.
19 Correspondance, III, 18; letter written in May 1855. Charpentier edition
20 Quoted by T. Mustoxidi: Histoire de l'Esthétique française, p. 170.
21 J. M. Jacquard, 1752-1824, inventor of famous loom.
22 Revue des Deux Mondes, May 15, 1855.
23 See M. A. Leblond, Leconte de Lisle, pp. 336-7.
24 Published in 1855.
25 L'Athenaeum Français, July 28, 1855. Reprinted in Causeries du Lundi, vol. XII.
26 Portraits littéraires, III, 549 (1864). The original edition of this volume was published in 1851 as Derniers Portraits. The above translation is taken from 1. Babbitt, The Masters of Modern Franck Criticism, pp. 134-5.
27 See Baudelaire's Notice sur Pierre Dupont: “Quand j'entendis cet admirable cri de douleur et de mélancolie, je fus ébloui et attendri” etc.
28 Revue de Paris, March 1852.
29 See Curiosités Esthétiques, Exposition Universelle de 1855, p. 211.
30 See Les Taureaux, Revue des Deux Mondes, Oct. 15, 1853. Consider also the fact that Laprade changed the title of L'Age Nouveau to Utopie when publishing it in the 1855 edition of Les Symphonies.
31 Published in La Revue, Nov. 1, 1855.
32 This refusal of the R. D. M. is significant of the importance that industry was assuming.
33 Extract from letter quoted by E. Biré: Victor de Laprade, p. 205.
34 Le Correspondant, 1856, p. 34.
35 It is impossible not to see here a reference to the Chants Modernes.
36 Journal des Débats, Nov. 27, 1855.
37 See preface of L'Avenir de la Science, 1890.
38 Le Siècle, May 18, 1855.
39 Revue Contemporaine, June 15, 1855; De la Poésie Utilitairc et d'une poétique nouvelle.
40 See Dernières Causeries Littéraires, 1862, 2nd edition. The article on Du Camp was undoubtedly written in 1855 or 1856.
41 Revue de Paris, Dec. 1, 1855.
42 Journal des Débats, May 15, 1855.
43 La Presse, June 4, 1855.
44 Ibid, March 27, 1856.
45 Le Moniteur Universel, July 10, 1855.
46 Revue brittanique, April 1855.
47 See 4th edition, “augmentée”, 1863, II, 627, 629.
48 Revue du Lyonnais, 1859, (vol. 18).
49 Les Progrès de la Poésie française depuis 1830, written in 1868, published in volume entitled L'Histoire du Romantisme.
50 M. Villermé: Tableaux de l'Etat physique et moral des ouvriers, 1840.
51 Mélanges, I, 370.
52 See Bretagne et Normandie, in volume En Voyage, France et Belgique.
53 L'Orient, I, 303. Charpentier edition, 1907.
