Part 5 (2/2)
But of all the histories written between 1817 and 1870, or at least of all those with which I have made acquaintance, for I have not attempted to read them all, the most discerning in my opinion is the fourth book of Vallet de Viriville's ”Histoire de Charles VII” in which his chief preoccupation is to place the Maid in that group of visionaries to which she really belongs.[126]
[Footnote 126: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, Paris, 1863, in 8vo.]
Wallon's book has been widely circulated if not widely read. A monotonous, conscientious work moderately enthusiastic, it owes its success to its unimpeachable exact.i.tude.[127] If there must be an orthodox Jeanne d'Arc to suit fas.h.i.+onable persons, then for such a purpose, M. Marius Sepet's representation of the Maid would be equally exact and more graceful.[128]
[Footnote 127: H. Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1860, 2 vols. in 8vo.]
[Footnote 128: M. Sepet, _Jeanne d'Arc_, with an introduction by Leon Gautier, Tours, 1869, in 8vo.]
After the war of 1871, the twofold influence of the patriotic spirit, exalted by defeat, and the revival of Catholicism among the middle cla.s.s gave a new impetus to admiration of the Maid. Arts and letters completed the transfiguration of Jeanne.
Catholics, like the learned Canon Dunand,[129] vie in zeal and enthusiasm with free-thinking idealists like M. Joseph Fabre.[130] By reproducing the two trials in a very artistic manner, in modern French and in a direct form of speech, M. Fabre has popularised the most ancient and the most touching impression of the Maid.[131]
[Footnote 129: Chanoine Dunand, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, Toulouse, 1898-1899, 3 vols. in 8vo.]
[Footnote 130: Joseph Fabre, _Jeanne d'Arc liberatrice de la France_, new edition, Paris, 1894, in 12mo.]
[Footnote 131: _Proces de cond.a.m.nation de Jeanne d'Arc...._, translated with commentary by J. Fabre, new edition, Paris, 1895, in 18mo.]
From this period date almost innumerable works of erudition, among which must be noted those of Simeon Luce, which henceforth no one who would treat of Jeanne's early years can afford to neglect.[132]
[Footnote 132: _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, _op. cit._; _La France pendant la guerre de Cent Ans_, _op. cit._]
We are equally indebted to M. Germain Lefevre-Pontalis for his fine editions and his discerning studies so eruditely graceful and exact.
Throughout this period of romantic and Neo-Catholic enthusiasm the arts of painting and sculpture produced numerous representations of Jeanne, which had hitherto been very rare. Now everywhere were to be found Jeanne in armour and on horseback, Jeanne in prayer, Jeanne in captivity, Jeanne suffering martyrdom. Of all these images expressing in different manners and with varying merit the taste and the sentiment of the period, one work only appears great and true, and of striking beauty: Rude's Jeanne d'Arc beholding a vision.[133]
[Footnote 133: Lanery d'Arc, _Le livre d'Or de Jeanne d'Arc_, Nos.
2080 to 2112.]
The word _patrie_ did not exist in the days of the Maid. People spoke of the kingdom of France.[134] No one, not even jurists, knew exactly what were its limits, which were constantly changing. The diversity of laws and customs was infinite, and quarrels between n.o.bles were constantly arising. Nevertheless, men felt in their hearts that they loved their native land and hated the foreigner. If the Hundred Years'
War did not create the sentiment of nationality in France, it fostered it. In his ”Quadrilogue Invectif” Alain Chartier represents France, indicated by her robe sumptuously adorned with the emblems of the n.o.bility, of the clergy and of the _tiers etat_, but lamentably soiled and torn, adjuring the three orders not to permit her to perish.
”After the bond of the Catholic faith,” she says to them, ”Nature has called you before all things to unite for the salvation of your native land, and for the defence of that lords.h.i.+p under which G.o.d has caused you to be born and to live.”[135] And these are not the mere maxims of a humourist versed in the virtues of antiquity. On the hearts of humble Frenchmen it was laid to serve the country of their birth.
”Must the King be driven from his kingdom, and must we become English?” cried a man-at-arms of Lorraine in 1428.[136] The subjects of the Lilies, as well as those of the Leopard, felt it inc.u.mbent upon them to be loyal to their liege lord. But if any change for the worse occurred in the lords.h.i.+ps to which they belonged, they were quite ready to make the best of it, because a lords.h.i.+p must increase or decrease, according to power and fortune, according to the good right or the good pleasure of the holder; it may be dismembered by marriages, or gifts, or inheritance, or alienated by various contracts. On the occasion of the Treaty of Bretigny, which seriously narrowed the dominions of King John, the folk of Paris strewed the streets with gra.s.s and flowers as a sign of rejoicing.[137] As a matter of fact, n.o.bles changed their allegiance as often as it was necessary. Juvenal des Ursins relates in his Journal[138] how at the time of the English conquest of Normandy, a young widow was known to quit her domain with her three children in order to escape doing homage to the King from beyond the seas. But how many Norman n.o.bles were like her in refusing to swear fealty to the former enemies of the kingdom? The example of fidelity to the king was not always set by those of his own family. The Duke of Bourbon, in the name of all the princes of the blood royal, prisoners with him in the hands of the English, proposed to Henry V that they should go and negotiate in France for the cession of Harfleur, promising that if the Royal Council met them with refusal they would acknowledge Henry V to be King of France.[139]
[Footnote 134: A. Thomas, _Le mot ”Patrie” et Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Revue des Idees_, July 15, 1906.]
[Footnote 135: _Les oeuvres de Maistre Alain Chartier_, published by Andre d.u.c.h.esne, Paris, 1642, in 4to, p. 410.]
[Footnote 136: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436. See _post_, vol. i, p. 82.]
[Footnote 137: Froissart, _Chroniques_, book i, chap. 128.]
[Footnote 138: Jean Juvenal des Ursins in Buchon, _Choix des Chroniques_, iv.]
[Footnote 139: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. ix, p. 427.]
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