| Transcriber’s note: | A few typographical errors have been corrected. Theyappear in the text like this, and theexplanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the markedpassage. |
OTHER BOOKS BY
PROFESSOR WILKINSON
The Epic of Saul
The Epic of Paul
Webster: an Ode. With Notes
Poems
A Free Lance in the Field OfLife and Letters
(Volume of Essays)
Edwin Arnold As Poetizer and AsPaganizer
The Dance of Modern Society
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
WILKINSON’S FOREIGN CLASSICS
IN ENGLISH
French Classics
BY
WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON
PROFESSOR OF POETRY AND CRITICISM
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
*****
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1909
COPYRIGHT 1900
by
WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON.
(Printed in the United States of America)
PREFACE.
The preparation of the present volume proposed to theauthor a task more difficult far than that undertaken in thecase of either of the literatures, the Greek or the Latin, treatedin the four preceding volumes of the present series. Thosevolumes dealt with literatures limited and finished; this volumedeals with a literature indefinitely vast in extent, and stillin vital process of growth. The selection of material to beused was, in the case of the earlier volumes, virtually made forthe author beforehand, in a manner greatly to ease his senseof responsibility for the exercise of individual judgment andtaste. Long prescription, joined to the winnowing effect ofwear and waste through time and chance, had left little doubtwhat works of what writers, Greek and Roman, best deservednow to be shown to the general reader. Besides this,the prevalent custom of the schools of classical learningcould then wisely be taken as a clew of guidance to be implicitlyfollowed, whatever might be the path through whichit should lead. There is here no similar avoidance of responsibilitypossible; for the schools have not established a custom,and French literature is a living body, from which noimportant members have ever yet been rent by the ravagesof time.
The plan of this volume, together with the compass proposedfor it, crea