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Reference
>
Cambridge History
>
The Age of Dryden
>
Samuel Butler
> Influence of
Le Roman de la Rose, The Ship of Fools,
Erasmus and Rabelais
Ancient and Modern Satire
Butlers Life before and after the Restoration
CONTENTS
·
VOLUME CONTENTS
·
INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS
·
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
(190721).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.
II.
Samuel Butler
.
§ 2. Influence of
Le Roman de la Rose, The Ship of Fools,
Erasmus and Rabelais.
All these tirades were conveyed in Latin hexameters, which, in Lucilius, were often of a hybrid, linsey-woolsey composition
i.e.
interlarded with Greek words. This slipshod verse became the conventional metre for satire in Latin down the ages, whether in the
Anti-Claudianus
of Alain de lIsle or in the macaronic
Baldus
of Merlin Cocai (Teofilo Folengo). In the same way, splayfoot octosyllabic rimes became the medium of English satire, derived, probably, through the French, from
Le Roman de la Rose.
Satirical writing found a congenial soil in France, where the interminable
chansons de geste
required a relief. Thus were produced
Le Roman de Renart
and the
fables bestiaires,
often attributed to Ysopet, the French counterpart of Aesop. But
Le Roman de la Rose
stands out as the most important production of the kind and as exercising a wide-reaching influence on the literature of Europe.
2
From this source flowed numberless compositions, on two subjects especially, one being the
querelle des femmes,
which was taken up vigorously on both sides. Christine de Pisan leads the attack against
Le Roman de la Rose,
followed by Jean Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, Alain Chartier and Martin de France, author of
Le Champion des Dames
(14402). On the other side may be mentioned
Les XV joyes de mariage, Les arrêts damour,
the
Silva nuptialis
of Johannes Nevizanus and Rabelais in the third book of his
Pantagruel:
but the catalogue is a very long one. The other subject is an attack on the religious orders, especially the mendicants, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, who had been recognised by the popes in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and, from the very first, had shown extraordinary activity and influence, proving very obnoxious to the regular clergy. These two subjects can be traced in
Hudibras,
but in another and curious form: the nonconforming sects taking the place of the mendicants as butts for satire, and Hudibras and the widow respectively leading the attack and defence in the
querelle des femmes.
3
Butler had also probably read Barclays
Ship of Fools,
translated from Sebastian Brants
Narrenschiff. Moriae Encomium
might well supply him with a model for his satire, while the
Adagia
of Erasmus undoubtedly furnished him with a stock of learning and literary illustration. Rabelais was thoroughly versed in all these writings, and employed them in his
Gargantua
and
Pantagruel.
Butler was a good French scholar and did not need Urquharts translation,
2
but read the French at firsthand. Zachary Grey points out in his notes several passages in
Hudibras
derived from the French satirist; but many more correspondences can be detected by a closer comparison.
4
Note 2
. As to this, see Vol. VII, Chap.
X.
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CONTENTS
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INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS
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BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Ancient and Modern Satire
Butlers Life before and after the Restoration
Shakespeare
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Bible
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