Frédéric Mistral | Page 9

their
writings, are ample proof of this. They meet to sing songs and to speak;
it is always of Provence that they sing and speak. Almost all of them
are men who ply some trade, hardly one lives by his pen alone. This
fact gives a very special character to their whole production. The
Felibrean movement is more than an astonishing literary phenomenon.
The idea from this time on acquired more and more adherents. Scores
of writers appeared, and volumes whose titles filled many pages
swelled the output of Provençal verse. These new aims were due to the
success of _Mirèio_; but it must not be forgotten that Mistral himself,
in that poem and in the shorter poems of the same period, gave distinct
expression to the new order of ideas, so that we are constantly led back
to him, in all our study of the matter, as the creator, the continuer, and
the ever present inspirer of the Félibrige. Whatever it is, it is through
him primarily. Roumanille must be classed as one of those precursors
who are unconscious of what they do. To him the Félibres owe two
things: first of all, the idea of writing in the dialect works of literary
merit; and, secondly, the discovery of Frédéric Mistral.
Among these new ideas, one that dominates henceforth in the story of
the Félibrige, is the idea of race. Mistral is well aware that there is no
Latin race, in the sense of blood relationship, of physical descent; he
knows that the so-called Latin race has, for the base of its unity, a
common history, a common tradition, a common religion, a common
language.
But he believes that there is a _race méridionale_ that has been
developed into a kind of unity out of the various elements that compose
it, through their being mingled together, and accumulating during many
centuries common memories, ideas, customs, and interests. So Mistral
has devoted himself to promoting knowledge of its history, traditions,

language, and religion. As the Félibrige grew, and as Mistral felt his
power as a poet grow, he sought a larger public; he turned naturally to
the peoples most closely related to his own, and Italy and Spain were
embraced in his sympathies. The Félibrige spread beyond the limits of
France first into Spain. Victor Balaguer, exiled from his native country,
was received with open arms by the Provençals. William
Bonaparte-Wyse, an Irishman and a grand-nephew of the first
Napoleon, while on a journey through Provence, had become converted
to the Felibrean doctrines, and became an active spirit among these
poets and orators. He organized a festival in honor of Balaguer, and
when, later, the Catalan poet was permitted to return home, the
Catalans sent the famous cup to their friends in Provence. For the
Félibres this cup is an emblem of the idea of a Latin federation, and as
it passes from hand to hand and from lip to lip at the Felibrean banquets,
the scene is not unlike that wherein the Holy Graal passes about among
the Knights of the Round Table.[3]
Celebrations of this kind have become a regular institution in southern
France. Since the day in 1862 when the town of Apt received the
Félibres officially, organizing Floral Games, in which prizes were
offered for the best poems in Provençal, the people have become
accustomed to the sight of these triumphal entries of the poets into their
cities. Reports of these brilliant festivities have gone abroad into all
lands. If the love of noise and show that characterizes the southern
temperament has caused these reunions to be somewhat unfavorably
criticised as theatrical, on the other hand the enthusiasm has been
genuine, and the results real and lasting. The _Félibrées_, so they are
called, have not all taken place in France. In 1868, Mistral, Rournieux,
Bonaparte-Wyse, and Paul Meyer went to Barcelona, where they were
received with great pomp and ceremony. Men eminent in literary and
philological circles in Paris have often accepted invitations to these
festivities. In 1876, a Felibrean club, "La Cigale," was founded in the
capital; its first president was Henri de Bornier, author of La Fille de
Roland. Professors and students of literature and philology in France
and in other countries began to interest themselves in the Félibres, and
the Félibrige to-day counts among its members men of science as well
as men of letters.

In 1874 one of the most remarkable of the celebrations, due to the
initiative of M. de Berluc-Pérussis, was held at Vaucluse to celebrate
the fifth centenary of the death of Petrarch. At this _Félibrée_ the
Italians first became affiliated to the idea, and the Italian ambassador,
Nigra, the president of the Accademia della Crusca, Signor Conti, and
Professor Minich, from the University of Padua, were the delegates.
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