Frédéric Mistral | Page 2

repaid.
NEW YORK, March, 1901.
CONTENTS
PART FIRST
THE REVIVAL OF THE PROVE?AL LANGUAGE
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction. Life of Mistral 3
II. The Félibrige 24
III. The Modern Proven?al, or, more accurately,
The Language of the Félibres 43
IV. The Versification of the Félibres 75
V. Mistral's Dictionary of the Proven?al Language.
(Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige) 92
PART SECOND
THE POETICAL WORKS OF MISTRAL
I. The Four Longer Poems 99
1. Mirèio 99
2. Calendau 127
3. Nerto 151
4. Lou Pouèmo dóu Rose 159
II. Lis Isclo d'Or 181
III. The Tragedy, La Rèino Jano 212
PART THIRD
CONCLUSIONS 237
APPENDIX. Translation of the Psalm of Penitence 253
BIBLIOGRAPHY 259
INDEX 265
PART FIRST
THE REVIVAL OF THE PROVEN?AL LANGUAGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The present century has witnessed a remarkable literary phenomenon in the south of France, a remarkable rebirth of local patriotism. A language has been born again, so to speak, and once more, after a sleep of many hundred years, the sunny land that was the cradle of modern literature, offers us a new efflorescence of poetry, embodied in the musical tongue that never has ceased to be spoken on the soil where the Troubadours sang of love. Those who began this movement knew not whither they were tending. From small beginnings, out of a kindly desire to give the humbler folk a simple, homely literature in the language of their firesides, there grew a higher ambition. The Proven?al language put forth claims to exist coequally with the French tongue on French soil. Memories of the former glories of the southern regions of France began to stir within the hearts of the modern poets and leaders. They began to chafe under the strong political and intellectual centralization that prevails in France, and to seek to bring about a change. The movement has passed through numerous phases, has been frequently misinterpreted