Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Female Literature In France In The Seventeenth Century.
ail acquaintance with the great , the good , ancl the gifted , Avho have illustrated tlieir annals ; that we can hope to appreciate them at then * just value . Ancl surely it is essentially a Avoman ' s province to offer , AA'ith that end and aim , some faint record of the genius and energy of her OAVII sex . It is at present generall
y believed on oxu * side of the Channel , that French literature is , as a AA'hole , demoralising in its tendency ; ancl that its Avomen especially haA r e arrogated to themselves , throughout the last three centuries , the privilege of producing such Avorks as Avomen in oxn * own country AVould not permit themselves to read . This
is , hoAvever , a great and grieA'ons error . Many have laboured , and laboxu * ed Avell and earnestly , in the cause of morality and . virtue . That there have been exceptions is most true ; ancl xuifortunately , as it Avas once admirably remarked by a shreAvd Avriter , " nothing can be more easy to a Avoman than to be Avitty Avhen she has ceased to be decent ; " so those exceptions haA'e
stood out so prominently from the mass , that they have , as a necessary consequence , attracted a larger share of remark ancl comment than the more scrupxdous and better-principled of their co-labourers . Let us not , moreoA'er , forget that the existing state of society ever affects that of its contemporaneous literatxu'e . We have only to look at home to be at once
compelled to admit so self-evident a fact . Shakspeare himself Avas tainted by the spirit of his time . Had he lived at the present day , how much woxdd he not have left xuiwritten ? Had he flourished during the reign of Victoria , instead of that of Elizabeth , how differently would he have felt , and IIOAV differently Avould he have recorded his feelings ? Surely then we are bound
to excuse in our continential neighboxu's a fault from which Ave are ourselves by no means exempt . It may be ansAvered , and Avith reason , that much may be excused in the one sex Avhich cannot be pardoned in the other ; ancl I may be reminded ( thank God !) that Ave haA'e hacl feAV lady-writers in England , who have permitted themselves that moral emancipation upon paper of which there at this moment exists so marked ancl ( this crying defect
excepted ) , so brilliant an example m France . Once more , hoAvever , I must make myself the apologist of the French female writers . I have already alluded to the great exception AA'hich Avould and must have been quoted against me , and Avith that particular individual I have nothing further to clo ; but beyond Madame SandI am not aware that there exists one woman in
, France Avhose works have a pernicious tendency , while I am acquainted Aidth many ivho have clone good service to the literature of their country . The seventeenth century AA'as especially rich in female talent ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Female Literature In France In The Seventeenth Century.
ail acquaintance with the great , the good , ancl the gifted , Avho have illustrated tlieir annals ; that we can hope to appreciate them at then * just value . Ancl surely it is essentially a Avoman ' s province to offer , AA'ith that end and aim , some faint record of the genius and energy of her OAVII sex . It is at present generall
y believed on oxu * side of the Channel , that French literature is , as a AA'hole , demoralising in its tendency ; ancl that its Avomen especially haA r e arrogated to themselves , throughout the last three centuries , the privilege of producing such Avorks as Avomen in oxn * own country AVould not permit themselves to read . This
is , hoAvever , a great and grieA'ons error . Many have laboured , and laboxu * ed Avell and earnestly , in the cause of morality and . virtue . That there have been exceptions is most true ; ancl xuifortunately , as it Avas once admirably remarked by a shreAvd Avriter , " nothing can be more easy to a Avoman than to be Avitty Avhen she has ceased to be decent ; " so those exceptions haA'e
stood out so prominently from the mass , that they have , as a necessary consequence , attracted a larger share of remark ancl comment than the more scrupxdous and better-principled of their co-labourers . Let us not , moreoA'er , forget that the existing state of society ever affects that of its contemporaneous literatxu'e . We have only to look at home to be at once
compelled to admit so self-evident a fact . Shakspeare himself Avas tainted by the spirit of his time . Had he lived at the present day , how much woxdd he not have left xuiwritten ? Had he flourished during the reign of Victoria , instead of that of Elizabeth , how differently would he have felt , and IIOAV differently Avould he have recorded his feelings ? Surely then we are bound
to excuse in our continential neighboxu's a fault from which Ave are ourselves by no means exempt . It may be ansAvered , and Avith reason , that much may be excused in the one sex Avhich cannot be pardoned in the other ; ancl I may be reminded ( thank God !) that Ave haA'e hacl feAV lady-writers in England , who have permitted themselves that moral emancipation upon paper of which there at this moment exists so marked ancl ( this crying defect
excepted ) , so brilliant an example m France . Once more , hoAvever , I must make myself the apologist of the French female writers . I have already alluded to the great exception AA'hich Avould and must have been quoted against me , and Avith that particular individual I have nothing further to clo ; but beyond Madame SandI am not aware that there exists one woman in
, France Avhose works have a pernicious tendency , while I am acquainted Aidth many ivho have clone good service to the literature of their country . The seventeenth century AA'as especially rich in female talent ;