Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:13:21.462Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Comparison of the Poetry of Francois Coppée and Eugene Manuel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Aaron Schaffer
Aaron Schaffer*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

We are accustomed to refer to François Coppée as “le poète des humbles,” but it would be a mistake to suppose that he was the only poet of his time to whom this designation can be applied. Leaving out of account Sainte-Beuve and Hugo, who devoted occasional poems to the poor and the oppressed, Béranger, Maxime Du Camp, Pierre Dupont and numerous other minor poets, we must not overlook the work of another contemporary who began writing before Coppée was born. This poet is Eugène Manuel, whose life and work offer many striking resemblances with those of Coppée. It is the purpose of this study to compare the work of these two men with a view to determining whether or not Coppée was indebted to his less renowned confrere.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 1928 , pp. 1039 - 1054
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 1039 note 1 Poésies complétes, pp. 80-82. The poem occurs between “la Prière,” dated 1851, and “la Lie,” dated 1868. It would seem to have been written about 1870, at the time when both poets were drawing much of their material from the life of “les humbles.”

page 1040 note 2 Vide Mendès, la Légende du Parnasse contemporain, Brussels, 1884, pp. 205-17.

page 1040 note 3 2 vols., Paris, p. x.

page 1041 note 4 Paris, 1890, contained in vol. I of the Poésies complètes.

page 1041 note 5 Olivier and les Récits et les élégies form vol. III of the Lemerre six-volume edition of Coppée's Poésies. They were written in 1875 and 1878, respectively. Arrière-saison was composed in 1887 and is part of vol. V of the Poésies.

page 1042 note 6 “Alma mater” (Poésies complètes, I, 66).

page 1042 note 7 “Logos” (ibid., p. 112).

page 1042 note 8 Promenades et intérieurs (Œuvres, II, 106).

page 1042 note 9 Œuvres, I,p. 111

page 1043 note 10 Ibid., II, 103.

page 1043 note 11 Contes en vers et poésies diverses (Œuvres, IV, 5).

page 1043 note 12 Ibid., p. 53.

page 1043 note 13 Poésies complètes, II, 4-6.

page 1044 note 14 Œuvres, II, 117.

page 1044 note 15 Ibid., p. 124.

page 1045 note 16 François Coppée, l'homme, la vie l'æuvre, Paris, 1889, pp. 152-53.

page 1045 note 17 Promenades et intérieurs (Œuvres, II, 108).

page 1045 note 18 Ibid., p. 113.

page 1045 note 19 Ibid., p. 121.

page 1045 note 20 Le Cahier rouge (Œuvres, II, 226 and 227).

page 1046 note 21 Poèmes populaire, (Poésies complètes, II, 230-35). The poem is dated 1848.

page 1046 note 22 Ibid., pp. 7-12. Dated 1869.

page 1046 note 23 Poèmes modernes (Œuvres, I, 192-93).

page 1046 note 24 Les Humbles (Œuvres, II, 15).

page 1046 note 25 Poésies complètes, II, 164. Dated 1862.

page 1046 note 26 Ibid., p. 61. Dated 1860.

page 1047 note 27 Le Cahier rouge (Œuvres, II, 139).

page 1047 note 28 Poésies complètes, II, 42. Dated 1866.

page 1047 note 29 Cahier rouge (Œuvres, II, 212).

page 1047 note 30 Les Paroles sincères (Œuvres, V, 154).

page 1047 note 31 Poésies, II, 13. Dated 1852.

page 1047 note 32 Paroles sincères, p. 139.

page 1047 note 33 Ibid., p. 178.

page 1047 note 34 Poésies, II, 118, 160, and 168. Dated 1859, 1862, and 1856, respectively.

page 1047 note 35 Ibid., p. 94. Undated.

page 1047 note 36 Ibid., p. 38. Dated 1865.

page 1047 note 37 Paroles sincères, p. 143.

page 1047 note 38 Contes en vers et poésies diverses (Œuvres, IV, 95).

page 1048 note 39 Poésies, II, 172. Dated 1869.

page 1048 note 40 Cahier rouge, p. 226

page 1048 note 41 Poésies, II, 219. Dated 1868.

page 1048 note 42 Poésies, II, 319. Dated 1868.

page 1048 note 43 Contes en vers, p 3.

page 1048 note 44 Ibid., p. 23.

page 1048 note 45 Ibid., p. 53.

page 1048 note 46 Poésies, II, 111. Dated 1863.

page 1049 note 47 Poésies, p. 225. Dated 1866.

page 1049 note 48 Ibid., p. 162. Undated.

page 1049 note 49 Paroles sincères, p. 183.

page 1049 note 50 Ibid., p. 83.

page 1050 note 51 Poésies, II, 338-43.

page 1050 note 52 Pp. 168-71. The date of the unveiling of the statue of Brizeux is given by Coppée as September 9, 1888.

page 1050 note 53 The two collections are printed together in vol. II of the Poésies.

page 1050 note 54 Œuvres, II.

page 1051 note 55 Poésies, II, 261.

page 1051 note 56 Ibid., p. 308.

page 1051 note 57 Ibid., p. 327.

page 1051 note 58 Ibid., p. 331.

page 1051 note 59 Ibid., p. 384.

page 1052 note 60 Œuvres, II, 97.

page 1052 note 61 Poésies, II, 198. Dated 1848.

page 1053 note 62 “Les Trois peuples” (Poésies, I, 61). Dated 1849.

page 1053 note 63 For a study of French proletarian poetry from 1830 to 1870, vide E. M. Grant: French Poetry and Modern Industry, Cambridge, Mass., 1927.

page 1053 note 64 Op. cit., p. 152.

page 1054 note 65 This second volume of le Parnasse contemporain bears the date of 1869 and it was evidently ready for publication by the end of this year. Its actual appearance, however, did not occur until 1871.

page 1054 note 66 As M. Lanson has it, “La voie [to naturalistic poetry] fut décidément ouverte par M. E. Manuel” (Histoire de la littérature française, 14th ed., Paris 1918, p. 1064).