Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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Havergal College Magazine and literary taste. To prevent this degeneration of their lan- guage, certain learned ladies of the Court formed a society, whose chief aim was to preserve the niceties and refinements of the French tongue. They were polished and extremely witty, and succeeded in refining both literature and manners. They met regularly at the house of the Marquise de Rambouillet and discussed literature and most of the leading questions of the day. It was their custom to receive in their boudoirs, in little alcoves surrounded by a ruelle or a railing, but naturally the manners of the ruelles and the alcoves were very artificial. The real Precieuses were soon imitated by a number of ladies of the bourgeoisie, and the false Precieuses arose. However, the real Precieuses were partly successful in their aim, and they certainly helped to raise the standard of French manners and French speech. But naturally, when these provincial fine ladies, less intellectual and often highly ridiculous, drew attention to themselves, the good work of the real Precieuses was soon over- shadowed by the affectation and stupidity of the false ones. Already literature was being infected with the style of the Precieuses, and we see in the greatest authors, such as Corneille, and even in Moliere himself, traces of their influence. Moliere, realizing the humour and absurdity of it all, and that the influence of the Precieuses was unfavourable to a healthy development of French literature, rendered his country a great service when at one blow he absolutely killed the progress of the movement in his famous play, Les Precieuses Ridicules. In this play he has unmercifully pilloried all the Precieuses of the seventeenth century. He no doubt did not intend to satirize the Hotel de Rambouillet and its society, but the affectation and bad taste of the false Precieuses, the ridiculous imitators of the real ones. We have, too, in this play, Moliere ' s views on the educa- tion of women — his ideal woman was, like all other ideal women, capable of looking after her home and her children, of speaking correctly and with elegance, and with a fair ap- preciation of literature. But, the study of philosophy, poetic composition and the inauguration of learned societies did not enter into his view of woman ' s realm. Moliere, I think, is not wholly justified in these views. Why, if a woman is capable of writing, of learning philosophy, of opening large schools and societies, should she not do so, provided her home is not neglected? The history of education in the last hundred years shows us how much can be safely undertaken by women. Why, then, should a woman tie herself down to her home alone, when she is capable of doing some- thing big, which not only helps herself and her family, but goes to help the whole nation? 88

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Haverga! College Magazine there was always something to watch. Sometimes a big brown owl would sail noiselessly by in search of his evening meal, or a squirrel begin to scold us from the trees overhead. The stillness was broken occasionally by the splash of a fish leap- ing out of the water, or by the notes of the thrush and the whitethroat sparrow. One evening, some small animal started to swim across the bay and we set off in pursuit to see what it was. Just as we got near, it dived, but soon reappeared some yards away. We started after it again, but happening to look towards the back of the bay I saw on the shore a small deer quietly feeding on the grass and lily pads. Letting the canoe drift, we sat perfectly still while it fed, now and then lifting its dainty head to gaze uneasily in our direction. It was a light reddish brown in colour, with large soft ears, no horns, and pretty, delicately shaped legs and body. For ten or fifteen minutes it stayed in view and then quietly disappeared into the woods. Our long waiting had been rewarded. PHYLLIS ROSS, Form Lower VI. WINTER. Spirit of Winter, glorying in thy power, From bitter North, where none dispute thy reign, Thou comest down, and following in thy train Are elements which make the strongest cower ; And few there be who may escape thy lour. Long months thou guard ' st well the key we fain Would have unlock earth ' s streams, and for them claim Their vanished life for yet another hour. And yet, Winter, thou are not always cruel — Thou too hast days, when far afield we wander Charmed by the beauty thou dost so freely squander. Thou too, like man, canst claim a nature dual, At once relentless, stern and seeming hard And vet of summer ' s gifts the faithful guard. H. L. LES PRECIEUSES. In studying the rise of the drama, we turn to France, and France of the seventeenth century, for the supreme examples of comedy. When we find that the greatest master of this most delicate art, Moliere, has twice over selected a passing phase of the manners of his time as a fitting subject for his genius, we do well to pause and ask ourselves what this phase signified. In France, in the early and middle seventeenth century, there was a tendency to lower the standard of conversation 37

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Havergal College Magazine But, whatever may be our judgment of his views on woman ' s education, we owe Moliere a deep debt of gratitude for the character studies in his two plays on the subject, Les Precieuses Ridicules, 1659, and Les Femmes Savantes, 1672. Of the two, Les Femmes Savantes is by far the riper, richer production, and he seems at the end of his career to have wished to produce a work of rare artistic merit. Not only is the play wonderful as a comedy, but the style is admirable. By Les Precieuses Moliere had succeeded in banishing from the ruelles and the alcoves the ridiculous affectation of the false Precieuses. In Les Femmes Savants he attacked the pedantry of women, and showed the evil effects of the pedantic spirit in the family. Instead of attending to her house- hold duties, Philaminte thinks only of letters and science, and chases from her house her servant Marline for not speaking vaugelas. She is imperious as well as pedantic, and rules over her family wi th an iron hand. Chrysale, her husband, is a rich bourgeois, a man of good sense, but weak. In his wife ' s absence he speaks boldly and says that his will must be law; but as soon as she appears he dare not oppose her, and yields meekly to her wishes. Philaminte ' s daughter, Armande, is not only pedan- tic like her mother, but she is selfish and jealous. She has re- jected Clitandre ' s suit, because marriage is not sufficiently ethereal ; and when Clitandre courts Henriette, her sister, she ondeavours to prevent their marriage by favouring Trissatin, another suitor of Henriette ' s. The latter is the most graceful creation of Moliere ' s ; she does not know Greek, but is a charm- ing young girl, gentle, modest and sensible. She seems to per- sonify Moliere ' s idea of the perfect woman, and is in every respect an admirable character. Her lover Clitandre is a man of honour and good judgment, and it is he who expresses the author ' s opinion about the education of women. Belise, Philaminte ' s sister, is the most ridiculous of the three femmes savantes. She believes that all men are in love with her, and carries this idea to such an extreme that her folly is not credible. Ariste, the reasonable man, is not the one that speaks the most sensibly, it is Clitandre, whom we admire above all. Ariste, however, is necessary to the plot, as it is he who exposes Trisso- tin ' s mercenary motives, and makes Philaminte consent to Henriette ' s marriage to Clitandre, a conclusion which Chrysale orders. To Moliere alone is due the praise for having stamped out from French society and French literature the affectation and bad taste which were so prevalent during the seventeenth cen- tury. But in rooting up the bad, he left unharm ed the good that had been accomplished by the ladies of the Hotel de Ram- bouillet — Les Precieuses. DOROTHY McDOUGALL. Form Upper VI. i 39