[340] _Essais_, i. 36, Florio's translation. [341] Ronsard, vii. 322. _Cf._ Aristotle, _Poet._ ix. 1-4; xxv. 6, 7. [342] _Poet._ iii. 24. [343] _De Poeta_, pp. 44, 47. [344] _Art Poet._ i. 187. [345] _Ibid._ i. 87 _sq._ [346] _Art Poet._ ii. 261. [347] _Ibid._ i. 697 _sq._ [348] _Osservationi_, Vinegia, 1560, p. 190. [349] _Art Poet._ i. 744. [350] _Art Poet._ i. 19. _Cf._ Tasso, cited by Shelley, _Defence_, p. 42, "No one merits the name of creator except God and the poet." [351] Sylvester's _Du Bartas_, 1641, p. 242. [352] _Art Poet._ i. 149. [353] Sibilet, _Art Poet._ ii. 8. [354] Pelletier, _Art Poet._ ii. 7. [355] _Ibid._ [356] Robert, app. iii. [357] Ronsard, iii. 18 _sq._ [358] _Art Poet._ iii. 153. [359] _Ibid._ ii. 1113, 441. [360] _Art Poet._ ii. 459. [361] _Ibid._ iii. 143. [362] _Ibid._ iii. 181. [363] _Ibid._ iii. 189 _sq._ [364] Robert, app. iv. [365] _Art Poet._ v. 6. [366] Robert, app. iii. [367] _Poetica_, p. 534. [368] Ronsard, iii. 19. [369] _Arte Poetica_, p. 71. [370] _Ibid._ p. 12; _De Poeta_, p. 149. [371] _Art Poet._ ii. 253. [372] Boileau, _Art Poet._ iii. 45. [373] Arnaud, app. iii. [374] _Art Poet._ iii. 45. [375] _Art Poet._ ii. 8. [376] _Ibid._ i. 3. [377] _Ibid._ i. 5. _Cf._ Capriano, cap. v. [378] Ronsard, iii. 23, 29. [379] Vauquelin, _Art Poet._ i. 471, 503. [380] Boileau, _Art Poet._ iii. 161. CHAPTER III CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN FRENCH CRITICISM DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY THE principle for which the Pleiade stood was, like that of humanism, the imitation of the classics; and the Pleiade was the first to introduce this as a literary principle into France. This means, as regards French literature, in the first place, the substitution of the classical instead of its own national tradition; and, secondly, the substitution of the imitation of the classics for the imitation of nature itself. In making these vital substitutions, Du Bellay and his school have been accused of creating once and for all the gulf that separates French poetry from the national life.[381] This accusation is perhaps unfair to the Pleiade, which insisted on the poet's going directly to nature, which emphasized most strongly the sentiment for natural scenery and beauty, and which first declared the importance of the artisan and the peasant as subjects for poetry. But there can be but little doubt that the separation of poetry from the national life was the logical outcome of the doctrines of the Pleiade. In disregarding the older French poets and the evolution of indigenous poetry, in formulating an ideal of the poet as an unsociable and ascetic character, it separated itself from the natural tendencies of French life and letters, and helped to effect the final separation between poetry and the national development. I. _Classical Elements_