[401] For the history of classical metres in France, _cf._ Egger, _Hellenisme en France_, p. 290 _sq._, and Darmesteter and Hatzfeld, _Seizieme Siecle en France_, p. 113 _sq._ [402] Estienne Pasquier, in his _Recherches de la France_, vii. 11, attempts to prove that the French language is capable of employing quantity in its verse, but does not decide whether quantity or rhymed verse is to be preferred. [403] _Cf._ Rucktaeschel, p. 24 _sq._, and Carducci, p. 413 _sq._ [404] This academy has been made the subject of an excellent monograph by E. Fremy, _L'Academie des Derniers Valois_, Paris, n. d. The statutes of the academy will be found on page 39 of this work, and the letters-patent granted to it by Charles IX. on page 48. [405] _Defense_, ii. 11. [406] _Art Poet._ i. 3. [407] _Art Poet._ ii. 10; i. 9. [408] Ronsard, vii. 321, 324. [409] _Ibid._ iii. 17 _sq._ [410] Sidney, _Defence_, p. 29. [411] _Essais_, i. 54. [412] _Cf._ the _Revue d'Hist. litt. de la France_, 1896, iii. 1 _sq._ [413] Ronsard, iii. 28; Du Bellay, _Defense_, ii. 11. [414] Arnaud, app. ii. [415] Vauquelin, _Art Poet._ iii. 845; _cf._ iii. 33; i. 901. [416] Ronsard, vii. 322. CHAPTER IV THE FORMATION OF THE CLASSIC IDEAL IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY I. _The Romantic Revolt_ IT is a well-known fact that between 1600 and 1630 there was a break in the national evolution of French literature. This was especially so in the drama, and in France the drama is the connecting link between century and century. The dramatic works of the sixteenth century had been fashioned after the regular models borrowed by the Italians from Seneca. The change that came was a change from Italian classical to Spanish romantic models. The note of revolt was beginning to be heard in Grevin, De Laudun, and others. The seventeenth century opened with the production of Hardy's irregular drama, _Les Amours de Theagene et Cariclee_ (1601), and the influence of the Spanish romantic drama and the Italian pastoral, dominant for over a quarter of a century, was inaugurated in France.