Since that time the influences have been rather the other way, but those from France upon England may perhaps be enumerated as (1) the elaboration of a sentiment for inanimate nature since Rousseau, St. Pierre, and Chateaubriand; (2) the absorption, and sometimes imitation, of French novels, such as _Les Misérables_ and _Notre Dame_ of Hugo, the revived picaroons of Dumas, and the naturalistic work of Zola; (3) the Positivist philosophy of Comte; (4) imitations or plagiarisms of French comedy, such as that of Sardou; (5) lessons from the literary criticism of Ste. Beuve, chiefly derived through Matthew Arnold; (6) stylistic lessons from writers like Flaubert. BRIEF CONSPECTUS OF FRENCH LITERATURE. DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE. CHIEF REPRESENTATIVES. DATES. TYPICAL WORKS. SOME EFFECTS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE. Epic tales of Chivalry (Chansons de Geste) Various Trouvères (mostly unknown) Twelfth and thirteenth centuries 1. Romances of Charlemagne’s Paladins. 2. Romances of ancient heroes, _e.g._, _Roman de Troie_. 3. Romances of Arthur. Allegorical Epic (Romans) Mostly anonymous, but _Roman de la Rose_ begun by Guillaume de Lorris and completed by Jean de Meung Twelfth and thirteenth centuries _Roman de Renart_ (_Reynard the Fox_), _Roman de la Rose._ Fabliaux Generally anonymous Twelfth and thirteenth centuries These works and their like were practically as familiar to the “reading public” of England as of France during the pre-Chaucerian period, when French was the social, official, and literary language. Some portions were contributed by Anglo-Normans, _e.g._, Wace and Benoît de Sainte-More. Chaucer began by translating and imitating from the French, _e.g._, in his _Romance of the Rose_. His _Canterbury Tales_ include a number of _fabliaux_, and also borrowings from the _romans_. Gower is still more after the same school. The _Romance of the Rose_ and other allegories continued in vogue till the Renaissance. The _Chansons de Geste_ exerted much influence on Italian writers of romantic heroics (Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, etc.), thence again affected England (through Spenser, etc.). The _fabliaux_ were utilized by Boccaccio and the Italian _novellieri_, and thence influenced Elizabethan novel and drama. Poetry: (Other than Drama) Transition to Renaissance. VILLON 1431-1500 Personal lyrics. MAROT 1495-1544 Epistles, elegies, eclogues. Marot and his followers, _e.g._, Saint-Gelais, were an influence upon Wyatt, Spenser, etc. Spenser copies Marot in eclogue. (Till eighteenth century) Pléiade reformers. RONSARD 1524-1585 DU BELLAY _ob._ 1560 Odes, sonnets