Alphonse Daudet, like Mistral, is a native of Provence. The natives admire the literary grace and wit of the former, “even if he may laugh at us occasionally,” they say, but they _love_ Mistral. For ten years the latter worked upon his _Comprehensive Lexicon of Ancient and Modern Provençal_, which was published in two large volumes in 1886. He was honored by the educated classes and loved by the peasantry, landowners, and boatmen of the Rhône. In 1897 he incorporated into his narrative in verse, _Le poème du Rhône_, many customs and songs of the days before steamships had increased the speed of travel and reduced its picturesqueness. In twelve cantos he celebrated this famous river and its border towns. A dramatic scene recalled the flight of Napoleon across the border from Russia. As poetic art this poem is inferior to _Mireio_ or _Calendau_; it lacks spontaneity yet it has musical measures. Poet of the soil was Mistral, akin in his simplicity and loyalty to Burns and Whittier, although more of a scholar and technician than either of these writers of verse. Like them, however, he created anew the life of his rural people; he touched daily incidents with poetic beauty. He received many distinguished visitors from every country in his later years and treasured letters from scholars of every land. Among the latter was a letter from Theodore Roosevelt written when he was President and had received a copy of a new edition of _Mireio_; to the poet he acknowledged his indebtedness of many years for the delights that he had found in this wistful love poem of Provence, which mirrored so perfectly the traditions and life of the people. FOOTNOTES: [8] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1901. [9] London and New York, 1924. [10] London and New York, 1922, pp. 133-144. By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co. [11] _Studies in Literature_, London, 1892. [12] London, 1913, pp. 66-81. [13] _The Modern Book of French Verse_, edited by Albert Boni, New York, 1920. By permission of Boni & Liveright. [14] _Ibid._ [15] _Punch and Judy and Other Essays_ by Maurice Baring, New York, 1924, pp. 216-219. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co. [16] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1904. [17] _Poems_ by George Meredith, New York, 1897, 1898. By permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, and the heirs of George Meredith. [18] By permission of the Atlantic Monthly Co. [19] Translated by Harriet Waters Preston. By permission of Atlantic Monthly Co. [20] _Cours familier de littérature._ [21] “Frédéric Mistral: Poet of the Soil” by Vernon Loggins, _Sewanee Review_, March, 1924. CHAPTER III TWO GERMAN SCHOLARS: THEODOR MOMMSEN--RUDOLF EUCKEN The prize of 1902 has been awarded: