general higher culture in French literature. But they will doubtless
enjoy that poetry best which sings to them of themselves in the speech
of their firesides. Mistral has endowed them with a verse language that
has high artistic possibilities, some of which he has realized most
completely. The music of his verse is the music that expresses the
nature of his people. It is the music of the _gai savoir_. Brightness,
merriment, movement, quick and sudden emotion,--not often deep or
sustained,--exuberance and enthusiasm, love of light and life, are
predominant; and the verse, absolutely free from strong and heavy
combinations of consonants, ripples and glistens with its pretty
terminations, full of color, full of vivacity, full of the sunny south.

[Footnote 6:

In the castle at Tarascon there is a queen, there is a fairy,
In the castle of Tarascon
There is a fairy in hiding.

The one who shall open the prison wherein she is confined,
The one who shall open for her,
Perhaps she will love him.
]

[Footnote 7: The ship comes from Majorca with a cargo of oranges: the
mainmast of the ship has been crowned with green garlands: safely the
ship arrives from Majorca.]

[Footnote 8: There blows, in this age, a proud wind, which would make a
mere hash of all herbs: we, the good Provençals, defend the old home
over which our swallows hover.]