interesting though evolved in too restricted a circle, is, above
all, epic and lyrical. The Portuguese lyrics almost exclusively dealt
with love; the epic poets celebrated a certain number of salient
achievements in national history. It is only in the sixteenth century
that a genuine expansion of Portuguese literature can be noted.




CHAPTER X


THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES: FRANCE

First Portion of Sixteenth Century: Poets: Marot, Saint-Gelais; Prose
Writers: Rabelais, Comines. Second Portion of Sixteenth Century: Poets:
"The Pleiade"; Prose Writers: Amyot, Montaigne. First Portion of
Seventeenth Century: Intellectual and Brilliant Poets: Malherbe,
Corneille. Great Prose Writers: Balzac, Descartes. Second Portion of
Seventeenth Century: Poets: Racine, Moliere, Boileau, La Fontaine; Prose
Writers: Bossuet, Pascal, La Bruyere, Fenelon, etc.


THE RENAISSANCE OF LETTERS.--The sixteenth century was for France the
epoch of the Renaissance of letters. What is called the Renaissance of
letters is the result, to each race, of the closest contact of the
educated people with ancient literature, contact which sometimes
strengthened the national vein, sometimes weakened it, according to the
divergent temperaments of these races.