BRETON LITERATURE. It is usual to divide Breton literature into three periods corresponding to the language—old, middle and modern. The written remains in the first period (8th to Ilth centuries) consist entirely of glosses and names in ancient documents. The chief collections of glosses are (I) the Oxford glosses on Eutychius; (2) the Luxemburg glosses; (3) the Bern glosses on Virgil; (4) the Cambridge glosses on Amalarius; (5) five Collationes Canonum, the chief mss. being at Paris and Orleans. All the glosses have been published by Loth (Vocabu laire Vieux-Breton, 1884). Breton names occur in Latin lives of saints, in the Charter of Redon written in the 11th century but dating largely from the 9th, and in the Charter of Landevennec (11th century). Lists of these names occur in Loth's Chresto mathie Bretonne.
The Middle Breton period extends from the 11th to the 17th centuries, but down to the 15th century only proper names are found, in such official documents as the Charter of Quimperle (12th and 13th centuries), with the exception of a few scraps of verse discovered in a 14th century ms. in Paris (Revue Celtique, xxxiv. 241). These scraps constitute the earliest known connected text in Breton. But it is at the end of the 15th century that Breton literature can really be said to begin. To this period belong a Breton-Latin-French dictionary called the Catholicon of Laga deuc, dated 1464 and printed in 1499 (the first printed Breton book) and the dictionary and conversations (French-Breton) of Quiquer de Roscoff, printed in 1626. A collection entitled Can tiques bretons was published in 1642 in which the names of sev eral Breton airs are given. All the remaining works of the period are religious. Two are in prose—the Life of St. Catherine (1576) and the Mirror of Confession (1621) . The former is a translation of the version found in the Golden Legend, and the latter a trans lation from French. The other works are in verse. The Life of St. Nonn (end of the 15th century) is a paraphrase in the form of a drama of the Latin life, with some attempts to localize a few events in Brittany. Le Grand Mystere de Jesus (153o) follows the French play of Arnoul Gresban and Jean Michel. This drama falls into three parts, the Passion, the Resurrection, Dialogues. Le Mystere de Sainte Barbe 7) is also derived from a French play. Three long poems on the Passing of Mary, the Fifteen Joys of Mary and the Life of Man belong to the same period as the Grand Mystere de Jesus, all three probably being based on French versions. A Breton metrical version of the Creed occurs in a French mystery play dated 1456 (Revue Celtique, xx. 184) . Le Mirouer de la Mort is a somewhat lugubrious poem of 3,602 lines composed in 1519 by "Maestre Jehan an Archer Coz" and printed in 1575. It is based ultimately upon a Latin work (in prose mixed with verse) of which versions exist in French. It is a description of the four destinies of man—death (lines 59-582), the last judgment (lines 583-1954), hell (lines heaven the remaining lines being intro ductory and conclusion. Doctrin an ch 'istenien, a translation from French, was published in 1622. The metrical Devout Meditations of Cadec appeared in 1651, and in the previous year a collection of carols (An Nouelou ancien). To the 16th century belong a Book of Hours in verse, a prose extract from the Leon missal, and also a prose catechism. The lack of originality in the Breton published works of this period is obvious. None of them can be said to reflect in any way the real Breton culture of the period. French influences are particularly evident in the enormous number of French words that appear. French was the language of the upper classes, and the predominance of religious subjects among the literary remains of the period together with the complete absence of what was truly Breton in spirit argues strongly in favour of the assumption that the indigenous culture of the coun try was entirely neglected by the learned classes. In view of what was to occur later in Breton literature the most significant thing among the products of the middle period is the existence of the three mystery plays already mentioned.
The Modern Period.—Modern Breton is considered to begin with the appearance in 1659 of Julien Maunoir's grammar, Le Sacre College de Jesus, in which he substituted for the traditional orthography a more phonetic system. This orthographical division has however practically no significance from the literary stand point, for the same types of works continued to appear up to the 19th century. Numerous collections of religious poems and manuals of devotion in prose and verse were published. But the bulk of Breton literature in this period consisted of mysteries and miracle plays. The subjects of these plays fall into four classes : (I) Old Testament subjects; (2) New Testament subjects; (3 ) lives of the saints; (4) chivalry. Generally the plays are derived from French sources, and in the case of the third class from Latin lives of the saints. The treatment is invariably of the tra ditional style, even when the saint is Breton. Of course there is occasionally some local colouring, as could be expected, but broadly speaking the plays evince little originality. To the first class belong Creation ar bed, Bue Vie de Moise, Vie de David; to the second Bue sautes Anna Saint Jean-Baptiste, La Passion, Vie de lantecrist (which treats of the Last Judgment, and in which occurs the well-known Debate of the Body and the Soul). It is but natural to find in Brittany several plays of the third class—St. Gwennole, St. David, St. Garan, St. Patrick, etc. In the fourth class are found Vie des quatre fils, Aymon and Huon de Bordeaux. The following may also be noted : Vie de Louis Eunius (into which the legend of St. Patrick's purgatory enters), Robert le Diable, and the three farces Ar Farvel goapaer (Le bouffon moqueur), Ian Melarge (Mardi-Gras), and La Vie de Mallarge, de Tristemine sa femme, et de ses enfants. The actors in these plays were always peasants, and the whole movement incurred the displeasure of the clergy, with the result that the Breton stage was well-nigh killed about the middle of the 19th century. But a revival set in towards the end of the century, largely due to the inspiration of the Abbe le Bayon, founder of the Breton theatre of Ste. Anne d'Auray, and author of Breton dramas. Loth has described the 18th century as the "century of dictionaries," and little of literary importance appeared in that century. But the 19th century saw a revival of interest in Breton, largely due to the work of Le Gonidec. A real endeavour was made to create a national literature, particularly after the attention of the whole world of letters was attracted to Brittany by the publi cation of Barzas Breiz. The most prominent of the pioneers of this movement were Auguste Brizeux, F. M. Luzel and Prosper Proux. Brizeux (1803-58), better known as a French poet, wrote a collection of lyrics entitled Telen Arvor (1884) . Luzel published original compositions under the title Bepred Breizad, Toujours Breton (1864). Proux published Canaouenno gret gant eur C'hernewod (1838) and Ar Bombard Kerne (The Hautboy of Cornouailles, 1866). The themes tended to be conventional, and the works of these writers are somewhat monotonous. An anthol ogy of poems connected with the movement appeared in 1862 under the title Bleuniou Breiz, Poesies anciennes et moderns de la Basse-Bretagne. P. D. de Goesbriand published in 1836 a Breton version of several of La Fontaine's fables, and a collection of metrical fables appeared in 1867 entitled Marvaillou Grac'h Koz by G. Milin. A book of Georgics, Levr at labourer, in the Vannes dialect, was published by the Abbe Guillome in 1849. A translation of the Scripture prepared by Le Gonidec and revised by Troude and Milin was published in 1868.