During the 18th century the standard of Provencal literature declined in originality of subject, form and purity of I age. Most of the writers were little more imitators of the popular poets of the preceding genera tions. Yet here one meets with a writer who departs enough from this monotonous routine to attract attention. Among these are the Abbe Favre (1727-83), author of de Cadcr ousse and (Lou Scrmoun de moussu sistre,' and Claude Peyrot, prior of Pradinas (1709 95), who wrote (Los Quatre sosous.' Both of these authors are witty and jovially good natured to a degree scarcely to be expected of ecclesiastics. To these should be added the name of Cassanea de Mondonville, whose play et Alcimadure' became immensely Popular not only in the Provencal countries but throughout France; and finally had the honor of being played, by invitation, before the king, Louis XIV. In Provence and Gascony there were poets of much natural talent who, under more favorable circumstance, or even a little encouragement from the French court, might easily have made Provençal litera ture approach the popularity of the days of its prosperity. But the lack of a spirit of unity here, as in the preceding centuries, caused most of these to fall by the wayside. Their eyes were ever so near to the ground that they failed of the vision that is ever necessary to make great poets.
Yet there ever continued to exist in the Pro vencal countries a spirit of racial pride in their customs, history, language and literature which was kept alive by writers and speakers, gener ally of mediocre talent. The study of the language d'oc was kept by enthusiagts in an un scientific and desultory way, and various gram mars, vocabularies and dictionaries of the lan guage were written, though the interest in this kind of work, even by scholars, was so small that often laborious works of this kind re mained in manuscript for lack of encourage ment to print them. Fabre d'Olivet (1767
1825), scientific investigator, musician, poet, philologist and enthusiast, was forerunner of the Felibrige. He aimed at writing pure Pro vencal to the exclusion of dialect, and to unite the literary aspirations and efforts of all the Provengal countries. He was a poet and writer of very considerable vision and much talent; and yet he labored from 1787 until the opening of the 19th century to stir up the local enthu siasm and aspirations of his fellow-countrymen before he finally succeeded in catching the pub lic fancy. But finally he succeeded in driving home the lesson that Provençal, if it deserved to produce a literature worthy the name, must throw aside its various dialectic efforts and set up before itself, as its chief aim, purity of language. He strove to establish a rational orthography and to have it generally adopted through the Provencal districts. He made col lections of Languedoc poets with explanatory notes and wrote fine poems of his own in the native tongue; and in this way for almost a third of a century he continued to influence the public mind and to educate it in the apprecia tion of its treasures of early Provencal litera ture. His work in this direction influenced all the Provencal writers contemporary with him and created for him a large literary following, among whom was Jacques Jasmin (1798-1864), the greatest and most influential of the Feli brige movement. For a study of the modern Provençal movement, see FILIBRIGE. Also see