A fourth Maintenanc,, that of Limousin, is likely to be formed soon. Any seven Fe fibres dwelling in one locality may ask the Maintenance to form them into a School. Every seven years floral games are held, when a poet is crowned laureate. lie chooses the queen of the Felibrige, who is the living symbol of beauty for the Felibres, as was the lady of his choice for the troubadour in the days of courtly love.
The Caponlies have been: Al istral from 1871; to 1884, Joseph Roumanille from 1884 to 1891, Felix Gras from 181)1 to 1901, and Pierre Devoluy, who holds the office at present.
The language used by Mistral and the Felibres is based upon the dialect of Saint-Remy. It is not the of the Troubadours any more than an Italian dialect spoken today in Lom bardy is the language of Dante, though it be longs, of course, to the same general family. The Troubadours used mainly the Litnoll,,in dialect, and the dialect of the country east of the Rhone is not descended from that. Furthermore, six centuries have elapsed since the days of the old poets, bringing great changes in the speech of the people. The influence of French has been naturally overwhelming. Mistral deliberately set to work to purify his dialect, casting out forms due to the influence of French, and to render the rustic speech of his home capable of literary ex pression. The result is a language exceedingly rich in vocabulary, full of terms expressive of what is exclusively Provencal. It is, however, an artificial, literary language that does not repre sent exactly the speech of any one, although read ily understood by nearly all the inhabitants of the region. As the movement progressed more and more writers claimed the privilege of writing in their own unaltered dialects, and these nu merous patoisants stand in the way of any real unity of language.
But the language of the Felibres tends to pre vail because of the sheer superiority of their lit erature. They count among their number one
poet of very high rank, who has revealed the wonders and beauty of the land, the charm of its legends and history, the traits of its people, in verse of areat originality and exquisite literary finish. Aubanel and Roumanille were real poets; Felix Gras wrote a number of long, ambitious poems, but succeeded best in the historical ro mance, and is possibly the best prose writer among the Felibres. Song-writers and story tellers abound. An astonishing number of mag azines and periodicals bear witness to the cease less activity of these enthusiastic writers.
The exuberance of the southern temperament finds full expression in this Felibrean literature. It is the literature of sunlight, healthy in tone. and reflects all that is best and noblest in the race. Its ideals are high, and its aim is ever to glorify the little fatherland, its history, tradi tions, customs, ideas, and language. It has un doubtedly quickened the intellectual life of southern France.
This modern literature in no way continues the literature of the Troubadours. Alistral's first inspiration lay in his love of Homer and Vergil; he and his fellow--poets were long indifferent to the Troubadours, and even while extolling the glories of the past they have written for the Provence of to-day. at least has suc ceeded in combining this modernism and localism with classic beauty of form, and it would be difficult to find an instance of a more thoroughly original and independent creation in the history of letters.
The only adequate history of the Felibrige is that of G. Jourdanne (Avignon, 1S97). :Mistral has published a large dictionary, Tn'sor doe Felibrige (Aix, 1879-86) ; and there is a Gram, maire historique de is fatigue des Faibres by Noschwitz ( Greifswald, 1894 ) . Consult also Kosebwitz, licher die provencalischen Feliber (Berlin, 1894).