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French literature - 14th Century Lyricism | Britannica
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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/French-literature">French literature</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/French-literature">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref22484"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages">The Middle Ages</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22486"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages#ref22486">The origins of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22487"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages#ref22487">The context and nature of French medieval literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22488"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-chansons-de-geste">The chansons de geste</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22489"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-chansons-de-geste#ref22489">The romance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22490"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century">Lyric poetry to the 13th century</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22491"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century#ref22491">Satire, the fabliaux, and the <em>Roman de Renart</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22492"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century#ref22492">Allegory</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22493"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century">Lyric poetry in the 14th century</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22494"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century#ref22494">Villon and his contemporaries</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22495"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century#ref22495">Prose literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22496"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Religious-drama">Religious drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22497"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Religious-drama#ref22497">Secular drama</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22499"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century">The 16th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22500"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century#ref22500">Language and learning in 16th-century Europe</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22501"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century#ref22501">The elevation of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22504"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Major-authors-and-influences">Major authors and influences</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22505"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Major-authors-and-influences#ref22505">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22506"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose">Prose</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22507"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century">The 17th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22508"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century#ref22508">Literature and society</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22509"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century#ref22509">Refinement of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22510"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-development-of-drama">The development of drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22511"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-heroic-ideal">The heroic ideal</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22512"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-heroic-ideal#ref22512">The <em>honnête homme</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22513"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Racines-fatalism">Racine’s fatalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22514"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Racines-fatalism#ref22514">Nondramatic verse</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22515"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner">The Classical manner</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22516"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref22516">Religious authors</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247788"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref247788">Satire</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22517"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref22517">The Ancients and the Moderns</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22518"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-18th-century-to-the-Revolution-of-1789">The 18th century to the Revolution of 1789</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22519"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-18th-century-to-the-Revolution-of-1789#ref22519">The Enlightenment</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22520"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama">Drama</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22521"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22521">Tragedy and the survival of Classical form</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22522"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22522">Marivaux and Beaumarchais</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22523"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22523">Bourgeois drama</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22524"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22524">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22525"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel">The novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22526"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel#ref22526">Rousseau</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22527"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Laclos-and-others">Laclos and others</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22528"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century">From 1789 to the mid-19th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22529"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22529">Revolution and empire</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22530"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22530">The poetry of Chénier</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22531"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22531">Revolutionary oratory and polemic</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22532"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22532">Chateaubriand</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22533"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22533">Mme de Staël and the debate on literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22534"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism">Romanticism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22535"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22535">Foreign influences</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22536" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22536">The poetry of the Romantics</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22537"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22537">Lamartine</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22538"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22538">The early poetry of Hugo</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22539"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22539">Vigny</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22540"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22540">Musset</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22541"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22541">Nerval</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22542" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre">Romantic theatre</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22543"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22543">Hugo</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22544"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22544">Vigny</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22545"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22545">Musset</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22546"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac">The novel from Constant to Balzac</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22547"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac#ref22547">The historical novel</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22548"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac#ref22548">Stendhal</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22549"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand">Sand</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22550"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand#ref22550">Nodier, Mérimée, and the conte</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22551"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand#ref22551">Balzac</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22552"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought">19th-century thought</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22553"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22553">Literary criticism and journalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22554"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22554">Historical writing</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22555"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22555">The intellectual climate before 1848</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22556"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22556">Renan, Taine, and positivism</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22557"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900">From 1850 to 1900</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22558"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900#ref22558">New directions in poetry</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22559"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900#ref22559">Gautier and <em>l’art pour l’art</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22560"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Leconte-de-Lisle-and-Parnassianism">Leconte de Lisle and Parnassianism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22561"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Leconte-de-Lisle-and-Parnassianism#ref22561">Baudelaire</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22563"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Realism-in-the-novel">Realism in the novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22564"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Realism-in-the-novel#ref22564">Diversity among the Realists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22565"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Flaubert">Flaubert</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22566"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Flaubert#ref22566">Drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22567"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism">Naturalism</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22568"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism#ref22568">Zola</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22569"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism#ref22569">Maupassant</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22570"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-reaction-against-reason">The reaction against reason</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22571"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-reaction-against-reason#ref22571">The Decadents</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22572"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Symbolists">The Symbolists</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22573"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Symbolists#ref22573">The novel later in the century</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22574"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940">From 1900 to 1940</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22575"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940#ref22575">The legacy of the 19th century</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247791"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940#ref247791">Gide</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247792"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel">Proust and Claudel</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247793"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247793">Valéry</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22577"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref22577">The impact of World War I</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247794"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247794">War novels and poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247795"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247795">The avant-garde</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247796"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247796">Colette</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22578"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment">Political commitment</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247797"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247797">Politics in the novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247798"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247798">Céline and Drieu</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247799"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247799">Malraux, Gide, and others</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247800"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247800">Politics subordinate to other concerns: Mauriac, Bernanos, and others</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22581"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22582"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry#ref22582">Theatre</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22583"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry#ref22583">The eve of World War II</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22584"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century">The mid-20th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22585"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref22585">The German Occupation and postwar France</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247801"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247801">Sartre</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247802"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247802">Camus</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247803"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247803">Beauvoir</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247804"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Toward-the-nouveau-roman">Toward the <em>nouveau roman</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247805"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Toward-the-nouveau-roman#ref247805">Theatrical experiments</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22588"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Postwar-poetry">Postwar poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22589"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Postwar-poetry#ref22589">The 1960s: before the watershed</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247806"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism">Structuralism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247807"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism#ref247807">Lacan and Foucault</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247808"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism#ref247808">La Nouvelle Critique (French New Criticism)</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref247809"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century">Approaching the 21st century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22590"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref22590">The events of 1968 and their aftermath</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247810"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref247810">Derrida and other theorists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247811"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref247811">Feminist writers</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22591"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s">Other literature of the 1970s</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247812"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247812">Historical fiction</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247813"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247813">Biography and related arts</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247814"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247814">Detective fiction</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247815"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s">The 1980s and ’90s</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247816" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247816">Fiction and nonfiction</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247817"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247817">Postcolonial literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247818"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247818">Regional literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247819"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247819">Postmodernism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247820"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction">Prose fiction</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247821"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction#ref247821">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247822"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction#ref247822">Drama</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/French-literature/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a 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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/French-literature/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Voltaire" topicid="632488">Voltaire</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Moliere-French-dramatist" topicid="388302">Molière</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau" topicid="510932">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Jean-Racine" topicid="488151">Jean Racine</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Gabriel-Honore-Marcel" topicid="364105">Gabriel Marcel</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/Breton-literature" topicid="78979">Breton literature</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Anglo-Norman-literature" topicid="25087">Anglo-Norman literature</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Walloon-literature" topicid="634967">Walloon literature</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/chanson-de-geste" topicid="105812">chanson de geste</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/fabliau" topicid="199767">fabliau</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/French-literature"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><!--[BEFORE-ARTICLE]--><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="2" id="ref22493"> <!--[TOC]--> <!--[PREMOD1]--><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Allegory" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Allegory" data-type="MW">Allegory</a> and similar conceits abound in much late <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="medieval" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval" data-type="MW">medieval</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/poetry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">poetry</a>, as with <span id="ref385489"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guillaume-de-Machaut" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Guillaume de Machaut</a>, the outstanding musician of his day, who composed for noble patronage a number of narrative <em>dits amoureux</em> (short pieces on the subject of love) and a quantity of lyric verse. A talented technician, Machaut did much to popularize and develop the relatively new fixed forms: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ballade" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ballade</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rondeau" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rondeau</a>, and <em>virelai</em> (a short poem with a refrain). <span id="ref385490"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eustache-Deschamps" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Eustache Deschamps</a>, Machaut’s great admirer and perhaps also his nephew, struck in his own verse a more personal note than many of his contemporaries. A <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prolific" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prolific" data-type="MW">prolific</a> writer, he dealt with public and private affairs, sometimes satirically; but he composed little love poetry, and his work was not set to music. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Froissart" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean Froissart</a>, the chronicler, also wrote pleasantly in a variety of lyric forms, as did <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christine-de-Pisan" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Christine de Pisan</a>, whose poetry had a greater individuality. Most court verse of this period has an unreal air, as if, amid the political and social agonies of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hundred-Years-War" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Hundred Years’ War</a>, the poets were voicing a yearning for humane and gracious living founded on the ideals of <em>courtoisie</em>. Thus <span id="ref385492"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alain-Chartier" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Alain Chartier</a>, a political polemicist in both French and Latin, was most admired for his poem <em><span id="ref385493"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Belle-Dame-sans-merci-by-Chartier" class="md-crosslink ">La Belle Dame sans mercy</a></em> (1424; “The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy”), which tells of the death of a lover rejected by his lady.</p><!--[MOD1]--><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref22494"> <h2 class="h2"><span id="ref385495"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Villon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Villon</a> and his contemporaries</h2> <!--[PREMOD2]--><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">One distinguished victim of the Hundred Years’ War was <span id="ref385494"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-duc-dOrleans-French-duke-and-poet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charles, duc d’Orléans</a>, who was captured at Agincourt at the age of 21 and was held prisoner in England for 25 years. There is an elegiac tone to much of his graceful courtly verse. On his return to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/France" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">France</a>, his court at Blois became a literary centre, where he encouraged the work of artists and poets such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Villon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">François Villon</a>.</p><!--[MOD2]--><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <!--[PREMOD3]--><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Born in Paris about 1431 as François de Montcorbier, Villon adopted the name of his uncle, a priest, who saw to his upbringing. At the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Universities-of-Paris-I-XIII" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">University of Paris</a>, where he became Master of Arts in 1452, he acquired some learning but also became involved in rioting, robbery, and manslaughter. His forced departure from Paris was the occasion for his <em>Le Lais</em>, or <em>Le Petit Testament</em> (1456; <em><span id="ref385496"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Legacy" class="md-crosslink ">The Legacy</a>: The Testament and Other Poems</em>). This mock <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="legacy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legacy" data-type="MW">legacy</a> in eight-line octosyllabic stanzas is conversational and often <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="facetious" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/facetious" data-type="MW">facetious</a> in tone, full of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="allusions" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allusions" data-type="MW">allusions</a> to people and events sometimes made cryptic by Villon’s taste for antiphrasis. His main work, the <em><span id="ref385497"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Le-Testament" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Testament</a></em> (or <em>Le Grand Testament</em>), was written five or six years later after a spell in the bishop of Orléans’s dungeons. It uses the octets of the <em>Lais</em> interspersed with ballades and rondeaux and is similarly packed with personal gossip, often tongue-in-cheek but leaving a bitter aftertaste. Following more brushes with <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="justice" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice" data-type="MW">justice</a>, Villon disappeared for good, narrowly escaping hanging. Commonly considered to have been the first modern French poet, he brings a personal note to the familiar lyric themes of age, death, and loss and mixes elegy with <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="irony" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony" data-type="MW">irony</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/satire" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">satire</a>, and burlesque humour. His verse shows great technical skill, a keen command of rhythmic effects, and an economy of expression that not only <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="enhances" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhances" data-type="MW">enhances</a> his lively wit but produces moments of intensely focused vision and, in individual poems, moving statements of human experience.</p><!--[MOD3]--><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <!--[PREMOD4]--><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">None of his contemporaries or immediate successors was able to match the vigour of his verse. Often obsessed by metrical ingenuity, extravagant rhymes, and other conceits, they favoured Italian as well as Classical models, thus heralding the Renaissance. It is unfair, however, to judge them by their words alone, since music was, for most, a vital ingredient of their art.</p><!--[MOD4]--><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref22495"> <h2 class="h2">Prose literature</h2> <!--[PREMOD5]--><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Prose flourished as a literary medium from roughly 1200. A few years earlier <span id="ref848141"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-de-Boron" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Robert de Boron</a> had used verse for his <em><span id="ref385499"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Joseph-dArimathie-ou-le-Roman-de-lestoire-dou-Graal" class="md-crosslink ">Joseph d’Arimathie</a></em> (associating the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Grail" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Holy Grail</a> with the Crucifixion) and his <em>Merlin</em>; but both were soon turned into prose. Other Arthurian romances adopted it, notably the great <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgate-cycle" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Vulgate cycle</a> written between 1215 and 1235, with its five branches by various hands. These included the immensely popular <em>Lancelot</em>, the <em>Queste del Saint Graal</em> (whose <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cistercians" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Cistercian</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/author" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">author</a> used Galahad’s Grail quest to evoke the mystic pursuit of Christian truth and ecstasy), and <em>La Mort le Roi Artu</em> (<em><span id="ref385500"></span>The Death of King Arthur</em>), powerfully describing the collapse of the Arthurian world. The Tristan <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="legend" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legend" data-type="MW">legend</a> was reworked and extended in prose. To spin out their romances while maintaining their public’s interest, authors wove in many characters and adventures, producing complex interlacing patterns, which <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Malory" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sir Thomas Malory</a> simplified when he drew on them for his <em>Le Morte Darthur</em> (<em>c.</em> 1470).</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><!--[MOD5]--><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <!--[PREMOD6]--><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As well as traditional material, new fictions appeared in prose, taking a very different view of love, and often in the form of short comic tales. Early in the 15th century, the ironically titled <em>Les Quinze Joies de mariage</em> (<em>The Batchelars Banquet</em>, or <em>The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony</em>) continued the tradition of misogynist satire. In his <em>Histoire du petit Jehan de Saintré</em> (1456; <em><span id="ref385501"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Little-John-of-Saintre" class="md-crosslink ">Little John of Saintre</a></em>), <span id="ref385502"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-de-La-Sale" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Antoine de la Sale</a> drew an ill-starred relationship in which hero and heroine both sought to exploit the social game of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/courtly-love" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">courtly love</a> for their own ends; the work’s realism and psychological interest have made it for some the first French <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a>. The bawdy tales of the <em>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</em> (<em>c.</em> 1465; <em><span id="ref385503"></span>The One Hundred New Tales</em>), loosely modeled on the work of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Boccaccio" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Giovanni Boccaccio</a>, are more in the spirit of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fabliau" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">fabliaux</a>, though written for the Burgundian court.</p><!--[MOD6]--><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <!--[PREMOD7]--><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><firstImage><asm id="111455" filename="/65/115265-004-0E06CEC0/Battle-of-Sluys-Hundred-Years-War-Chronicles.jpg" alttext="Battle of Sluis during the Hundred Years' War"><title>Battle of Sluis during the Hundred Years' War</title><caption><span>Battle of Sluis during the Hundred Years' War, illustration from Jean Froissart's <em>Chronicles</em>, 14th century.</span></caption></asm></firstImage></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Pious and instructional works abound. More interesting are the chronicles, which avoid the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="romantic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/romantic" data-type="MW">romantic</a> extravagances of their verse predecessors. <span id="ref385504"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-of-Villehardouin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Geoffroy of Villehardouin</a>’s <em><span id="ref385505"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Conquest-of-Constantinople" class="md-crosslink ">Conquête de Constantinople</a></em> (“Conquest of Constantinople”) is a sober, if <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="biased" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biased" data-type="MW">biased</a>, eyewitness account of the Fourth Crusade (1199–1204). <span id="ref385506"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-sire-de-Joinville" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean, sire de Joinville</a>, was 84 when, in 1309, he completed his <em><span id="ref385507"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Histoire-de-Saint-Louis" class="md-crosslink ">Histoire de Saint Louis</a></em>, a flattering biographical portrait of his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intimate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intimate" data-type="MW">intimate</a> friend <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-IX" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Louis IX</a>, whom he had accompanied on the Seventh Crusade. (Both Villehardouin’s account and Joinville’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/biography-narrative-genre" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">biography</a> are to be found in a 20th-century English translation as <em>Joinville and Villehardouin: Chronicles of the Crusades</em>. <span id="ref385508"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Froissart" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean Froissart</a>, who traveled extensively in England and Scotland and on the Continent, projected his admiration of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="chivalry" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chivalry" data-type="MW">chivalry</a> into his four books of chronicles. Covering the years 1325 to 1400, they contain much picturesque detail, largely from personal observation. A far more <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cynical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cynical" data-type="MW">cynical</a> view of people, politics, and feudal values is found in the <em>Mémoires</em> of <span id="ref385509"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philippe-de-Commynes" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Philippe de Commynes</a>, composed over the period 1489 to 1498 and published posthumously in 1524–28; these are the texts with which modern French historiography may be said to begin.</p><!--[MOD7]--><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> </section> <!--[END-OF-CONTENT]--><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><!--[AFTER-ARTICLE]--><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script> <!-- Ortto ebmwprod capture code --> <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":5,"pagesTotal":43,"pageId":219228,"pageLength":1112,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":5,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>