elevated diction he is forced to employ, should he not, after all, have
written in French? The idea of Roumanille was simpler and less ambitious
than that of Mistral; he aimed to give the humble classes about him a
literature within their reach, that should give them moral lessons, and
appeal to the best within them. Mistral, developing into a poet of
genius while striving to attain the same object, could not fail to
change the object, and this contradiction becomes apparent in _Mirèio_,
and constitutes a problem in any discussion of his literary work.

The story of _Mirèio_ may be told in a few words. She is a beautiful
young girl of fifteen, living at the _mas_ of her father, Ramoun. She
falls in love with a handsome, stalwart youth, Vincèn, son of a poor
basket-maker. But the difference in worldly wealth is too great, her
father and mother violently oppose their union, and so, one night, the
maiden, in despair, rushes away from home, across the great plain of
the Crau, across the Rhone, across the island of Camargue, to the church
of the three Maries. Vincèn had told her to seek their aid in any time
of trouble. Here she prays to the three saints to give Vincèn to her,
but the poor girl has been overcome by the terrible heat of the sun in
crossing the treeless plains and is found by her parents and friends
unconscious before the altar. Vincèn comes also and joins his
lamentations to theirs. The holy caskets are lowered from the chapel
above, but no prayers avail to save the maiden's life. She expires, with
words of hope upon her lips.

This simple tale is told in twelve cantos; it aims to be an epic, and in
its external form is such. It employs freely the _merveilleux chrètien_,
condemned by Boileau, and in one canto, _La Masco_ (The Witch), the
poet's desire to embody the superstitions of his ignorant landsmen has
led him entirely astray. The opening stanza begins in true epic