Love melancholy in the French eighteenth-century

Abstract

The French literary milieu of the eighteenth-century, especially poetry, can be regarded as the golden age of melancholy. It is thought of in its relation with the exaltation of the soul and judgment and is usually defined as a harmonious passion, an unknown sadness, and a preference for solitude and meditation. Melancholy, which is characteristic of the so-called “Siècle des Lumières”, partly divorces from its classical heritage, resulting in the advent of the romantic “mal du siècle”. Specifically, love melancholy is conceived of as a blending of melancholy and “volupté”, of grief and melancholy and an enchanting passion that stirs up sorrow. The prime aim of this paper is to study love melancholy as understood by Bertin, Chénier, Parny, Colardeau or Gilbert by analysing and translating a series of poems.