Le Parnasse et le Palais: L'OEuvre de Furetiere et la genese du premier dictionnaire encyclopedique en langue francaise (1649-1690)

Abstract

Furetière has had a mixed press, partly because of the quarrel surrounding the publication of his Dictionnaire universel and the charge of plagiarism and theft from the Academy, and partly because of the uneven quality of his previous publications. Compared with Régnier as regards his satirical works, with Scarron for his burlesque or with Sorel for his novels, Furetière has been found wanting. To cite Rey, ‘Du burlesque le plus grossier à la pédagogie sagement chrétienne, Furetière n'a pas su choisir son registre personnel’. In her comprehensive — indeed at times somewhat overlong — study, Roy-Gabriel argues that Furetière's oeuvre must be considered as a whole and that his previous publications prepare the ground for his later encyclopaedic dictionary of French. Moreover, each is shaped by the dual influences of the Parnasse and the Palais: just as the influence of his legal career is discernible in the literary works so, Roy-Gabriel maintains, the Dictionnaire displays inherently literary qualities. In Part I, the author examines in turn Furetière's Ænéide travestie, satirical verse, Nouvelle allégorique and Le Roman bourgeois: each foreshadows his later preoccupations whether as regards the desire for a universal vocabulary which challenges the limits of bel usage, the fascination with the complexity of meaning and the interplay of concrete and figurative senses or the interest in providing definitions, notes and glosses as illustrated in the marginalia of the Nouvelle allégorique. The chapter on Le Roman bourgeois illustrates well the strengths, but also the potential weaknesses, of trying to view the earlier texts as precursors to the lexicographic endeavour. Of the ten points of resemblance listed between the novel and the dictionary, some are entirely convincing, such as the similarities in the choice of motifs and images, the organisation of the works or the preoccupation with the ‘real’, with introducing facts and figures, the evidence necessary to prove a case. Others, such as the claim that the works share the same vocabulary, seem more banal. Part II discusses Furetière's debt to the Academy despite the fundamental differences between his dictionary and the Academy's first edition with respect to what vocabulary is to be included, the use of citations, and indeed the encyclopaedic nature of the definitions which counteract the circularity of purely linguistic definitions. Roy-Gabriel argues that between the Essais of 1684 and the Dictionnaire universel of 1690 the encyclopaedic quality of the dictionary is enhanced through, for example, the addition of etymological material. She demonstrates convincingly how the dictionary is rooted in its age, whether we consider the introduction of contemporary information from official texts or journals, its sceptical tone, or indeed its normative outlook: despite the encyclopaedic quality of the work and the openness to language of all types and registers, the use of style labels and other marques d'usage betrays a certain normative stance. In the final part the author discusses the literary qualities of the dictionary, what she terms the ‘poétique de la curiosité’, and shows how the dictionary is also a deeply personal work, delighting in the marvellous and the curious, and deploying irony, contradiction and hyperbole to create a ‘style Furetière’.