UNDERGRADUATE CLASSES.
Two undergraduate classes are conducted in this School; one, to
satisfy the requirements of the bachelor's degree; the other, those
of the degree of Master of Arts. Because of its inherent importance
and on account, too, of existing pedagogical conditions, French is held
to be that one of the Romanic languages best fitted for accomplishing
the purposes generally implied in a collegiate course leading to the
degree of Bachelor of Arts.
The B. A. Course in Romance (three hours a week) furnishes to those
students who may have already studied French several years (a) a
course of rapid reading, such as will increase the vocabulary to a
point where written Modern French will be understood with ease; (b)
a course in French Composition, which is intended to ensure an
accurate knowledge of ordinary forms; (c) dictation exercises which
would educate the ear to French sounds and cultivate the habit of
good pronunciation. While this is distinctively and essentially a linguistic
course, Literature receives its share of treatment (a) in the
comparatively large number of texts read, arranged with the view
of presenting, as far as possible, a general idea of the more important
phases of Modern French literature; (b) in histories of French literature
assigned for examination.
The programme for 1899-1900 was as follows:
1. French Grammar and Composition. Weekly:
Grandgent's Grammar and Composition.
2. French Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Twice weekly:
Béranger, Chansons; Hugo, Hernani; Mérimée, Colomba; Daudet, La Belle-Nivernaise;
Theuriet, Bigarreau; Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac.
3. Private study:
(a) French Texts.—Corneille, Le Cid and Horace; Racine, Athalie and Les
Plaideurs; Molière, L'Avare and Le Misanthrope.
(b) French Literary History and Criticism.—Pellissier, Le Mouvement
Littéraire au XIX Siècle; Saintsbury, A Short History of French Literature.
The M. A. Course in Romance (six hours a week) deals especially with
Spanish and Italian. French, however, is used continually in this
course as a unit of comparison and, when the capabilities of the class
permit, as a means of class-room communication. Students are not
required to have a previous knowledge of Spanish and Italian; but
they are supposed to have had that thorough training in French which
gives, as it were, a Romanic base of procedure and which enables a
student to overcome, at sight, many of the primary difficulties of Spanish
and Italian. The M. A. course in Romance intends to do for Spanish
and Italian respectively what is practically done for French in the
B. A. course.
The following is an outline of what has been accomplished in 18991900:
1. Spanish Grammar and Composition. Weekly:
Manning's Grammar; Exercises based on texts read in class.
2. Spanish Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Twice Weekly:
Tamayo, Un Drama Nuevo; Alarcón, El Sombrero de Tres Picos; Galdós, Doña
Perfecta; Espronceda, El Diablo Mundo; Breton de los Herreros, La Independencia;
Pereda, La Puchera.
3. Private study:
(a) Spanish Texts.—Cervantes, Rinconete y Cortadillo; Tirso de Molina,
El Burlador de Scvilla; Moreto y Cabana, El Desdén con el Desdén; Lope de
Vega y Calderon de la Barca, Obras Maestras.
(b) Spanish Literary History and Criticism.—Fitzmaurice-Kelly, History
of Spanish Literature.
4. Italian Grammar and Composition. Weekly:
Grandgent's Grammar and Composition; Fornaciari, Sintassi Italiani.
5. Italian Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Twice weekly:
De Amicis, Alberto; Barrili, Una Notte Bizzarra; Farina, Fra la Corde di
un Contrabasso; Del Testa, L'Oro e l'Orpello; Pellico, Francesca da Rimini;
Capuana, Homo.
6. Private study:
(a) Italian Texts.—Goldoni, Un Curioso Accidente; Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi;
Selections from Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and other writers of the Fourteenth
Century, in D'Ancona e Bacci, Manuale della Letteratura Italiana,
Volume I.
(b) Italian Literary History and Criticism.—Fenini, Letteratura Italiana;
Garnett, History of Italian Literature.
