Through Roumanille he came to know Aubanel,édé Croustillat, and others. They met at Avignon, full of youthful enthusiasm, and during this period Mistral, encouraged by his friends, worked upon his greatest poem, _Mirèio_. In 1854, on the 21st of May, the Félibrige was founded by the seven poets,--Joseph Roumanille, Paul Giéra, Théodore Aubanel, Eugène Garcin, Anselme Mathieu, Frédéric Mistral, Alphonse Tavan. In 1868, Garcin published a violent attack upon the Félibres, accusing them, in the strongest language, of seeking to bring about a political separation of southern France from the rest of the country. This apostasy was a cause of great grief to the others, and Garcin's name was stricken from the official list of the founders of the Félibrige, and replaced by that of Jean Brunet. Mistral, in the sixth canto of _Mirèio_, addresses in eloquent verse his comrades in the Provençal Pléiade, and there we still find the name of Garcin.
Tù' nfin, de quau un vènt de flamo Ventoulo, emporto e fouito l'amo Garcin, o fiéu ardènt dóu manescau d'Alen!
(And finally, thou whose soul is stirred and swept and whipped by a wind of flame, Garcin, ardent son of the smith of Alleins.)
This attack upon the Félibrige was the first of the kind ever made. Many years later, Garcin became reconciled to his former friends and in 1897 he was vice-president of the _Félibrige de Paris_.
The number seven and the task undertaken by these poets and literary reformers remind us instantly of the Pléiade, whose work in the sixteenth century in attempting to perfect the French language was of a very similar character. It is certain, however, that the seven poets who inaugurated their work at the Château of Font-Ségugne, had no thought of imitating the Pléiade either in the choice of the number seven or in the reformation they were about to undertake.
They began their propaganda by founding an annual publication called the _Armana Prouvençau_, which has appeared regularly since 1855, and many of their writings were first printed in this official magazine. Of the seven, Aubanel alone besides Mistral has attained celebrity as a poet, and these two with Roumanille have been usually associated in the minds of all who have followed the movement with interest as its three leaders.
