le Vaudeville. Cf. Introd

1. 50. ses grelots. The Vaudeville is here personified under the form of a jester, whose cap and bauble were hung with grelots, or small spherical bells.

1. 53. Non, non, ce n'est point comme à l' Académie. This song offers a good example of the extreme skill with which Béranger coins his ' refrain,' and of the delightful way in which it introduces a witty and satirical note at the end of each verse.

i58 chansons choisies de béranger

Roger Bontemps. (Page 4.)

'Cette chanson fut faite en 1814. Une portion du territoire français était envahie et le pressentiment d'un renversement général occupait déjà les esprits sérieux.' (Note by Béranger.)

Appeared in 1814 in the Epicurien français.

1. 1. atrabilaires. Derived from the Latin atra bilis, black bile, and thus corresponding exactly to the Greek fj.e\ayxo\iK6s. The old systems of medicine attributed great importance to the bile ; the expression se faire de la bile, * to worry,' is still in current use.

1. 4. Roger Bontemps. The origin of this name is obscure ; it is commonly applied to a man of gay and careless disposition. Roger de Collerye (1470 ?-i540 ?), secretary to the Bishop of Auxerre, president of the merry Société des Fous, and the author of poems which have suggested comparison with those of Villon, had adopted this nickname, and it was long supposed to have originated with him, but it occurs already in the works of René d'Anjou (1409-80).

Here, Roger Bontemps is, of course, Béranger himself.

1. 7. Eh gai ! This exclamation, as well as 0 gai (0 gué), gai, gai, recur constantly as ' refrains ' in the old popular songs.