Périr dans les champs gaulois. The Huns, who had

invaded Gaul under Attila, were heavily defeated in 451 near Méry-sur-Seine, and were obliged to retreat into Italy.

1. 17. Le Cosaque. The Great- Russian Cossacks, and particularly the Cossacks of the Don, have long formed an important part of the Russian army. They distinguished themselves in 1812 and the succeeding campaigns by their fierce bravery, and took part in the invasion of France in 1814.

1. 46. des Kalmoucks. A people of Mongolian race who in the thirteenth century emigrated from Turkestan into Russia.

1. 56. ces monuments chéris. The ' Colonne Vendôme,' erected in 1806 with the guns taken from the enemy in the campaign of 1805; the 'pont d'Austerlitz,' begun in 1802; the 'pont d'Iéna,' built in 1807 ; the 'Arc de triomphe de l'Étoile,' in honour of the 'Grande Armée,' begun in 1806; and the smaller 'Arc de triomphe du Carrousel,' built in commemoration of the campaigns of 1805-6.

1. 66. Nobles Francs et 60ns Gaulois. Notice the antithesis between nobles and bons. It was an article of faith with the old school of historians, and particularly those who belonged to the nobility, that the French aristocracy were descended from the conquering Franks, while the third estate or commons had their origin in the vanquished Celts and Romans. Cf. the Histoire de l'ancien Gouvernement de la France, by the Comte de Boulainvilliers (1658-1722). Cf. also the opening lines of Le Marquis de Car abas '. —

Voyez ce vieux marquis Nous traiter en peuple conquis.

Vieux Habits ! Vieux Galons ! (Page 11.)

'Cette chanson exige plusieurs explications.

' La Gazette de France était, dès cette époque, l'apologiste de l'ancien régime.

' Quant aux Déesses civiques, on sait qu'elles contribuèrent peut-être à faire dégénérer les fêtes républicaines.

' Les Habits verts, livrée de l'empereur.

* Les Habits bleus, livrée des Bourbons.

: On voyait reparaître alors les habits de l'ancienne cour. Le public s'en amusait beaucoup. Quant à l'habit de saint, on sait que déjà l'hypocrisie reprenait son masque.

' On remarqua aussi, chez plusieurs fripiers, des costumes de la cour impériale. L'auteur y fait allusion dans l'avantdernier couplet.' (Note by Béranger.)

Napoleon had abdicated on the i ith of April ; the Bourbons

had therefore, at the date of this song, been on the throne for six months. Béranger had lost no time in beginning against them that relentless campaign of political songs which ceased only with the Revolution of 1830. In the month of June already was being sung the ' Requête présentée par les Chiens de qualité, pour obtenir qu'on leur rende l'entrée libre au jardin des Tuileries.' In the present song, Vieux habits, the satire is still somewhat good-humoured ; after 18 15 it will become keener, more bitter, and more deadly, in such songs as the Marquis de Carabas.

1. 1. Tout marchands d'habits que nous sommes, 'Old-clothesmen though we be.'

1. 4. V habit fait tout, ' It 's the coat that makes the gentleman.'

I.7. toujours en grand nous calculons, ' We do things on a large scale ; we look ahead and take the future into account.'

1. 8. Vieux habits ! vieux galons ! Such was the street-cry of the fripiers or old-clothes men of Paris. To-day they generally shout : 'Chands d'habits ! (' Marchands d'habits ! ')

I.9. la Gazette. The oldest of French newspapers. It was founded by Renaudot in the seventeenth century (the first number bears the date May 30, 1631). Though it was at first intended for an advertising medium, it soon became political, and was supported by Richelieu. From 1762 the Gazette became the official organ of the Government, and took the title of Gazette de France. It sided first with the Girondins and later with the Jacobins during the Revolution, was severely censored during the Empire, and became the principal organ of the Monarchist party under the Restoration. It continues to appear at the present day as a royalist paper.

1. 12. L'habit brodé. The embroidered coat of the old régime. The whole of this verse is of course ironical.

1. 15. les pantalons. Pantalon was originally the name of one of the characters in Italian comedy, who wore the long Venetian trousers (he appears as Pantaloon in English pantomime). The long trousers came into fashion instead of the knee-breeches during the Revolution, and especially under the Directoire. At the Restoration the old nobility reintroduced the knee-breeches at Court, and it is to this that Béranger refers. The ' pantalons,' however, soon resumed their undisputed sway.

1. 21. déesses civiques. The worship of the goddess Reason was inaugurated on the 20th Brumaire of the Year II (November 10, 1793), m Paris, in the church of Notre- Dame, transformed into the Temple of Reason. Reason was

represented in the flesh by the wife of the printer Momore, and the Goddess of Liberty by a courtesan. These déesses civiques received the homage of a choir of young women robed in white. This was the beginning of a series of shameless masquerades, in which the girls of the town, dressed as goddesses, and followed by a rabble of drunken men and women, danced the Carmagnole with the scum of the population. It was to put an end to this scandal that Robespierre in 1794 proclaimed the immortality of the soul and instituted the worship of the Supreme Being.

1. 26. Mit du galon sur bien des tailles. Here galon properly means ' stripes ' ; in the next line it means simply gold lace. Stripes of wool, silver, and gold serve in the French army to distinguish non-commissioned officers according to their rank ; the commissioned officers wear gold lace. Both stripes and lace, however, are worn on the sleeve, and not on the waist ! The word taille seems to be used here chiefly through the necessity of a rhyme to batailles. Indeed, more than one expression in this song is open to criticism. Thus, above, 1 les travaux de la mode et de la politique ! '

1. 28. Les habits verts. The imperial livery was 'green and gold.'

1. 29. sans le bonheur point de gloire! i. e. with Napoleon's downfall the glory of his reign has passed away.

1. 33. Nous trcwvons . . . notre compte, l We do a profitable business.'

1. 36. Changer d'habit. Béranger attacks more than once the ' turn-coats ' who passed over to the side of the Bourbons, more particularly in a song entitled Paillasse.

1. 39. Que d'habits bleus nous étalons! Etaler, or mettre à rétalage = ( to spread out for sale.'

1. 41. Les défenseurs de nos grands-pères. The expression is obscure ; the poet no doubt refers to those who, during the Revolution and the Empire, had abstained from taking any part in public affairs.

1. 46. talons rouges. The dandies of the old régime wore red heels to their shoes. A man was called ' un talon rouge,' as a woman was, and is still, called ' un bas bleu.'

1. 52. L'habit des saints. In October, 1793, tne churches were desecrated and plundered, the sacristies broken open, the plate and other ornaments carried off, and the priests' vestments, chasubles, mitres, &c, sold to old-clothes men.

1. 53. Au nez . . . d'un philosophe. Faire qcb. au nez, à la barbe, de qqn. = i to do a thing to a person's face.' Cf. A mon Ami Désaugiers, 1. 48.

l66 CHANSONS CHOISIES DE BERANGER

11. 59-60. Portent . . . Des habits noirs. The garments of mourning worn by the partisans of Napoleon. But most of these were self-made men, of humble origin, and we should hardly expect to find them retired within leurs manoirs !

1. 63. bien pesants et bien longs. The great cloaks of the Empire, with their profusion of gold lace, were indeed heavy to wear, but Béranger is perhaps referring also to the heavy responsibilities borne by those who wore them.

Adieux de Marie Stuart. (Page 13.)

Written in 181 1. (In October of that year Béranger writes to his friend Wilhem. who set this romance to music (cf. Introd., § 25) : 'Je t'envoie la chanson d'Arnault . . . Tu trouveras aussi ma note pour Marie Stuart?)

Béranger was certainly acquainted with the following poem, which dates from the sixteenth century : —

' Adieu, plaisant pays de France, O ma patrie La plus chérie,

Qui a nourri ma jeune enfance,

Adieu, France, adieu, mes beaux jours!

La nef qui disjoint mes amours

N'a ci de moi que la moitié ;

Une part te reste, elle est tienne :

Je la fie à ton amitié

Pour que de l'autre il te souvienne.' Tradition has it that Mary Stuart composed these lines herself, as she watched the French coast disappear. She was a pupil of Ronsard, and wrote some very pretty French verse which has been preserved.

The unfortunate queen left France in 1561, after a few months of widowhood, leaving behind her the pleasures, luxury, culture, and refinement which the Renaissance had brought from Italy to the Court of France. Herself a Catholic, she was about to face the gloomy Calvinism of John Knox, and she was in imminent danger of drifting on to the coast of England or of being intercepted by the ships which Elizabeth had dispatched to look out for her ; there could be nothing but fear, misgivings, and sadness in her heart when she took leave of France. Brantôme relates that she remained for five hours at the stern of the ship which was taking her to Scotland, without ever taking her eyes off the French coast, and exclaiming ever and anon amidst her tears : ' Adieu, France ! Adieu, France I '

NOTES. PAGES 12— 15 l6j

1. 18. Je ceignis les lis, ( I donned the lilies.' One says not only ( ceindre une épée,' but also ' ceindre un diadème, une tiare, etc.,' by analogy with the Latin temporafloribus cingere.

The fleur de lis was the emblem of the French monarchy from the fourteenth century.

1. 23. desire d'être reine. The preposition de is found fairly frequently after désirer, especially in the seventeenth century. The Académie admits as correct : 'Il y a longtemps que je désirais de vous rencontrer.' Here, the de is of course necessary to avoid a ■ hiatus.'