un bord, 'a shore

IL 19-20. Déjà . . . au fond du Nord. It is difficult to guess what Béranger refers to here, as there does not appear to have been any cloud on the political horizon of the North in 18 16. The allusion is perhaps to some passing ' canard ' in the daily press.

I. 27. Ils reviendront sur le vieux chêne. Béranger's prophecy was realized; Arnault was recalled in November, 18 19, reelected to the Académie in 1829, and appointed secretaire perpétuel of that body in 1833.

Ce n'est plus Lisette. (Page 22.)

1. i. Lisette. Lisette, or Lise, appears in a large number of Béranger's songs, such as Les Infidélités de Lisette, Traité de politique à V usage de Lise, La vertu de Lisette, and, in this edition, L'Indépendant and Les Conseils de Lise. This name has long represented a conventional type in French literature ; thus Chaulieu (1639-1720) ends the well-known and once greatly admired Ode on his native Fontenay with the lines : —

Mais je vois revenir Lisette,

Qui, d'une coiffure de fleurs,

Avec son teint, et leurs couleurs,

Fait une nuance parfaite.

Égayons ce reste de jours

Que la bonté des dieux me laisse ;

Suivons des plaisirs l'heureux cours,

C'est le conseil de la sagesse.

Sainte-Beuve (Portraits Contemporains, i, p. 125) quotes from a piece entitled Lisette and published in 1780 : —

Sur la toilette De ma Lisette Vous trouverez Simples fleurettes ; Point n'y verrez De fard, d'aigrettes, Léger jupon, &c

and La Harpe (1 739-1803) has left a charming little piece which it may be interesting to compare with Béranger's song : —