on le répète, l so it is said

1. 44. Et n'étiez pas coquette. The meaning is not very clear ; perhaps, ' without being called a coquette on that account ' ; or perhaps, ' without practising any of the wiles of a coquette.'

1. 50. défaite. ' En termes de galanterie, sujétion d'un cœur.' (Littré.)

Et qui sait si l'ingrate, en sa longue retraite, N'a point de l'empereur médité la défaite?

(Racine, Britannicus, iii. 6.)

1. 58. une fillette. Equivalent to jeune fille ; often used in a sense somewhat similar to that of ■ grisette.' Cf. the proverb, 1 Bonjour lunettes, adieu fillettes ' ; i. e. ' quand on commence à vieillir, adieu la galanterie.'

Le Marquis de Carabas. (Page 24.)

Written in November, 181 6.

1 Cette chanson obtint une très grande vogue. On pense que plusieurs personnes du gouvernement, frappées de l'absurdité des prétentions féodales de nos anciens nobles, contribuèrent à répandre cette satire, ou du moins ne furent pas lâchées qu'elle courut toute la France.1 (Note by Béranger.)

To the student of the Restoration period the circumstances which called forth this song, and most of the political allusions which it contains, will be obvious. The years 181 4-16 saw the return to France and to influence of all those uncompromising nobles of the old school who had refused to re-enter the country under Napoleon's rule. These were the men who had * learnt nothing and forgotten nothing,' and who now assumed both at Court and in their provincial homes an arrogant demeanour born of the belief that the history of the last twenty-five years had been obliterated for ever. They clamoured for recognition of the services they had rendered to their party, as if they, and not the Allies, had overthrown Napoleon, and blind to the fact that many of them had been considered as a nuisance in the ranks of the invaders. They soon realized, however, that the Charter, or constitution signed by the King on his accession, was an obstacle in their way which their first task must be to break down, and the dissolution of the reactionary ' Chambre Introuvable ' in September, 1816, coupled with the King's assurance that the Charter would remain inviolate, provoked on their part an outburst of passionate recrimination which made them an object of ridicule in the eyes of the people, and an easy mark for the shafts of political satire. It was at this time that Béranger began in earnest that campaign against them and against the Bourbons which must be reckoned among the important factors in their ultimate overthrow.

The ' Marquis de Carabas ' is of course a composite portrait. In 1837 Béranger writes: 'Non, mon cher des Fossez, le marquis de Carabas n'est pas une peinture faite d'après l'original que vous connaissez. Mais je ne puis pas affirmer que différents traits que vous rapportez de lui n'ont pas figuré dans les journaux du temps, et n'ont pas contribué à me fournir ceux dont j'ai composé le portrait de mon marquis.'

The letter of Count des Fossez has not been preserved, so it is impossible to say who had been suggested as the original of the song.

1. 2. en peuple conquis. Cf. note to LES GAULOIS ET LES F RAN' CS, 1. 66.

I.4. de loin. Probably from Coblentz, which was the headquarters of the ' émigrés ' during their exile.

1. 5. son 'vieux castel. 'Castel' is often used ironically for 'chateau ' ; but the word is the Provençal form of Lat. castellum, and may be used by Béranger with special reference to the nobles of the South, recently the scene of the excesses of the 1 Terreur Blanche '.

1. 8. Un sabre innocent. If Béranger means by ' un sabre innocent ' a sword that never drew blood, the taunt is unjust ; the French nobility have at all periods of history been gallant fighters, and, if during the wars of the Republic there was considerable friction between the ' émigrés ' who had been enrolled in the Prussian army and the Prussian commanders, the so-called ' Armée de Condé ' rendered valuable services to the Austrians, and frequently distinguished itself.

1. 10. marquis de Carabas. Béranger borrows this name from Perrault's fairy tale Le Chat botté, or Puss in Boots, published in 1691.

1. 11. aumôniers, 'private chaplains,' called 'aumôniers' because it was their duty to act as distributors of alms for the household to which they were attached. Cf. 'almoner.'

1. 12. -vatassaux. The feudal term was 'vai'asseur, 'rearvassal.' Béranger is mistaken in coining 'vavassaux' in analog}' to 'vassaux.'

1. 16. Les droits de mon rang. The most important rights and privileges of the nobility under the old regime were : exemption from taxation ; the right to be judged only by their peers ; exclusive hunting rights ; the monopoly of the commissions in the army ; the rightif sentenced to death to be beheaded and not hanged like commoners were ; the right to incense at mass ; and the ' droit de seigneur,' long fallen into abeyance.

1. 17. corbleu! corruption of 'corps (de) Dieu'; thus also: ' parbleu, morbleu, sacrebleu,' &c.

l8.0 CHANSONS CHOISIES DE BERANGER

11. 17-18. Avec moi . . , il verra beau jeu, ' he will have me to deal with.' Avoir beau jeu is literally 'to have a good hand at cards.'

1. 22. un meunier. In Perrault's tale it is the son of a miller who becomes Marquis de Carabas through his cat's cleverness.

1. 24. Pépin le Bref. The old marquis traces back his ancestry to the father of Charlemagne, the first king of the Carol ngian dynasty !

1. 32. La marquise a le tabouret. The 'droit du tabouret' was the right granted to a duchess or other lady of high rank to sit on a low stool in the presence of the Queen, or while the King was at supper. ' Madame de Fontanges est duchesse . . . elle prend demain son tabouret.' (Mme de Se vigne.) Most of these minutiae of Court etiquette were revived at the Restoration.

lh 33—34. Pour être évêque un jour mon dernier Jils suivra la cour. Under the old régime the younger sons of the nobility almost invariably entered the army or the Church ; in the latter they were generally provided with bishoprics, however illqualified they might be to occupy these posts. Under the 1 Concordat : of 15 16 the appointment of the bishops lay with the King, and these younger sons naturally ' followed the Court' to win the King's interest and favour. In 1789, 0/ the 139 bishops and archbishops who assembled at the 'États Généraux,' all but three belonged to the nobility.

The ' droit d'aînesse,' which left the younger sons unprovided for, was abolished in 1790, and was not revived at the Restoration, but the old marquis speaks as if it were still in force, and as a matter of fact the ' émigrés ' did everything in their power to have it re-established. A bill was actually introduced in 1826 to revive the ' droit d'aînesse ' in a slightly modified form, but it caused general indignation, and was the occasion of a riot in Paris. It was rejected on the 8th of April, and that evening Paris was illuminated.

1. 37. des croix. The chief of these were the gold cross of the ' Ordre du Saint Esprit ' (cf. note to Les Deux Cousins, 1. 35) ; the ' Croix de Saint Louis,' instituted by Louis XIV, abolished during the Revolution, revived at the Restoration, and which ceased to be conferred after 1830 ; and the ' Croix de la Légion d'Honneur,' instituted in 1802. The latter was maintained during the Restoration, the head of Henri IV being substituted for that of Napoleon. It resumed its original form in 1848, and remains the principal French decoration at the present day.