bateleurs, 'mountebanks

I. 27. grimoire, ' gramarye/ a dialectal form of 'grammaire,' which in the Middle Ages always referred to Latin grammar, unintelligible to the people. A book written in mysterious characters, used by sorcerers. Among the gipsies there have always been numerous fortune-tellers.

II. 37-38. De la ville qu'on nous exile, equivalent to Si Von nous exile de la ville.

1. 50. Du vieux coq de ton vieux clocher. Nearly all Roman Catholic churches in France have a weathercock, in memory, it is said, of the cock which crew during the Passion of our Lord, after He had been thrice denied by Peter.

1. 65. On vend le corps au carabin. l Carabin ' is a slang word for a medical student, or a junior resident surgeon in a hospital, who is gaining further experience. There was once a brisk trade in providing these students with bodies for dissection.

1. 70. ni toit. The 'bohémiens' dwell under rude tents, or in hooded waggons called ' roulottes.'

1 Les Bohémiens sont une de ces ballades ou fantaisies philosophiques, d'un rythme vif, svelte, allègre, enivrant ; c'est la meilleure peut-être, la plus belle et la plus parfaite des chansons de Béranger que j'appelle désintéressées, et qui ne doivent rien auxcirconstances.' (Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, II, p. 300.)

Les Souvenirs du Peuple. (Page 101.)

This song, which achieved a popularity as great as that of Le Roi d'Tvetot, is the first of the series which Béranger frankly dedicates to the memory and glorification of the Emperor, whom, by the way, he does not mention by name, any more than he had done in the song entitled Le Cinq Mai. In the Chansons posthumes Napoleon is frequently referred to as ' l'Empereur,' but his name only occurs once in Bérangers songs, in Les Tombeaux de Juillet : —

'Napoléon, gigantesque fantôme, Paraît debout sur ce volcan éteint ' (Sainte-Hélène).

The origin of this song is perhaps to be traced to the following occurrence, mentioned in Ma Biographie (p. 191): ' Passant à Compiègne, que l'Empereur et sa cour venaient de quitter, — nous étions, je crois, en 1808, — je rencontrai

sur la route une vieille paysanne qui, d'une figure joyeuse, m'aborde et s'écrie : "Ah ! monsieur, je l'ai vu, enfin ! — Qui donc ? lui dis-je, feignant de ne pas le deviner. — L'Empereur ! l'Empereur! réplique-t-elle. Il m'a saluée. Il salue tout le monde. Ce n'est pas comme ces seigneurs qui sont auprès de lui. On voit bien que ceux-là ne sont que des parvenus ! " La pauvre femme ne voyait pas un parvenu dans l'homme que la gloire avait élevé si haut. Le peuple non plus.'

1. 3. dans cinquante ans. Fifty years later, the memory of Napoleon had paled considerably. André Theuriet writes in the Annales politiques et littéraires (1887): 'Aujourd'hui, le peuple se passionne peu pour ou contre Bonaparte. Quelle différence entre les préoccupations d'il y a quarante ans et celles d'aujourd'hui ! Lorsque j'étais enfant, le nom de Napoléon était honoré dans les campagnes à l'égal du saint de la paroisse. Dans chaque maison une lithographie ou une image d'Épinal accrochée au mur rappelait l'épopée napoléonienne ; dans chaque village, d'anciens soldats, débris de la Grande Armée, redisaient à satiété, à la façon des conteurs populaires, quelque épisode des guerres du Premier Empire et entretenaient le culte du "petit caporal."' (Quoted by Professor Hartmann.)

1. 8. notre veille, or notre veillée, the long winter evenings, when the peasantry devote their time to indoor occupations, often meeting at each other's houses, and enliven the time with tales and songs.

1. 17. Je venais d'entrer en ménage, ' I had just got married.'

1. ai. Avec redingote grise. The legendary Napoleon is always pictured in this grey frock-coat, and wearing a small cocked hat.

1. 30. 77 se rendait à Notre-Dame. To attend a Te Deum on the occasion of the birth of his son, the ' Roi de Rome.'

1. 34. Le ciel toujours le protège. It was frequently remarked that Napoleon, like the late Queen Victoria, and also Napoleon III, was invariably favoured with good weather for public functions.

1. 40. la pauvre Champagne. Champagne suffered severely through the fourteen battles fought by Napoleon within a month in 1814.

1. 54. Je sers piquette. The home-brewed wine of the peasantry, generally rather sour and acid in taste.

1. 70. Longtemps aucun ne Va cru. Cf. notes to II n'est PAS MORT.

With this song may be compared the very similar Battle of Blenheim, by Southey.

Le Tombeau de Manuel. (Page 103.)

Jacques- Antoine Manuel was born at Barcelonnette in 1775, and was therefore older than Béranger by five years. He fought the first campaigns of the Revolution as a volunteer, but was obliged to retire from active service on account of his wounds after the Peace of Campo-Formio. He was then called to the bar at Aix, where he soon acquired a great reputation. He was sent to Paris by the electors of Barcelonnette during the ' Hundred Days/ and strenuously opposed the return of the Bourbons, in retaliation for which he was refused permission to appear at the bar in Paris. He was returned as a Deputy in 181 8 by the department of Vendée, hitherto a strong supporter of the Monarchy, and became one of the most indefatigable and eloquent members of the Opposition, all the more to be feared as his rare talent and political clear-headedness were equalled by his sterling moral worth. He soon earned the bitterest hatred of the royalist party, who were not slow to seize an occasion to expel him from the Chamber and send him back to private life. (Cf. note to Le Malade, 1. 21.) He died in 1827, and his funeral was attended by over 100,000 mourners, or even 150,000 according to Béranger.

Béranger worshipped this man, and has devoted to him some nobly written pages in his Biographie and in the Preface to the Chansons noui-elles et dernières. After his death a movement was set on foot to erect a suitable tombstone to his memory, and this was the occasion of the poem under consideration. The result was disappointing. Béranger says (Biographie, p. 173): 'Presque toutes les grosses bourses refusèrent de s'ouvrir, et l'on eut bien de la peine à recueillir neuf ou dix mille francs par souscription.'

The disinterestedness of both Béranger and the Manuel family will appear from the following (Biographie, p. 174): 1 Par son testament, Manuel me fit un legs viager de mille francs de rente. Il n'avait pas assez réfléchi à toutes les charges de famille qu'il transmettait à son frère ... Je renonçai à la rente, malgré les instances du frère, à qui je ne demandai que la montre du pauvre défunt et son matelas de crin, sur lequel je couche. Mais Manuel jeune sut si bien faire, que, malgré la renonciation, il parvint toujours à remplir les intentions du testateur et même à les dépasser de beaucoup. Comme sa position personnelle s'est améliorée, j'ai cessé d'opposer des chicanes aux procédés de cet excellent

ami, dont l'attachement pour moi égale celui que j'ai conservé pour la mémoire de son illustre frère.'

1. 1 8. Voilà douze ans. They had first come in contact when Manuel was sent to Paris during the ' Hundred Days.'

1. 37. De la tribune on l 'arrache. See note to Le Malade, 1. 21.

Les Dix Mille Francs. (Page 105.)

Written at the prison of La Force in 1829. Regarding Béranger's trial on the publication of the 1828 edition, cf. Introduction, §13. On December 10, 1828, he was condemned to nine months of imprisonment, and a fine of 10,000 francs. He was released on September 22, 1829.

1. 7. Pour fait <T outrage aux enfants d * Henri quatre. 'Je fus condamné pour outrage à la personne du roi et à la famille royale.' (Note by Béranger.)

1. 8. De par le roi. ' De par ' is a legal expression equivalent to ' sur l'ordre de.'

' De par le roi des animaux . . .

Fut fait savoir à ses vassaux . . . '

(La Fontaine, Fables, VI, 14.)