sur moi la foudre tombe. Cf. Introduction

1. 40. la berceuse refers of course to ' l'Espérance/ which is the dominant note of the ' refrain.'

Jacques. (Page 121.)

Cf. introductory note to Jeanne la Rousse.

1. 3. messier. An assistant to the 'garde champêtre' at harvest time (from Latin messis), and hence a general factotum of the rural police.

1. 10. On saisissait. 'Saisir' here means 'to distrain,' 'to seize goods or furniture for debt.'

1. 34. Et le sel aussi. This reference to the dearness of salt does not necessarily imply that it is subject to the ' gabelle ' or salt tax abolished in 1790, and that this song is intended to

depict the peasants' lot under the old régime. Salt was subject to a tax until 1848. After the Franco-German war a small tax was again put on this commodity, but it has been reduced at various times, and is now rather less than one halfpenny per pound.

1. 38. les droits, equivalent to Mes impôts.5 1. 49. 77 entre refers to the ' huissier,' or sheriffs officer. 1. 54. Voici monsieur F huissier du roi. Notice the change in the refrain ; the deferential ' monsieur ' after the ' huissier's ' appearance.

Les Fous. (Page 123.)

This is one of BérangeHs ' chansons socialistes.' Social problems began to bulk largely in literature after 1830. Saint-Simon, Fourier, Enfantin, elaborated and preached Utopian communistic systems, which soon found an echo in the impracticable and disastrous measures taken by the Government in 1848 (cf. note to Histoire d'une Idée, 11. 15-16); George Sand was then writing her 'romans à thèses,' and Balzac was studying every class and condition of society in his Comédie Humaine.