Les ribaudes : women of bad réputation

Page 113. — 1. Théodore de Banville. A French poet, born in 1820, died in 1892. He has been surnamed the roi des rimes for the richness of his rhymes, the graceful ingenuity with which he handles any kind of verses, especially those of the Middle Ages, which he has restored to popularity

with the greatest success. He became prôminent among the poets of the Romantic school by his first poem, called Les Caryatides. He has since published : Les Stalactites, Rimes Dorées, Odes . Funambulesques, Contes Féeriques, etc.

2. Jean Richepin. A poet and novelist of our day. He was born in Paris in 1849, an d was graduated at the École Normale with great success. His first poem, La Mer, contains great beauties. La Chanson des Gueux caused him to be imprisoned. Les Caresses, Les Blasphèmes, and two dramas, Nana Sahib, Vers la Joie, are among his best poetical works. As a novelist he wrote Madame André, Sophie, Les Braves Gens, etc. His style is strong, picturesque, reminding oije of the authors of the sixteenth century, and especially of Rabelais.

3. Escroc ! truand 1 mar ... 1 génie 1 Mar ... for maraud, knave, scQundrel.

4. Malandrin : highwayman, robber. Malandrin is the name given, at the time of the Crusaders, to banditti who ransacked the rural districts of France. " The origin of this word is not certain. Gaston Paris says that the old words malan, maland, malandre were applied to misfortune, misery, in the gênerai sensé. Malandrin would then be a misérable, in the moral sensé." (Scheler.)

5. Ce . . . prison : this customer of taverns and inmate of prisons. Villon was a drunkard and was, as we hâve seen, condemned to prison several times.