Part 5 (1/2)
Jasmin's next poem was The Charivari (Lou Charibari), also written in Gascon. It was composed in 1825, when he was twenty-seven years old; and dedicated to M. Duprount, the Advocate, who was himself a poetaster. The dedication contained some fine pa.s.sages of genuine beauty and graceful versification. It was in some respects an imitation of the Lutrin of Boileau. It was very different from the doggerel in which he had taken part with his humpbacked father so long ago. Then he had blown the cow-horn, now he spoke with the tongue of a trumpet. The hero of Jasmin's Charivari was one Aduber, an old widower, who dreamt of remarrying. It reminded one of the strains of Beranger; in other pa.s.sages of the mock-heroic poem of Boileau.
Though the poem when published was read with much interest, it was not nearly so popular as Me cal Mouri. This last-mentioned poem, his first published work, touched the harp of sadness; while his Charivari displayed the playfulness of joy. Thus, at the beginning of his career, Jasmin revealed himself as a poet in two very different styles; in one, touching the springs of grief, and in the other exhibiting brightness and happiness. At the end of the same year he sounded his third and deepest note in his poem On the Death of General Foy--one of France's truest patriots. Now his lyre was complete; it had its three strings--of sadness, joy, and sorrow.
These three poems--Me cal Mouri, the Charivari, and the ode On the Death of General Foy, with some other verses--were published in 1825. What was to be the t.i.tle of the volume? As Adam, the carpenter-poet of Nevers, had ent.i.tled his volume of poetry 'Shavings,' so Jasmin decided to name his collection 'The Curl-papers of Jasmin, Coiffeur of Agen.' The t.i.tle was a good one, and the subsequent volumes of his works were known as La Papillotos (the Curl-papers) of Jasmin. The publication of this first volume served to make Jasmin's name popular beyond the town in which they had been composed and published. His friend M. Gaze said of him, that during the year 1825 he had been marrying his razor with the swan's quill; and that his hand of velvet in shaving was even surpa.s.sed by his skill in verse-making.
Charles Nodier, his old friend, who had entered the barber's shop some years before to intercede between the poet and his wife, sounded Jasmin's praises in the Paris journals. He confessed that he had been greatly struck with the Charivari, and boldly declared that the language of the Troubadours, which everyone supposed to be dead, was still in full life in France; that it not only lived, but that at that very moment a poor barber at Agen, without any instruction beyond that given by the fields, the woods, and the heavens, had written a serio-comic poem which, at the risk of being thought crazy by his colleagues of the Academy, he considered to be better composed than the Lutrin of Boileau, and even better than one of Pope's masterpieces, the Rape of the Lock.
The first volume of the Papillotes sold very well; and the receipts from its sale not only increased Jasmin's income, but also increased his national reputation. Jasmin was not, however, elated by success. He remained simple, frugal, honest, and hard-working. He was not carried off his feet by eclat. Though many ill.u.s.trious strangers, when pa.s.sing through Agen, called upon and interviewed the poetical coiffeur, he quietly went back to his razors, his combs, and his periwigs, and cheerfully pursued the business that he could always depend upon in his time of need.
Endnotes to Chapter V.
{1}Hallam's 'Middle Ages,' iii. 434. 12th edit. (Murray.)
{2} His words are these: ”La conception m'en fut suggeree par mes etudes sur la vieille langue francaise ou langue d'oil. Je fus si frappe des liens qui unissent le francais moderne au francais ancien, j'apercus tant de cas ou les sens et des locutions du jour ne s'expliquent que par les sens et les locutions d'autrefois, tant d'exemples ou la forme des mots n'est pas intelligible sans les formes qui ont precede, qu'il me sembla que la doctrine et meme l'usage de la langue restent mal a.s.sis s'ils ne reposent sur leur base antique.” (Preface, ii.)
{3} 'Bearn and the Pyrenees,' i. 348.
{4} THIERRY--'Historical Essays,' No. XXIV.
{5} Les Poetes du Peuple an xix. Siecle. Par Alphonse Viollet. Paris, 1846.
{6} Portraits contemporains, ii. 61 (ed. 1847).
{7} 'Pilgrimage to Auvergne,' ii. 210.
CHAPTER VI. MISCELLANEOUS VERSES--BERANGER--'MES SOUVENIRS'--PAUL DE MUSSET.
During the next four years Jasmin composed no work of special importance. He occasionally wrote poetry, but chiefly on local subjects.
In 1828 he wrote an impromptu to M. Pradel, who had improvised a Gascon song in honour of the poet. The Gascon painter, Champmas, had compared Jasmin to a ray of suns.h.i.+ne, and in 1829 the poet sent him a charming piece of verse in return for his compliment.
In 1830 Jasmin composed The Third of May, which was translated into French by M. Duvigneau. It appears that the Count of Dijon had presented to the town of Nerac, near Agen, a bronze statue of Henry IV., executed by the sculptor Raggi--of the same character as the statue erected to the same monarch at Pau. But though Henry IV. was born at Pau, Nerac was perhaps more identified with him, for there he had his strong castle, though only its ruins now remain.
Nerac was at one time almost the centre of the Reformation in France.
Clement Marot, the poet of the Reformed faith, lived there; and the house of Theodore de Beze, who emigrated to Geneva, still exists. The Protestant faith extended to Agen and the neighbouring towns. When the Roman Catholics obtained the upper hand, persecutions began. Vindocin, the pastor, was burned alive at Agen. J. J. Scaliger was an eye-witness of the burning, and he records the fact that not less than 300 victims perished for their faith.
At a later time Nerac, which had been a prosperous town, was ruined by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; for the Protestant population, who had been the most diligent and industrious in the town and neighbourhood, were all either ”converted,” hanged, sent to the galleys, or forced to emigrate to England, Holland, or Prussia. Nevertheless, the people of Nerac continued to be proud of their old monarch.
The bronze statue of Henry IV. was unveiled in 1829. On one side
of the marble pedestal supporting the statue were the words ”Alumno, mox patri nostro, Henrico quarto,” and on the reverse side was a verse in the Gascon dialect:
”Brabes Gascons!
A moun amou per bous aou dibes creyre; Benes! Benes! ey plaze de bous beyre!
Approucha-bous!”
The words were a.s.sumed to be those of; Henry IV., and may be thus translated into English:
”Brave Gascons!
You may well trust my love for you; Come! come! I leave to you my glory!