Barber, Poet, Philanthropistt
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Samuel Smiles >> Barber, Poet, Philanthropistt
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In speaking of the languages of Western Europe, M. Littre says
that the German is the oldest, beginning in the fourth century;
that the French is the next, beginning in the ninth century;
and that the English is the last, beginning in the fourteenth
century. It must be remembered, however, that Plat Deutsch
preceded the German, and was spoken by the Frisians, Angles,
and Saxons, who lived by the shores of the North Sea.
The Gaelic or Celtic, and Kymriac languages, were spoken in the
middle and north-west of France; but these, except in Brittany,
have been superseded by the modem French language, which is
founded mainly on Latin, German, and Celtic, but mostly on
Latin. The English language consists mostly of Saxon, Norse,
and Norman-French with a mixture of Welsh or Ancient British.
That language is, however, no test of the genealogy of a people,
is illustrated by the history of France itself. In the fourth
and fifth centuries, the Franks, a powerful German race,
from the banks of the Rhine, invaded and conquered the people
north of the Somme, and eventually gave the name of France to the
entire country. The Burgundians and Visigoths, also a German
race, invaded France, and settled themselves in the south-east.
In the year 464, Childeric the Frank took Paris.
The whole history of the occupation of France is told by
Augustin Thierry, in his 'Narratives of the Merovingian Times.'
"There are Franks," he says in his Preface, "who remained pure
Germans in Gaul; Gallo-Romans, irritated and disgusted by the
barbarian rule; Franks more or less influenced by the manners
and customs of civilised life; and 'Romans more or less
barbarian in mind and manners.' The contrast may be followed in
all its shades through the sixth century, and into the middle of
the seventh; later, the Germanic and Gallo-Roman stamp seemed
effaced and lost in a semi-barbarism clothed in theocratic
forms."
The Franks, when they had completed the conquest of the entire
country, gave it the name of Franken-ric--the Franks' kingdom.
Eventually, Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, descended from
Childeric the Frank, was in 800 crowned Emperor of the West.
Towards the end of his reign, the Norsemen began to devastate
the northern coast of Franken-ric. Aix-la-Chapelle was
Charlemagne's capital, and there he died and was buried.
At his death, the Empire was divided among his sons. The Norse
Vikingers continued their invasions; and to purchase repose,
Charles the Simple ceded to Duke Rollo a large territory in the
northwest of France, which in deference to their origin,
was known by the name of Normandy.
There Norman-French was for a long time spoken. Though the
Franks had supplanted the Romans, the Roman language continued
to be spoken. In 996 Paris was made the capital of France;
and from that time, the language of Paris became, with various
modifications, the language of France; and not only of France,
but the Roman or Latin tongue became the foundation of the
languages of Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
Thus, Gaulish, Frankish, and Norman disappeared to give place to
the Latin-French. The Kymriac language was preserved only in
Brittany, where it still lingers. And in the south-west of
France, where the population was furthest removed from the
invasions of the Gauls, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths, the Basques
continued to preserve their language,--the Basques, who are
supposed by Canon Isaac Taylor to be the direct descendants of
the Etruscans.
The descendants of the Gauls, however, constitute the mass of
the people in Central France. The Gauls, or Galatians,
are supposed to have come from the central district of Asia
Minor. They were always a warlike people. In their wanderings
westward, they passed through the north of Italy and entered
France, where they settled in large numbers. Dr. Smith, in his
Dictionary of the Bible, says that "Galatai is the same word as
Keltici," which indicates that the Gauls were Kelts. It is
supposed that St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians soon
after his visit to the country of their origin. "Its abruptness
and severity, and the sadness of its tone, are caused by their
sudden perversion from the doctrine which the Apostle had taught
them, and which at first they had received so willingly. It is
no fancy, if we see in this fickleness a specimen of that 'esprit
impretueux, ouvert a toutes les impressions,' and that 'mobilite
extreme,' which Thierry marks as characteristic of the Gaulish
race." At all events, the language of the Gauls disappeared in
Central France to make way for the language or the Capital--
the modern French, founded on the Latin. The Gaulish race,
nevertheless, preserved their characteristics--quickness,
lightness, mobility, and elasticity--qualities which enabled
them quickly to conceive new ideas, and at the same time to
quickly abandon them. The Franks had given the country the name
it now bears--that of France. But they were long regarded as
enemies by the Central and Southern Gauls. In Gascony, the
foreigner was called Low Franciman, and was regarded with
suspicion and dislike.
"This term of Franciman," says Miss Costello, who travelled
through the country and studied the subject, "evidently belongs
to a period of the English occupation of Aquitaine, when a
Frenchman was another word for an enemy."[3] But the word has
probably a more remote origin. When the Franks, of German
origin, burst into Gaul, and settled in the country north of the
Loire, and afterwards carried their conquests to the Pyrenees,
the Franks were regarded as enemies in the south of France.
"Then all the countries," says Thierry, "united by force to the
empire of the Franks, and over which in consequence of this
union, the name of France had extended itself, made unheard-of
efforts to reconquer their ancient names and places. Of all the
Gallic provinces, none but the southern ones succeeded in this
great enterprise; and after the wars of insurrection, which,
under the sons of Charlemagne, succeeded the wars of conquest,
Aquitaine and Provence became distinct states. Among the South
Eastern provinces reappeared even the ancient name of Gaul,
which had for ever perished north of the Loire. The chiefs of
the new Kingdom of Aries, which extended from the Jura to the
Alps, took the title of Gaul in opposition to the Kings of
France."[4]
It is probable that this was the cause of the name of
"Franciman" being regarded as an hereditary term of reproach in
the Gaulish country south of the Loire. Gascon and Provencal
were the principal dialects which remained in the South, though
Littre classes them together as the language of the Troubadours.
They were both well understood in the South; and Jasmin's
recitations were received with as much enthusiasm at Nimes,
Aries, and Marseilles, as at Toulouse, Agen, and Bordeaux.
Mezzofanti, a very Tower of Babel in dialects and languages,
said of the Provencal, that it was the only patois of the Middle
Ages, with its numerous derivations from the Greek, the Arabic,
and the Latin, which has survived the various revolutions of
language. The others have been altered and modified.
They have suffered from the caprices of victory or of fortune.
Of all the dialects of the Roman tongue, this patois alone
preserves its purity and life. It still remains the sonorous
and harmonious language of the Troubadours. The patois has the
suppleness of the Italian, the sombre majesty of the Spanish,
the energy and preciseness of the Latin, with the "Molle atque
facetum, le dolce de, l'Ionic; which still lives among the
Phoceens of Marseilles. The imagination and genius of Gascony
have preserved the copious richness of the language.
M. de Lavergne, in his notice of Jasmin's works, frankly admits
the local jealousy which existed between the Troubadours of
Gascony and Provence. There seemed, he said, to be nothing
disingenuous in the silence of the Provencals as to Jasmin's
poems. They did not allow that he borrowed from them, any more
than that they borrowed from him. These men of Southern France
are born in the land of poetry. It breathes in their native air.
It echoes round them in its varied measures. Nay, the rhymes
which are its distinguishing features, pervade their daily talk.
The seeds lie dormant in their native soil, and when trodden
under foot, they burst through the ground and evolve their odour
in the open air. Gascon and Provencal alike preserve the same
relation to the classic romance--that lovely but short-lived
eldest daughter of the Latin--the language of the Troubadours.
We have said that the Gascon dialect was gradually expiring when
Jasmin undertook its revival. His success in recovering and
restoring it, and presenting it in a written form, was the
result of laborious investigation. He did not at first realize
the perfect comprehension of the idiom, but he eventually
succeeded by patient perseverance, When we read his poems,
we are enabled to follow, step by step, his lexicological
progress.
At first, he clung to the measures most approved in French
poetry, especially to Alexandrines and Iambic tetrameters,
and to their irregular association in a sort of ballad metre,
which in England has been best handled by Robert Browning in his
fine ballad of 'Harve; Riel.'
Jasmin's first rhymes were written upon curl papers, and then
used on the heads of his lady customers. When the spirit of
original poetry within him awoke, his style changed. Genius
brought sweet music from his heart and mind. Imagination
spiritualised his nature, lifted his soul above the cares of
ordinary life, and awakened the consciousness of his affinity
with what is pure and noble. Jasmin sang as a bird sings;
at first in weak notes, then in louder, until at length his voice
filled the skies. Near the end of his life he was styled the
Saint Vincent de Paul of poetry.
Jasmin might be classed among the Uneducated Poets.
But what poet is not uneducated at the beginning of his career?
The essential education of the poet is not taught in the schools.
The lowly man, against whom the asperities of his lot have closed
the doors of worldly academies, may nevertheless have some
special vocation for the poetic life. Academies cannot shut him
out from the odour of the violet or the song of the nightingale.
He hears the lark's song filling the heavens, as the happy bird
fans the milk-white cloud with its wings. He listens to the
purling of the brook, the bleating of the lamb, the song of the
milkmaid, and the joyous cry of the reaper. Thus his mind is
daily fed with the choicest influences of nature. He cannot but
appreciate the joy, the glory, the unconscious delight of living.
"The beautiful is master of a star." This feeling of beauty is
the nurse of civilisation and true refinement. Have we not our
Burns, who
"in glory and in joy
Followed his plough along the mountain side;"
Clare, the peasant boy; Bloomfield, the farmer's lad; Tannahill,
the weaver; Allan Ramsay, the peruke-maker; Cooper, the
shoemaker; and Critchley Prince, the factory-worker; but greater
than these was Shakespeare,--though all were of humble origin.
France too has had its uneducated poets. Though the ancient
song-writers of France were noble; Henry IV., author of
Charmante Gabrielle; Thibault, Count of Champagne; Lusignan,
Count de la Marche; Raval, Blondel, and Basselin de la Vive,
whose songs were as joyous as the juice of his grapes; yet some
of the best French poets of modem times have been of humble
origin--Marmontel, Moliere, Rousseau, and Beranger. There were
also Reboul, the baker; Hibley, the working-tailor; Gonzetta,
the shoemaker; Durand, the joiner; Marchand, the lacemaker;
Voileau, the sail-maker;
Magu, the weaver; Poucy, the mason; Germiny, the cooper;[5] and
finally, Jasmin the barber and hair dresser, who was not the
least of the Uneducated Poets.
The first poem which Jasmin composed in the Gascon dialect was
written in 1822, when he was only twenty-four years old. It was
entitled La fidelitat Agenoso, which he subsequently altered to
Me cal Mouri (Il me fait mourir), or "Let me die." It is a
languishing romantic poem, after the manner of Florian, Jasmin's
first master in poetry. It was printed at Agen in a quarto form,
and sold for a franc. Jasmin did not attach his name to the
poem, but only his initials.
Sainte-Beuve, in his notice of the poem, says, "It is a pretty,
sentimental romance, showing that Jasmin possessed the
brightness and sensibility of the Troubadours. As one may say,
he had not yet quitted the guitar for the flageolet; and Marot,
who spoke of his flageolet, had not, in the midst of his playful
spirit, those tender accents which contrasted so well with his
previous compositions. And did not Henry IV., in the midst of
his Gascon gaieties and sallies, compose his sweet song of
Charmante Gabrielle? Jasmin indeed is the poet who is nearest
the region of Henry IV."[6] Me cal Mouri was set to music by
Fourgons, and obtained great popularity in the south. It was
known by heart, and sung everywhere; in Agen, Toulouse,
and throughout Provence. It was not until the publication of
the first volume of his poems that it was known to be the work
of Jasmin.
Miss Louisa Stuart Costello, when making her pilgrimage in the
South of France, relates that, in the course of her journey,"
A friend repeated to me two charming ballads picked up in
Languedoc, where there is a variety in the patois. I cannot
resist giving them here, that my readers may compare the
difference of dialect. I wrote them clown, however, merely by
ear, and am not aware that they have ever been printed.
The mixture of French, Spanish, and Italian is very curious."[7]
As the words of Jasmin's romance were written down by Miss
Costello from memory, they are not quite accurate; but her
translation into English sufficiently renders the poet's
meaning. The following is the first verse of Jasmin's poem in
Gascon--
"Deja la ney encrumis la naturo,
Tout es tranquille et tout cargo lou dol;
Dins lou clouche la brezago murmuro,
Et lou tuquet succedo al rossignol:
Del mal, helas! bebi jusq'a la ligo,
Moun co gemis sans espouer de gari;
Plus de bounhur, ey perdut moun amigo,
Me cal mouri! me cal mouri!"
Which Miss Costello thus translates into English:
"Already sullen night comes sadly on,
And nature's form is clothed with mournful weeds;
Around the tower is heard the breeze's moan,
And to the nightingale the bat succeeds.
Oh! I have drained the cup of misery,
My fainting heart has now no hope in store.
Ah! wretched me! what have I but to die?
For I have lost my love for evermore!"
There are four verses in the poem, but the second verse may also
be given
"Fair, tender Phoebe, hasten on thy course,
My woes revive while I behold thee shine,
For of my hope thou art no more the source,
And of my happiness no more the sign.
Oh! I have drained the cup of misery,
My fainting heart has now no bliss in store.
Ah! wretched me! what have I but to die?
Since I have lost my love for evermore!"
The whole of the poem was afterwards translated into modem
French, and, though somewhat artificial, it became as popular in
the north as in the south.
Jasmin's success in his native town, and his growing popularity,
encouraged him to proceed with the making of verses. His poems
were occasionally inserted in the local journals; but the
editors did not approve of his use of the expiring Gascon
dialect. They were of opinion that his works might be better
appreciated if they appeared in modern French. Gascon was to a
large extent a foreign language, and greatly interfered with
Jasmin's national reputation as a poet.
Nevertheless he held on his way, and continued to write his
verses in Gascon. They contained many personal lyrics, tributes,
dedications, hymns for festivals, and impromptus, scarcely
worthy of being collected and printed. Jasmin said of the last
description of verse: "One can only pay a poetical debt by means
of impromptus, and though they may be good money of the heart,
they are almost always bad money of the head."
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 passages 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 passages 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 title of the volume?
As Adam, the carpenter-poet of Nevers, had entitled his volume of
poetry 'Shavings,' so Jasmin decided to name his collection
'The Curl-papers of Jasmin, Coiffeur of Agen.' The title 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 surpassed 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 illustrious strangers, when passing 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.
Footnotes 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
assis 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 sunshine,
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 assumed 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!
Come near! Approach!"[1]
It is necessary to explain how the verse in Gascon came to be
engraved on the pedestal of the statue. The Society of
Agriculture, Sciences, and Arts, of Agen, offered a prize of 300
francs for the best Ode to the memory of Henry the Great. Many
poems were accordingly sent in to the Society; and, after some
consideration, it was thought that the prize should be awarded to
M. Jude Patissie. But amongst the thirty-nine poems which had
been presented for examination, it was found that two had been
written in the Gascon dialect. The committee were at first of
opinion that they could not award the prize to the author of any
poem written in the vulgar tongue. At the same time they
reported that one of the poems written in Gascon possessed such
real merit, that the committee decided by a unanimous vote that a
prize should be awarded to the author of the best poem written in
the Gascon dialect. Many poems were accordingly sent in and
examined. Lou Tres de May was selected as the best; and on the
letter attached to the poem being opened, the president
proclaimed the author to be "Jasmin, Coiffeur." After the
decision of the Society at Agen, the people of Nerac desired to
set their seal upon their judgment, and they accordingly caused
the above words to be engraved on the reverse side of the
pedestal supporting the statue of Henry IV. Jasmin's poem was
crowned by the Academy of Agen; and though it contained many fine
verses, it had the same merits and the same defects as the
Charivari, published a few years before.
M. Rodiere, Professor of Law at Toulouse, was of opinion that
during the four years during which Jasmin produced no work of
any special importance, he was carefully studying Gascon; for it
ought to be known that the language in which Godolin wrote his
fine poems is not without its literature. "The fact," says
Rodiere, "that Jasmin used some of his time in studying the
works of Godolin is, that while in Lou Charibari there are some
French words ill-disguised in a Gascon dress, on the other hand,
from the year 1830, there are none; and the language of Jasmin
is the same as the language of Godolin, except for a few
trifling differences, due to the different dialects of Agen and
Toulouse."
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