SONGS AND SQUIBS
Perhaps it is in song and satire that Geneva has done best. ‘Roulez,
tambours,’ is not the only Genevan song that has passed the Genevan
frontier; and Geneva, in fact, has always been ready to burst into
song, whether serious or sarcastic, in connection with the topics of
the day. The Reformation itself was heralded by satirical verses.
A species of burlesque entitled a ‘sottie’ was, in those days, a
favourite form of entertainment. The general character of these
compositions may be gathered from the following scrap of dialogue,
contained in one of them, between the _Physician_ and the _World_:
‘_Physician._ So that is what upsets your mind,
And you are not upset to find
Church benefices bought and sold
By hungry thieves in quest of gold?
Or babies on their mothers’ knee
Appointed to a Bishop’s See?
While haughty Churchmen, as they please,
The goods of any neighbour seize,
And go to war on small pretext--
Whereby all Christian men are vext.
_The World._ From Luther’s land these plaints arise;
We’re told they are a pack of lies.
_Physician._ Whatever the abuse you ban,
They call you, now, a Lutheran.’
The flood-gates of poetry were opened afresh by the failure of the
Escalade. Even the octogenarian M. de Bèze composed a song on that
occasion:
‘Peuple Genevois,
Elève ta voix
Pour psalmodier
De Dieu, l’assistance,
Et la délivrance
Que vit avant-hier!’
Other poets followed the pastor’s example by the score. For years--for
decades even--they mocked in verse at the enemy whom they had put to
shame. When, at last, they were silent, the revolutionary movement of
the eighteenth century produced its harvest of squibs; and then we come
to the Restoration, and the religious revival known as the Réveil,
which also produced considerable literary repercussions.