~Ash Wednesday.~
The copious particulars respecting these festivals, which have been
brought together in another place,[73] admit of some addition.
In France and other parts of the continent, the season preceding Lent is
universal carnival. At Marseilles, the Thursday before Lent is called
_le Jeudi gras_, and Shrove Tuesday _le Mardi gras_. Every body joins in
masquerading on these nights, and both streets and houses are full of
masks the whole night long. The god of fritters, if such a god there be,
who is worshipped in England only on Shrove Tuesday, is worshipped in
France on both the Thursday and Tuesday. Parties meet at each other’s
houses to a supper of fritters, and then set off masquerading, which
they keep up to a very late hour in the morning.
On Ash-Wednesday, which has here much more the appearance of a festival
than of a fast, there is a ceremony called “interring the carnival.” A
whimsical figure is dressed up to represent the carnival, which is
carried in the afternoon in procession to Arrens, a small village on the
sea-shore, about a mile out of the town, where it is pulled to pieces.
This ceremony is attended in some way or other by every inhabitant of
Marseilles, whether gentle or simple, man or woman, boy or girl. The
very genteel company are in carriages, which parade backwards and
forwards upon the road between the town and the village, for two or
three hours, like the Sunday processions in Hyde-park. Of the rest of
the company, some make parties to dine at Arrens, or at the
public-houses on the road; others make water parties; but the majority
only go and walk about, or sit upon the rocks to see and be seen. It was
one of the most delightful evenings imaginable; the air was
inexpressibly mild; the road where the carriages parade is about half
way up the rocks, and this long string of carriages constantly moving,
the rocks filled with thousands and thousands of spectators, and the
tranquil sea gilded by the setting sun, and strewed over with numberless
little barks, formed altogether one of the most beautiful and
picturesque scenes that could be presented. We sat down on a little
detached piece of rock almost encircled by the sea, that we might have
full enjoyment of it, and there remained till some time after the
glorious sun had disappeared for the night, when we walked home by a
lovely bright moonlight, in a milder evening, though in the month of
February, than we often find in England at Midsummer.[74]
* * * * *
Naogeorgus, in the “Popish Kingdome,” mentions some burlesque scenes
practised formerly on Ash Wednesday. People went about in mid-day with
lanterns in their hands, looking after the feast days which they had
lost on this the first day of the Lent fast. Some carried herrings on a
pole, crying “Herrings, herrings, stinking herrings! no more puddings!”
And hereto joyne they foolish playes,
and doltish doggrel rimes,
And what beside they can invent,
belonging to the times.
Others, at the head of a procession, carried a fellow upon staves, or
“stangs,” to some near pond or running stream, and there plunged him in,
to wash away what of feasting-time might be in him. Some got boys to
accompany them through the town singing, and with minstrels playing,
entered the houses, and seizing young girls harnessed them to a plough;
one man held the handles, another drove them with a whip, a minstrel
sung drunken songs, and a fellow followed, flinging sand or ashes as if
he had been sowing, and then they drove
------both plough and maydens through
some pond or river small,
And dabbled all with durt, and wringing
wett as they may bee
To supper calle, and after that
to daunsing lustilee.
[73] The _Every-Day Book._
[74] Miss Plumptre.
~Quinquagesima.~