This story is an almost literal translation of _Lou Curat de Cucugnan_,
a Provençal story by Roumanille, published by him under the pseudonym of
Lou Cascarelet in the _Armana prouvençau_ (Provençal Almanac) in 1867
(Daudet was in Provence during this year). This Almanac was first
published in the year 1855, a little after the foundation of the
_Félibrige_ (May 21, 1854). _The Félibrige_ was a brotherhood of modern
Provençal poets, its purpose was to revive Provençal as a literary
language; the word _Félibrige_ is of unknown origin, it comes from an
obscure word found by Mistral in a Provençal text; the members of the
brotherhood, which later became a great literary society, were called
_félibres_; the brotherhood was originated by Roumanille, who was
followed by a more celebrated poet, Mistral, and five other poets,
Aubanel, Brunet, Camille Raybaud, Mathieu and Félix Gras. In regard to
the _Armana prouvençau_, the following quotation from an article by
Mistral in _Les Annales politiques et littéraires_, May 13, 1906, will
give an idea of the type of this Almanac: «Et sans parler ici des
innombrables poésies qui s'y sont publiées, sans parler de ses
Chroniques, où est continue, peut-on dire, l'histoire du Félibrige,
la quantité de contes, de légendes, de sornettes, de facéties et de
gaudrioles, tous recueillis dans le terroir, qui s'y sont ramassés, font
de cette entreprise une collection unique. Toute la tradition, toute la
raillerie, tout l'esprit de notre race se trouvent serrés là-dedans.»
The dialects of France fall into two great classes: the _Langue d'oïl_,
in the north, and the _Langue d'oc_, in the south (_oïl_ is the old>
northern form for _oui, oc_ the southern form). The difference really
dates from Roman colonization, which occurred on the Mediterranean some
seventy-five years before Caesar conquered northern Gaul (59--5l B.C.).
Provençal is one of the principal dialects of the southern group; during
the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries (prior to the Albigensian
crusade) it was, at least in lyric poetry, the most important literary
language of France. Because of political and literary superiority, the
language of Paris, or of the Île-de-France, became the general literary
language of France. The dialects, however, still live on, and Provençal
has, as described above, been somewhat revived as a literary language
by the efforts of Mistral and the other poets of the _Félibrige_. Many
scholars regard the characteristics of the territory embraced by the
modern departments of Loire, Rhône, Isère, Ain, Savoie, the old province
of Franche-Comté and a part of Switzerland as sufficient to form a third
group of dialects known as _Franco-Provençal_. The dividing line between
the _Langue d'oc_ and the _Langue d'oïl_ passes approximately from the
mouth of the Gironde to the Alps by way of Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand and
Grenoble.
111.--1. à la Chandeleur. The article in such
constructions is usually explained as equal to _la fête de_; it should
be noticed, however, that in Old French a substantive frequently
occurred in the oblique without a preceding _de_, the construction being
equal to the Latin genitive, no preposition having been used (the phrase
is thus literally: "oldquo;on that of Candlemas").
2. en Avignon. _En_ is not now used with cities except in
ironical imitation of Provençal style (see Brunot, _Précis de grammaire
historique de la langue française_, sec. 496, 2) or as a poetic and
archaic survival of the usage of the seventeenth century,--un joyeux
petit livre. The _Armana prouvençau_.
112.--3. quel bon vent. The verb is to be supplied (_quel
bon vent vous amène?_).
4. le grand livre et la clef. Cf. Matthew xvi, 19 and Revelation
xx, 12.