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."
Besides studying Gascon, Jasmin had some military duties to perform. He
was corporal of the third company of the National Guard of Agen; and in
1830 he addressed his comrades in a series of verses. One of these was
a song entitled 'The Flag of Liberty' (Lou Drapeou de la Libertat);
another, 'The Good All-merciful God!' (Lou Boun Diou liberal); and the
third was Lou Seromen.
Two years later, in 1832, Jasmin composed The Gascons, which he
improvised at a banquet given to the non-commissioned officers of the
14th Chasseurs. Of course, the improvisation was carefully prepared;
and it was composed in French, as the non-commissioned officers did not
understand the Gascon dialect.
Jasmin extolled the valour of the French, and especially of the Gascons.
The last lines of his eulogy ran as follows:--
"O Liberty! mother of victory,
Thy flag always brings us success!
Though as Gascons we sing of thy glory,
We chastise our foes with the French!"
In the same year Jasmin addressed the poet Beranger in a pleasant
poetical letter written in classical French. Beranger replied in prose;
his answer was dated the 12th of July, 1832. He thanked Jasmin for his
fervent eulogy. While he thought that the Gascon poet's praise of his
works was exaggerated, he believed in his sincerity.
"I hasten," said Beranger, "to express my thanks for the kindness of
your address. Believe in my sincerity, as I believe in your praises.
Your exaggeration of my poetical merits makes me repeat the first words
of your address, in which you assume the title of a Gascon{2} poet. It
would please me much better if you would be a French poet, as you prove
by your epistle, which is written with taste and harmony. The sympathy
of our sentiments has inspired you to praise me in a manner which I am
far from meriting, Nevertheless, sir, I am proud of your sympathy.
"You have been born and brought up in the same condition as myself.
Like me, you appear to have triumphed over the absence of scholastic
instruction, and, like me too, you love your country. You reproach me,
sir, with the silence which I have for some time preserved. At the end
of this year I intend to publish my last volume; I will then take my
leave of the public. I am now fifty-two years old. I am tired of the
world. My little mission is fulfilled, and the public has had enough of
me. I am therefore making arrangements for retiring. Without the desire
for living longer, I have broken silence too soon. At least you must
pardon the silence of one who has never demanded anything of his
country. I care nothing about power, and have now merely the ambition of
a morsel of bread and repose.
"I ask your pardon for submitting to you these personal details. But
your epistle makes it my duty. I thank you again for the pleasure you
have given me. I do not understand the language of Languedoc, but, if
you speak this language as you write French, I dare to prophecy a true
success in the further publication of your works.--BERANGER."{3}
Notwithstanding this advice of Beranger and other critics, Jasmin
continued to write his poems in the Gascon dialect. He had very little
time to spare for the study of classical French; he was occupied
with the trade by which he earned his living, and his business was
increasing. His customers were always happy to hear him recite his
poetry while he shaved their beards or dressed their hair.
He was equally unfortunate with M. Minier of Bordeaux. Jasmin addressed
him in a Gascon letter full of bright poetry, not unlike Burns's Vision,
when he dreamt of becoming a song-writer. The only consolation that
Jasmin received from M. Minier was a poetical letter, in which the poet
was implored to retain his position and not to frequent the society of
distinguished persons.
Perhaps the finest work which Jasmin composed at this period of his life
was that which he entitled Mous Soubenis, or 'My Recollections.' In none
of his poems did he display more of the characteristic qualities of his
mind, his candour, his pathos, and his humour, than in these verses.
He used the rustic dialect, from which he never afterwards departed. He
showed that the Gascon was not yet a dead language; and he lifted it to
the level of the most serious themes. His verses have all the greater
charm because of their artless gaiety, their delicate taste, and the
sweetness of their cadence.
Jasmin began to compose his 'Recollections' in 1830, but the two first
cantos were not completed until two years later. The third canto was
added in 1835, when the poem was published in the first volume of his
'Curl-Papers' (Papillotes). These recollections, in fact, constitute
Jasmin's autobiography, and we are indebted to them for the description
we have already given of the poet's early life.
Many years later Jasmin wrote his Mous noubels Soubenis--'My New
Recollections'; but in that work he returned to the trials and the
enjoyments of his youth, and described few of the events of his later
life. "What a pity," says M. Rodiere, "that Jasmin did not continue to
write his impressions until the end of his life! What trouble he would
have saved his biographers! For how can one speak when Jasmin ceases to
sing?"
It is unnecessary to return to the autobiography and repeat the
confessions of Jasmin's youth. His joys and sorrows are all described
there--his birth in the poverty-stricken dwelling in the Rue Fon de
Rache, his love for his parents, his sports with his playfellows on the
banks of the Garonne, his blowing the horn in his father's Charivaris,
his enjoyment of the tit-bits which old Boe brought home from his
begging-tours, the decay of the old man, and his conveyance to the
hospital, "where all the Jasmins die;" then his education at the
Academy, his toying with the house-maid, his stealing the preserves, his
expulsion from the seminary, and the sale of his mother's wedding-ring
to buy bread for her family.
While composing the first two cantos of the Souvenirs he seemed half
ashamed of the homeliness of the tale he had undertaken to relate.
Should he soften and brighten it? Should he dress it up with false
lights and colours? For there are times when falsehood in silk and
gold are acceptable, and the naked new-born truth is unwelcome. But he
repudiated the thought, and added:--
"Myself, nor less, nor more, I'll draw for you,
And if not bright, the likeness shall be true."
The third canto of the poem was composed at intervals. It took him two
more years to finish it. It commences with his apprenticeship to
the barber; describes his first visit to the theatre, his reading of
Florian's romances and poems, his solitary meditations, and the birth
and growth of his imagination. Then he falls in love, and a new era
opens in his life. He writes verses and sings them. He opens a barber's
shop of his own, marries, and brings his young bride home. "Two angels,"
he says, "took up their abode with me." His newly-wedded wife was one,
and the other was his rustic Muse--the angel of homely pastoral poetry:
"Who, fluttering softly from on high,
Raised on his wing and bore me far,
Where fields of balmiest ether are;
There, in the shepherd lassie's speech
I sang a song, or shaped a rhyme;
There learned I stronger love than I can teach.
Oh, mystic lessons! Happy time!
And fond farewells I said, when at the close of day,
Silent she led my spirit back whence it was borne away!"
He then speaks of the happiness of his wedded life; he shaves and sings
most joyfully. A little rivulet of silver passes into the barber's shop,
and, in a fit of poetic ardour, he breaks into pieces and burns the
wretched arm-chair in which his ancestors were borne to the hospital to
die. His wife no longer troubles him with her doubts as to his verses
interfering with his business. She supplies him with pen, paper, ink,
and a comfortable desk; and, in course of time, he buys the house in
which he lives, and becomes a man of importance in Agen. He ends the
third canto with a sort of hurrah--
"Thus, reader, have I told my tale in cantos three:
Though still I sing, I hazard no great risk;
For should Pegasus rear and fling me, it is clear,
However ruffled all my fancies fair,
I waste my time, 'tis true; though verses I may lose,
The paper still will serve for curling hair."{4}
Robert Nicoll, the Scotch poet, said of his works: "I have written my
heart in my poems; and rude, unfinished, and hasty as they are, it can
be read there." Jasmin might have used the same words. "With all my
faults," he said, "I desired to write the truth, and I have described it
as I saw it."
In his 'Recollections' he showed without reserve his whole heart.
Jasmin dedicated his 'Recollections,' when finished, to M. Florimond
de Saint-Amand, one of the first gentlemen who recognised his poetical
talents. This was unquestionably the first poem in which Jasmin
exhibited the true bent of his genius. He avoided entirely the French
models which he had before endeavoured to imitate; and he now gave
full flight to the artless gaiety and humour of his Gascon muse. It
is unfortunate that the poem cannot be translated into English. It was
translated into French; but even in that kindred language it lost
much of its beauty and pathos. The more exquisite the poetry that is
contained in one language, the more difficulty there is in translating
it into another.
M. Charles Nodier said of Lou Tres de May that it contains poetic
thoughts conveyed in exquisite words; but it is impossible to render it
into any language but its own. In the case of the Charivari he shrinks
from attempting to translate it. There is one passage containing a
superb description of the rising of the sun in winter; but two of the
lines quite puzzled him. In Gascon they are
"Quand l'Auroro, fourrado en raoubo de sati,
Desparrouillo, san brut, las portos del mati.'
Some of the words translated into French might seem vulgar, though in
Gascon they are beautiful. In English they might be rendered:
"When Aurora, enfurred in her robe of satin,
Unbars, without noise, the doors of the morning."
"Dream if you like," says Nodier, "of the Aurora of winter, and tell me
if Homer could have better robed it in words. The Aurora of Jasmin is
quite his own; 'unbars the doors of the morning'; it is done without
noise, like a goddess, patient and silent, who announces herself to
mortals only by her brightness of light. It is this finished felicity
of expression which distinguishes great writers. The vulgar cannot
accomplish it."
Again Nodier says of the 'Recollections': "They are an ingenuous marvel
of gaiety, sensibility, and passion! I use," he says, "this expression
of enthusiasm; and I regret that I cannot be more lavish in my praises.
There is almost nothing in modem literature, and scarcely anything
in ancient, which has moved me more profoundly than the Souvenirs of
Jasmin.
"Happy and lovely children of Guienne and Languedoc, read and re-read the
Souvenirs of Jasmin; they will give you painful recollections of public
schools, and perhaps give you hope of better things to come. You will
learn by heart what you will never forget. You will know from this
poetry all that you ought to treasure."
Jasmin added several other poems to his collection before his second
volume appeared in 1835. Amongst these were his lines on the Polish
nation--Aux debris de la Nation Polonaise, and Les Oiseaux Voyageurs, ou
Les Polonais en France--both written in Gascon. Saint-beuve thinks the
latter one of Jasmin's best works. "It is full of pathos," he says, "and
rises to the sublime through its very simplicity. It is indeed difficult
to exaggerate the poetic instinct and the unaffected artlessness of this
amiable bard. "At the same time," he said, "Jasmin still wanted the
fire of passion to reach the noblest poetic work. Yet he had the art
of style. If Agen was renowned as 'the eye of Guienne,' Jasmin was
certainly the greatest poet who had ever written in the pure patois of
Agen."
Sainte-Beuve also said of Jasmin that he was "invariably sober." And
Jasmin said of himself, "I have learned that in moments of heat
and emotion we are all eloquent and laconic, alike in speech and
action--unconscious poets in fact; and I have also learned that it is
possible for a muse to become all this willingly, and by dint of patient
toil."
Another of his supplementary poems consisted of a dialogue between
Ramoun, a soldier of the Old Guard, and Mathiou, a peasant. It is of a
political cast, and Jasmin did not shine in politics. He was, however,
always a patriot, whether under the Empire, the Monarchy, or the
Republic. He loved France above all things, while he entertained the
warmest affection for his native province. If Jasmin had published his
volume in classical French he might have been lost amidst a crowd of
rhymers; but as he published the work in his native dialect, he became
forthwith distinguished in his neighbourhood, and was ever after known
as the Gascon poet.
Nor did he long remain unknown beyond the district in which he lived.
When his second volume appeared in 1835, with a preface by M. Baze, an
advocate of the Royal Court of Agen, it created considerable excitement,
not only at Bordeaux and Toulouse, but also at Paris, the centre of the
literature, science, and fine arts of France. There, men of the highest
distinction welcomed the work with enthusiasm.
M. Baze, in his preface, was very eulogistic. "We have the pleasure," he
said, "of seeing united in one collection the sweet Romanic tongue which
the South of France has adopted, like the privileged children of
her lovely sky and voluptuous climate; and her lyrical songs, whose
masculine vigour and energetic sentiments have more than once excited
patriotic transports and awakened popular enthusiasm. For Jasmin is
above all a poet of the people. He is not ashamed of his origin. He was
born in the midst of them, and though a poet, still belongs to them. For
genius is of all stations and ranks of life. He is but a hairdresser
at Agen, and more than that, he wishes to remain so. His ambition is to
unite the razor to the poet's pen."
At Paris the work was welcomed with applause, first by his poetic
sponsor, Charles Nodier, in the Temps, where he congratulated Jasmin on
using the Gascon patois, though still under the ban of literature. "It
is a veritable Saint Bartholomew of innocent and beautiful idioms, which
can scarcely be employed even in the hours of recreation." He pronounced
Jasmin to be a Gascon Beranger, and quoted several of his lines from
the Charivari, but apologised for their translation into French, fearing
that they might lose much of their rustic artlessness and soft harmony.
What was a still greater honour, Jasmin was reviewed by the first critic
of France--Sainte-Beuve in the leading critical journal, the Revue des
deux Mondes. The article was afterwards republished in his Contemporary
Portraits.{5} He there gives a general account of his poems; compares
him with the English and Scotch poets of the working class; and
contrasts him with Reboul, the baker of Nimes, who writes in classical
French, after the manner of the 'Meditations of Lamartine.' He proceeds
to give a brief account of Jasmin's life, taken from the Souvenirs,
which he regards as a beautiful work, written with much artlessness and
simplicity.
Various other reviews of Jasmin's poems appeared, in Agen, Bordeaux,
Toulouse, and Paris, by men of literary mark--by Leonce de Lavergne, and
De Mazude in the Revue des deux Mondes--by Charles Labitte, M. Ducuing,
and M. de Pontmartin. The latter classed Jasmin with Theocritus, Horace,
and La Fontaine, and paid him the singular tribute, "that he had made
Goodness as attractive as other French writers had made Badness." Such
criticisms as these made Jasmin popular, not only in his own district,
but throughout France.
We cannot withhold the interesting statement of Paul de Musset as to
his interview with Jasmin in 1836, after the publication of his second
volume of poems. Paul de Musset was the author of several novels, as
well as of Lui et Elle, apropos of his brother's connection with George
Sand. Paul de Musset thus describes his visit to the poet at Agen.{6}
"Let no one return northward by the direct road from Toulouse. Nothing
can be more dreary than the Lot, the Limousin, and the interminable
Dordogne; but make for Bordeaux by the plains of Gascony, and do not
forget the steamboat from Marmande. You will then find yourself on the
Garonne, in the midst of a beautiful country, where the air is vigorous
and healthy. The roads are bordered with vines, arranged in arches,
lovely to the eyes of travellers. The poets, who delight in making the
union of the vine with the trees which support it an emblem of marriage,
can verify their comparisons only in Gascony or Italy. It is usually
pear trees that are used to support them....
"Thanks to M. Charles Nodier, who had discovered a man of modest talent
buried in this province, I knew a little of the verses of the Gascon
poet Jasmin. Early one morning, at about seven, the diligence stopped in
the middle of a Place, where I read this inscription over a shop-door,
'Jasmin, Coiffeur des jeunes gens.' We were at Agen. I descended,
swallowed my cup of coffee as fast as I could, and entered the shop of
the most lettered of peruke-makers. On a table was a mass of pamphlets
and some of the journals of the South.
"'Monsieur Jasmin?' said I on entering. 'Here I am, sir, at your
service,' replied a handsome brown-haired fellow, with a cheerful
expression, who seemed to me about thirty years of age.
"'Will you shave me?' I asked. 'Willingly, sir,' he replied, I sat down
and we entered into conversation. 'I have read your verses, sir,' said
I, while he was covering my chin with lather.
"'Monsieur then comprehends the patois?' 'A little,' I said; 'one of
my friends has explained to me the difficult passages. But tell
me, Monsieur Jasmin, why is it that you, who appear to know French
perfectly, write in a language that is not spoken in any chief town or
capital.'
"'Ah, sir, how could a poor rhymer like me appear amongst the great
celebrities of Paris? I have sold eighteen hundred copies of my little
pieces of poetry (in pamphlet form), and certainly all who speak Gascon
know them well. Remember that there are at least six millions of people
in Languedoc.'
"My mouth was covered with soap-suds, and I could not answer him for
some time. Then I said, 'But a hundred thousand persons at most know how
to read, and twenty thousand of them can scarcely be able to enjoy your
works.'
"'Well, sir, I am content with that amount. Perhaps you have at Paris
more than one writer who possesses his twenty thousand readers. My
little reputation would soon carry me astray if I ventured to address
all Europe. The voice that appears sonorous in a little place is not
heard in the midst of a vast plain. And then, my readers are confined
within a radius of forty leagues, and the result is of real advantage to
an author.'
"'Ah! And why do you not abandon your razor?' I enquired of this
singular poet. 'What would you have?' he said. 'The Muses are most
capricious; to-day they give gold, to-morrow they refuse bread. The
razor secures me soup, and perhaps a bottle of Bordeaux. Besides, my
salon is a little literary circle, where all the young people of the
town assemble. When I come from one of the academies of which I am a
member, I find myself among the tools which I can manage better than
my pen; and most of the members of the circle usually pass through my
hands.'
"It is a fact that M. Jasmin shaves more skilfully than any other poet.
After a long conversation with this simple-minded man, I experienced
a certain confusion in depositing upon his table the amount of fifty
centimes which I owed him on this occasion, more for his talent than
for his razor; and I remounted the diligence more than charmed with the
modesty of his character and demeanour."
Endnotes for Chapter VI.
{1} M. Duvigneau thus translated the words into French: he begins his
verses by announcing the birth of Henry IV.:--
"A son aspect, mille cris d'allegresse
Ebranlent le palais et montent jusqu'au ciel:
Le voila beau comme dans sa jeunesse,
Alors qu'il recevait le baiser maternel.
A ce peuple charme qui des yeux le devore
Le bon Roi semble dire encore:
'Braves Gascons, accourez tous;
A mon amour pour vous vous devez croire;
Je met a vous revoir mon bonheur et ma gloire,
Venez, venez, approchez-vous!'"
{2} Gascon or Gasconade is often used as implying boasting or
gasconading.
{3} This letter was written before Jasmin had decided to publish the
second volume of his Papillotes, which appeared in 1835.
{4} The following are the lines in Gascon:--
"Atai boudroy dan bous fini ma triplo paouzo;
Mais anfin, ey cantat, n'hazardi pas gran caouzo:
Quand Pegazo reguinno, et que d'un cot de pe
M'emboyo friza mas marotos,
Perdi moun ten, es bray, mais noun pas moun pape;
Boti mous bers en papillotos!"
{5} 'Portraits Contemporains,' ii. 50. Par C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Membre de
l'Academie Francaise. 1847.
{6} 'Perpignan, l'Ariege et le poete Jasmin' (Journal politique et
litteraire de Lot-et-Garonne).