It had hitherto been the custom of Jasmin to dedicate his poems to one
of his friends; but in the case of Franconnette he dedicated the poem to
the city of Toulouse. His object in making the dedication was to express
his gratitude for the banquet given to him in 1836 by the leading men
of the city, at which the President had given the toast of "Jasmin, the
adopted son of Toulouse."
Toulouse was the most wealthy and prosperous city in the South of
France. Among its citizens were many men of literature, art, and
science. Jasmin was at first disposed to dedicate Franconnette to the
city of Bordeaux, where he had been so graciously received and feted
on the recitation of his Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille; but he eventually
decided to dedicate the new poem to the city of Toulouse, where he had
already achieved a considerable reputation.
Jasmin was received with every honour by the city which had adopted
him. It was his intention to read the poem at Toulouse before its
publication. If there was one of the towns or cities in which his
language was understood--one which promised by the strength and depth of
its roots to defy all the chances of the future--that city was Toulouse,
the capital of the Langue d'Oc.
The place in which he first recited the poem was the Great Hall of the
Museum. When the present author saw it about two years ago, the ground
floor was full of antique tombs, statues, and monuments of the past;
while the hall above it was crowded with pictures and works of art,
ancient and modern.
About fifteen hundred persons assembled to listen to Jasmin in the Great
Hall. "It is impossible," said the local journal,{1} "to describe the
transport with which he was received." The vast gallery was filled with
one of the most brilliant assemblies that had ever met in Toulouse.
Jasmin occupied the centre of the platform. At his right and left
hand were seated the Mayor, the members of the Municipal Council, the
Military Chiefs, the members of the Academy of Jeux-Floraux,{2} and
many distinguished persons in science, literature, and learning. A large
space had been reserved for the accommodation of ladies, who appeared in
their light summer dresses, coloured like the rainbow; and behind them
stood an immense number of the citizens of Toulouse.
Jasmin had no sooner begun to recite his poem than it was clear that he
had full command of his audience. Impressed by his eloquence and powers
of declamation, they were riveted to their seats, dazzled and moved by
turns, as the crowd of beautiful thoughts passed through their minds.
The audience were so much absorbed by the poet's recitation that not a
whisper was heard. He evoked by the tones and tremor of his voice their
sighs, their tears, their indignation. He was by turns gay, melancholy,
artless, tender, arch, courteous, and declamatory. As the drama
proceeded, the audience recognised the beauty of the plot and the poet's
knowledge of the human heart. He touched with grace all the cords of his
lyre. His poetry evidently came direct from his heart: it was as rare as
it was delicious.
The success of the recitation was complete, and when Jasmin resumed his
seat he received the most enthusiastic applause. As the whole of the
receipts were, as usual, handed over by Jasminto the local charities,
the assembly decided by acclamation that a subscription should be raised
to present to the poet, who had been adopted by the city, some testimony
of their admiration for his talent, and for his having first recited to
them and dedicated to Toulouse his fine poem of Franconnette.
Jasmin handed over to the municipality the manuscript of his poem in a
volume beautifully bound. The Mayor, in eloquent language, accepted the
work, and acknowledged the fervent thanks of the citizens of Toulouse.
As at Bordeaux, Jasmin was feted and entertained by the most
distinguished people of the city. At one of the numerous banquets at
which he was present, he replied to the speech of the chairman by an
impromptu in honour of those who had so splendidly entertained him. But,
as he had already said: "Impromptus may be good money of the heart, but
they are often the worst money of the head."{3}
On the day following the entertainment, Jasmin was invited to a "grand
banquet" given by the coiffeurs of Toulouse, where they presented him
with "a crown of immortelles and jasmines," and to them also he recited
another of his impromptus.{4}
Franconnette was shortly after published, and the poem was received with
almost as much applause by the public as it had been by the citizens
of Toulouse. Sainte-beuve, the prince of French critics, said of the
work:--
"In all his compositions Jasmin has a natural, touching idea; it is a
history, either of his invention, or taken from some local tradition.
With his facility as an improvisatore, aided by the patois in which he
writes,... when he puts his dramatis personae into action, he endeavours
to depict their thoughts, all their simple yet lively conversation, and
to clothe them in words the most artless, simple, and transparent,
and in a language true, eloquent, and sober: never forget this latter
characteristic of Jasmin's works."{5}
M. de Lavergne says of Franconnette, that, of all Jasmin's work, it is
the one in which he aimed at being most entirely popular, and that it
is at the same time the most noble and the most chastened. He might
also have added the most chivalrous. "There is something essentially
knightly," says Miss Preston, "in Pascal's cast of character, and it
is singular that at the supreme crisis of his fate he assumes, as if
unconsciously, the very phraseology of chivalry.
"Some squire (donzel) should follow me to death. It is altogether
natural and becoming in the high-minded smith."
M. Charles Nodier--Jasmin's old friend--was equally complimentary in his
praises of Franconnette. When a copy of the poem was sent to him, with
an accompanying letter, Nodier replied:--
"I have received with lively gratitude, my dear and illustrious friend,
your beautiful verses, and your charming and affectionate letter. I have
read them with great pleasure and profound admiration. A Although ill in
bed, I have devoured Franconnette and the other poems. I observe, with
a certain pride, that you have followed my advice, and that you think
in that fine language which you recite so admirably, in place of
translating the patois into French, which deprives it of its fullness
and fairness. I thank you a thousand times for your very flattering
epistle. I am too happy to expostulate with you seriously as to the
gracious things you have said to me; my name will pass to posterity in
the works of my friends; the glory of having been loved by you goes for
a great deal."
The time at length arrived for the presentation of the testimonial of
Toulouse to Jasmin. It consisted of a branch of laurel in gold. The
artist who fashioned it was charged to put his best work into the golden
laurel, so that it might be a chef d'oeuvre worthy of the city which
conferred it, and of being treasured in the museum of their adopted
poet. The work was indeed admirably executed. The stem was rough, as
in nature, though the leaves were beautifully polished. It had a ribbon
delicately ornamented, with the words "Toulouse a Jasmin."
When the work was finished and placed in its case, the Mayor desired to
send it to Jasmin by a trusty messenger. He selected Mademoiselle Gasc,
assisted by her father, advocate and member of the municipal council, to
present the tribute to Jasmin. It ought to have been a fete day for the
people of Agen, when their illustrious townsman, though a barber, was
about to receive so cordial an appreciation of his poetical genius from
the learned city of Toulouse. It ought also to have been a fete day for
Jasmin himself.
But alas! an unhappy coincidence occurred which saddened the day that
ought to have been a day of triumph for the poet. His mother was dying.
When Mademoiselle Gasc, accompanied by her father, the Mayor of Agen,
and other friends of Jasmin, entered the shop, they were informed
that he was by the bedside of his mother, who was at death's door. The
physician, who was consulted as to her state, said that there might only
be sufficient time for Jasmin to receive the deputation.
He accordingly came out for a few moments from his mother's bed-side. M.
Gasc explained the object of the visit, and read to
Jasmin the gracious letter of the Mayor of Toulouse, concluding as
follows:--
"I thank you, in the name of the city of Toulouse, for the fine poem
which you have dedicated to us. This branch of laurel will remind you
of the youthful and beautiful Muse which has inspired you with such
charming verses."
The Mayor of Agen here introduced Mademoiselle Gasc, who, in her turn,
said:--
"And I also, sir, am most happy and proud of the mission which has been
entrusted to me."
Then she presented him with the casket which contained the golden
laurel. Jasmin responded in the lines entitled 'Yesterday and To-day,'
from which the following words may be quoted:--
"Yesterday! Thanks, Toulouse, for our old language and for my poetry.
Your beautiful golden branch ennobles both. And you who offer it to me,
gracious messenger--queen of song and queen of hearts--tell your city of
my perfect happiness, and that I never anticipated such an honour even
in my most golden dreams.
"To-day! Fascinated by the laurel which Toulouse has sent me, and which
fills my heart with joy, I cannot forget, my dear young lady, the sorrow
which overwhelms me--the fatal illness of my mother--which makes me fear
that the most joyful day of my life will also be the most sorrowful."
Jasmin's alarms were justified. His prayers were of no avail. His mother
died with her hand in his shortly after the deputation had departed. Her
husband had preceded her to the tomb a few years before. He always had
a firm presentiment that he should be carried in the arm-chair to the
hospital, "where all the Jasmins die." But Jasmin did his best to save
his father from that indignity. He had already broken the arm-chair, and
the old tailor died peacefully in the arms of his son.
Some four months after the recitation of Franconnette at Toulouse,
Jasmin resumed his readings in the cause of charity. In October 1840 he
visited Oleron, and was received with the usual enthusiasm; and on his
return to Pau, he passed the obelisk erected to Despourrins, the Burns
of the Pyrenees. At Pau he recited his Franconnette to an immense
audience amidst frenzies of applause. It was alleged that the people
of the Pyrenean country were prosaic and indifferent to art. But M.
Dugenne, in the 'Memorial des Pyrenees,' said that it only wanted such
a bewitching poet as Jasmin--with his vibrating and magical voice--to
rouse them and set their minds on fire.
Another writer, M. Alfred Danger, paid him a still more delicate
compliment.
"His poetry," he said, "is not merely the poetry of illusions; it is
alive, and inspires every heart. His admirable delicacy! His profound
tact in every verse! What aristocratic poet could better express in
a higher degree the politeness of the heart, the truest of all
politeness."{6}
Jasmin did not seem to be at all elated by these eulogiums. When he
had finished his recitations, he returned to Agen, sometimes on foot,
sometimes in the diligence, and quietly resumed his daily work.
His success as a poet never induced him to resign his more humble
occupation. Although he received some returns from the sale of his
poems, he felt himself more independent by relying upon the income
derived from his own business.
His increasing reputation never engendered in him, as is too often
the case with self-taught geniuses who suddenly rise into fame, a
supercilious contempt for the ordinary transactions of life. "After
all," he said, "contentment is better than riches."
Endnotes to Chapter X.
{1} Journal de Toulouse, 4th July, 1840.
{2} The Society of the Jeux-Floraux derives its origin from the ancient
Troubadours. It claims to be the oldest society of the kind in Europe.
It is said to have been founded in the fourteenth century by Clemence
Isaure, a Toulousian lady, to commemorate the "Gay Science." A meeting
of the society is held every year, when prizes are distributed to
the authors of the best compositions in prose and verse. It somewhat
resembles the annual meeting of the Eisteddfod, held for awarding prizes
to the bards and composers of Wales.
{3} The following was his impromptu to the savants of Toulouse, 4th
July, 1840:--
"Oh, bon Dieu! que de gloire! Oh, bon Dieu! que d'honneurs!
Messieurs, ce jour pour ma Muse est bien doux;
Mais maintenant, d'etre quitte j'ai perdu l'esperance:
Car je viens, plus fier que jamais,
Vous payer ma reconnaissance,
Et je m'endette que plus!"
{4} This is the impromptu, given on the 5th July, 1840:
"Toulouse m'a donne un beau bouquet d'honneur;
Votre festin, amis, en est une belle fleur;
Aussi, clans les plaisirs de cette longue fete,
Quand je veux remercier de cela,
Je poursuis mon esprit pour ne pas etre en reste
Ici, l'esprit me nait et tombe de mon coeur!"
{5} 'Causeries du Lundi,' iv. 240 (edit. 1852).
{6} "La politesse du coeur," a French expression which can scarcely be
translated into English; just as "gentleman" has no precise equivalent
in French.