5

the companion of Roland, though the account of his death in this short poem is not consistent with the general belief of the deaths of these two heroes at Roncevaux. The romancers of the dark ages frequently vary in their statements.

sur le préau-means merely in the lists. Préau is a field or yard artificially arranged for games, tilting exercises particularly.

6 Maint damoisel-many a noble youth. The word damoiseau or damoisel, has become obsolete in the French language. It meant a young man of noble extraction in the early stages of his preparation for knighthood.

6 mainte coûr plénière-many a tournament. The coûr plénière was the gathering called by some monarch or noble who would open his lists to all comers, to contend for prizes in various contests, arms, poetry, etc.

7 into the old forest of Ardennes, in the north-east of France. Là, répandu par un coup déloyal—there killed (litt. spilt) by

a treacherous blow.

8 la Sylphide—a female spirit of the woods.

9

l'heureux Atlantide-Atlantis, an imaginary island of great extent, believed in by ancient philosophers, supposed to exist in the Atlantic, and to have disappeared. Its uncertain whereabouts is frequently mentioned as a resort for the souls of the departed spirits of the good and worthy.

71.

10 Danae-the daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos. Acrisius having heard by an oracle that if she became a mother, her son would kill him, shut her up in a brazen tower. Jupiter, however, introduced himself into the tower, and approached her as a shower of gold. The result of this visit was the birth of a son. The father then exposed Danaé and her baby in a boat (nef, navis) upon the sea.

II Tyndarides-Castor, Pollux, Helen, the children of Tyndarus. Fabulous legends related that when Castor and Pollux sailed, the stormy seas were calmed around them. After they were deified sailors invoked their aid in tempests.

12 & 17 Cyclades-islands of the Ægean Sea.

14 Latone-the mother of Apollo by Jupiter. She had been an inmate of Olympus, but Juno, the jealous wife of Jupiter, persecuted her fiercely, drove her from heaven shortly before she gave birth to her son, and sent her wandering on earth, Terra. Terra, the earth, obedient to Juno, refused to keep her, but fortunately Neptune, kinder hearted, fixed for her the moving island of Delos, and changed her into a bird to enable her to arrive there. Latona, as soon as she reached her

resting-place, found a palm tree against which she leant, and gave birth to her son Apollo.

15 Alcyone-a sea bird, once a princess, who loved Ceyx. Ceyx, whom Alcyone was awaiting, was drowned, and his body washed to the shore where his lover stood; she in her grief fell dead at the sight, but the gods changed them both into sea birds, supposed to build a nest which floats upon the waves; both are favourable to sailors.

16 Thétis a sea goddess.

2

76.

which she had dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Notice here the imitation of the old form, the elle suppressed.

3 onc ne fut for jamais il ne fut, never was there. Fallait la voir, for il fallait la voir-you should have seen her. 4 Il se fit homme d'armes-he became a soldier, a man-at-arms. 5 See Note 2.

78.

6 pour que je die, for que je dise (often used in poetry for convenience)-for me to say.

84.

7 Que tardes-tu for pourquoi tardes-tu ?—why do you delay? 8 qui te retient ?-what keeps you, for qu'est ce qui? etc. etc.

I

85. BERANGER.

when shall I shake off the dust, which soils its noble colours? This song written in 1820, in the reign of Louis XVIII., expresses the feelings of an old soldier of Napoleon's army, who has preserved a tricolor flag, and sighs over the final defeat of Waterloo, and over the insults which the return of the Bourbons and their white flag had inflicted upon it. He longs for some opportunity to retrieve the loss of glory. The song gave great offence to the existing authorities, and was one of the causes which led to Béranger's imprisonment. 2 Combien la gloire est roturière-how plebeian glory is. Un roturier, means a commoner, as distinct from a noble. turier-ère is the adjective in the same sense. The enthusiasm for Napoleon had chiefly arisen from the people. Many of his generals had risen from the ranks.

3

Ro

le coq des Gaulois-the cock was the emblematic bird of the Gauls. In France the Gauls were, in a way, the conquered race, the aristocracy having been provided by the Francs. Béranger would have a fellow feeling for the Gauls.

4 After the fall of Napoleon, the remains of the French army collected on the banks of the Loire, with a view to recom mencing hostilities, but they were disbanded by the Bourbon government-a sore subject. Up to this event the soldiers under their old flag enjoyed their rights of citizenship.

86.

5 Béranger writes this song in prison. His feelings against the existing authorities were very much exasperated, and his friends sent him some bottles of wine to try and cure him, by inward aspersions, of his own attempt to improve irrational and tyrannical people.

6 Romanée-a wine of Burgundy; un coup de-a drink of, a glass of.

7 I scolded my muse persistent in declaiming against men in power.

8

Chambertin-one of the best wines of Burgundy. I might have had another fit (of impatience), but I had flattery for them after a draught of Chambertin.

9 I see my room filled with those whom the rulers and people in power had made happy. The gradual effects of the wine upon his distempered mind are intended to be shown. tolérance-goes about the town in the garb of a sexton, or vestry-keeper. After three glasses of the Romanée I can go so far as to imagine that the priesthood (re-introduced by the Bourbons) is tolerant.

ΙΟ

II

12

three glasses of Chambertin make me think that they practise the principles of the gospel.

at the last drop of Chambertin I fancy I see my bars and bolts falling.

13 the fairy's wand is now a twig of Romanée, and now a twig of

Chambertin.

87.

14 the Cossack's song would be applicable to a period between the French campaign ending in the abdication of the emperor at Fontainebleau, and the entrance of the allied powers into Paris in 1815.

15 l'asile des arts. Paris.

16 go back and drink again of the waters of the Seine, where

twice you have washed. Once at the time of the invasion of the Barbarians, at the close of the Roman Empire, and a second time when Paris was invested by the allied powers in 1814.

ΙΟ

88.

17

18

He would not have a Barbarian dance merrily on our remains. Had refused to sing and play and show gladness when the allied powers came into France after Waterloo.

89.

the gipsies. 19 by the common people, a prey to our pilferings, any gibberish is accepted as gospel (makes itself believed). The people, etc., etc., cannot do without saints and wisards, i.e., the people whom we cheat will swallow any cabalistic rubbish. They must have superstitions. Plutus, wealth. See Classical Dictionary. 196 Ton ail ne peut se détacher du vieux coq de ton vieux clocher. O ye poor, weak-minded philosophers, your eyes cannot bear to lose sight of the old weather-cock on your old church steeple.

20 Qu'il s'agite ou croupisse au gîte-people cried aloud every. where to mankind, whether they were bestirring themselves or crouching in their homes.

21

90.

Louis XI. (1461), the old king of France, so frequently the theme of novels (Quentin Durward) and plays, famous for his wariness, his cunning, his cruelty, his superstition, his avarice, thriftiness, and absolutism, is supposed to have caused his father to die of starvation, by the belief that he wanted to poison him. He had a great many nobles beheaded during his reign, and practised cruelties upon others to prove that he would not brook resistance, and had numberless people who showed any signs of mutiny hung as examples. Took his ministers and head justiciaries out of the common ranks, and spread the notion amongst the peasantry and working classes that he was their friend, and would help them against the oppression of the nobles. He died old of a lingering illness, but dreaded death, and listened eagerly to any deceptive hopes held out by designing persons that his days might be prolonged.

91.

22 should anyone give signs of information in matters of wine, even supposing

23 they carried the demonstration too far (by too free use);

24 but if, challenging one another by the fireside, we sit drinking behind the screen. Trinquer in French means to knock glasses in drinking-to be very convivial.

25 but should a lady be one of the party, and (aï) champagne re. fresh the repast.

93.

I fil de la vierge-gossamer thread. A popular belief fostered amongst children and country people, that gossamer was the material of the Virgin Mary's garments, or some emanation from herself or her appurtenances.

2

de ta blanche auréole -emanating from some part of your bright halo.

3 the white-vailed maidens walking in holy festivals, Roman Catholic services-Fête Dieu, première communion, etc. 4 l'alcove fermée-to draw aside the curtains of the closed recess. Beds in France are generally placed in a recess called an alcove.

94.

5 the Auvergne portion, or dower. The inhabitants of Auvergne are supposed to represent poverty in France, but, at the same time, simplicity and contentment.

6 Un petit pot pour soupière-a little jug for a soup tureen. The Soupière is an institution in all French families, even the poorest. Often manger la soupe means to dine.

7 s'il nous vient des enfants—if there come children to us; if we have children.

95,

8 it is difficult to state exactly who this hero is-the famous Dunois, son of the Duke of Orleans, the contemporary and fellow-warrior of Joan of Arc, comes too late in history for Syrian campaigns.

9 Marie-the Virgin Mary.

ΙΟ

I

96,

this song is a lament of a Savoyarde, a woman of Savoy, sending her daughter from home to go and earn her existence. La Savoie (Savoy) is the country which supplies hurdy-gurdy and organ-boys, vendors of white mice and marmots, chimney sweepers, and errand-boys to France. The inhabitants, being very poor, are obliged, like the Auvergnese, to part with their children.

105. LAMARTINE.

to astound the universe with the splendour of his glory, to trample alike on demagogues and kings, to forge a yoke steeped in love and hatred, and make a people just broken away from their laws quiver beneath his fettering curb. 2 alluding to Napoleon's power of gaining the hearts of his soldiers on the one side, and on the other to the tyrannical