" The work closes with the following words: - "With
the government of Russia, France has often been in conflict; with her
people, since she has become a nation, France sympathizes and is at
one.
the government of Russia, France has often been in conflict; with her
people, since she has become a nation, France sympathizes and is at
one.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v21 - Rab to Rus
Said you not that she
Was here?
Is lost!
Andromache-
Will follow.
I thought so.
--
Hermione is gone, and we
Is certain.
Now you see what power
What says she?
Has he not promised them my child?
Given him up.
Speak! Why obstinately dumb?
All
But not
Vain are my tears,- his death
How her pride disdains to look
My way!
I should but irritate him more.
Let us retire.
Yielded to Greece.
Come, Hector's son shall be
## p. 12035 (#73) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12035
Andromache [throwing herself at his feet) —
Stop, sire.
What will you do?
Give up the son? Why not the mother, then?
Where is the kindness that you swore to me
So lately? Can I touch no chord at least
Of pity? Does this sentence bar all hope
Of pardon?
Phoenix knows my word is pledged.
Pyrrhus-
Andromache-
-
Pyrrhus-
Andromache
Pyrrhus-
――――――
No dangers were too great for you to brave
On my behalf!
Blind then, I now can see.
Your wishes might have won his pardon once;
You ne'er so much as asked it. Now you come
Too late.
Full well you understood, my lord,
The sigh that feared repulse. Forgive the trace
Of pride, that died not with my royal rank,
And made me shrink from importunity.
My lord, you know, had it not been for you,
Andromache would never have embraced
A master's knees.
No, in your secret soul
You hate me, scorn to owe me anything.
This son, the only object of your care, —
You would have loved him less, had he been saved
Through me. You hate me with a bitter scorn,
And worse than all the other Greeks combined.
Enjoy at leisure such a noble rage.
Come, Phoenix.
I will go where Hector's gone.
What further can I say to him?
The author of my woes, he knows them all.
[To Pyrrhus]-
See to what state you have reduced me, sire!
I've seen my father slain, our walls enwrapt
In flames, and all our family cut off,
My husband's bloody corpse dragged through the dust,
His only son reserved for chains with me.
For his sake I endure to live a slave.
Andromache
Cephissa Madam-
Andromache
Yea, more, this thought has sometimes brought relief,—
That fate has fixed my place of exile here;
The son of many kings beneath your sway
## p. 12036 (#74) ###########################################
12036
JEAN RACINE
Pyrrhus-
Is happier as a slave than he could be
Elsewhere, and I had hoped his prison walls
Might be a place of refuge. Priam found
Achilles could respect his fallen state:
I thought his son more generous still. That trust,
My Hector, pardon, when I deemed thy foe
Too noble to commit a dastard's crime!
Ah, had he but allowed us to abide
Where for thine ashes I had raised a tomb,
And ending there his hatred and our woes,
Parted us not from thy beloved remains!
Go and await me, Phoenix. -
Madam, stay.
Your tears may yet win back this cherished son.
Yes, I regret that, moving you to weep,
I armed you with a weapon 'gainst myself;
I thought I could have brought more hatred here.
You might at least consent to look at me:
See, are my eyes those of an angry judge,
Whose pleasure 'tis to cause you misery?
Why force me to be faithless to yourself?
Now for your son's sake let us cease to hate.
'Tis I who urge you, Save the child from death.
Must sighs of mine beg you to spare his life?
And must I clasp your knees to plead for him?
Once more, but once,- Save him and save yourself.
I know what solemn vows for you I break,
What hatred I bring down upon myself.
Hermione shall go, and on her brow
For crown I set a burning brand of shame;
And in the fane decked for her marriage rites
Her royal diadem yourself shall wear.
This offer, lady, is no longer one
You can afford to scorn. Perish or reign!
A year's contempt has made me desperate,
Nor can I any longer live in doubt,
Harassed by fears and mingling threats with groans.
To lose you is to die,-'tis death to wait.
I leave you to consider, and will come
To bring you to the temple where this child
My fury shall destroy before your eyes,
Or where in love I crown you as my queen.
## p. 12037 (#75) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12037
Enone-
Scene: The palace at Træzen, in the Peloponnesus. Present: Phædra,
Hippolytus, Enone.
There I see him!
PHEDRA My blood forgets to flow, my tongue to speak
What I am come to say.
Phædra-
THE CONFESSION OF PHÆDRA
From Phèdre›
Hippolytus-
Phædra-
―――――――
Think of your son,
How all his hopes depend on you.
I hear
You leave us and in haste. I come to add
My tears to your distress, and for a son
Plead my alarm. No more has he a father,
And at no distant day my son must witness
My death. Already do a thousand foes
Threaten his youth. You only can defend him.
But in my secret heart remorse awakes,
And fear lest I have shut your ears against
His cries. I tremble lest your righteous anger
Visit on him ere long the hatred earned
By me, his mother.
Madam, is mine.
No such base resentment,
I could not blame you, prince,
If you should hate me. I have injured you:
So much you know, but could not read my heart.
T' incur your enmity has been mine aim:
The selfsame borders could not hold us both;
In public and in private I declared
Myself your foe, and found no peace till seas
Parted us from each other. I forbade
Your very name to be pronounced before me.
And yet if punishment should be proportioned
To the offense, if only hatred draws
Your hatred, never woman merited
More pity, less deserved your enmity.
Hippolytus-A mother jealous of her children's rights.
Seldom forgives the offspring of a wife
Who reigned before her. Harassing suspicions
Are common sequels of a second marriage.
Of me would any other have been jealous
No less than you, perhaps more violent.
## p. 12038 (#76) ###########################################
12038
JEAN RACINE
Ah, prince, how Heaven has from the general law
Made me exempt, be that same Heaven witness!
Far different is the trouble that devours me!
Hippolytus-This is no time for self-reproaches, madam.
It may be that your husband still beholds
The light, and Heaven may grant him safe return,
In answer to our prayers. His guardian god
Is Neptune, ne'er by him invoked in vain.
He who has seen the mansions of the dead
Returns not thence. Since to those gloomy shores
Theseus is gone, 'tis vain to hope that Heaven
May send him back. Prince, there is no release
From Acheron's greedy maw. And yet, methinks,
He lives and breathes in you. I see him still
Before me, and to him I seem to speak;
My heart-
Phædra-
Phadra
Hippolytus-
Phædra-
—
Oh, I am mad! Do what I will,
I cannot hide my passion.
Yes, I see
The strange effects of love. Theseus, though dead,
Seems present to your eyes, for in your soul
There burns a constant flame.
Ah, yes, for Theseus
I languish and I long; not as the Shades
Have seen him, of a thousand different forms
The fickle lover, and of Pluto's bride
The would-be ravisher, but faithful, proud
E'en to a slight disdain, with youthful charms
Attracting every heart, as gods are painted,
Or like yourself. He had your mien, your eyes,
Spoke and could blush like you, when to the isle
Of Crete, my childhood's home, he crossed the waves,
Worthy to win the love of Minos's daughters.
What were you doing then? Why did he gather
The flower of Greece, and leave Hippolytus?
Oh, why were you too young to have embarked
On board the ship that brought thy sire to Crete?
At your hands would the monster then have perished,
Despite the windings of his vast retreat.
To guide your doubtful steps within the maze
My sister would have armed you with the clue.
But no, therein would Phædra have forestalled her.
Love would have first inspired me with the thought
And I it would have been whose timely aid
## p. 12039 (#77) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12039
Had taught you all the labyrinth's crooked ways.
What anxious care a life so dear had cost me!
No thread had satisfied your lover's fears:
I would myself have wished to lead the way,
And share the peril you were bound to face;
Phædra with you would have explored the maze,
With you emerged in safety or have perished.
Hippolytus-Gods! What is this I hear? Have you forgotten
That Theseus is my father and your husband?
Why should you fancy I have lost remembrance
Thereof, and am regardless of mine honor?
Hippolytus - Forgive me, madam. With a blush I own
That I misconstrued words of innocence.
For very shame I cannot bear your sight
Longer. I go-
Phædra-
Phædra-
Ah! cruel prince, too well
You understood me. I have said enough
To save you from mistake. I love. But think not
That at the moment when I love you most
I do not feel my guilt; no weak compliance
Has fed the poison that infects my brain.
The ill-starred object of celestial vengeance,
I am not so detestable to you
As to myself. The gods will bear me witness,
Who have within my veins kindled this fire;
The gods, who take a barbarous delight
In leading a poor mortal's heart astray.
Do you yourself recall to mind the past:
'Twas not enough for me to fly,—I chased you
Out of the country, wishing to appear
Inhuman, odious; to resist you better,
I sought to make you hate me. All in vain!
Hating me more, I loved you none the less:
New charms were lent to you by your misfortunes.
I have been drowned in tears, and scorched by fire;
Your own eyes might convince you of the truth,
If for one moment you could look at me.
What is't I say? Think you this vile confession
That I have made is what I meant to utter?
Not daring to betray a son for whom
I trembled, 'twas to beg you not to hate him
I came. Weak purpose of a heart too full
Of love for you to speak of aught besides!
Take your revenge, punish my odious passion;
## p. 12040 (#78) ###########################################
12040
JEAN RACINE
Enone-
Theramenes
Prove yourself worthy of your valiant sire,
And rid the world of an offensive monster!
Does Theseus's widow dare to love his son?
The frightful monster! Let her not escape you!
Here is my heart. This is the place to strike.
Already prompt to expiate its guilt,
I feel it leap impatiently to meet
Your arin. Strike home. Or if it would disgrace you
To steep your hand in such polluted blood,
If that were punishment too mild to slake
Your hatred, lend me then your sword, if not
Your arm. Quick, give 't.
What, madam, will you do?
Just gods! But some one comes. Go, fly from shame;
You cannot 'scape if seen by any thus.
Enter Theramenes
-
Is that the form of Phædra that I see
Hurried away? What mean these signs of sorrow?
Where is your sword? Why are you pale, confused?
Hippolytus-Friend, let us fly. I am, indeed, confounded
With horror and astonishment extreme.
Phædra- but no; gods, let this dreadful secret
Remain forever buried in oblivion.
Translation of R. B. Boswell.
## p. 12041 (#79) ###########################################
12041
ALFRED RAMBAUD
(1842-)
lfred RambauD, like many of his predecessors at the head of
the Board of Education in France, taught in the ranks be-
fore he rose to be Grand Master of the University. He was
born in 1842 at Besançon, in the province of Franche-Comté, whose
children are supposed to be peculiarly hot-headed and tenacious of
opinion. But M. Rambaud is no fanatic: he is liberal and concilia-
tory, with an ardent desire for the education of the masses. He is a
disciple of Jules Ferry, who first called him to a leading position in
the direction of public affairs, as private secretary and chef de cabinet
at the ministry of Public Affairs in 1879. After three years at the
École Normale, M. Rambaud was successively professor of history at
Caen and at Nancy. On quitting the ministry he returned to his
duties as professor, and was appointed to the Faculty of Letters in
Paris.
His works are educational and historical. His favorite occupation
is looking over and preparing the great work he has undertaken in
collaboration with his friend and colleague, Ernest Lavisse, the his-
torian dear to French youth; namely, the General History from the
Fourth Century to Our Day. ' The first number of this serial history
appeared in 1892. It is carefully done, clear, and in a widely liberal,
philosophical spirit. M. Rambaud contributes the portion on Russia.
He is an authority on all things Russian, knowing the language and
having traveled in the country.
His speeches form an important part of his "literary luggage,» as
the French say. He speaks well, but not in the florid, ornamental
style common in France. He is journalier ("touch-and-go"), and
must warm to his subject before mastering it. No one knows what
will warm him; the man himself probably less than any one. But
once warmed, his voice never falters in its soft, far-reaching wave of
sound. His gestures are slow and propitiatory; he turns his head
slyly from left to right, and sees very well with those small, dark,
sharp yet merry eyes of his, that are surmounted, not shaded, by the
thin regular arch of eyebrows, like notes of interrogation on his high
narrow forehead. He has a great deal of dry humor, both as speaker
and writer, and doubtless often laughs to himself at his opponents
as he sits comfortably on the ministerial bench of the Chamber of
## p. 12042 (#80) ###########################################
12042
ALFRED RAMBAUD
Deputies. The present looks small to a man who studies the past.
Like most of his countrymen, he mingles the politics of the day with
speeches on literary, artistic, or educational subjects, and spangles
them with quotations from the classics and similes boldly drawn from
practical illustrations. One day at the Franco-English Guild, at a
meeting presided over by the British minister, M. Rambaud in a little
improvisation on the two countries, "who never," said he, "need be
enemies, though their differences were so great," compared them to
"twin piston-rods, impelling with equal beat the onward march of
liberty, order, and peace. " Elsewhere he calls them "the Siamese
twins of political economy. "
M. Rambaud is a linguist, a colonialist, and a Russophil,— uniting
the three fads of the French of to-day. He wrote a preface and
notes to a translation of Seely's 'Expansion of England'; contributed
to a geographical work, La France Coloniale,' and to the articles
on Russia in the General History of Europe'; and has written two
books on Russia, - 'La Russie Épique,' a translation of popular and
heroic song, and a 'History of Russia. ' This last won a prize at the
French Academy. It clear and concise. Every sentence contains
a fact. The description of Nicholas I. (Chapter xxxvi. , page 638) is
striking:"He was a living incarnation of despotism. His giant
stature, his stately manner, his mystic pride in his imperial office, his
unwearied attention to business in its smallest details, his iron will,
his love of military grandeur, uniform, and display, all tended to
strike awe.
When his power was shattered, a nation rose full grown
from its ruins.
" The work closes with the following words: - "With
the government of Russia, France has often been in conflict; with her
people, since she has become a nation, France sympathizes and is at
one. »
The most important of his educational works is the 'History of
Civilization in France' from the earliest times to the French Revolu-
tion, with a concluding chapter on general events up to our day.
This chapter has been developed into a volume of seven hundred
and fifty closely packed pages, The History of Contemporary Civ-
ilization in France': an interesting, amusing summing-up of the
progress made since 1789 in all branches of human knowledge. It
contains a declaration of principle, and a theory of the duty of a
citizen. Extracts are given illustrating these points.
M. Rambaud has further written a History of the Greek Empire
in the Tenth Century'; a 'History of the French Revolution, 1789–
1799'; a novel for the young-a story of ancient Gaul, 'L'Anneau de
César'; and 'French Rule in Germany,' in two volumes, - the first
entitled 'The French on the Rhine, 1792-1804,' and the second 'Ger-
many under Napoleon, 1804-1811. ' These last-named volumes are
## p. 12043 (#81) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12043
written to refute the accusation of cruelty, tyranny, and perfidy,
made by recent German historians against France. The extracts
given further on show the line of argument.
The General History' has reached Vol. x. , No. 109,- 'The Con-
gress of Verona,' 1822. Chapter vi. of Vol. viii. , entirely from the pen
of M. Rambaud, treats of Russia, Poland, and the East. The late
Greco-Turkish conflict gives interest to the section on Catharine II. 's
attempt at founding a Russo-Greek empire, a passage from which is
given.
M. Rambaud gives his facts in general with little comment, wast-
ing few words in explanation or ornament. The broad lines that
show the important events are straight and clear, without twirl or
flourish. Impartial, philosophical, and at times anecdotal, his style
differs entirely from the French writers we are accustomed to: unlike
Michelet, who was a poet rather than a historian, unlike Thiers, who
was a politician and wrote his books in his leisure hours, this
scholar of a new school loves the quiet of his study better than the
noise of the forum, the depths of historical research better than the
shallow stream of popular favor. Yet he must speak, because speech
in France is the great organ of education. No man who has not
lived in France can understand the power of spoken words over
Frenchmen, whether in private or public life.
His first speech was delivered at Besançon in 1880, where he repre-
sented the minister, Jules Ferry, at the unveiling of a statue of Victor
Hugo. His latest was at the palace of the Trocadero in June last
(1897), where he told his fellow-citizens that peoples who would be
free must depend on individual effort rather than on government
support. Jules Ferry often said the same thing; indeed, M. Ram-
baud never fails to recall with rare and dignified gratitude, on every
occasion, what he owes to his patron: an uncommon thing in these
forgetful, hurried times, and a bold thing some years ago in France,
where the mention of Jules Ferry's name at a public meeting was
shaking a red rag at a bull.
M. Rambaud does speak much and often: he is a minister, and
his duties are migratory. He flits from place to place, presiding, dis-
coursing, distributing rewards, and giving good advice. Indeed, the
Liberal Republicans are everywhere setting the sound good sense of
their teaching against the eloquently worded promises of the reaction-
ary socialist party, who, like all attacking bodies, are very active.
Of late M. Rambaud has become a protectionist; imitating Jules Ferry,
who did so to please his electors in the east of France. The flame
of his eloquence burns low and long; it lights the way without daz-
zling, it guides without exciting.
## p. 12044 (#82) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12044
HALTING STEPS TOWARD DEMOCRACY
From the 'History of Civilization in France>
N
APOLEON, as First Consul and Emperor, modeled his court on
that of former kings, and endeavored to give good man-
ners to his officers and their wives, and to attract the
members of the old noblesse; saying, "They alone know how to
serve. " The revolution of 1848 gave back to the popular classes
their rights and power; but the impatience of the workmen and
the apathy of the peasants let a new Cæsar rise, who treated.
democracy and universal suffrage as children. To-day they are
full-grown men. Among the nations of Europe, France stands
alone as being the sole important State at once democratic, re-
publican, and with universal suffrage.
FRENCH GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIMENTS
From the History of Contemporary Civilization in France>
C
ONTEMPORARY history should not be separated from politics;
nor can politics be, as some seem to think, a matter of
opinion, of prejudice, passion, or excitement. When well
understood they are a science, and even belong to experimental
science; and as such, are of course still uncertain, hypothetical in
conclusions: but must tend, if judged in a truly scientific spirit,
to laws as sure as those of physics, chemistry, or natural history.
. In politics, the heat of passion is always in inverse ratio
to a man's scientific education. Ignorant people are always vio-
lent.
•
In my study of the different forms of government we have
tried, it will be seen that I have denied the merits of none:
neither the generous, humane ideas of the Constituent, nor the
patriotic energy of the Convention, nor the administrative genius.
of Napoleon I. , nor the parliamentary honesty of the two consti-
tutional monarchies, nor the ardent spirit of social justice which
animated the Second Republic [1848], nor the great material
progress accomplished under the Second Empire. At the same
time, these studies show that none of these forms of government
realized the ideal of liberty, equality, and public order, which
every party worthy of the name should have in view.
## p. 12045 (#83) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12045
French royalty had not been strong enough to realize equality:
it was too strong to permit liberty. Timid with regard to the
historical rights of clergy and nobility, it had been tyrannical
towards its people.
.
The population of France was divided into three estates: the
clergy, nobility, and Third Estate. It formed three distinct classes,
each having its own laws. The clergy alone numbered 130,000
priests; the nobility 140,000 persons; the Third Estate twenty-
five million.
The great revolution is not an accident in our history. It
was prepared and brought on by the preceding eight centuries.
Its results may be described in three words,- Unity, Equality,
Liberty. *
*The last paragraph is from the main work, History of Civilization in
France.
RUSSIAN EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH
From the General History>
THE GREEK PROJECT OF CATHARINE II.
SHE
HE intended, if successful in driving out the Turks, to create
a Greek empire under a Russian Grand-Duke independent
of Russia. She gave a Greek name, Constantine, a Greek
nurse and playmates, to her grandson born in 1779; and invited
the Emperor to visit her in South Russia and settle the European
Turkish question. Her progress through New Russia in 1787
was a triumphal march, where all was not show; for the coloni-
zation of New Russia, lately a desert exposed to the incursions
of Cossacks and Tartars (now peopled with six million human
beings), was commenced. On Catharine's return to her capi-
tal, war was declared (1787). Neither party was well prepared.
French and Prussian officers drilled the Ottoman recruits.
POLAND AND KOSCIUSZKO
POLA
OLAND was waking up from its intestine quarrels. The Jesuits
were dismissed by a bull of Clement XIV. This was no
misfortune: they had taught the Poles intolerance and the
exterior forms of religion; moreover, they had taught Latin to
the exclusion of Polish. On their disappearance there was a
## p. 12046 (#84) ###########################################
12046
ALFRED RAMBAUD
national awakening; at least in the hearts of the middle classes,
who were educated better than the nobles, less apart from Euro-
pean civilization, already imbued with French ideas, and who
were deeply saddened by the misfortunes of their country, which
they compared to the wonderful success of the French Revolu-
tion against the allied kings. Some nobles were animated with
the same sentiments.
Such was Thadeus Kosciuszko. Born in 1757, in the district
of Novogrodek (Lithuania), he had entered in 1764 the cadet
school founded by Czartoryski. This son of a country gentleman
received, one after another, two cruel lessons of social equality:
his father was assassinated by some exasperated peasants; while
he himself, having fallen in love with the daughter of a noble-
man of high rank, found himself scornfully refused.
In America, where Washington appointed him colonel, and
where he distinguished himself at Saratoga, Kosciuszko learned
what real liberty was, and completed the knowledge he had first
sought in our philosophers. During the last war, he was the
only Polish general who had been victorious. After the second
partition of Poland he became a Russian subject, but refused to
serve in the Russian army. He passed into Saxony, and thence
to Paris on a mission. Already the Legislative Assembly had
named him a French citizen.
BENEFITS TO GERMANY FROM FRENCH INVASIONS
From Germany under Napoleon, 1804-1811)
THE
HE Germans complain of the harm we have done them in the
wars, almost always defensive, which our kings carried on
against the ambition of Austria. Who could calculate the
harm done to us by their princes, when in 1791 they turned
France from her task of reorganization; when they stirred up
hatred between our working classes and our nobility, between
the Assembly and Royalty; when they caused the Revolution to
end in the Terror? Afterwards, even if the Emperor, the King
of Prussia, and the Ecclesiastic Electors did declare war, the
people called and welcomed us. After a glorious defensive war,
we were able to wage the most humane, the most beneficial of
propagating wars.
Even under Napoleon I. , French
## p. 12047 (#85) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12047
intervention in Germany was essentially different from German
invasion of France: the former brought with it the elements of
progress. Thus it may be said that in all times, and under
every form of government, we have done more good than harm
to the Germans; and a Prussian empire, founded on a so-called
right of revenge of Germany against us, is based on injustice and
falsehood.
It is strange that Germany should accept from Prussia, along
with new laws, its opinions ready-made.
What magic
spell has its new masters used to make Germany forget history?
Before the Revolution there was no trace of hatred
between France and Germany; and that is why the wars of
the Revolution were none of them a war of races. All western
Germany accepted French influence willingly. Our language was
written and spoken there, our literary traditions and our fashions
were followed with even too much docility. Frenchmen were
enticed to dwell there; but not always chosen with sufficient dis-
cernment, so that adventurers by whom the Germans were duped
gave a sorry idea of our nation. On the other hand, the feeling
of hostility against England dates very far back. It is that
nation which, from the first, made us understand what a foreigner
was, and by trampling on France revealed her to herself.
Large German States owe their prosperity to French polit-
ical and religious refugees. Nor was the influx less from Ger-
many into France. Princes came as pilgrims to the shrine of
Versailles to admire and worship the kingliest King; to Paris,
where they found the greatest number of men of genius and of
sharpers, the wittiest ladies, and the lightest women. There
came those who wished to serve in the army; like Maurice
of Saxe, the victor of Fontenoy, and the Count of Löwendal,
the victor of Berg-op-Zoom. The Rhenish provinces were but a
continuation of France beyond the frontier; their sons fought
under French colors: war and hate were not between the peo-
ples, they were the business of the governments. Men were cos-
mopolitan, citizens of the world, rather than French, German, or
Prussian.
The Revolution of 1803 in Germany was relatively as radi-
cal as the French Revolution. The German people looked on it
with indifference, neither rejoicing nor grieving at the fall of
its past; because there was a great difference between the two
revolutions. The sacrifices exacted from the privileged classes
## p. 12048 (#86) ###########################################
12048
ALFRED RAMBAUD
of France had served to found the unity of a great people, had
brought liberty into the State and equality among the citizens.
In Germany no such advantages had been obtained. The French
had despoiled themselves for the grandeur of their country; in
Germany for some great or petty sovereign, often more a prince-
ling than a prince.
It was not as an enemy but as an Emperor that Napoleon
was received. Princes and people crowded to see the small lank-
haired man, so unlike the legendary Charlemagne, whose sallow
complexion, sinister unfathomable glance, and Roman features,
reminded them of the pagan Cæsar who had first crossed the
mighty river.
CIVIL LIFE IN FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
From the History of French Civilization>
F JUSTICE was cruel, the police of Paris were feeble. The mul-
tiplicity of jurisdictions among which Paris was divided, and
the right of sanctuary allowed to nearly all the churches and
abbeys, permitted criminals to elude pursuit.
Paris, although Philip Augustus had paved some streets and
filled up the filthy holes which infected his palace, was still hor-
ribly dirty.
The narrow streets, with the houses overhanging in success-
ive corbelings so that the upper stories touched, were incumbered.
with stalls, sign-boards, and goods exposed for sale. Swine,
geese, and cattle wandered through them. There the butchers
slaughtered their beasts at night; there was no light except that
of the moon when it shone. The police were not responsible for
anything after sunset. When once the curfew had rung, the
honest bourgeois went to his home and shut himself in securely.
The watch-that is, the prevost's archers — were too few to
control the dangerous classes. To thrash the watch was a stu-
dent's sport: naturally, ill-doers feared it little.
Sometimes a watchman like Gautier Rallard found an in-
genious means of never entering into a fight with the robbers:
he made his rounds preceded by music. The night watchman
who went through the streets in a coat embellished with tears
and death's-heads, -armed with a lantern and a bell, announcing
## p. 12049 (#87) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12049
the hours, and calling the sleepers to "pray for the dead,”—
scarcely interfered with the cutpurses and the pillagers of shops.
The robbers, assassins, beggars, vagabonds, were organized in
corporations just like the honest folk. They had their regular
chiefs, their rules of apprenticeship, their trials for the mastery,
their places of reunion. In Paris they formed a State apart,—
the Kingdom of Argot,-where was spoken the "langue vert,"
and across the boundaries of which the archers of the watch
did not venture. Their elected chief was the great Coësre or
King of Thune, who was drawn in a cart by dogs. He held his
court - his Court of Miracles—sometimes in the cul-de-sac Saint
Sauveur, sometimes in the rue des Frams-Bourgeois, or near
the Convent of the Filles-Dieu, or in the streets of Grande and
Petite Truanderie. He had in each province, like the king, his
bailiff,-called the cagou. Sometimes he summoned a sort of
States-General in the Pré aux Gueux (Beggars' Field) near Notre
Dame d'Auray. His immense people, including all the beggars,
blacklegs, and vagabonds of France, were divided into numerous
classes. All paid a tribute to the King of Thune, and rendered
him homage.
Another powerful monarch was the King of Egypt, sovereign
of the Gipsies. In 1427 the advance guard of these mysterious
Asiatics had appeared in Paris; a duke, a count, ten knights,
followed by a hundred men, women, and children. These people,
known as Bohemians, Saracens, Egyptians, Tsiganes, were soon
swarming on the roads and at the gates of the towns, as show-
men of bears and apes, as tinkers, counterfeiters, fortune-tellers,
From these swarming crowds the army of crime was recruited.
From time to time justice cast in her net, and exposed her capt-
ure in the pillory of the Halles or on the gibbet of Montfauçon;
but the mass was not thereby diminished. If the prevost hung
some scamp in broad day, the King of Thune in turn hung in
broad night some rash bourgeois or too inquisitive sergeant.
As in India there were pariahs, despised even by the slave,
and whose contact was pollution, so in France there were outcast
races. These were called marrons in Auvergne; cagots or cagoux
in the Pyrenees; gaffots, caffots, capots, in Béarn and Navarre;
cagueux, cacuas, cacoux, in Bretagne; gahets, gaffets, in Guyenne.
Whence came they, and who were they? Were they, as was said,
descendants of the Mussulmans left in France by Abderrahman,
or of the Spaniards who were driven from their homes by the
XXI-754
## p. 12050 (#88) ###########################################
12050
ALFRED RAMBAUD
Arabs, or of converted heretics, or of ancient lepers? No one
knew, not even those who persecuted them. The only sure thing
is, that they were treated like veritable lepers, forbidden to fre-
quent churches, taverns, public festivals; forced in Bretagne and
Béarn to wear a red costume, and not permitted to go barefoot
on the roads or to carry arms. Marriage or any contact with
them was refused. They lived in isolated villages hidden in the
country, or in obscure valleys; intermarrying, hated by all and
hating all the world.
Although ancient slavery had disappeared from our soil
through transformation into serfdom, there was a tendency to
reconstitute it in Europe at the expense of the infidels taken in
war. The Italian republics trafficked in their captives. In the
twelfth century they were sold at fairs in Champagne, and Sara-
cen slaves were bequeathed in a will to the bishop of Béziers.
In the thirteenth century, slaves were traded in Provence. The
new slavery was then in force in Roussillon,-which was not
French territory,- but royal France spurned it. Then was estab-
lished the maxim by virtue of which every slave who touched
French soil became free. In 1402 and in 1406 the municipality
of Toulouse applied this to the profit of fugitive slaves from
Perpignan.
In the Middle Ages, the duty of charity toward the poor was
generally discharged. The pouch full of money which hung at
the belts of nobles and bourgeois, men and women, was called
an alms-purse; a chaplain was an almoner. Kings, nobles, and
ladies were often surrounded, as they walked, by the poor whom
they maintained. King Robert allowed them to enter so freely
into his palace, to go under his table, to sit on the floor beside
him, almost between his legs, that on a certain day one of them
cut a gold acorn from his clothing. Not only did alms-givers
aid the poor with money, food, and clothing; but seeing in them
the image of suffering Christ, they gloried in sometimes serving
them at table, and in washing their feet upon Holy Thursday.
The religious orders, founded for the relief of the poor, con-
secrated to them at least a part of their revenues. In certain
convents there were cells reserved for the poor; in nearly all,
distributions of soup and bread were made at the door of the
monastery.
Nevertheless, this charity of the Middle Ages was unintelligent
enough. The kings would have done better to aid their people
1
## p. 12051 (#89) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12051
instead of surrounding themselves with a few tatterdemalions;
the monasteries, while distributing their charity, became by seiz-
ing upon the land a cause of impoverishment for a vast radius.
around them. They relieved a few poor people; but these were
infinitely less to be pitied than thousands of peasants crushed
under feudal laws, the ecclesiastical tenth, or the laws of the
royal treasury. The problem of how to aid the poor without
increasing pauperism and without offering a reward to idleness,
so difficult even to modern France, was not one which the Mid-
dle Ages could solve. Moreover, the French of the thirteenth
century, thoroughly imbued with religious ideas, were charitable
not from philanthropy, but from piety; to secure salvation. The
"virtuous poor," with knees worn callous by many prostrations,
with mouth's full of prayers, well trained and indoctrinated by
the Church, always present on the skirts of the sanctuary, always
ready to reap the benefit of a pious thought, were very conven-
ient to whoever wished to acquit himself of the Christian duty
of charity. Poverty was too wide-spread to be possibly dimin-
ished; at least one did what one was called upon to do, leaving
the rest to God.
The sick formed a more limited category of the distressed,
and charity toward them was more efficacious. From the Mero-
vingian epoch, St. Clotilde and St. Aboflède, the wife and sister
of Clovis; St. Radegonde, the wife of Clotaire; St. Bathilde, the
wife of Clovis II. ,- are cited as founders of hospitals. The
hospitals were usually annexed to a monastery, as was that of
Bathilde to the royal abbey of Chelles. At the time of the Cru-
sades, the valiant Knights of St. John prided themselves above
all upon being Hospitallers. The diffusion of leprosy in the
twelfth century brought about the creation of special hospitals
- leper-houses. In the thirteenth century there were nearly two
thousand of these in France. They were usually managed by
Knights of St. Lazarus, another military order. Louis VII. estab-
lished them at the end of the Faubourg St. Denis; their mother-
house was the domain of Boigny. He also created at Saussaie
near Villejuif a convent of women to care for lepers. The kings
made large benefactions to these houses: when they died, their
personal linen and all their horses, mules, etc. , belonged to the
leper-house of La Saussaie. When Jean II. died in England, so
that the house was deprived of his horses, his son paid it an
indemnity. Later, Charles VI. bought back from this convent for
## p. 12052 (#90) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12052
twenty-five hundred francs the horses of his father Charles V.
The knights showed themselves deserving of these favors by
caring not only for the lepers, but for all kinds of invalids.
Was here?
Is lost!
Andromache-
Will follow.
I thought so.
--
Hermione is gone, and we
Is certain.
Now you see what power
What says she?
Has he not promised them my child?
Given him up.
Speak! Why obstinately dumb?
All
But not
Vain are my tears,- his death
How her pride disdains to look
My way!
I should but irritate him more.
Let us retire.
Yielded to Greece.
Come, Hector's son shall be
## p. 12035 (#73) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12035
Andromache [throwing herself at his feet) —
Stop, sire.
What will you do?
Give up the son? Why not the mother, then?
Where is the kindness that you swore to me
So lately? Can I touch no chord at least
Of pity? Does this sentence bar all hope
Of pardon?
Phoenix knows my word is pledged.
Pyrrhus-
Andromache-
-
Pyrrhus-
Andromache
Pyrrhus-
――――――
No dangers were too great for you to brave
On my behalf!
Blind then, I now can see.
Your wishes might have won his pardon once;
You ne'er so much as asked it. Now you come
Too late.
Full well you understood, my lord,
The sigh that feared repulse. Forgive the trace
Of pride, that died not with my royal rank,
And made me shrink from importunity.
My lord, you know, had it not been for you,
Andromache would never have embraced
A master's knees.
No, in your secret soul
You hate me, scorn to owe me anything.
This son, the only object of your care, —
You would have loved him less, had he been saved
Through me. You hate me with a bitter scorn,
And worse than all the other Greeks combined.
Enjoy at leisure such a noble rage.
Come, Phoenix.
I will go where Hector's gone.
What further can I say to him?
The author of my woes, he knows them all.
[To Pyrrhus]-
See to what state you have reduced me, sire!
I've seen my father slain, our walls enwrapt
In flames, and all our family cut off,
My husband's bloody corpse dragged through the dust,
His only son reserved for chains with me.
For his sake I endure to live a slave.
Andromache
Cephissa Madam-
Andromache
Yea, more, this thought has sometimes brought relief,—
That fate has fixed my place of exile here;
The son of many kings beneath your sway
## p. 12036 (#74) ###########################################
12036
JEAN RACINE
Pyrrhus-
Is happier as a slave than he could be
Elsewhere, and I had hoped his prison walls
Might be a place of refuge. Priam found
Achilles could respect his fallen state:
I thought his son more generous still. That trust,
My Hector, pardon, when I deemed thy foe
Too noble to commit a dastard's crime!
Ah, had he but allowed us to abide
Where for thine ashes I had raised a tomb,
And ending there his hatred and our woes,
Parted us not from thy beloved remains!
Go and await me, Phoenix. -
Madam, stay.
Your tears may yet win back this cherished son.
Yes, I regret that, moving you to weep,
I armed you with a weapon 'gainst myself;
I thought I could have brought more hatred here.
You might at least consent to look at me:
See, are my eyes those of an angry judge,
Whose pleasure 'tis to cause you misery?
Why force me to be faithless to yourself?
Now for your son's sake let us cease to hate.
'Tis I who urge you, Save the child from death.
Must sighs of mine beg you to spare his life?
And must I clasp your knees to plead for him?
Once more, but once,- Save him and save yourself.
I know what solemn vows for you I break,
What hatred I bring down upon myself.
Hermione shall go, and on her brow
For crown I set a burning brand of shame;
And in the fane decked for her marriage rites
Her royal diadem yourself shall wear.
This offer, lady, is no longer one
You can afford to scorn. Perish or reign!
A year's contempt has made me desperate,
Nor can I any longer live in doubt,
Harassed by fears and mingling threats with groans.
To lose you is to die,-'tis death to wait.
I leave you to consider, and will come
To bring you to the temple where this child
My fury shall destroy before your eyes,
Or where in love I crown you as my queen.
## p. 12037 (#75) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12037
Enone-
Scene: The palace at Træzen, in the Peloponnesus. Present: Phædra,
Hippolytus, Enone.
There I see him!
PHEDRA My blood forgets to flow, my tongue to speak
What I am come to say.
Phædra-
THE CONFESSION OF PHÆDRA
From Phèdre›
Hippolytus-
Phædra-
―――――――
Think of your son,
How all his hopes depend on you.
I hear
You leave us and in haste. I come to add
My tears to your distress, and for a son
Plead my alarm. No more has he a father,
And at no distant day my son must witness
My death. Already do a thousand foes
Threaten his youth. You only can defend him.
But in my secret heart remorse awakes,
And fear lest I have shut your ears against
His cries. I tremble lest your righteous anger
Visit on him ere long the hatred earned
By me, his mother.
Madam, is mine.
No such base resentment,
I could not blame you, prince,
If you should hate me. I have injured you:
So much you know, but could not read my heart.
T' incur your enmity has been mine aim:
The selfsame borders could not hold us both;
In public and in private I declared
Myself your foe, and found no peace till seas
Parted us from each other. I forbade
Your very name to be pronounced before me.
And yet if punishment should be proportioned
To the offense, if only hatred draws
Your hatred, never woman merited
More pity, less deserved your enmity.
Hippolytus-A mother jealous of her children's rights.
Seldom forgives the offspring of a wife
Who reigned before her. Harassing suspicions
Are common sequels of a second marriage.
Of me would any other have been jealous
No less than you, perhaps more violent.
## p. 12038 (#76) ###########################################
12038
JEAN RACINE
Ah, prince, how Heaven has from the general law
Made me exempt, be that same Heaven witness!
Far different is the trouble that devours me!
Hippolytus-This is no time for self-reproaches, madam.
It may be that your husband still beholds
The light, and Heaven may grant him safe return,
In answer to our prayers. His guardian god
Is Neptune, ne'er by him invoked in vain.
He who has seen the mansions of the dead
Returns not thence. Since to those gloomy shores
Theseus is gone, 'tis vain to hope that Heaven
May send him back. Prince, there is no release
From Acheron's greedy maw. And yet, methinks,
He lives and breathes in you. I see him still
Before me, and to him I seem to speak;
My heart-
Phædra-
Phadra
Hippolytus-
Phædra-
—
Oh, I am mad! Do what I will,
I cannot hide my passion.
Yes, I see
The strange effects of love. Theseus, though dead,
Seems present to your eyes, for in your soul
There burns a constant flame.
Ah, yes, for Theseus
I languish and I long; not as the Shades
Have seen him, of a thousand different forms
The fickle lover, and of Pluto's bride
The would-be ravisher, but faithful, proud
E'en to a slight disdain, with youthful charms
Attracting every heart, as gods are painted,
Or like yourself. He had your mien, your eyes,
Spoke and could blush like you, when to the isle
Of Crete, my childhood's home, he crossed the waves,
Worthy to win the love of Minos's daughters.
What were you doing then? Why did he gather
The flower of Greece, and leave Hippolytus?
Oh, why were you too young to have embarked
On board the ship that brought thy sire to Crete?
At your hands would the monster then have perished,
Despite the windings of his vast retreat.
To guide your doubtful steps within the maze
My sister would have armed you with the clue.
But no, therein would Phædra have forestalled her.
Love would have first inspired me with the thought
And I it would have been whose timely aid
## p. 12039 (#77) ###########################################
JEAN RACINE
12039
Had taught you all the labyrinth's crooked ways.
What anxious care a life so dear had cost me!
No thread had satisfied your lover's fears:
I would myself have wished to lead the way,
And share the peril you were bound to face;
Phædra with you would have explored the maze,
With you emerged in safety or have perished.
Hippolytus-Gods! What is this I hear? Have you forgotten
That Theseus is my father and your husband?
Why should you fancy I have lost remembrance
Thereof, and am regardless of mine honor?
Hippolytus - Forgive me, madam. With a blush I own
That I misconstrued words of innocence.
For very shame I cannot bear your sight
Longer. I go-
Phædra-
Phædra-
Ah! cruel prince, too well
You understood me. I have said enough
To save you from mistake. I love. But think not
That at the moment when I love you most
I do not feel my guilt; no weak compliance
Has fed the poison that infects my brain.
The ill-starred object of celestial vengeance,
I am not so detestable to you
As to myself. The gods will bear me witness,
Who have within my veins kindled this fire;
The gods, who take a barbarous delight
In leading a poor mortal's heart astray.
Do you yourself recall to mind the past:
'Twas not enough for me to fly,—I chased you
Out of the country, wishing to appear
Inhuman, odious; to resist you better,
I sought to make you hate me. All in vain!
Hating me more, I loved you none the less:
New charms were lent to you by your misfortunes.
I have been drowned in tears, and scorched by fire;
Your own eyes might convince you of the truth,
If for one moment you could look at me.
What is't I say? Think you this vile confession
That I have made is what I meant to utter?
Not daring to betray a son for whom
I trembled, 'twas to beg you not to hate him
I came. Weak purpose of a heart too full
Of love for you to speak of aught besides!
Take your revenge, punish my odious passion;
## p. 12040 (#78) ###########################################
12040
JEAN RACINE
Enone-
Theramenes
Prove yourself worthy of your valiant sire,
And rid the world of an offensive monster!
Does Theseus's widow dare to love his son?
The frightful monster! Let her not escape you!
Here is my heart. This is the place to strike.
Already prompt to expiate its guilt,
I feel it leap impatiently to meet
Your arin. Strike home. Or if it would disgrace you
To steep your hand in such polluted blood,
If that were punishment too mild to slake
Your hatred, lend me then your sword, if not
Your arm. Quick, give 't.
What, madam, will you do?
Just gods! But some one comes. Go, fly from shame;
You cannot 'scape if seen by any thus.
Enter Theramenes
-
Is that the form of Phædra that I see
Hurried away? What mean these signs of sorrow?
Where is your sword? Why are you pale, confused?
Hippolytus-Friend, let us fly. I am, indeed, confounded
With horror and astonishment extreme.
Phædra- but no; gods, let this dreadful secret
Remain forever buried in oblivion.
Translation of R. B. Boswell.
## p. 12041 (#79) ###########################################
12041
ALFRED RAMBAUD
(1842-)
lfred RambauD, like many of his predecessors at the head of
the Board of Education in France, taught in the ranks be-
fore he rose to be Grand Master of the University. He was
born in 1842 at Besançon, in the province of Franche-Comté, whose
children are supposed to be peculiarly hot-headed and tenacious of
opinion. But M. Rambaud is no fanatic: he is liberal and concilia-
tory, with an ardent desire for the education of the masses. He is a
disciple of Jules Ferry, who first called him to a leading position in
the direction of public affairs, as private secretary and chef de cabinet
at the ministry of Public Affairs in 1879. After three years at the
École Normale, M. Rambaud was successively professor of history at
Caen and at Nancy. On quitting the ministry he returned to his
duties as professor, and was appointed to the Faculty of Letters in
Paris.
His works are educational and historical. His favorite occupation
is looking over and preparing the great work he has undertaken in
collaboration with his friend and colleague, Ernest Lavisse, the his-
torian dear to French youth; namely, the General History from the
Fourth Century to Our Day. ' The first number of this serial history
appeared in 1892. It is carefully done, clear, and in a widely liberal,
philosophical spirit. M. Rambaud contributes the portion on Russia.
He is an authority on all things Russian, knowing the language and
having traveled in the country.
His speeches form an important part of his "literary luggage,» as
the French say. He speaks well, but not in the florid, ornamental
style common in France. He is journalier ("touch-and-go"), and
must warm to his subject before mastering it. No one knows what
will warm him; the man himself probably less than any one. But
once warmed, his voice never falters in its soft, far-reaching wave of
sound. His gestures are slow and propitiatory; he turns his head
slyly from left to right, and sees very well with those small, dark,
sharp yet merry eyes of his, that are surmounted, not shaded, by the
thin regular arch of eyebrows, like notes of interrogation on his high
narrow forehead. He has a great deal of dry humor, both as speaker
and writer, and doubtless often laughs to himself at his opponents
as he sits comfortably on the ministerial bench of the Chamber of
## p. 12042 (#80) ###########################################
12042
ALFRED RAMBAUD
Deputies. The present looks small to a man who studies the past.
Like most of his countrymen, he mingles the politics of the day with
speeches on literary, artistic, or educational subjects, and spangles
them with quotations from the classics and similes boldly drawn from
practical illustrations. One day at the Franco-English Guild, at a
meeting presided over by the British minister, M. Rambaud in a little
improvisation on the two countries, "who never," said he, "need be
enemies, though their differences were so great," compared them to
"twin piston-rods, impelling with equal beat the onward march of
liberty, order, and peace. " Elsewhere he calls them "the Siamese
twins of political economy. "
M. Rambaud is a linguist, a colonialist, and a Russophil,— uniting
the three fads of the French of to-day. He wrote a preface and
notes to a translation of Seely's 'Expansion of England'; contributed
to a geographical work, La France Coloniale,' and to the articles
on Russia in the General History of Europe'; and has written two
books on Russia, - 'La Russie Épique,' a translation of popular and
heroic song, and a 'History of Russia. ' This last won a prize at the
French Academy. It clear and concise. Every sentence contains
a fact. The description of Nicholas I. (Chapter xxxvi. , page 638) is
striking:"He was a living incarnation of despotism. His giant
stature, his stately manner, his mystic pride in his imperial office, his
unwearied attention to business in its smallest details, his iron will,
his love of military grandeur, uniform, and display, all tended to
strike awe.
When his power was shattered, a nation rose full grown
from its ruins.
" The work closes with the following words: - "With
the government of Russia, France has often been in conflict; with her
people, since she has become a nation, France sympathizes and is at
one. »
The most important of his educational works is the 'History of
Civilization in France' from the earliest times to the French Revolu-
tion, with a concluding chapter on general events up to our day.
This chapter has been developed into a volume of seven hundred
and fifty closely packed pages, The History of Contemporary Civ-
ilization in France': an interesting, amusing summing-up of the
progress made since 1789 in all branches of human knowledge. It
contains a declaration of principle, and a theory of the duty of a
citizen. Extracts are given illustrating these points.
M. Rambaud has further written a History of the Greek Empire
in the Tenth Century'; a 'History of the French Revolution, 1789–
1799'; a novel for the young-a story of ancient Gaul, 'L'Anneau de
César'; and 'French Rule in Germany,' in two volumes, - the first
entitled 'The French on the Rhine, 1792-1804,' and the second 'Ger-
many under Napoleon, 1804-1811. ' These last-named volumes are
## p. 12043 (#81) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12043
written to refute the accusation of cruelty, tyranny, and perfidy,
made by recent German historians against France. The extracts
given further on show the line of argument.
The General History' has reached Vol. x. , No. 109,- 'The Con-
gress of Verona,' 1822. Chapter vi. of Vol. viii. , entirely from the pen
of M. Rambaud, treats of Russia, Poland, and the East. The late
Greco-Turkish conflict gives interest to the section on Catharine II. 's
attempt at founding a Russo-Greek empire, a passage from which is
given.
M. Rambaud gives his facts in general with little comment, wast-
ing few words in explanation or ornament. The broad lines that
show the important events are straight and clear, without twirl or
flourish. Impartial, philosophical, and at times anecdotal, his style
differs entirely from the French writers we are accustomed to: unlike
Michelet, who was a poet rather than a historian, unlike Thiers, who
was a politician and wrote his books in his leisure hours, this
scholar of a new school loves the quiet of his study better than the
noise of the forum, the depths of historical research better than the
shallow stream of popular favor. Yet he must speak, because speech
in France is the great organ of education. No man who has not
lived in France can understand the power of spoken words over
Frenchmen, whether in private or public life.
His first speech was delivered at Besançon in 1880, where he repre-
sented the minister, Jules Ferry, at the unveiling of a statue of Victor
Hugo. His latest was at the palace of the Trocadero in June last
(1897), where he told his fellow-citizens that peoples who would be
free must depend on individual effort rather than on government
support. Jules Ferry often said the same thing; indeed, M. Ram-
baud never fails to recall with rare and dignified gratitude, on every
occasion, what he owes to his patron: an uncommon thing in these
forgetful, hurried times, and a bold thing some years ago in France,
where the mention of Jules Ferry's name at a public meeting was
shaking a red rag at a bull.
M. Rambaud does speak much and often: he is a minister, and
his duties are migratory. He flits from place to place, presiding, dis-
coursing, distributing rewards, and giving good advice. Indeed, the
Liberal Republicans are everywhere setting the sound good sense of
their teaching against the eloquently worded promises of the reaction-
ary socialist party, who, like all attacking bodies, are very active.
Of late M. Rambaud has become a protectionist; imitating Jules Ferry,
who did so to please his electors in the east of France. The flame
of his eloquence burns low and long; it lights the way without daz-
zling, it guides without exciting.
## p. 12044 (#82) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12044
HALTING STEPS TOWARD DEMOCRACY
From the 'History of Civilization in France>
N
APOLEON, as First Consul and Emperor, modeled his court on
that of former kings, and endeavored to give good man-
ners to his officers and their wives, and to attract the
members of the old noblesse; saying, "They alone know how to
serve. " The revolution of 1848 gave back to the popular classes
their rights and power; but the impatience of the workmen and
the apathy of the peasants let a new Cæsar rise, who treated.
democracy and universal suffrage as children. To-day they are
full-grown men. Among the nations of Europe, France stands
alone as being the sole important State at once democratic, re-
publican, and with universal suffrage.
FRENCH GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIMENTS
From the History of Contemporary Civilization in France>
C
ONTEMPORARY history should not be separated from politics;
nor can politics be, as some seem to think, a matter of
opinion, of prejudice, passion, or excitement. When well
understood they are a science, and even belong to experimental
science; and as such, are of course still uncertain, hypothetical in
conclusions: but must tend, if judged in a truly scientific spirit,
to laws as sure as those of physics, chemistry, or natural history.
. In politics, the heat of passion is always in inverse ratio
to a man's scientific education. Ignorant people are always vio-
lent.
•
In my study of the different forms of government we have
tried, it will be seen that I have denied the merits of none:
neither the generous, humane ideas of the Constituent, nor the
patriotic energy of the Convention, nor the administrative genius.
of Napoleon I. , nor the parliamentary honesty of the two consti-
tutional monarchies, nor the ardent spirit of social justice which
animated the Second Republic [1848], nor the great material
progress accomplished under the Second Empire. At the same
time, these studies show that none of these forms of government
realized the ideal of liberty, equality, and public order, which
every party worthy of the name should have in view.
## p. 12045 (#83) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12045
French royalty had not been strong enough to realize equality:
it was too strong to permit liberty. Timid with regard to the
historical rights of clergy and nobility, it had been tyrannical
towards its people.
.
The population of France was divided into three estates: the
clergy, nobility, and Third Estate. It formed three distinct classes,
each having its own laws. The clergy alone numbered 130,000
priests; the nobility 140,000 persons; the Third Estate twenty-
five million.
The great revolution is not an accident in our history. It
was prepared and brought on by the preceding eight centuries.
Its results may be described in three words,- Unity, Equality,
Liberty. *
*The last paragraph is from the main work, History of Civilization in
France.
RUSSIAN EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH
From the General History>
THE GREEK PROJECT OF CATHARINE II.
SHE
HE intended, if successful in driving out the Turks, to create
a Greek empire under a Russian Grand-Duke independent
of Russia. She gave a Greek name, Constantine, a Greek
nurse and playmates, to her grandson born in 1779; and invited
the Emperor to visit her in South Russia and settle the European
Turkish question. Her progress through New Russia in 1787
was a triumphal march, where all was not show; for the coloni-
zation of New Russia, lately a desert exposed to the incursions
of Cossacks and Tartars (now peopled with six million human
beings), was commenced. On Catharine's return to her capi-
tal, war was declared (1787). Neither party was well prepared.
French and Prussian officers drilled the Ottoman recruits.
POLAND AND KOSCIUSZKO
POLA
OLAND was waking up from its intestine quarrels. The Jesuits
were dismissed by a bull of Clement XIV. This was no
misfortune: they had taught the Poles intolerance and the
exterior forms of religion; moreover, they had taught Latin to
the exclusion of Polish. On their disappearance there was a
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12046
ALFRED RAMBAUD
national awakening; at least in the hearts of the middle classes,
who were educated better than the nobles, less apart from Euro-
pean civilization, already imbued with French ideas, and who
were deeply saddened by the misfortunes of their country, which
they compared to the wonderful success of the French Revolu-
tion against the allied kings. Some nobles were animated with
the same sentiments.
Such was Thadeus Kosciuszko. Born in 1757, in the district
of Novogrodek (Lithuania), he had entered in 1764 the cadet
school founded by Czartoryski. This son of a country gentleman
received, one after another, two cruel lessons of social equality:
his father was assassinated by some exasperated peasants; while
he himself, having fallen in love with the daughter of a noble-
man of high rank, found himself scornfully refused.
In America, where Washington appointed him colonel, and
where he distinguished himself at Saratoga, Kosciuszko learned
what real liberty was, and completed the knowledge he had first
sought in our philosophers. During the last war, he was the
only Polish general who had been victorious. After the second
partition of Poland he became a Russian subject, but refused to
serve in the Russian army. He passed into Saxony, and thence
to Paris on a mission. Already the Legislative Assembly had
named him a French citizen.
BENEFITS TO GERMANY FROM FRENCH INVASIONS
From Germany under Napoleon, 1804-1811)
THE
HE Germans complain of the harm we have done them in the
wars, almost always defensive, which our kings carried on
against the ambition of Austria. Who could calculate the
harm done to us by their princes, when in 1791 they turned
France from her task of reorganization; when they stirred up
hatred between our working classes and our nobility, between
the Assembly and Royalty; when they caused the Revolution to
end in the Terror? Afterwards, even if the Emperor, the King
of Prussia, and the Ecclesiastic Electors did declare war, the
people called and welcomed us. After a glorious defensive war,
we were able to wage the most humane, the most beneficial of
propagating wars.
Even under Napoleon I. , French
## p. 12047 (#85) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12047
intervention in Germany was essentially different from German
invasion of France: the former brought with it the elements of
progress. Thus it may be said that in all times, and under
every form of government, we have done more good than harm
to the Germans; and a Prussian empire, founded on a so-called
right of revenge of Germany against us, is based on injustice and
falsehood.
It is strange that Germany should accept from Prussia, along
with new laws, its opinions ready-made.
What magic
spell has its new masters used to make Germany forget history?
Before the Revolution there was no trace of hatred
between France and Germany; and that is why the wars of
the Revolution were none of them a war of races. All western
Germany accepted French influence willingly. Our language was
written and spoken there, our literary traditions and our fashions
were followed with even too much docility. Frenchmen were
enticed to dwell there; but not always chosen with sufficient dis-
cernment, so that adventurers by whom the Germans were duped
gave a sorry idea of our nation. On the other hand, the feeling
of hostility against England dates very far back. It is that
nation which, from the first, made us understand what a foreigner
was, and by trampling on France revealed her to herself.
Large German States owe their prosperity to French polit-
ical and religious refugees. Nor was the influx less from Ger-
many into France. Princes came as pilgrims to the shrine of
Versailles to admire and worship the kingliest King; to Paris,
where they found the greatest number of men of genius and of
sharpers, the wittiest ladies, and the lightest women. There
came those who wished to serve in the army; like Maurice
of Saxe, the victor of Fontenoy, and the Count of Löwendal,
the victor of Berg-op-Zoom. The Rhenish provinces were but a
continuation of France beyond the frontier; their sons fought
under French colors: war and hate were not between the peo-
ples, they were the business of the governments. Men were cos-
mopolitan, citizens of the world, rather than French, German, or
Prussian.
The Revolution of 1803 in Germany was relatively as radi-
cal as the French Revolution. The German people looked on it
with indifference, neither rejoicing nor grieving at the fall of
its past; because there was a great difference between the two
revolutions. The sacrifices exacted from the privileged classes
## p. 12048 (#86) ###########################################
12048
ALFRED RAMBAUD
of France had served to found the unity of a great people, had
brought liberty into the State and equality among the citizens.
In Germany no such advantages had been obtained. The French
had despoiled themselves for the grandeur of their country; in
Germany for some great or petty sovereign, often more a prince-
ling than a prince.
It was not as an enemy but as an Emperor that Napoleon
was received. Princes and people crowded to see the small lank-
haired man, so unlike the legendary Charlemagne, whose sallow
complexion, sinister unfathomable glance, and Roman features,
reminded them of the pagan Cæsar who had first crossed the
mighty river.
CIVIL LIFE IN FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
From the History of French Civilization>
F JUSTICE was cruel, the police of Paris were feeble. The mul-
tiplicity of jurisdictions among which Paris was divided, and
the right of sanctuary allowed to nearly all the churches and
abbeys, permitted criminals to elude pursuit.
Paris, although Philip Augustus had paved some streets and
filled up the filthy holes which infected his palace, was still hor-
ribly dirty.
The narrow streets, with the houses overhanging in success-
ive corbelings so that the upper stories touched, were incumbered.
with stalls, sign-boards, and goods exposed for sale. Swine,
geese, and cattle wandered through them. There the butchers
slaughtered their beasts at night; there was no light except that
of the moon when it shone. The police were not responsible for
anything after sunset. When once the curfew had rung, the
honest bourgeois went to his home and shut himself in securely.
The watch-that is, the prevost's archers — were too few to
control the dangerous classes. To thrash the watch was a stu-
dent's sport: naturally, ill-doers feared it little.
Sometimes a watchman like Gautier Rallard found an in-
genious means of never entering into a fight with the robbers:
he made his rounds preceded by music. The night watchman
who went through the streets in a coat embellished with tears
and death's-heads, -armed with a lantern and a bell, announcing
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ALFRED RAMBAUD
12049
the hours, and calling the sleepers to "pray for the dead,”—
scarcely interfered with the cutpurses and the pillagers of shops.
The robbers, assassins, beggars, vagabonds, were organized in
corporations just like the honest folk. They had their regular
chiefs, their rules of apprenticeship, their trials for the mastery,
their places of reunion. In Paris they formed a State apart,—
the Kingdom of Argot,-where was spoken the "langue vert,"
and across the boundaries of which the archers of the watch
did not venture. Their elected chief was the great Coësre or
King of Thune, who was drawn in a cart by dogs. He held his
court - his Court of Miracles—sometimes in the cul-de-sac Saint
Sauveur, sometimes in the rue des Frams-Bourgeois, or near
the Convent of the Filles-Dieu, or in the streets of Grande and
Petite Truanderie. He had in each province, like the king, his
bailiff,-called the cagou. Sometimes he summoned a sort of
States-General in the Pré aux Gueux (Beggars' Field) near Notre
Dame d'Auray. His immense people, including all the beggars,
blacklegs, and vagabonds of France, were divided into numerous
classes. All paid a tribute to the King of Thune, and rendered
him homage.
Another powerful monarch was the King of Egypt, sovereign
of the Gipsies. In 1427 the advance guard of these mysterious
Asiatics had appeared in Paris; a duke, a count, ten knights,
followed by a hundred men, women, and children. These people,
known as Bohemians, Saracens, Egyptians, Tsiganes, were soon
swarming on the roads and at the gates of the towns, as show-
men of bears and apes, as tinkers, counterfeiters, fortune-tellers,
From these swarming crowds the army of crime was recruited.
From time to time justice cast in her net, and exposed her capt-
ure in the pillory of the Halles or on the gibbet of Montfauçon;
but the mass was not thereby diminished. If the prevost hung
some scamp in broad day, the King of Thune in turn hung in
broad night some rash bourgeois or too inquisitive sergeant.
As in India there were pariahs, despised even by the slave,
and whose contact was pollution, so in France there were outcast
races. These were called marrons in Auvergne; cagots or cagoux
in the Pyrenees; gaffots, caffots, capots, in Béarn and Navarre;
cagueux, cacuas, cacoux, in Bretagne; gahets, gaffets, in Guyenne.
Whence came they, and who were they? Were they, as was said,
descendants of the Mussulmans left in France by Abderrahman,
or of the Spaniards who were driven from their homes by the
XXI-754
## p. 12050 (#88) ###########################################
12050
ALFRED RAMBAUD
Arabs, or of converted heretics, or of ancient lepers? No one
knew, not even those who persecuted them. The only sure thing
is, that they were treated like veritable lepers, forbidden to fre-
quent churches, taverns, public festivals; forced in Bretagne and
Béarn to wear a red costume, and not permitted to go barefoot
on the roads or to carry arms. Marriage or any contact with
them was refused. They lived in isolated villages hidden in the
country, or in obscure valleys; intermarrying, hated by all and
hating all the world.
Although ancient slavery had disappeared from our soil
through transformation into serfdom, there was a tendency to
reconstitute it in Europe at the expense of the infidels taken in
war. The Italian republics trafficked in their captives. In the
twelfth century they were sold at fairs in Champagne, and Sara-
cen slaves were bequeathed in a will to the bishop of Béziers.
In the thirteenth century, slaves were traded in Provence. The
new slavery was then in force in Roussillon,-which was not
French territory,- but royal France spurned it. Then was estab-
lished the maxim by virtue of which every slave who touched
French soil became free. In 1402 and in 1406 the municipality
of Toulouse applied this to the profit of fugitive slaves from
Perpignan.
In the Middle Ages, the duty of charity toward the poor was
generally discharged. The pouch full of money which hung at
the belts of nobles and bourgeois, men and women, was called
an alms-purse; a chaplain was an almoner. Kings, nobles, and
ladies were often surrounded, as they walked, by the poor whom
they maintained. King Robert allowed them to enter so freely
into his palace, to go under his table, to sit on the floor beside
him, almost between his legs, that on a certain day one of them
cut a gold acorn from his clothing. Not only did alms-givers
aid the poor with money, food, and clothing; but seeing in them
the image of suffering Christ, they gloried in sometimes serving
them at table, and in washing their feet upon Holy Thursday.
The religious orders, founded for the relief of the poor, con-
secrated to them at least a part of their revenues. In certain
convents there were cells reserved for the poor; in nearly all,
distributions of soup and bread were made at the door of the
monastery.
Nevertheless, this charity of the Middle Ages was unintelligent
enough. The kings would have done better to aid their people
1
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ALFRED RAMBAUD
12051
instead of surrounding themselves with a few tatterdemalions;
the monasteries, while distributing their charity, became by seiz-
ing upon the land a cause of impoverishment for a vast radius.
around them. They relieved a few poor people; but these were
infinitely less to be pitied than thousands of peasants crushed
under feudal laws, the ecclesiastical tenth, or the laws of the
royal treasury. The problem of how to aid the poor without
increasing pauperism and without offering a reward to idleness,
so difficult even to modern France, was not one which the Mid-
dle Ages could solve. Moreover, the French of the thirteenth
century, thoroughly imbued with religious ideas, were charitable
not from philanthropy, but from piety; to secure salvation. The
"virtuous poor," with knees worn callous by many prostrations,
with mouth's full of prayers, well trained and indoctrinated by
the Church, always present on the skirts of the sanctuary, always
ready to reap the benefit of a pious thought, were very conven-
ient to whoever wished to acquit himself of the Christian duty
of charity. Poverty was too wide-spread to be possibly dimin-
ished; at least one did what one was called upon to do, leaving
the rest to God.
The sick formed a more limited category of the distressed,
and charity toward them was more efficacious. From the Mero-
vingian epoch, St. Clotilde and St. Aboflède, the wife and sister
of Clovis; St. Radegonde, the wife of Clotaire; St. Bathilde, the
wife of Clovis II. ,- are cited as founders of hospitals. The
hospitals were usually annexed to a monastery, as was that of
Bathilde to the royal abbey of Chelles. At the time of the Cru-
sades, the valiant Knights of St. John prided themselves above
all upon being Hospitallers. The diffusion of leprosy in the
twelfth century brought about the creation of special hospitals
- leper-houses. In the thirteenth century there were nearly two
thousand of these in France. They were usually managed by
Knights of St. Lazarus, another military order. Louis VII. estab-
lished them at the end of the Faubourg St. Denis; their mother-
house was the domain of Boigny. He also created at Saussaie
near Villejuif a convent of women to care for lepers. The kings
made large benefactions to these houses: when they died, their
personal linen and all their horses, mules, etc. , belonged to the
leper-house of La Saussaie. When Jean II. died in England, so
that the house was deprived of his horses, his son paid it an
indemnity. Later, Charles VI. bought back from this convent for
## p. 12052 (#90) ###########################################
ALFRED RAMBAUD
12052
twenty-five hundred francs the horses of his father Charles V.
The knights showed themselves deserving of these favors by
caring not only for the lepers, but for all kinds of invalids.
