He has been accused of affectation, and
of exaggeration in his disinterestedness; but he was naturally timid
in public, and preferred to exert an influence over his countrymen
by his songs rather than by his voice in public assemblies.
of exaggeration in his disinterestedness; but he was naturally timid
in public, and preferred to exert an influence over his countrymen
by his songs rather than by his voice in public assemblies.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v03 - Bag to Ber
On the one hand the standard of right and
wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened
to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in
all we think; every effort we can make to throw off our subjec-
tion will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a
man may pretend to abjure their empire; but in reality he will
remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recog-
nizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that
system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by
the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to ques-
tion it deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of
reason, in darkness instead of light.
But enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such
means that moral science is to be improved.
The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work;
it will be proper, therefore, at the outset to give an explicit and
determinate account of what is meant by it. By the principle
of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves
of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it
appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the
party whose interest is in question; or, what is the same thing
in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of
every action whatsoever; and therefore not only of every action
of a private individual, but of every measure of government.
By utility is meant that property in any object whereby it
tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness
(all this in the present case comes to the same thing), or (what
comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of
mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest
is considered: if that party be the community in general, then
the happiness of the community; if a particular individual, then
the happiness of that individual.
The interest of the community is one of the most general
expressions that can occur in the phraseology of morals: no won-
der that the meaning of it is often lost. When it has a meaning,
## p. 1777 (#575) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1777
it is this: The community is a fictitious body, composed of the
individual persons who are considered as constituting, as it were,
its members. The interest of the community, then, is what? The
sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.
It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without
understanding what is the interest of the individual. A thing is
said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an indi-
vidual, when it tends to add to the sum total of his pleasures:
or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of
his pains.
An action, then, may be said to be conformable to the prin-
ciple of utility, or for shortness' sake to utility (meaning with
respect to the community at large), when the tendency it has to
augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it
has to diminish it.
A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of
action, performed by a particular person or persons) may be said
to be conformable to or dictated by the principle of utility, when
in like manner the tendency which it has to augment the hap-
piness of the community is greater than any which it has to
diminish it.
When an action, or in particular a measure of government, is
supposed by a man to be conformable to the principle of utility,
it may be convenient for the purposes of discourse to imagine
a kind of law or dictate called a law or dictate of utility, and to
speak of the action in question as being conformable to such
law or dictate.
A man may be said to be a partisan of the principle of utility,
when the approbation or disapprobation he annexes to any action,
or to any measure, is determined by and proportioned to the
tendency which he conceives it to have to augment or to dimin-
ish the happiness of the community; or in other words, to its
conformity or unconformity to the laws or dictates of utility.
Of an action that is conformable to the principle of utility,
one may always say either that it is one that ought to be done,
or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done. One
may say also that it is right it should be done, at least that it
is not wrong it should be done; that it is a right action, at least
that it is not a wrong action. When thus interpreted, the words
ought, and right and wrong, and others of that stamp, have a
meaning; when otherwise, they have none.
111-112
## p. 1778 (#576) ###########################################
1778
JEREMY BENTHAM
REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD
D
URING my visits to Barking, I used to be my grandmother's
bedfellow. The dinner hour being as early as two o'clock,
she had a regular supper, which was served up in her own
sleeping-room; and immediately after finishing it, she went to
bed. Of her supper I was not permitted to partake, nor was the
privation a matter of much regret. I had what I preferred - a
portion of gooseberry pie; hers was a scrag of mutton, boiled
with parsley and butter. I do not remember any variety.
.
My amusements consisted in building houses with old cards,
and sometimes playing at Beat the knave out of doors with
my grandmother. My time of going to bed was perhaps an
hour before hers; but by way of preparation, I never failed to
receive her blessing. Previous to the ceremony, I underwent a
catechetical examination, of which one of the questions was, “Who
were the children that were saved in the fiery furnace ? ” Answer,
«Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ” But as the examination
frequently got no farther, the word Abednego got associated in
my mind with very agreeable ideas, and it ran through my ears
like “Shadrach, Meshach, and To-bed-we-go,” in a sort of pleasant
confusion, which is not yet removed. As I grew in years, I
became a fit receptacle for some of my grandmother's communi-
cations, among which the state of her family and the days of her
youth were most prominent.
There hung on the wall, perpetually in view, a sampler, the
produce of the industry and ingenuity of her mother or her
grandmother, of which the subject-matter was the most important
of all theologico-human incidents, the fall of man in Paradise.
There was Adam — there was Eve — and there was the serpent.
In these there was much to interest and amuse me. One thing
alone puzzled me; it was the forbidden fruit. The size was
enormous. It was larger than that species of the genus Oran-
geum which goes by the name of the forbidden fruit » in some
of our West India settlements. Its size was not less than that
of the outer shell of a cocoanut. All the rest of the objects
as usual in plano; this was in alto, indeed in altissimo
rilievo. What to make of it, at a time when my mind was
unable to distinguish fictions from realities, I knew not. The
recollection is strong in me of the mystery it seemed to be. My
grandmother promised me the sampler after her death as a
were
## p. 1779 (#577) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1779
legacy, and the promise was no small gratification; but the prom-
ise, with many other promises of jewels and gold coins, was pro-
ductive of nothing but disappointment. Her death took place
when I was at Oxford. My father went down; and without con-
sulting me, or giving the slightest intimation of his intention, let
the house, and sold to the tenant almost everything that was in
it. It was doing as he was wont to do, notwithstanding his
undoubted affection for me. In the same way he sold the estate
he had given to me as a provision on the occasion of his second
marriage. In the mass went some music-books which I had bor-
rowed of Mrs. Browne. Not long after, she desired them to be
returned. I stood before her like a defenseless culprit, conscious
of my inability to make restitution; and at the same time, such
was my state of mental weakness that I knew not what to say
for apology or defense.
My grandmother's mother was a matron, I was told, of high
respectability and corresponding piety; well-informed and strong-
minded. She was distinguished, however; for while other matrons
of her age and quality had seen many a ghost, she had seen
but one.
She was in this particular on a level with the learned
lecturer, afterwards judge, the commentator Blackstone. But she
was heretical, and her belief bordered on Unitarianism. And by
the way, this subject of ghosts has been among the torments of
Even now, when sixty or seventy years have passed
over my head since my boyhood received the impression which
my grandmother gave it, though my judgment is wholly free, my
imagination is not wholly so. My infirmity was not unknown to
the servants. It was a permanent source of amusement to ply
me with horrible phantoms in all imaginable shapes. Under the
pagan dispensation, every object a man could set his eyes on
had been the seat of some pleasant adventure. At Barking, in
the almost solitude of which so large a portion of my life was
passed, every spot that could be made by any means to answer
the purpose was the abode of some spectre or group of spectres.
So dexterous was the invention of those who worked upon my
apprehensions, that they managed to transform a real into a fic.
titious being. His name was Palethorp; and Palethorp, in my
vocabulary, was synonymous with hobgoblin. The origin of
these horrors was this:
My father's house was a short half-mile distant from the prin-
cipal part of the town, from that part where was situated the
my life.
## p. 1780 (#578) ###########################################
1780
JEREMY BENTHAM
mansion of the lord of the manor, Sir Crisp Gascoigne. One
morning the coachman and the footman took a conjunct walk to
a public-house kept by a man of the name Palethorp; they took
me with them: it was before I was breeched. They called for a
pot of beer; took each of them a sip, and handed the pot to me.
On their requisition, I took another; and when about to depart,
the amount was called for. The two servants paid their quota,
and I was called on for mine. Nemo dat quod non habet — this
maxim, to my no small vexation, I was compelled to exemplify.
Mr. Palethorp, the landlord, had a visage harsh and ill-favored,
and he insisted on my discharging my debt. At this very early
age, without having put in for my share of the gifts of fortune,
I found myself in the state of an insolvent debtor. The demand
harassed me so mercilessly that I could hold out no longer: the
door being open, I took to my heels; and as the way was too
plain to be missed, I ran home as fast as they could carry me.
The scene of the terrors of Mr. Palethorp's name and visitation,
in pursuit of me, was the country-house at Barking; but neither
was the town-house free from them; for in those terrors, the
servants possessed an instrument by which it was in their power
at any time to get rid of my presence. Level with the kitchen-
level with the landing-place in which the staircase took its com-
mencement — were the usual offices. When my company became
troublesome, a sure and continually repeated means of exoner-
ating themselves from it was for the footman to repair to the
adjoining subterraneous apartments, invest his shoulders with
some strong covering, and concealing his countenance, stalk in
with a hollow, menacing, and inarticulate tone. Lest that should
not be sufficient, the servants had, stuck by the fireplace, the
portraiture of a hobgoblin, to which they had given the name of
Palethorp. For some years I was in the condition of poor Dr.
Priestley, on whose bodily frame another name, too awful to be
mentioned, used to produce a sensation more than mental.
## p. 1781 (#579) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1781
see-
W* common right, for the ladies.
LETTER FROM BOWOOD TO GEORGE WILSON (1781)
SUNDAY, 12 o'clock.
HERE
The first place, by
common right, to the ladies. The ideas I brought with
me respecting the female part of this family are turned
quite topsy-turvy, and unfortunately they are not yet cleared up.
I had expected to find in Lady Shelburne a Lady Louisa Fitz-
patrick, sister of an Earl of Ossory, whom I remember at school;
instead of her, I find a lady who has for her sister a Miss Caro-
line V—i is not this the maid of honor, the sister to Lady
G— ? the lady who was fond of Lord C—, and of whom he
was fond ? and whom he quitted for an heiress and a pair of
horns ? Be they who they may, the one is loveliest of matrons,
the other of virgins: they have both of them more than I could
wish of reserve, but it is a reserve of modesty rather than of
pride.
The quadrupeds, whom you know I love next, consist of a
child of a year old, a tiger, a spaniel formerly attached to Lady
Shelburne - at present to my Lord — besides four plebeian cats
who are taken no notice of, horses, etc. , and a wild boar who is
sent off on a matrimonial expedition to the farm. The four first
I have commenced a friendship with, especially the first of all,
to whom I am body-coachman extraordinary en titre d'office:
Henry, (for that is his name) [the present Lord Lansdowne]
for such an animal, has the most thinking countenance I ever
saw; being very clean, I can keep him without disgust and even
with pleasure, especially after having been rewarded, as I have
just now, for my attention to him, by a pair of the sweetest
smiles imaginable from his mamma and aunt. As Providence
hath ordered it, they both play on the harpsichord and at chess.
I am flattered with the hopes of engaging with them, before
long, either in war or harmony: not to-day — because, whether
you know it or not, it is Sunday; I know it, having been pay-
ing my devotions— our church, the hall — our minister, a sleek
young parson, the curate of the parish — our saints, a naked
Mercury, an Apollo in the same dress, and a Venus de' Medi-
cis - our congregation, the two ladies, Captain Blankett, and
your humble servant, upon the carpet by the minister — below,
the domestics, superioris et inferioris ordinis. Among the former
I was concerned to see poor Mathews, the librarian, who, I could
## p. 1782 (#580) ###########################################
1782
JEREMY BENTHAM
not help thinking, had as good a title to be upon the carpet as
myself.
Of Lord Fitzmaurice I know nothing, but from his bust and
letters: the first bespeaks him a handsome youth, the latter an
ingenious one. He is not sixteen, and already he writes better
than his father. He is under the care of a Mr. Jervis, a dis-
senting minister, who has had charge of him since he was six
years old. He has never been at any public school of education.
He has now for a considerable time been traveling about the
kingdom, that he may know something of his own country before
he goes to others, and be out of the way of adulation.
I am interrupted - adieu! le reste à l'ordinaire prochain.
FRAGMENT OF A LETTER TO LORD LANSDOWNE (1790)
I"
and your
T was using me very ill, that it was, to get upon stilts as you
did, and resolve not to be angry with me, after all the pains
I had taken to make you so.
You have been angry, let me
tell you, with people as little worth it before now;
being so niggardly of it in my instance, may be added to the
account of your injustice. I see you go upon the old Christian
principle of heaping coals of fire upon people's heads, which is
the highest refinement upon vengeance. I see, moreover, that
according to your system of cosmogony, the difference is but
accidental between the race of kings and that of the first Baron
of Lixmore: that ex-lawyers come like other men from Adam,
and ex-ministers from somebody who started up out of the
ground before him, in some more elevated part of the country.
To lower these pretensions, it would be serving you right, if
I were to tell you that I was not half so angry as I appeared
to be; that, therefore, according to the countryman's rule, you
have not so much the advantage over me as you may think you
have: that the real object of what anger I really felt was rather
the situation in which I found myself than you or anybody; but
that, as none but a madman would go to quarrel with a
entity called a situation, it was necessary for me to look out for
somebody who, somehow or other, was connected with it.
non-
## p. 1782 (#581) ###########################################
## p. 1782 (#582) ###########################################
P. J. DE BERANGER.
## p. 1782 (#583) ###########################################
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## p. 1782 (#584) ###########################################
P. J. DE BERANGER.
## p. 1782 (#585) ###########################################
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## p. 1782 (#586) ###########################################
FANUL
## p. 1783 (#587) ###########################################
1783
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
(1780–1857)
BY ALCÉE FORTIER
B
ÉRANGER, like Hugo, has commemorated the date of his birth,
but their verses
are very different. Hugo's poem is lofty
in style, beginning -
Ce siècle avait deux ans! Rome remplaçait Sparte,
Déjà Napoléon perçait sous Bonaparte,
Et du premier consul déjà, par maint endroit,
Le front de l'empereur brisait le masque étroit. ”
(This century was two years old; Rome displaced Sparta,
Napoleon already was visible in Bonaparte,
And the narrow mask of the First Consul, in many places,
Was already pierced by the forehead of the Emperor. )
Béranger's verses have less force, but are charming in their sim-
plicity:-
«Dans ce Paris plein d'or et de misère,
En l'an du Christ mil sept cent quatre-vingt,
Chez un tailleur, mon pauvre et vieux grand-père,
Moi, nouveau-né, sachais ce qui m'advint. ”
(In this Paris full of gold and misery,
In the year of Christ one thousand seven hundred and eighty,
At the house of a tailor, my grandfather poor and old,
I, a new-born child, knew what happened to me. )
Authors of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries are more
subjective in their writings than those of the seventeenth, whose
characters can rarely be known from their works. A glance at the
life and surroundings of Béranger will show their influence on his
genius.
Béranger's mother was abandoned by her husband shortly after
her marriage, and her child was born at the house of her father, the
old tailor referred to in the song The Tailor and the Fairy. ' She
troubled herself little about the boy, and he was forsaken in his
childhood. Béranger tells us that he does not know how he learned
to read. In the beginning of the year 1789 he was sent to a school
in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and there, mounted on the roof of
a house, he saw the capture of the Bastille on the 14th of July.
## p. 1784 (#588) ###########################################
1784
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
This event made a great impression on him, and may have laid
the foundations of his republican principles. When he was nine and
a half his father sent him to one of his sisters, an innkeeper at
Péronne, that town in the north of France famous for the interview
in 1468 between Louis XI. and Charles the Bold, when the fox, put
himself in the power of the lion, as related so vividly in Quentin
Durward.
Béranger's aunt was very kind to him. At Péronne he went to
a free primary school founded by Ballue de Bellenglise, where the
students governed themselves, electing their mayor, their judges, and
their justices of the peace. Béranger was president of a republican
club of boys, and was called upon several times to address members
of the Convention who passed through Péronne. His aunt was an
ardent republican, and he was deeply moved by the invasion of
France in 1792. He heard with delight of the capture of Toulon in
1793 and of Bonaparte's exploits, conceiving a great admiration for
the extraordinary man who was just beginning his military career.
At the age of fifteen Béranger returned to Paris, where his father
had established a kind of banking house. The boy had previously
followed different trades, and had been for two years with a pub-
lishing house as a printer's apprentice. There he learned spelling
and the rules of French prosody. He began to write verse when
he was twelve or thirteen, but he had a strange idea of prosody.
In order to get lines of the same length he wrote his words between
two parallel lines traced from the top to the bottom of the page.
His system of versification seemed to be correct when applied to the
Alexandrine verse of Racine; but when he saw the fables of La
Fontaine, in which the lines are very irregular, he began to distrust
his prosody.
Béranger became a skillful financier, and was very useful to his
father in his business. When the banker failed the young man was
thrown into great distress. He now had ample opportunity to become
familiar with the garret, of which he has sung so well. In 1804 he
applied for help to Lucien Bonaparte, and received from Napoleon's
brother his own fee as member of the Institute. He obtained shortly
afterwards a position in a bureau of the University. Having a
weak constitution and defective sight, he avoided the conscription.
He was however all his life a true patriot, with republican instincts;
and he says that he never liked Voltaire, because that celebrated
writer unjustly preferred foreigners and vilified Joan of Arc, “the
true patriotic divinity, who from my childhood was the object of my
worship. ” He had approved of the eighteenth of Brumaire: for my
soul,” says he, “has always vibrated with that of the people as when
I was nineteen years old;" and the great majority of the French
## p. 1785 (#589) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1785
people in 1799 wished to see Bonaparte assume power and govern
with a firm hand. In 1813 Béranger wrote The King of Yvetot,'
a pleasing and amusing satire on Napoleon's reign. What a contrast
between the despotic emperor and ruthless warrior, and the simple
king whose crown is a nightcap and whose chief delight is his bottle
of wine! The song circulated widely in manuscript form, and the
author soon became popular. He made the acquaintance of Désau-
giers and became a member of the Caveau. Concerning this joyous
literary society M. Anatole France says, in his Vie Littéraire, that
the first Caveau was founded in 1729 by Gallet, Piron, Crébillon
fils, Collé, and Panard. They used to meet at Laudelle the tavern-
keeper's. The second Caveau was inaugurated in 1759 by Marmontel,
Suard, Lanoue, and Brissy, and lasted until the Revolution. In 1806
Armand Gouffé and Capelle established the modern Caveau, of which
Désaugiers was president. The members met at Balaine's restaurant.
In 1834 the society was reorganized at Champlanc's restaurant. The
members wrote and published songs and sang them after dinner.
“The Caveau,” says M. France, “is the French Academy of song,”
and as such has some dignity. The same is true of the Lice, while
the Chat Noir is most fin de siècle.
To understand Béranger's songs and to excuse them somewhat,
we must remember that the French always delighted in witty songs
and tales, and pardoned the immorality of the works on account of
the wit and humor. This is what is called l'esprit gaulois, and is
seen principally in old French poetry, in the fabliaux, the farces, and
(Le Roman de Renart. ' Molière had much of this, as also had La
Fontaine and Voltaire, and Béranger's wildest songs appear mild and
innocent when compared with those of the Chat Noir. In his joyous
songs he continues the traditions of the farces and fabliaux of the
Middle Ages, and in his political songs he uses wit and satire just
as in the sottises of the time of Louis XII.
Béranger's first volume of songs appeared at the beginning of the
second Restoration; and although it was hostile to the Bourbons, the
author was not prosecuted. In 1821, when his second volume was
published, he resigned his position as clerk at the University, and
was brought to trial for having written immoral and seditious songs.
He was condemned, after exciting scenes in court, to three months'
imprisonment and a fine of five hundred francs, and in 1828 to nine
months' imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand francs, which was
paid by public subscription.
No doubt he contributed to the Revolution of July, 1830; but
although he was a republican, he favored the monarchy of Louis
Philippe, saying that “it was a plank to cross over the gutter, a
preparation for the republic. ” The king wished to see him and
## p. 1786 (#590) ###########################################
1786
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
procession.
thank him, but Béranger replied that he was too old to make new
acquaintances. ” He was invited to apply for a seat in the French
Academy, and refused that honor as he had refused political honors
and positions. He said that he “wished to be nothing”; and when
in 1848 he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly, he resigned
his seat almost immediately.
He has been accused of affectation, and
of exaggeration in his disinterestedness; but he was naturally timid
in public, and preferred to exert an influence over his countrymen
by his songs rather than by his voice in public assemblies.
Béranger was kind and generous, and ever ready to help all who
applied to him. He had
He had a pension given to Rouget de l'Isle, the
famous author of the Marseillaise,' who was reduced to poverty,
and in 1835 he took into his house his good aunt from Péronne, and
gave hospitality also to his friend Mlle. Judith Frère. In 1834 he
sold all his works to his publisher, Perrotin, for an annuity of eight
hundred francs, which was increased to four thousand by the pub-
lisher. On this small income Béranger lived content till his death on
July 16th, 1857. The government of Napoleon III. took charge of his
funeral, which was solemnized with great pomp. Although Béranger
was essentially the poet of the middle classes, and was extremely
popular, care was taken to exclude the people from the funeral
While he never denied that he was the grandson of a
tailor, he signed de Béranger, to be distinguished from other writers
of the same name. The de, however, had always been claimed by
his father, who had left him nothing but that pretense of nobility.
For forty years, from 1815 to his death, Béranger was perhaps the
most popular French writer of his time, and he was ranked amongst
the greatest French poets. There has been a reaction against that
enthusiasm, and he is now severely judged by the critics. They say
that he lacked inspiration, and was vulgar, bombastic, and grandilo-
quent. Little attention is paid to him, therefore, in general histories
of French literature. But if he is not entitled to stand on the high
pedestal given to him by his contemporaries, we yet cannot deny
genius to the man who for more than a generation swayed the
hearts of the people at his will, and exerted on his countrymen and
on his epoch an immense influence.
Many of his songs are coarse and even immoral; but his muse
often inspired by patriotic subjects, and in his poems on
Napoleon he sings of the exploits of the great general defending
French soil from foreign invasion, or he delights in the victories of
the Emperor as reflecting glory upon France. Victor Hugo shared
this feeling when he wrote his inspiring verses in praise of the con-
queror.
Both poets, Béranger and Hugo, contributed to create the
Napoleonic legend which facilitated the election of Louis Napoleon
was
## p. 1787 (#591) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1787
to the presidency in 1848, and brought about the Second Empire.
What is more touching than The Reminiscences of the People'?
Are we not inclined to cry out, like the little children listening to
the old grandmother who speaks of Napoleon: “He spoke to you,
grandmother! He sat down there, grandmother! You have yet his
glass, grandmother! ” The whole song is poetic, natural, and simple.
François Coppée, the great poet, said of it: “Ah! if I had only writ-
ten (The Reminiscences of the People,' I should not feel concerned
about the judgment of posterity. ”
Other works of Béranger's are on serious subjects, as Mary
Stuart's Farewell to France,' 'The Holy Alliance,' (The Swallows,'
and "The Old Banner. ) All his songs have a charm. His wit is not
of the highest order, and he lacks the finesse of La Fontaine, but he
is often quaint and always amusing in his songs devoted to love and
Lisette, to youth and to wine. He is not one of the greatest French
lyric poets, and cannot be compared with Lamartine, Hugo, Musset,
and Vigny; nevertheless he has much originality, and is without doubt
the greatest song-writer that France has produced. He elevated
the song and made it both a poem and a drama, full of action and
interest.
Béranger wrote slowly and with great care, and many of his songs
cost him much labor. He was filled with compassion for the weak,
for the poor and unfortunate; he loved humanity, and above all he
dearly loved France. Posterity will do him justice and will pre-
serve at least a great part of his work. M. Ernest Legouvé in his
interesting work, La Lecture en Action,' relates that one day,
while walking with Béranger in the Bois de Boulogne, the latter
stopped in the middle of an alley, and taking hold of M. Legouvé's
hand, said with emotion, “My dear friend, my ambition would be
that one hundred of my lines should remain. ” M. Legouvé adds,
“There will remain more than that,” and his words have been con-
firmed. If we read aloud, if we sing them, we too shall share the
enthusiasm of our fathers, who were carried away by the pathos, the
grandeur, the wit, the inexpressible charm of the unrivaled chansonnier.
Alio Portien
## p. 1788 (#592) ###########################################
1788
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
FROM THE GIPSIES)
(LES BOHÉMIENS)
Tº
O SEE is to have. Come, hurry anew!
Life on the wing
Is a rapturous thing.
To see is to have. Come, hurry anew!
For to see the world is to conquer it too.
So naught do we own, from pride left free,
From statutes vain,
From heavy chain;
So naught do we own, from pride left free, -
Cradle nor house nor coffin have we.
But credit our jollity none the less,
Noble or priest, or
Servant or master;
But credit our jollity none the less.
Liberty always means happiness.
THE GAD-FLY
(LA MOUCHE)
IN
N The midst of our laughter and singing,
'Mid the clink of our glasses so gay,
What gad-fly is over us winging,
That returns when we drive him away?
'Tis some god. Yes, I have a suspicion
Of our happiness jealous, he's come:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
Transformed to a gad-fly unseemly,
I am certain that we must have here
Old Reason, the grumbler, extremely
Annoyed by our joy and our cheer.
He tells us in tones of monition
Of the clouds and the tempests to come:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
It is Reason who comes to me, quaffing,
And says, “It is time to retire:
## p. 1789 (#593) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1789
At your age one stops drinking and laughing,
Stops loving, nor sings with such fire ; ».
An alarm that sounds ever its mission
When the sweetest of flames overcome:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
It is Reason! Look out there for Lizzie!
His dart is a menace alway.
He has touched her, she swoons - she is dizzy:
Come, Cupid, and drive him away.
Pursue him; compel his submission,
Until under your strokes he succumb.
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
Hurrah, Victory! See, he is drowning
In the wine that Lizzetta has poured.
Come, the head of Joy let us be crowning,
That again he may reign at our board.
He was threatened just now with dismission,
And a fly made us all rather glum:
But we've sent him away to perdition;
He will bore us no more with his hum.
Translation of Walter Learned.
DRAW IT MILD
(LES PETITS COUPS)
L
ET's learn to temper our desires,
Not harshly to constrain;
And since excess makes pleasure less,
Why, so much more refrain.
Small table— cozy corner — here
We well may be beguiled;
Our worthy host old wine can boast :
Drink, drink — but draw it mild !
He who would many an evil shun
Will find my plan the best,
To trim the sail as shifts the gale,
And half-seas over rest.
Enjoyment is an art - disgust
Is bred of joy run wild;
## p. 1790 (#594) ###########################################
1790
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
Too deep a drain upsets the brain:
Drink, drink -- but draw it mild!
Our indigence - let's cheer it up;
'Tis nonsense to repine;
To give to Hope the fullest scope
Needs but one draught of wine.
And oh! be temperate, to enjoy,
Ye on whom Fate hath smiled;
If deep the bowl, your thirst control:
Drink, drink --- but draw it mild!
What, Phyllis, dost thou fear ? at this
My lesson dost thou scoff ?
Or would'st thou say, light draughts betray
The toper falling off ?
Keen taste, eyes keen whate'er be seen
Of joy in thine, fair child,
Love's philtre use, but don't abuse:
Drink, drink — but draw it mild !
Yes, without hurrying, let us roam
From feast to feast of gladness;
And reach old age, if not quite sage,
With method in our madness!
Our health is sound, good wines abound;
Friends, these are riches piled.
To use with thrift the twofold gift:
Drink, drink - but draw it mild!
Translation of William Young.
THE KING OF YVETOT
TER
HERE was a king of Yvetot,
Of whom renown hath little said,
Who let all thoughts of glory go,
And dawdled half his days a-bed;
And every night, as night came round,
By Jenny with a nightcap crowned,
Slept very sound:
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
And every day it came to pass,
That four lusty meals made he;
And step by step, upon an ass,
Rode abroad, his realms to see;
## p. 1791 (#595) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1791
And wherever he did stir,
What think you was his escort, sir ?
Why, an old cur.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
If e'er he went into excess,
'Twas from a somewhat lively thirst;
But he who would his subjects bless,
Odd's fish! - must wet his whistle first;
And so from every cask they got,
Our king did to himself allot
At least a pot.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
To all the ladies of the land
A courteous king, and kind, was he -
The reason why, you'll understand,
They named him Pater Patriæ.
Each year he called his fighting men,
And marched a league from home, and then
Marched back again.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
Neither by force nor false pretense,
He sought to make his kingdom great,
And made (O princes, learn from hence)
<Live and let live » his rule of state.
'Twas only when he came to die,
That his people who stood by
Were known to cry.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
The portrait of this best of kings
Is extant still, upon a sign
That on a village tavern swings,
Famed in the country for good wine.
The people in their Sunday trim,
Filling their glasses to the brim,
Look up to him,
Singing “ha, ha, ha! ” and “he, he, he!
That's the sort of king for me. ”
Version of W. M. Thackeray.
## p. 1792 (#596) ###########################################
1792
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
FORTUNE
R
AP! rap! - Is that my lass
Rap! rap! - is rapping there?
It is Fortune. Let her pass!
I'll not open the door to her.
Rap! rap! -
All of my friends are making gay
My little room, with lips wine-wet:
We only wait for you, Lisette!
Fortune! you may go your way.
Rap! rap!
If we might credit half her boast,
What wonders gold has in its gift!
Well, we have twenty bottles left
And still some credit with our host.
Rap! rap! -
1
Her pearls, and rubies too, she quotes,
And mantles more than sumptuous:
Lord! but the purple's naught to us, -
We're just now taking off our coats.
Rap! rap! -
She treats us as the rawest youths,
With talk of genius and of fame:
Thank calumny, alas, for shame!
Our faith is spoiled in laurel growths.
Rap! rap! -
Far from our pleasures, we care not
Her highest heavens to attain;
She fills her big balloons in vain
Till we have swamped our little boat.
Rap! rap! -
Yet all our neighbors crowd to be
Within her ring of promises,
Ah! surely, friends! our mistresses
Will cheat us more agreeably.
Rap! rap! -
## p. 1793 (#597) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1793
THE PEOPLE'S REMINISCENCES
(LES SOUVENIRS DU PEUPLE)
A"
Y, MANY a day the straw-thatched cot
Shall echo with his glory!
The humblest shed, these fifty years,
Shall know no other story.
There shall the idle villagers
To some old dame resort,
And beg her with those good old tales
To make their evenings short.
“What though they say he did us harm?
Our love this cannot dim;
Come, granny, talk of him to us;
Come, granny, talk of him. ”
“Well, children — with a train of kings,
Once he passed by this spot;
'Twas long ago; I had but just
Begun to boil the pot.
On foot he climbed the hill, whereon
I watched him on his way:
He wore a small three-cornered hat;
His overcoat was gray.
I was half frightened till he said
"Good day, my dear! ) to me. ”
"O granny, granny, did he speak?
What, granny! you and he ? »
“Next year, as I, poor soul, by chance
Through Paris strolled one day,
I saw him taking, with his court,
To Notre Dame his way.
The crowd were charmed with such a show;
Their hearts were filled with pride:
(What splendid weather for the fête !
Heaven favors him! ) they cried.
Softly he smiled, for God had given
To his fond arms a boy. "
“Oh, how much joy you must have felt!
O granny, how much joy!
« But when at length our poor Champagne
By foes was overrun,
III-113
## p. 1794 (#598) ###########################################
1794
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
He seemed alone to hold his ground;
Nor dangers would he shun.
One night — as might be now - I heard
A knock — the door unbarred-
And saw
-good God! 'twas he, himself,
With but a scanty guard.
(Oh, what a war is this! he cried,
Taking this very chair. ”
“What! granny, granny, there he sat ?
What! granny, he sat there? »
« I'm hungry,' said he: quick I served
Thin wine and hard brown bread;
He dried his clothes, and by the fire
In sleep dropped down his head.
Waking, he saw my tears — Cheer up,
Good dame! ) says he, I go
'Neath Paris' walls to strike for France
One last avenging blow. '
He went; but on the cup he used
Such value did I set -
It has been treasured. ) ( What! till now?
You have it, granny, yet ? ”
« Here 'tis: but 'twas the hero's fate
To ruin to be led;
He whom a Pope had crowned, alas!
In a lone isle lies dead.
'Twas long denied: No, no,' said they,
(Soon shall he reappear!
O'er ocean comes he, and the foe
Shall find his master here. )
Ah, what a bitter pang I felt,
When forced to own 'twas true ! »
Poor granny! Heaven for this will look -
Will kindly look on you. ”
Translation of William Young.
## p. 1795 (#599) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1795
THE OLD TRAMP
(LE VIEUX VAGABOND)
H
ERE in this gutter let me die:
Weary and sick and old, I've done.
« He's drunk,” will say the passers-by:
All right, I want no pity — none.
I see the heads that turn away,
While others glance and toss me
« Off to your junket!
wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened
to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in
all we think; every effort we can make to throw off our subjec-
tion will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a
man may pretend to abjure their empire; but in reality he will
remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recog-
nizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that
system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by
the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to ques-
tion it deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of
reason, in darkness instead of light.
But enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such
means that moral science is to be improved.
The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work;
it will be proper, therefore, at the outset to give an explicit and
determinate account of what is meant by it. By the principle
of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves
of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it
appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the
party whose interest is in question; or, what is the same thing
in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of
every action whatsoever; and therefore not only of every action
of a private individual, but of every measure of government.
By utility is meant that property in any object whereby it
tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness
(all this in the present case comes to the same thing), or (what
comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of
mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest
is considered: if that party be the community in general, then
the happiness of the community; if a particular individual, then
the happiness of that individual.
The interest of the community is one of the most general
expressions that can occur in the phraseology of morals: no won-
der that the meaning of it is often lost. When it has a meaning,
## p. 1777 (#575) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1777
it is this: The community is a fictitious body, composed of the
individual persons who are considered as constituting, as it were,
its members. The interest of the community, then, is what? The
sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.
It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without
understanding what is the interest of the individual. A thing is
said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an indi-
vidual, when it tends to add to the sum total of his pleasures:
or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of
his pains.
An action, then, may be said to be conformable to the prin-
ciple of utility, or for shortness' sake to utility (meaning with
respect to the community at large), when the tendency it has to
augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it
has to diminish it.
A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of
action, performed by a particular person or persons) may be said
to be conformable to or dictated by the principle of utility, when
in like manner the tendency which it has to augment the hap-
piness of the community is greater than any which it has to
diminish it.
When an action, or in particular a measure of government, is
supposed by a man to be conformable to the principle of utility,
it may be convenient for the purposes of discourse to imagine
a kind of law or dictate called a law or dictate of utility, and to
speak of the action in question as being conformable to such
law or dictate.
A man may be said to be a partisan of the principle of utility,
when the approbation or disapprobation he annexes to any action,
or to any measure, is determined by and proportioned to the
tendency which he conceives it to have to augment or to dimin-
ish the happiness of the community; or in other words, to its
conformity or unconformity to the laws or dictates of utility.
Of an action that is conformable to the principle of utility,
one may always say either that it is one that ought to be done,
or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done. One
may say also that it is right it should be done, at least that it
is not wrong it should be done; that it is a right action, at least
that it is not a wrong action. When thus interpreted, the words
ought, and right and wrong, and others of that stamp, have a
meaning; when otherwise, they have none.
111-112
## p. 1778 (#576) ###########################################
1778
JEREMY BENTHAM
REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD
D
URING my visits to Barking, I used to be my grandmother's
bedfellow. The dinner hour being as early as two o'clock,
she had a regular supper, which was served up in her own
sleeping-room; and immediately after finishing it, she went to
bed. Of her supper I was not permitted to partake, nor was the
privation a matter of much regret. I had what I preferred - a
portion of gooseberry pie; hers was a scrag of mutton, boiled
with parsley and butter. I do not remember any variety.
.
My amusements consisted in building houses with old cards,
and sometimes playing at Beat the knave out of doors with
my grandmother. My time of going to bed was perhaps an
hour before hers; but by way of preparation, I never failed to
receive her blessing. Previous to the ceremony, I underwent a
catechetical examination, of which one of the questions was, “Who
were the children that were saved in the fiery furnace ? ” Answer,
«Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ” But as the examination
frequently got no farther, the word Abednego got associated in
my mind with very agreeable ideas, and it ran through my ears
like “Shadrach, Meshach, and To-bed-we-go,” in a sort of pleasant
confusion, which is not yet removed. As I grew in years, I
became a fit receptacle for some of my grandmother's communi-
cations, among which the state of her family and the days of her
youth were most prominent.
There hung on the wall, perpetually in view, a sampler, the
produce of the industry and ingenuity of her mother or her
grandmother, of which the subject-matter was the most important
of all theologico-human incidents, the fall of man in Paradise.
There was Adam — there was Eve — and there was the serpent.
In these there was much to interest and amuse me. One thing
alone puzzled me; it was the forbidden fruit. The size was
enormous. It was larger than that species of the genus Oran-
geum which goes by the name of the forbidden fruit » in some
of our West India settlements. Its size was not less than that
of the outer shell of a cocoanut. All the rest of the objects
as usual in plano; this was in alto, indeed in altissimo
rilievo. What to make of it, at a time when my mind was
unable to distinguish fictions from realities, I knew not. The
recollection is strong in me of the mystery it seemed to be. My
grandmother promised me the sampler after her death as a
were
## p. 1779 (#577) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1779
legacy, and the promise was no small gratification; but the prom-
ise, with many other promises of jewels and gold coins, was pro-
ductive of nothing but disappointment. Her death took place
when I was at Oxford. My father went down; and without con-
sulting me, or giving the slightest intimation of his intention, let
the house, and sold to the tenant almost everything that was in
it. It was doing as he was wont to do, notwithstanding his
undoubted affection for me. In the same way he sold the estate
he had given to me as a provision on the occasion of his second
marriage. In the mass went some music-books which I had bor-
rowed of Mrs. Browne. Not long after, she desired them to be
returned. I stood before her like a defenseless culprit, conscious
of my inability to make restitution; and at the same time, such
was my state of mental weakness that I knew not what to say
for apology or defense.
My grandmother's mother was a matron, I was told, of high
respectability and corresponding piety; well-informed and strong-
minded. She was distinguished, however; for while other matrons
of her age and quality had seen many a ghost, she had seen
but one.
She was in this particular on a level with the learned
lecturer, afterwards judge, the commentator Blackstone. But she
was heretical, and her belief bordered on Unitarianism. And by
the way, this subject of ghosts has been among the torments of
Even now, when sixty or seventy years have passed
over my head since my boyhood received the impression which
my grandmother gave it, though my judgment is wholly free, my
imagination is not wholly so. My infirmity was not unknown to
the servants. It was a permanent source of amusement to ply
me with horrible phantoms in all imaginable shapes. Under the
pagan dispensation, every object a man could set his eyes on
had been the seat of some pleasant adventure. At Barking, in
the almost solitude of which so large a portion of my life was
passed, every spot that could be made by any means to answer
the purpose was the abode of some spectre or group of spectres.
So dexterous was the invention of those who worked upon my
apprehensions, that they managed to transform a real into a fic.
titious being. His name was Palethorp; and Palethorp, in my
vocabulary, was synonymous with hobgoblin. The origin of
these horrors was this:
My father's house was a short half-mile distant from the prin-
cipal part of the town, from that part where was situated the
my life.
## p. 1780 (#578) ###########################################
1780
JEREMY BENTHAM
mansion of the lord of the manor, Sir Crisp Gascoigne. One
morning the coachman and the footman took a conjunct walk to
a public-house kept by a man of the name Palethorp; they took
me with them: it was before I was breeched. They called for a
pot of beer; took each of them a sip, and handed the pot to me.
On their requisition, I took another; and when about to depart,
the amount was called for. The two servants paid their quota,
and I was called on for mine. Nemo dat quod non habet — this
maxim, to my no small vexation, I was compelled to exemplify.
Mr. Palethorp, the landlord, had a visage harsh and ill-favored,
and he insisted on my discharging my debt. At this very early
age, without having put in for my share of the gifts of fortune,
I found myself in the state of an insolvent debtor. The demand
harassed me so mercilessly that I could hold out no longer: the
door being open, I took to my heels; and as the way was too
plain to be missed, I ran home as fast as they could carry me.
The scene of the terrors of Mr. Palethorp's name and visitation,
in pursuit of me, was the country-house at Barking; but neither
was the town-house free from them; for in those terrors, the
servants possessed an instrument by which it was in their power
at any time to get rid of my presence. Level with the kitchen-
level with the landing-place in which the staircase took its com-
mencement — were the usual offices. When my company became
troublesome, a sure and continually repeated means of exoner-
ating themselves from it was for the footman to repair to the
adjoining subterraneous apartments, invest his shoulders with
some strong covering, and concealing his countenance, stalk in
with a hollow, menacing, and inarticulate tone. Lest that should
not be sufficient, the servants had, stuck by the fireplace, the
portraiture of a hobgoblin, to which they had given the name of
Palethorp. For some years I was in the condition of poor Dr.
Priestley, on whose bodily frame another name, too awful to be
mentioned, used to produce a sensation more than mental.
## p. 1781 (#579) ###########################################
JEREMY BENTHAM
1781
see-
W* common right, for the ladies.
LETTER FROM BOWOOD TO GEORGE WILSON (1781)
SUNDAY, 12 o'clock.
HERE
The first place, by
common right, to the ladies. The ideas I brought with
me respecting the female part of this family are turned
quite topsy-turvy, and unfortunately they are not yet cleared up.
I had expected to find in Lady Shelburne a Lady Louisa Fitz-
patrick, sister of an Earl of Ossory, whom I remember at school;
instead of her, I find a lady who has for her sister a Miss Caro-
line V—i is not this the maid of honor, the sister to Lady
G— ? the lady who was fond of Lord C—, and of whom he
was fond ? and whom he quitted for an heiress and a pair of
horns ? Be they who they may, the one is loveliest of matrons,
the other of virgins: they have both of them more than I could
wish of reserve, but it is a reserve of modesty rather than of
pride.
The quadrupeds, whom you know I love next, consist of a
child of a year old, a tiger, a spaniel formerly attached to Lady
Shelburne - at present to my Lord — besides four plebeian cats
who are taken no notice of, horses, etc. , and a wild boar who is
sent off on a matrimonial expedition to the farm. The four first
I have commenced a friendship with, especially the first of all,
to whom I am body-coachman extraordinary en titre d'office:
Henry, (for that is his name) [the present Lord Lansdowne]
for such an animal, has the most thinking countenance I ever
saw; being very clean, I can keep him without disgust and even
with pleasure, especially after having been rewarded, as I have
just now, for my attention to him, by a pair of the sweetest
smiles imaginable from his mamma and aunt. As Providence
hath ordered it, they both play on the harpsichord and at chess.
I am flattered with the hopes of engaging with them, before
long, either in war or harmony: not to-day — because, whether
you know it or not, it is Sunday; I know it, having been pay-
ing my devotions— our church, the hall — our minister, a sleek
young parson, the curate of the parish — our saints, a naked
Mercury, an Apollo in the same dress, and a Venus de' Medi-
cis - our congregation, the two ladies, Captain Blankett, and
your humble servant, upon the carpet by the minister — below,
the domestics, superioris et inferioris ordinis. Among the former
I was concerned to see poor Mathews, the librarian, who, I could
## p. 1782 (#580) ###########################################
1782
JEREMY BENTHAM
not help thinking, had as good a title to be upon the carpet as
myself.
Of Lord Fitzmaurice I know nothing, but from his bust and
letters: the first bespeaks him a handsome youth, the latter an
ingenious one. He is not sixteen, and already he writes better
than his father. He is under the care of a Mr. Jervis, a dis-
senting minister, who has had charge of him since he was six
years old. He has never been at any public school of education.
He has now for a considerable time been traveling about the
kingdom, that he may know something of his own country before
he goes to others, and be out of the way of adulation.
I am interrupted - adieu! le reste à l'ordinaire prochain.
FRAGMENT OF A LETTER TO LORD LANSDOWNE (1790)
I"
and your
T was using me very ill, that it was, to get upon stilts as you
did, and resolve not to be angry with me, after all the pains
I had taken to make you so.
You have been angry, let me
tell you, with people as little worth it before now;
being so niggardly of it in my instance, may be added to the
account of your injustice. I see you go upon the old Christian
principle of heaping coals of fire upon people's heads, which is
the highest refinement upon vengeance. I see, moreover, that
according to your system of cosmogony, the difference is but
accidental between the race of kings and that of the first Baron
of Lixmore: that ex-lawyers come like other men from Adam,
and ex-ministers from somebody who started up out of the
ground before him, in some more elevated part of the country.
To lower these pretensions, it would be serving you right, if
I were to tell you that I was not half so angry as I appeared
to be; that, therefore, according to the countryman's rule, you
have not so much the advantage over me as you may think you
have: that the real object of what anger I really felt was rather
the situation in which I found myself than you or anybody; but
that, as none but a madman would go to quarrel with a
entity called a situation, it was necessary for me to look out for
somebody who, somehow or other, was connected with it.
non-
## p. 1782 (#581) ###########################################
## p. 1782 (#582) ###########################################
P. J. DE BERANGER.
## p. 1782 (#583) ###########################################
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## p. 1782 (#584) ###########################################
P. J. DE BERANGER.
## p. 1782 (#585) ###########################################
Trine
3
Dess
pic
## p. 1782 (#586) ###########################################
FANUL
## p. 1783 (#587) ###########################################
1783
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
(1780–1857)
BY ALCÉE FORTIER
B
ÉRANGER, like Hugo, has commemorated the date of his birth,
but their verses
are very different. Hugo's poem is lofty
in style, beginning -
Ce siècle avait deux ans! Rome remplaçait Sparte,
Déjà Napoléon perçait sous Bonaparte,
Et du premier consul déjà, par maint endroit,
Le front de l'empereur brisait le masque étroit. ”
(This century was two years old; Rome displaced Sparta,
Napoleon already was visible in Bonaparte,
And the narrow mask of the First Consul, in many places,
Was already pierced by the forehead of the Emperor. )
Béranger's verses have less force, but are charming in their sim-
plicity:-
«Dans ce Paris plein d'or et de misère,
En l'an du Christ mil sept cent quatre-vingt,
Chez un tailleur, mon pauvre et vieux grand-père,
Moi, nouveau-né, sachais ce qui m'advint. ”
(In this Paris full of gold and misery,
In the year of Christ one thousand seven hundred and eighty,
At the house of a tailor, my grandfather poor and old,
I, a new-born child, knew what happened to me. )
Authors of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries are more
subjective in their writings than those of the seventeenth, whose
characters can rarely be known from their works. A glance at the
life and surroundings of Béranger will show their influence on his
genius.
Béranger's mother was abandoned by her husband shortly after
her marriage, and her child was born at the house of her father, the
old tailor referred to in the song The Tailor and the Fairy. ' She
troubled herself little about the boy, and he was forsaken in his
childhood. Béranger tells us that he does not know how he learned
to read. In the beginning of the year 1789 he was sent to a school
in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and there, mounted on the roof of
a house, he saw the capture of the Bastille on the 14th of July.
## p. 1784 (#588) ###########################################
1784
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
This event made a great impression on him, and may have laid
the foundations of his republican principles. When he was nine and
a half his father sent him to one of his sisters, an innkeeper at
Péronne, that town in the north of France famous for the interview
in 1468 between Louis XI. and Charles the Bold, when the fox, put
himself in the power of the lion, as related so vividly in Quentin
Durward.
Béranger's aunt was very kind to him. At Péronne he went to
a free primary school founded by Ballue de Bellenglise, where the
students governed themselves, electing their mayor, their judges, and
their justices of the peace. Béranger was president of a republican
club of boys, and was called upon several times to address members
of the Convention who passed through Péronne. His aunt was an
ardent republican, and he was deeply moved by the invasion of
France in 1792. He heard with delight of the capture of Toulon in
1793 and of Bonaparte's exploits, conceiving a great admiration for
the extraordinary man who was just beginning his military career.
At the age of fifteen Béranger returned to Paris, where his father
had established a kind of banking house. The boy had previously
followed different trades, and had been for two years with a pub-
lishing house as a printer's apprentice. There he learned spelling
and the rules of French prosody. He began to write verse when
he was twelve or thirteen, but he had a strange idea of prosody.
In order to get lines of the same length he wrote his words between
two parallel lines traced from the top to the bottom of the page.
His system of versification seemed to be correct when applied to the
Alexandrine verse of Racine; but when he saw the fables of La
Fontaine, in which the lines are very irregular, he began to distrust
his prosody.
Béranger became a skillful financier, and was very useful to his
father in his business. When the banker failed the young man was
thrown into great distress. He now had ample opportunity to become
familiar with the garret, of which he has sung so well. In 1804 he
applied for help to Lucien Bonaparte, and received from Napoleon's
brother his own fee as member of the Institute. He obtained shortly
afterwards a position in a bureau of the University. Having a
weak constitution and defective sight, he avoided the conscription.
He was however all his life a true patriot, with republican instincts;
and he says that he never liked Voltaire, because that celebrated
writer unjustly preferred foreigners and vilified Joan of Arc, “the
true patriotic divinity, who from my childhood was the object of my
worship. ” He had approved of the eighteenth of Brumaire: for my
soul,” says he, “has always vibrated with that of the people as when
I was nineteen years old;" and the great majority of the French
## p. 1785 (#589) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1785
people in 1799 wished to see Bonaparte assume power and govern
with a firm hand. In 1813 Béranger wrote The King of Yvetot,'
a pleasing and amusing satire on Napoleon's reign. What a contrast
between the despotic emperor and ruthless warrior, and the simple
king whose crown is a nightcap and whose chief delight is his bottle
of wine! The song circulated widely in manuscript form, and the
author soon became popular. He made the acquaintance of Désau-
giers and became a member of the Caveau. Concerning this joyous
literary society M. Anatole France says, in his Vie Littéraire, that
the first Caveau was founded in 1729 by Gallet, Piron, Crébillon
fils, Collé, and Panard. They used to meet at Laudelle the tavern-
keeper's. The second Caveau was inaugurated in 1759 by Marmontel,
Suard, Lanoue, and Brissy, and lasted until the Revolution. In 1806
Armand Gouffé and Capelle established the modern Caveau, of which
Désaugiers was president. The members met at Balaine's restaurant.
In 1834 the society was reorganized at Champlanc's restaurant. The
members wrote and published songs and sang them after dinner.
“The Caveau,” says M. France, “is the French Academy of song,”
and as such has some dignity. The same is true of the Lice, while
the Chat Noir is most fin de siècle.
To understand Béranger's songs and to excuse them somewhat,
we must remember that the French always delighted in witty songs
and tales, and pardoned the immorality of the works on account of
the wit and humor. This is what is called l'esprit gaulois, and is
seen principally in old French poetry, in the fabliaux, the farces, and
(Le Roman de Renart. ' Molière had much of this, as also had La
Fontaine and Voltaire, and Béranger's wildest songs appear mild and
innocent when compared with those of the Chat Noir. In his joyous
songs he continues the traditions of the farces and fabliaux of the
Middle Ages, and in his political songs he uses wit and satire just
as in the sottises of the time of Louis XII.
Béranger's first volume of songs appeared at the beginning of the
second Restoration; and although it was hostile to the Bourbons, the
author was not prosecuted. In 1821, when his second volume was
published, he resigned his position as clerk at the University, and
was brought to trial for having written immoral and seditious songs.
He was condemned, after exciting scenes in court, to three months'
imprisonment and a fine of five hundred francs, and in 1828 to nine
months' imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand francs, which was
paid by public subscription.
No doubt he contributed to the Revolution of July, 1830; but
although he was a republican, he favored the monarchy of Louis
Philippe, saying that “it was a plank to cross over the gutter, a
preparation for the republic. ” The king wished to see him and
## p. 1786 (#590) ###########################################
1786
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
procession.
thank him, but Béranger replied that he was too old to make new
acquaintances. ” He was invited to apply for a seat in the French
Academy, and refused that honor as he had refused political honors
and positions. He said that he “wished to be nothing”; and when
in 1848 he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly, he resigned
his seat almost immediately.
He has been accused of affectation, and
of exaggeration in his disinterestedness; but he was naturally timid
in public, and preferred to exert an influence over his countrymen
by his songs rather than by his voice in public assemblies.
Béranger was kind and generous, and ever ready to help all who
applied to him. He had
He had a pension given to Rouget de l'Isle, the
famous author of the Marseillaise,' who was reduced to poverty,
and in 1835 he took into his house his good aunt from Péronne, and
gave hospitality also to his friend Mlle. Judith Frère. In 1834 he
sold all his works to his publisher, Perrotin, for an annuity of eight
hundred francs, which was increased to four thousand by the pub-
lisher. On this small income Béranger lived content till his death on
July 16th, 1857. The government of Napoleon III. took charge of his
funeral, which was solemnized with great pomp. Although Béranger
was essentially the poet of the middle classes, and was extremely
popular, care was taken to exclude the people from the funeral
While he never denied that he was the grandson of a
tailor, he signed de Béranger, to be distinguished from other writers
of the same name. The de, however, had always been claimed by
his father, who had left him nothing but that pretense of nobility.
For forty years, from 1815 to his death, Béranger was perhaps the
most popular French writer of his time, and he was ranked amongst
the greatest French poets. There has been a reaction against that
enthusiasm, and he is now severely judged by the critics. They say
that he lacked inspiration, and was vulgar, bombastic, and grandilo-
quent. Little attention is paid to him, therefore, in general histories
of French literature. But if he is not entitled to stand on the high
pedestal given to him by his contemporaries, we yet cannot deny
genius to the man who for more than a generation swayed the
hearts of the people at his will, and exerted on his countrymen and
on his epoch an immense influence.
Many of his songs are coarse and even immoral; but his muse
often inspired by patriotic subjects, and in his poems on
Napoleon he sings of the exploits of the great general defending
French soil from foreign invasion, or he delights in the victories of
the Emperor as reflecting glory upon France. Victor Hugo shared
this feeling when he wrote his inspiring verses in praise of the con-
queror.
Both poets, Béranger and Hugo, contributed to create the
Napoleonic legend which facilitated the election of Louis Napoleon
was
## p. 1787 (#591) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1787
to the presidency in 1848, and brought about the Second Empire.
What is more touching than The Reminiscences of the People'?
Are we not inclined to cry out, like the little children listening to
the old grandmother who speaks of Napoleon: “He spoke to you,
grandmother! He sat down there, grandmother! You have yet his
glass, grandmother! ” The whole song is poetic, natural, and simple.
François Coppée, the great poet, said of it: “Ah! if I had only writ-
ten (The Reminiscences of the People,' I should not feel concerned
about the judgment of posterity. ”
Other works of Béranger's are on serious subjects, as Mary
Stuart's Farewell to France,' 'The Holy Alliance,' (The Swallows,'
and "The Old Banner. ) All his songs have a charm. His wit is not
of the highest order, and he lacks the finesse of La Fontaine, but he
is often quaint and always amusing in his songs devoted to love and
Lisette, to youth and to wine. He is not one of the greatest French
lyric poets, and cannot be compared with Lamartine, Hugo, Musset,
and Vigny; nevertheless he has much originality, and is without doubt
the greatest song-writer that France has produced. He elevated
the song and made it both a poem and a drama, full of action and
interest.
Béranger wrote slowly and with great care, and many of his songs
cost him much labor. He was filled with compassion for the weak,
for the poor and unfortunate; he loved humanity, and above all he
dearly loved France. Posterity will do him justice and will pre-
serve at least a great part of his work. M. Ernest Legouvé in his
interesting work, La Lecture en Action,' relates that one day,
while walking with Béranger in the Bois de Boulogne, the latter
stopped in the middle of an alley, and taking hold of M. Legouvé's
hand, said with emotion, “My dear friend, my ambition would be
that one hundred of my lines should remain. ” M. Legouvé adds,
“There will remain more than that,” and his words have been con-
firmed. If we read aloud, if we sing them, we too shall share the
enthusiasm of our fathers, who were carried away by the pathos, the
grandeur, the wit, the inexpressible charm of the unrivaled chansonnier.
Alio Portien
## p. 1788 (#592) ###########################################
1788
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
FROM THE GIPSIES)
(LES BOHÉMIENS)
Tº
O SEE is to have. Come, hurry anew!
Life on the wing
Is a rapturous thing.
To see is to have. Come, hurry anew!
For to see the world is to conquer it too.
So naught do we own, from pride left free,
From statutes vain,
From heavy chain;
So naught do we own, from pride left free, -
Cradle nor house nor coffin have we.
But credit our jollity none the less,
Noble or priest, or
Servant or master;
But credit our jollity none the less.
Liberty always means happiness.
THE GAD-FLY
(LA MOUCHE)
IN
N The midst of our laughter and singing,
'Mid the clink of our glasses so gay,
What gad-fly is over us winging,
That returns when we drive him away?
'Tis some god. Yes, I have a suspicion
Of our happiness jealous, he's come:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
Transformed to a gad-fly unseemly,
I am certain that we must have here
Old Reason, the grumbler, extremely
Annoyed by our joy and our cheer.
He tells us in tones of monition
Of the clouds and the tempests to come:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
It is Reason who comes to me, quaffing,
And says, “It is time to retire:
## p. 1789 (#593) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1789
At your age one stops drinking and laughing,
Stops loving, nor sings with such fire ; ».
An alarm that sounds ever its mission
When the sweetest of flames overcome:
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
It is Reason! Look out there for Lizzie!
His dart is a menace alway.
He has touched her, she swoons - she is dizzy:
Come, Cupid, and drive him away.
Pursue him; compel his submission,
Until under your strokes he succumb.
Let us drive him away to perdition,
That he bore us no more with his hum.
Hurrah, Victory! See, he is drowning
In the wine that Lizzetta has poured.
Come, the head of Joy let us be crowning,
That again he may reign at our board.
He was threatened just now with dismission,
And a fly made us all rather glum:
But we've sent him away to perdition;
He will bore us no more with his hum.
Translation of Walter Learned.
DRAW IT MILD
(LES PETITS COUPS)
L
ET's learn to temper our desires,
Not harshly to constrain;
And since excess makes pleasure less,
Why, so much more refrain.
Small table— cozy corner — here
We well may be beguiled;
Our worthy host old wine can boast :
Drink, drink — but draw it mild !
He who would many an evil shun
Will find my plan the best,
To trim the sail as shifts the gale,
And half-seas over rest.
Enjoyment is an art - disgust
Is bred of joy run wild;
## p. 1790 (#594) ###########################################
1790
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
Too deep a drain upsets the brain:
Drink, drink -- but draw it mild!
Our indigence - let's cheer it up;
'Tis nonsense to repine;
To give to Hope the fullest scope
Needs but one draught of wine.
And oh! be temperate, to enjoy,
Ye on whom Fate hath smiled;
If deep the bowl, your thirst control:
Drink, drink --- but draw it mild!
What, Phyllis, dost thou fear ? at this
My lesson dost thou scoff ?
Or would'st thou say, light draughts betray
The toper falling off ?
Keen taste, eyes keen whate'er be seen
Of joy in thine, fair child,
Love's philtre use, but don't abuse:
Drink, drink — but draw it mild !
Yes, without hurrying, let us roam
From feast to feast of gladness;
And reach old age, if not quite sage,
With method in our madness!
Our health is sound, good wines abound;
Friends, these are riches piled.
To use with thrift the twofold gift:
Drink, drink - but draw it mild!
Translation of William Young.
THE KING OF YVETOT
TER
HERE was a king of Yvetot,
Of whom renown hath little said,
Who let all thoughts of glory go,
And dawdled half his days a-bed;
And every night, as night came round,
By Jenny with a nightcap crowned,
Slept very sound:
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
And every day it came to pass,
That four lusty meals made he;
And step by step, upon an ass,
Rode abroad, his realms to see;
## p. 1791 (#595) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1791
And wherever he did stir,
What think you was his escort, sir ?
Why, an old cur.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
If e'er he went into excess,
'Twas from a somewhat lively thirst;
But he who would his subjects bless,
Odd's fish! - must wet his whistle first;
And so from every cask they got,
Our king did to himself allot
At least a pot.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
To all the ladies of the land
A courteous king, and kind, was he -
The reason why, you'll understand,
They named him Pater Patriæ.
Each year he called his fighting men,
And marched a league from home, and then
Marched back again.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
Neither by force nor false pretense,
He sought to make his kingdom great,
And made (O princes, learn from hence)
<Live and let live » his rule of state.
'Twas only when he came to die,
That his people who stood by
Were known to cry.
Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he!
That's the kind of king for me.
The portrait of this best of kings
Is extant still, upon a sign
That on a village tavern swings,
Famed in the country for good wine.
The people in their Sunday trim,
Filling their glasses to the brim,
Look up to him,
Singing “ha, ha, ha! ” and “he, he, he!
That's the sort of king for me. ”
Version of W. M. Thackeray.
## p. 1792 (#596) ###########################################
1792
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
FORTUNE
R
AP! rap! - Is that my lass
Rap! rap! - is rapping there?
It is Fortune. Let her pass!
I'll not open the door to her.
Rap! rap! -
All of my friends are making gay
My little room, with lips wine-wet:
We only wait for you, Lisette!
Fortune! you may go your way.
Rap! rap!
If we might credit half her boast,
What wonders gold has in its gift!
Well, we have twenty bottles left
And still some credit with our host.
Rap! rap! -
1
Her pearls, and rubies too, she quotes,
And mantles more than sumptuous:
Lord! but the purple's naught to us, -
We're just now taking off our coats.
Rap! rap! -
She treats us as the rawest youths,
With talk of genius and of fame:
Thank calumny, alas, for shame!
Our faith is spoiled in laurel growths.
Rap! rap! -
Far from our pleasures, we care not
Her highest heavens to attain;
She fills her big balloons in vain
Till we have swamped our little boat.
Rap! rap! -
Yet all our neighbors crowd to be
Within her ring of promises,
Ah! surely, friends! our mistresses
Will cheat us more agreeably.
Rap! rap! -
## p. 1793 (#597) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1793
THE PEOPLE'S REMINISCENCES
(LES SOUVENIRS DU PEUPLE)
A"
Y, MANY a day the straw-thatched cot
Shall echo with his glory!
The humblest shed, these fifty years,
Shall know no other story.
There shall the idle villagers
To some old dame resort,
And beg her with those good old tales
To make their evenings short.
“What though they say he did us harm?
Our love this cannot dim;
Come, granny, talk of him to us;
Come, granny, talk of him. ”
“Well, children — with a train of kings,
Once he passed by this spot;
'Twas long ago; I had but just
Begun to boil the pot.
On foot he climbed the hill, whereon
I watched him on his way:
He wore a small three-cornered hat;
His overcoat was gray.
I was half frightened till he said
"Good day, my dear! ) to me. ”
"O granny, granny, did he speak?
What, granny! you and he ? »
“Next year, as I, poor soul, by chance
Through Paris strolled one day,
I saw him taking, with his court,
To Notre Dame his way.
The crowd were charmed with such a show;
Their hearts were filled with pride:
(What splendid weather for the fête !
Heaven favors him! ) they cried.
Softly he smiled, for God had given
To his fond arms a boy. "
“Oh, how much joy you must have felt!
O granny, how much joy!
« But when at length our poor Champagne
By foes was overrun,
III-113
## p. 1794 (#598) ###########################################
1794
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
He seemed alone to hold his ground;
Nor dangers would he shun.
One night — as might be now - I heard
A knock — the door unbarred-
And saw
-good God! 'twas he, himself,
With but a scanty guard.
(Oh, what a war is this! he cried,
Taking this very chair. ”
“What! granny, granny, there he sat ?
What! granny, he sat there? »
« I'm hungry,' said he: quick I served
Thin wine and hard brown bread;
He dried his clothes, and by the fire
In sleep dropped down his head.
Waking, he saw my tears — Cheer up,
Good dame! ) says he, I go
'Neath Paris' walls to strike for France
One last avenging blow. '
He went; but on the cup he used
Such value did I set -
It has been treasured. ) ( What! till now?
You have it, granny, yet ? ”
« Here 'tis: but 'twas the hero's fate
To ruin to be led;
He whom a Pope had crowned, alas!
In a lone isle lies dead.
'Twas long denied: No, no,' said they,
(Soon shall he reappear!
O'er ocean comes he, and the foe
Shall find his master here. )
Ah, what a bitter pang I felt,
When forced to own 'twas true ! »
Poor granny! Heaven for this will look -
Will kindly look on you. ”
Translation of William Young.
## p. 1795 (#599) ###########################################
JEAN-PIERRE DE BÉRANGER
1795
THE OLD TRAMP
(LE VIEUX VAGABOND)
H
ERE in this gutter let me die:
Weary and sick and old, I've done.
« He's drunk,” will say the passers-by:
All right, I want no pity — none.
I see the heads that turn away,
While others glance and toss me
« Off to your junket!
