or however, these two songs-Le Roi D'Yvetot and Le Sénateurwhich could have no possible allusion to Buonaparte, and were not written till that comet was disappearing, are all that can be quoted of liberalism, or even honest independence of sentiment in Béranger, up to the close of the empire. It is possible that there may have been something of gratitude in this silence, for we have heard that he owed to one of the Buonapartes (Lucien, we believe) his little place of Expéditionnaire, (occasional extra clerk,) under the Board of Public Instruction, at about 40l. a year. But fear was likely to have been, in this instance, quite as powerful a motive as gratitude; for Napoleon was not a man to overlook in the meanest, any more than to tolerate in the highest, any criticism on the march of his government. But now follows a most remarkable circumstance of the story;—this little place, which constituted Béranger's whole livelihood, the fanatic and vindictive Bourbons permitted him to enjoy for many years, in every month of which he was exercising his great and popular talents in every kind of ridicule and invective, in insult to their persons, in defiance of their authority, and in sedition against their power. Nor was it till the publication with the ten thousand subscribers, and the consequent prosecution, that the government deprived him of a place, which he not only held during pleasure, but which was, in its nature, temporary. We really think that if anything like gratitude had bridled in the struggling Muse with pain,' during the empire, a little of the same quality ought to have prevented the gross and indecent personalities of his satire-his slanders against the princes who for many years had magnanimously tolerated his insolence. This is the dark side of Béranger's character, but defendit numerus; the Dictionnaire des Girouettes-and every French biographie is a dictionnaire des girouettes-attests that every leading man in France is liable to imputations of the same or of an analogous kind-indeed, Béranger is one of the least inconsistent, and personally, one of the most respectable in the whole alphabet, while there is not one who has distinguished himself by such peculiarity of talent to the consideration of which we gladly turn from the less agreeable view of his political career. From the Revolution of July, to which he had so powerfully contributed, not by his poetical talents alone, but by an active, and at the same time, we are told, a most discreet and able co-operation in all the secret councils of the liberal party-from the Revolution, we say, which owed him so much, he has accepted nothing—he has seen his friends, his pupils, his colleagues in opposition, become ministers, and he has declined, it is said, the favours of the new government. Content with a very moderate income realized by the sale sale of his works, his life does not belie the promise of his muse. If his odes have the spirit of the Spartan poet and patriot, he appears also to have the Spartan contempt for riches and for rank; and he seems not only personally to have declined taking a profitable part in the change of government, but his muse seems to have hung up her lyre, and disdained even to celebrate the victory. Indeed, he says himself, that with the expulsion of King Charles he felt that his occupation was gone;' and it is certain, that the bitter and sarcastic tone of his songs (and this is so generally their characteristic, that we suspect it to be the natural tone of the author) would be nearly useless except in opposition. He complains too that he grows old. This may be lucky for the new dynasty; for we strongly suspect that the day is not far distant, when Béranger might again find full employment for his satiric vein, and that the citizen-king and his rapid succession of citizen-ministers would afford occasions for personalities, even more cutting, and infinitely more just, than those with which he assailed the government and persons of the elder branch of the Bourbons. We should like to see the mixed strain of satire and pathos, of ridicule and indignation, which such a mind might pour forth, in a new ode, under the title of Le Testament du Duc de Bourbon.' If, indeed, facit indignatio versus' be Béranger's motto, we have little doubt that he has before this set about restringing his lyre, and that we may soon expect some poetical Philippiques, as much higher in flight and deeper in tone than his rhymes on les Barbons,' —as his new subject will exceed the former in all the circumstances that can excite the detestation of the poet and the honest man. En attendant les Philippiques, Béranger has published since the Revolution but three or four songs: two in favour of the Poles, which are rather feeble, and seem to justify his own impression that his forte is personality; another to his Amis devenus Ministres,' in which he generously declines any share in the spoil; and a lyrical invitation to M. de Châteaubriand to return to his native country, to which his splendid talents, and still more the courage and consistency of his political conduct, have done such great and such rare honour. Of this ode, which is better than the Polonaises, probably because it is personal, and of which the personal and satiric points are, unfortunately, the best, we shall offer one or two specimens. Châteaubriand! pourquoi fuir ta patrie, Fuir son amour, notre encens et nos soins? "Mon beau ciel pleure une étoile de moins?" After a summary of Châteaubriand's life and works, he proceeds VOL. XLVI. NO. XCII. 2 I • Des 'Des anciens rois quand revint la famille, To this poetical and very just description of M. de Châteaubriand's endeavour,-in his Monarchie selon la Charte, as well as by his personal conduct as a statesman,-to hallow and consolidate the new institutions of France by ancient principles and national recollections, Béranger adds a very, we hope and believe, unjust, but certainly a bitter charge of ingratitude against the exiled house : Et tu voudrais t'attacher à leur chûte! Connais donc mieux leur folle vanité; Au rang des maux qu'au ciel même elle impute Béranger's admiration of M. de Châteaubriand was, perhaps, a little stimulated into this panegyric by the Viscount's having, in the preface to his Historical Essays, lately published, quoted an historic stanza of one of Béranger's songs as digne de Tacite, qui faisait aussi des vers.' Our readers may be curious to see the stanza so applauded: it is an allusion to Buonaparte, in the song called Le Dieu des bonnes Gens. Un conquérant, dans sa fortune altière, Se fit un jeu des sceptres et des lois; Empreinte encor sur le bandeau des rois.'-v. ii. p. 260. This is certainly fine, but not very well placed in a drinking-song, every stanza of which, although thus sounding a high tone of poetry and politics, ends with a bacchanalian and somewhat profane chorus: 'Le verre en main, gaîment je me confie Au Dieu des bonnes Gens.' This 'honourable mention' probably, we say, quickened Béranger's admiration of Châteaubriand; and Châteaubriand, in a letter addressed to Béranger, and prefixed to his last pamphlet, has repaid the chansonnier's compliments in like coin : A great poet,' he says, whatever be the form in which he conveys his ideas, is always a writer of genius.'-(The phrase is somewhat tautologous.)—' Pierre de Béranger is satisfied with the title of Le Chansonnier, as Jean de la Fontaine was with that of Le Fablier, and like him he has taken rank among our immortals. I foretell you, Sir, that your fame, already without a rival, will rise still higher. Few judges, now-a-days, are capable of appreciating all the polish of your verses, few ears delicate enough to relish their harmony. The most most exquisite finish is concealed under the most delightful simplicity.'-Sur le Bannissement de Charles X., p. 10. And then, protesting however against their political spirit, he instances several songs as models of happy pleasantry. Under the sanction of so good a judge, we shall select one of them, as being, not perhaps the best, but of general application, and likely to be almost as well understood in Downing-street, with the interpretation of Lord Althorp's cook, as it is in the Place Vendôme. LE VENTRU ;* ou, COMPTE RENDU DE LA SESSION AUX ELECTEURS DU DEPARTEMENT DE→→ We shall conclude our extracts with another song, which seems to us still more characteristic of the style of Béranger's political That body in the Chambers which was supposed to support all ministries, was called Le Ventre. The title of the song happily expresses in one word the admirer of the policy and of the table of the minister. 212 pleasantries. pleasantries. We have supplied the names, which in the printed copy are only in initials, and which the reader will see are those of successive law-officers. LE SYSTEME DES INTERPRETATIONS. *** A MARIE Comment, sans vous compromettre, Vatismenil dira: "Non. Le deuxième de son nom. Vous combla d'heureux talens; Sont touchés de votre encens; Que votre ame encor brisée Pleure un vol fait par des rois ? "Ah! vous pleurez le Musée," Dit Marchangy le Gaulois. Halte là! Vite, en prison pour cela." Si je dis que la musique Vous offre aussi des succès; Vite, en prison pour cela." LE JOUR DE SA FETE.* Si je peins la bienfaisance Dit: "La bonté rend suspect; C'est nous manquer de respect. Vite, en prison pour cela." 66 Que c'est le quinze d'Août. Vite, en prison pour cela." Je me tais donc par prudence, Et n'offre que quelques fleurs. Je puis me perdre avec vous; Est là pour nous sauver tous... Vite, en prison pour cela. But we must conclude. We will pass over, with silent regret, the indelicacy of some of the songs: though the early life of Béranger may have familiarized him to that sort of language, we wonder the good taste which he shows in minor points, did not warn him to omit the gross and indecent passages,― and they are not many,-which must reuder his volumes offensive to well-bred men, and utterly unreadable by modest women. the profaneness we have already alluded,-it is too frequent to be corrected without sacrificing the larger portion of his works, —we lament it, we nauseate it; but we are sorry to have been obliged to say, that we rather blame the state of manners and Το *Our readers will easily believe, that there was no real Marie ***, and that the fete and the name are a poetical invention to introduce Napoleon, Marie-Louise, the Duke of Reichstadt, and the 15th August, Buonaparte's féte. society |