and Bautzen, but still he saw that his power sprung up every where under the influence was waning; and it is by no means un- of champagne and chambertin, and song natural to suppose that at that time he found followed song in quick succession. it prudent not to disregard that longing for peace which was manifesting itself through out the country. At all events, Béranger, tacitly allowed to rhyme just as he pleased, followed up his satire on the Emperor by another set of stanzas called Le Sénateur; and when the dignitaries of that grave body complained to Napoleon of the liberty taken with their character and morality, the answer was:-"Gentlemen, I have had no objection to the Roi d'Yvetot; you have permitted it to be sung. May I, in my turn, ask the same favour for le Sénateur ?" Some persons may perhaps, accuse us of being unnecessarily squeamish, because we decline, in this review, even alluding to those licentious effusions which have disgraced the genius of Béranger. But we would ask this plain question, in the words of a modern critic:-"Can a man sing what he would not dare to say, and is rhyme a sufficient safe-conduct for licentiousness ?" We are still wondering how men, whom their talent raises above the multitude-men of noble sentiments, if we can judge from the average of their writings-could degrade themselves The sarcastic spirit of Béranger was not so far as to disclose to the public, without satisfied with the opportunity supplied by any shame, the secret of their most ignoble poetry, and the natural accompaniment of thoughts! What dignity can he show in a popular time. It must needs express it private life who has thus surrendered himself in plain prose, and reflect on the ex- self, and who, to speak like Phædrus, stulti cesses of despotic power in the very drawing- nudavit animi conscientiam? It is in vain room of M. de Fontanes. One evening a for Béranger to tell us, as an excuse, that rather obsequious employé, anxious, no "les gens véritablement sages, toujours indoubt, to make a strong profession of im- dulgents, pardonment des écarts à la gaité, perialism, exclaimed: "Alexander alone et permettent à l'innocence de sourire;" we could tame Bucephalus; no one but Napo- are still of opinion, with the same critic, that leon the Great would be able to rule over" bad words, to whatever tune they are sung, France." "Oh! oh!" answered Béranger, are bad actions." Molière, La Fontaine, who had overheard the remark, "do you are also often adduced as authorities; but compare France with Bucephalus ? A don- the talent which these great writers have key would have been a better simile; for unfortunately shown in describing objectionthen it would tell you, perhaps, on what able scenes, and casting ridicule upon the part the saddle galls it." This was carrying most sacred ties, only serves to prove how plain speaking somewhat too far; the chan- generally the consciousness of morality has sonnier received a sound lecture in conse- been deadened and blunted in France. That quence. Molière's Amphitryon should have been performed under the sanction of Louis XIV., and that La Fontaine's Tales should have been the favourite book of the fine ladies of that monarch's court, cannot be quoted as the justification of Béranger. We quite resign ourselves to the imputation of overstrictness, when we say that morality would gain much, and literature would sustain little. loss, were all the chansonnier's Anacreontic effusions destroyed. Whilst the star of the victor of Austerlitz was thus sinking gradually below the horizon, whilst the general anxiety was increasing, and disaffection and treason were surely hastening the disorganization of the empire, -songs still sparkled at intervals, and chansonniers, when not engaged in rhyming about political subjects, would run riot in bacchanalian strains, too often without the slightest respect for the laws of morality and religion. The celebrated societies which met at the "Mes chansons, c'est moi," said Béranger. Caveau, the Cadran bleu, and the Moulin de We find, therefore, as one of the constituent beurre, had not yet assumed a political cha-parts of his moral character, a kind of reracter; they were merely festive associa fined Epicurism, which forms the subject of tions, periodical gatherings of free-livers, most of his early productions, and which who amply proved that they deserved the led him to consider life as a sort of dream, celebrated qualification of Horace, Epicuri which we must while away as pleasantly as de grege porcum. There Desaugiers, Ar- possible. This feature, however strongly mand Gouffe, Dumersan, and a thousand marked in the first recueil, became gradually others, used to meet; twelve hundred per- weaker and weaker; the satirical element, sons busily applied the knife and fork around tables spread out in the open air; and when the chairman had given the signal towards the end of the repast, Anacreons on the contrary, acquired more extension, until it pervaded the whole of the latter songs, and Béranger could say at last, with much truth,— Ma gaité s'en est allée; old traditions which the people had thought gone for ever since the storming of the Bastille, then Napoleon's unbridled ambition was forgotten; his name became the watchword of the Liberals, who acknowledged in him, as Béranger says, "le représentant de l'égalité victorieuse" and the French people, always so fond of military glory, contrasted the triumphal progress of the tricolour flag with the ridiculous pretensions back from the land of exile nothing but their of those effete gentilhommes, who had carried prejudices and their utter ignorance of the ed song, les Gaulois et les Francs, written in political wants of the nation. The celebrat1814, was launched forth as an appeal to union against the occupation of the country by foreign troops. Even during the first months which followed the accession of Louis XVIII., Béranger advocated a system of conciliation. the King had to contend against, and he perHe saw very clearly all the difficulties which ceived that, personally, the monarch was determined to secure for the country those inviolable rights which the Charter itself proclaimed, and which had been purchased at the cost of so much suffering: Here we may note a striking difference between Béranger and the chansonniers who immediately preceded him. In the works of Desaugiers, Panard, Collé, and Vadé, there are certainly here and there some satirical passages-a few stanzas which evidence great powers of observation, and an unquestionable talent for seizing and jotting down the ridicules and vices of society; but still with them the song, taking it as a whole, is merely the effusion of a voluptuary. Béranger, on the contrary, goes further and deeper: he begins with a song, he goes on with a satire; he first puts on his head a chaplet of roses, but speedily exchanges it for the warrior's helmet; instead of the bauble which he first sported with, we find in his hand a drawn sword, or the avenging whip of Nemesis. In a word, Béranger, like Paul Louis Courier, his contemporary and his perfect parallel, was the most complete embodiment of what has been called l'esprit Gaulois, that indescribable assemblage of qualities in which we find united the voluptuous tendencies of Chaulieu, the wit of Voltaire, and the frondeur disposition of every bourgeois de Paris. Béranger's poems form the most interesting and curious collection of documents on the History of France since the Restoration; and the philosophical reader can study in them the struggle between the Liberal opposition and the But the prestige was not of long duration. Government of the Bourbons, quite as ac- The émigrés of the reactionary coterie, surcurately as he can trace, in the celebrated rounding the king, and overpowering the Recueil de Maurepas,* the feeling of the cabinet, were loudly calling for the recovery nation towards the absolutism of Louis of their privileges, and parading about their XIV. and Louis XV., the irritation of the scutcheons, newly furbished up. Who is parliaments, and the corruption of the that pompous-looking personage, with kneecourt. Moliére's Mascarille speaks of breeches, a bag-wig, and a laced three-cor"mettre en madrigaux toute l'histoire Ro-ed hat, elbowing his way through the salons maine;" Béranger's Recueil might properly of the Tuileries, and looking down superbe entitled, "The history of my own time ciliously upon a Conegliano, a Gouvian Saint Cyr, a Macdonald? Béranger will tell you : set to music." Our poet had never felt any sympathy for the brilliant though heavy despotism of the Empire; and his song of Le Roi d'Yvetot proves how opposed he was to that spirit of conquest and of ambition which ended in Waterloo. Louis, dit-on, fut sensible Aux malheurs de ces guerriers, Chapeau bas! chapeau bas! The moment could not better be chosen But when the disasters of 1814 brought in his resignation of the post he still occufor a satirist. Béranger began by sending into France the allied armies,-when, after a long and desperate conflict, the Bourbon rule was re-established, and, along with it, all the reactionary principles, all the musty *This curious MS. collection of songs and squibs is about to be published by the well-known projector of the Bibliotheque Elzévirienne, M. JANNET. pied at the University, and then issued his fleurs de lys,white flag, State religion, Jesuits, first recueil de chansons. King, ministers, and Bourbon government, were unsparingly held up to the ridicule of the nation. Béranger was twice tried for attacks upon the Government, and offences against public morality. The first time, he was condemned | popular writers of France, but a vague to three months' imprisonment and to a Deism, which, rising occasionally to the exsmall fine, Malgré l'éloquence sublime pression of truly noble sentiments, is more usually of a very sensual character, and easily reconcileable to that Epicurism which sees exerything, even the tomb, couleur de rose, through the sparkling transparency of "Oh!" remarked some friend, "it is very a bottle of champagne. The famous song kind of you to call Dupin's eloquence sub-"Le Dieu des bonnes gens," may be said to lime." 66 Certainly," was the answer, "Du- contain the chansonnier's creed; and what pin often rises to the sublime. Yes, he does creed! or rather, what utter inability to unget up to the clouds; only, I don't know derstand the great questions about God, the how he manages, for when he comes down, soul, and eternity! he is always covered with mud." Seven When some serious voice talks to him of years after, Béranger selected for his coun- the last day, and of the dissolution of all sel M. Barthe, who became Minister of things, does he then at least reflect a little, Justice under Louis Philippe. Still, con- and examine whether after all the teaching demnation was unavoidable, and the court of religion is not likely to be true? No! pronounced a sentence of nine months' im-" quelle erreur !" he exclaims:prisonment, and a fine of 10,000 francs (400 pounds). This sum was immediately paid by M. Bérard and a few other friends of the poet. Meanwhile the celebrated songs had speedily found their way into the heart of the whole population. Napoleon's veteran grenadiers shed tears whilst repeating the stanzas of "le Cinq Mai," the song of the "Sacre de Charles Simple" was whistled about the streets by the impudent little "gamins," in defiance of the judicial ver dict. .. quelle erreur! Non, Dieu n'est point colère; S'il créa tout, à tout il sert d'appui." 1 The great mistake in unbelievers has ever been, the identification of Christianity with that corrupt form of religion which has mixed with the truth the grossest errors, and enforced subscription to these errors by Unfortunately, in terror and violence. France there have been very little means of ascertaining that the identification is not real; and when an allusion is made to the Béranger had evidently struck the right doctrines of the Bible, the immediate answer cord. And here let us notice other strongly is, What! believe that the consecrated wamarked features of his productions, and fer has been transformed into God himself! which are essentially French. The first is -that the capucins indignes are the pillars that longing after political equality-the of the Church!-that the doors of purgatory dream of "Young France." In this respect, can fly open at the trifling expense of a as in many others, Béranger had identified himself completely with the majority: he was their spokesman; his songs were the living expression of their feelings, and for that reason his name had become a "house hold word." Why was Béranger so enthusiastically fond of Napoleon? Why did he sing so constantly "le petit caporal," and take "la redingote grise" as his guiding star? It is because he saw in the dictator's rule the triumph of equality. "Comme l'égalité," he said, "visible sous les uniformes et les croix d'honneur était à l'armée occupée à faire le siège des vieilles aristocraties de privilège et de droit divin, le peuple suivait avec amour ce soldat victorieux, porté sur le pavois de la Révolution." In his view of the relation in which we stand to another world, Béranger was essentially French. You will find nothing in couple of crowns!-We are, it is true, or- Des deux clefs de notre bon pape, Montaigne, Molière, La Fontaine, and the In countries where an enforced State-reli *Lapointe, p. 49. * Les chantres de paroisse. gion is the exclusive rule, unbelief and pro- | Sebastiani, then Minister of War, and danfanity often, or rather generally, become gerously ill, received one day a visit from the necessary elements of political oppo- Béranger. "Ah! my dear friend," said the old soldier to the poet, "I am very ill. sition. Béranger, it is well known, was twice elected a member of the Legislative Assembly which met in consequence of the events of 1848, and twice he declined the honour bestowed upon him. We must hasten with the few remaining Come, my dear Béranger, we must do observations we have to make respecting something for our friends. I declare to you Béranger's biography. During the period that I shall not die quietly if I leave you in extending from 1820 to the end of his life, poverty behind me. Madame de Praslin he was the real monarch in France, for he has a fortune of her own; therefore it will had on his side public opinion; and the op- not be doing any injustice to my children. position which he carried on was the expres- Listen; I have there in my bureau a few sion of the wishes of the multitude. He small savings, about two hundred thousand saw that the government of the Bourbons francs, let us divide them. It is an old had in it no element of stability, because it friend, an old soldier, who offers you this; was conducted in defiance of the spirit of the and I swear, on my cross of honour, that no age; and the intriguers, who aimed at ruling in one shall know the pleasure you will have the name both of Louis XVIII. and of Charles done me in accepting this small present." X., utterly disregarding the new direction The poet refused. given to ideas by the principles of 1789, were dreaming of a return to worn-out institutions and customs. Whilst Paul Louis Courier in his " Simple Discours," his "Pamphlet des Pamphlets," and his other brochures, was reviving in all its point and pungency the spirit of Pascal,--whilst the palmy days of the Provincial Letters seemed to have returned with the lampoons of the Tourangeau vigneron, Béranger knocked down the pillars of the Old Monarchy as it were in sport, and the echo of his strains caused the worm-eaten institutions to fall to pieces. His strong common sense served him more than his very genius; and he had over Courier the advantage which rhyme gives, even merely considered as a help to memory. It is impossible to sing a pamphlet; but put a lampoon into verse, adapt it to a popular tune, and, like electric spark, it flies in a minute from one end of the country to the other. The last years of the chansonnier's life were spent by him in the enjoyment of the reputation he had earned by his writings, and in the practice of acts of kindness and munificence which, in the case of candidates to literary fame, were uniformly accompanied by a few words of excellent advice. M. Lapointe's volume is full of interesting anecdotes of that description; and although want of space prevents us from indulging in any further lengthened quotation, we cannot help transcribing, for the benefit of young littérateurs, the following sensible piece of advice:-" Beware of illusions; write, compose poetry, sing, but take some employment, and never forsake work. Let poetry be for you only a recreation, a passeBéranger was the poet of the bourgeoisie. temps. Unless a man is helped on by When the Revolution of 1830 had brought circumstances of an extraordinary nature, the bourgeoisie to the throne, he understood he gains by writing nothing beyond a foolthat his political career was finished, and re-ish reputation, which leads him to the workmained silent. After that time he might house or the arms of misery."* On the easily, had he thought proper, obtained every dignity which the most ambitious can covet; but he knew too well the price of independence; and he preferred remaining unfettered, enjoying the right of his franc parler. M. Lafitte offered him the most brilliant situation; his friend Manuel left him his heir; he received propositions equally honourable to the persons who made them, and to him who was the object of them. But all in vain : Un ministre vet m'enrichir, This last trait refers to an anecdote related 16th of July Pierre-Jean de Béranger breathed his last, and, true to his old views, declined receiving the sacraments of the Church to which he nominally belonged. From the remarks we have made, our readers will have no difficulty in perceiving what opinion we entertain of Béranger's songs. As literary compositions, some of them have already taken their place amongst the masterpieces which genius has produced. Each chanson is a complete drama in itself, well-proportioned, and finished off with all the care of a consummate artist. The chansonnier was self-taught, and the only poet with whom we can fitly compare *Lapointe, p. 242. Spring Journey from Beersheba to Sidon. him is Burns. The Scottish minstrel, how-S. The Land of Promise, being Notes of a ever, had a far finer perception of the beauties of nature, and far deeper sympathies with the highest aspirations of the soul, than Béranger. To conclude. Literary powers, poetic Most annalists can identify the localities genius, and a classical taste, are not all that over which their story rests; so that the we should look for, even in a writer of two things, story and scene, like soul and songs. Victor Hugo says somewhere, that body, being honestly knit together and fita poet has also the cure of souls." This, ted into each other, make up a substantial we believe, is true; and, if it be true, what whole, a genuine historical being,-not only must we think of him who disregards the not lacking in any essential part or feature, most common ideas of morality? What but possessed of a sufficient amount of must we think of the patriot who, after clothing and drapery to satisfy the reader having celebrated in his strains the enno- that it really is the very piece of authenbling love of the father-land, condescends to ticity and life which it professes to be. disgrace his pen by appealing to the grossest History has always sought to bring the passions and most degrading appetites? As two things together, at whatever cost or an excuse, Béranger says, that " sans ce toil; and the annalist, who knows his office folles inspirations de la jeunesse, mes coup- and mission, has invariably manifested an lets politiques n'auraient per aller si loin." uneasiness, a sensitive consciousness of failFor our part, we refuse to think so ill of ure, when unable to achieve this union. our neighbours as to suppose that they can- In many cases, however, the attempt at not accept patriotism unless when it walks union has broken down, or been at once hand in hand with licentiousness. The im- abandoned as hopeless. The two parts putation is an insult; but if it were true, it would only lower our opinion of the French, without increasing our esteem for Béranger, ART. VIII.-1. Early Travels in Palestine, comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Wil libald, Bernard, etc. Edited, with Notes, by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. London: Bohn. 1856. have, in the run of ages, been so thoroughly severed, that with our present amount of information and research, reknitting is impossible. It is not that both parts have been found, but cannot be brought together, so that "They stand aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which have been rent asunder :" it is, that one has totally perished. One, indeed, is found,-entire enough, it may be, 2. Biblical Researches in Palestine and the after its own kind; but its fellow is awantAdjacent Nations; a Journal of Travels ing. There is no "dreary sea" flowing in the years 1838 and 1852. By ED- between the sundered cliffs, but a stormy WARD ROBINSON, D.D., LL.D. Second ocean, that has succeeded in wearing down edition, in 3 vols. 8vo. London: John and engulfing perhaps the mightier and Murray. 1856. more majestic of the two. Sometimes it is 3. Sinai and Palestine, in connection with the site, sometimes it is the story, that is their History. By ARTHUR PENRHYN amissing, the survivor ill at ease, if not STANLEY, M.A. London: John Murray. disconsolate, without its mate. The story, when it outlives the site, seems to hover, 4. The Desert of Sinai: being Notes of a like one of Ossian's ghosts, over cities and Spring Journey from Cairo to Beersheba. regions, uncertain where to alight, or, inBy HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. Second edi- deed, whether it be possible or wise to alight tion. London: J. Nisbet and Co. 1857. at all. That Homer was born, and that he 5. The Holy Places: a Narrative of Two was born somewhere upon the face of the Years' Residence in Jerusalem and Pales- broad earth, is admitted by all, save those tine. By H. L. DUPUIS. Two vols. whose vocation is, not to find truth in fable, London: Hurst and Blacket. 1856. as in Esop's manlier days, but fable in 6. The Tent and the Khan: a Journey to truth, as in Strauss' less upright age. But Sinai and Palestine. By ROBERT WAL- for the birth-place itself we search in vain ; TER STEWART, D.D. Edinburgh: W. and the old name still hovers, as it has done Oliphant and Sons. 1857. for ages, over the seven cities of Greece, unable in any of them to fix its home. The site, when it survives the story, lies cold, inexpressive, soul-less, like some corpse cast 7. Tent Life in the Holy Land. By WILLIAM C. PRIME. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co. 1857. |