[249] Translated by F. J. C. Kearns, O. P.
[250] Congrès Archéologique, 1909, p. 183; J. Ch. Roux, Aigues-Mortes (Paris, Bloud et Cie, 1910); F. Em. di Pietro, Histoire d’Aigues-Mortes (Paris, 1849); Marius Topin, Aigues-Mortes (Nîmes, 1865); Abbé H. Aigon, Aigues-Mortes, ville de St. Louis (1908); H. Havard, éd., La France artistique et monumentale, vol. 3, p. 145; Ch. Lenthéric, Le littoral d’Aigues-Mortes au XIIIe et au XIVe siècles (Nîmes, 1870); Vie. (Dom) et Vaissette (Dom), Histoire de Languedoc, vol. 7, p. 107, 3d éd.; Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire de l’architecture, vol. 1, pp. 378, 390; vol. 9, p. 182.
[251] Maurice Barrès, Le jardin de Bérénice (Paris, Charpentier, 1894).
[252] Congrès Archéologique, 1897, p. 98; and 1909, p. 168, L. H. Labande; J. Ch. Roux, St. Gilles, sa légende, son abbaye, ses coutumes (Paris, Lemerre, 1910), 4to; J. Hubidos, Histoire et décoration de l’église abbatiale de St. Gilles (Nîmes, 1906); De Lasteyrie, Étude sur la sculpture française au moyen áge (Paris, 1902); A. Marignan, L’école de sculpture de Provence du XIIe au XIIIe siècle; Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. 19, p. 268, Clement IV (Paris, 1838); Forel, Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols; W. Vöge, Die Anfänge des monumentalen Styls.
[253] Edmond Rostand, “Le nom sur la maison,” in Le vol de la Marseillaise (Paris, Charpentier-Fasquelle, 1919).
[254] Les Saintes-Maries is a desolate village of the Camargue, on the sea by the “Rhone of St. Gilles,” six miles to the west of the big Rhone. The crenelated fortress-church replaced, in the XII century, one destroyed by Saracens. Its eastern end rises in three stories; below, in the crypt, is the shrine of Sara, the dark handmaiden; above is the high altar; and crowning all is the shrine (placed in St. Michael’s care) in which Mary Jacobi and Mary Salome are honored. Their chapel opens on the church over the entrance to the Mass chapel. The sculpture resembles that of St. Trophime, at Arles; perhaps the much-eroded marble lions came from some monument of antiquity. Twice a year there are popular pilgrimages to Les Saintes-Maries, that of May being frequented by the gypsies. Monseigneur Duchesne, “La légende Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,” in Annales du Midi, 1903, vol. 5; Georges de Manteyer, “Les légendes saintes de Provence,” in Mélanges d’archéol. et d’hist.: École de Rome, 1897, vol. 17; Faillon, L’apostolat des Saintes-Maries en Provence. (This latter gives the Midi loyalists’ point of view.) (1848, 2 vols.)
[255] Congrès Archéologique, 1897, pp. 95, 291, Tarascon; pp. 92, 333, Beaucaire; and 1909, p. 262, Tarascon. The church of St. Martha at Tarascon was dedicated in 1197, but reconstructed in the XIV century. The south portal, with its curious little gallery, is of the XIII century. The honored relics are in the crypt in a heavy tomb of 1650. The simpler sarcophagus that once held them now stands by the side wall. All over France the defeat of paganism by Christian bishop or saint was symbolized by a dragon, and in the course of time the people often took the symbol for reality. The legend of St. Martha’s Tarasque, or dragon, may be of this origin. Louis II d’Anjou began the castle of Tarascon, which was decorated by good King René. At Beaucaire, across the Rhone, is a tower built by St. Louis. The international fair of Beaucaire was famous. “Aucassin was of Beaucaire, of a goodly castle there”:
“’Tis of Aucassin and Nicolette....
The song has charm, the tale has grace,
And courtesy and good address.
No man is in such distress,
Such suffering or weariness,
Sick with ever such sickness,
But he shall, if he hear this,
Recover all his happiness,
So sweet it is!”
Turn to that cante-fable of the XIII century, and live again the Midi’s days of chivalry. Turn to that XIX-century masterpiece of satirical generous humor, Tartarin de Tarascon, more likely to survive than many a more pretentious tale, so gay it is.
F. W. Bourillon, éd. and tr. of Aucassin et Nicolette (Oxford, 1896).