3313 ([return])
[ De Tilly, "Mémoires," I., 153. "The difference between the tone and language of the court and that of the city was about as great as that between Paris and the provinces.">[
3314 ([return])
[ Hence the lack of success of the Maupeou parliament.]
3315 ([return])
[ See the collections of songs previous to the Revolution, especially military songs such as "Malgré la bataille,"—"Dans les gardes françaises," etc.—At the time of the Restoration, the pastoral or gallant songs of Florian, Bouffiers and Berquin were still sung in bourgeois families, each person, young or old, man or woman, singing one at the dessert. This undercurrent of gayety, geniality and amiability lasted throughout the Revolution and the Empire. ("Travels through the South of France, 1807 and 1808," p.132, by Lieutenant-Colonel Pinkney, of the United States.) "I must once for all say that the Memoirs of Marmontel are founded in nature." He cites a great many facts in proof of this, and testifies in all classes to a prompt and social nature, a natural benevolence or habitual civility which leads them instinctively, and not unfrequently impertinently, into acts of kindness and consideration."—The same impression is produced on comparing the engravings, fashion-plates, light subjects and caricatures of this period with those of the present epoch. The malicious sentiment begins only with Béranger; and yet his early pieces ("Le Roi d'Yvetot," "le Sénateur") display the light air, accent and happy, instead of venomous, malice of the old song. Nobody now sings in the lower bourgeoisie or in gatherings of clerks or students, while, along with the song, we have seen the other traits which impressed foreigners disappear, the gallantry, the jesting humor, the determination to regard life as so many hours (une serie de quarts d'heures, each of which may be separated from the others, be ample in themselves and agreeable to him who talks and to him or her who listens.]
3316 ([return])
[ Read the novels of Pigault-Lebrun: books of the epoch the best adapted to the men of the epoch, to the military parvenus, swift, frank, lusty and narrow-minded.]
3317 ([return])
[ Candide (Récit de la Vieille).]