Now, Reader, having sent away the small Critic with a flea in his ear, I will tell you something concerning one of the curiosities of literature.
The most famous flea, for a real flea, that has yet been heard of,—for not even the King of the Fleas, who, as Dr. Clarke and his fellow traveller found to their cost, keeps his court at Tiberias, approaches it in celebrity,—nor the flea of that song, which Mephistopheles sung in the cellar at Leipzig,—that flea for whom the King ordered breeches and hose from his own tailor; who was made prime minister; and who, when he governed the realm, distinguished himself, like Earl Grey, by providing for all his relations:—the most illustrious, I say, of all fleas,—pulicum facile princeps—was that flea which I know not whether to call Mademoiselle des Roches's flea, or Pasquier's flea, or the flea of Poictiers.
In the year 1579, when the Grands Jours, or Great Assizes, were held at Poictiers under President de Harlay, Pasquier, who was one of the most celebrated advocates, most accomplished scholars, and most learned men in France, attended in the exercise of his profession. Calling there one day upon Madame des Roches and her daughter, Mademoiselle Catherine, whom he describes as l'une des plus belles et sages de nostre France, while he was conversing with the young lady he espied a flea, parquée au beau milieu de son sein.
Upon this Pasquier made such a speech as a Frenchman might be expected to make upon so felicitous an occasion, admiring the taste of the flea, envying its happiness, and marvelling at its boldness de s'estre mise en si beau jour; parce que jaloux de son heur, peu s'en falloit, he says, que je ne misse la main sur elle, en deliberation de luy faire un mauvais tour; et bien luy prenoit qu'elle estoit en lieu de franchise! This led to a contention mignarde between the young lady and the learned lawyer, who was then more than fifty years of age; finalement, ayant esté l'autheur de la noise, says Pasquier, je luy dis que puisque ceste Puce avoit receu tant d'heur de se repaistre de son sang, et d'estre reciproquement honorée de nos propos, elle meritoit encores d'estre enchâssée dedans nos papiers, et que tresvolontiers je m'y employerois, si cette Dame vouloit de sa part faire le semblable; chose qu'elle m'accorda liberalement. Each was in earnest, but each, according to the old Advocate, supposed the other to be in jest: both went to work upon this theme after the visit, and each finished a copy of verses about the same time, tombants en quelques rencontres de mots les plus signalez pour le subject. Pasquier thinking to surprize the lady, sent his poem to her as soon as he had transcribed it, on a Sunday morning,—the better the day the better being the deed: and the lady apprehending that they might have fallen upon some of the same thoughts, lest she should be suspected of borrowing what she knew to be her own, sent back the first draught of her verses by his messenger, not having had time to write them fairly out. Heureuse, certes, rencontre et jouyssance de deux esprits, qui passe d'un long entrejet, toutes ces opinions follastres et vulgaires d'amour. Que si en cecy tu me permets d'y apporter quelque chose de mon jugement je te diray, qu'en l'un tu trouveras les discours d'une sage fille, en l'autre les discours d'un homme qui n'est pas trop fol; ayants l'un et l'autre par une bienseance des nos sexes joüé tels roolles que devions.
The Demoiselle after describing in her poem the feats of the flea, takes a hint from the resemblance in sound between puce and pucelle, and making an allegorical use of mythology, makes by that means a decorous allusion to the vulgar notion concerning the unclean circumstances by which fleas, as they say, are bred:
Puce, si ma plume estoit digne,
Je descrirois vostre origine;
Et comment le plus grand des Dieux,
Pour la terre quittant les cieux,
Vous fit naître, comme il me semble,
Orion et vous tout ensemble.
She proceeds to say that Pan became enamoured of this sister of Orion; that Diana to preserve her from his pursuit, metamorphosed her into a flea (en puce,) and that in this transformation nothing remained of her
Sinon
La crainte, l'adresse, et le nom.
Pasquier in his poem gave himself a pretty free scope in his imaginary pursuit of the flea, and in all the allusions to which its name would on such an occasion invite an old Frenchman. If the story had ended here, it would have been characteristic enough of French manners, Or voy, je te prie, says Pasquier, quel fruict nous a produit cette belle altercation, ou pour mieux dire, symbolization de deux ames. Ces deux petits Jeux poëtiques commencerent à courir par les mains de plusieurs, et se trouverent si agreables, que sur leur modelle, quelques personnages de marque voulurent estre de la partie; et s'employerent sur mesme subject à qui mieux mieux, les uns en Latin, les autres en François, et quelquesuns en l'une et l'autre langue: ayant chacun si bien exploté en son endroict, qu' à chacun doit demeurer la victoire.