Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist

ate poetical images of his own. His verses consisted mostly of imitations of the French poems which he had read. He was ove

were by no means successful. It was only when he had raised himself above the influence of author

times, it did not exist in any written form. It was the speech of the common people; and though the Gascons spoke the idiom, it had lost much of

the inheritances of the past. They are the most conservative element in society. They love their old spe

and sorrows. It hovers in the air about them, and has been sucked in with their mothers' milk. Yet, when a primitive race such as the Gascons mix

he set to work and studied it. He was almost as assiduous as Sir Walter Scott in learning obscure Lowland words, while writing the Waverley Novels. Jasmin went into the market-places, where the peasants from the country sold their produce; and there he picked up many new words and

made his own lexicon, and eventually formed a written dialect, which he wove into poems, to the delight of the people in the South of Fra

on, detected in his poems many comparatively unknown words,-not indeed of his own creation, but merely the result of his patient and long-continued investigation of the Gascon dialect. Yet they found the language, as written and

y, contemporaneous with the improved studies that began at the Universities. It was also encouraged by the prosperity of Southern France, which was comparatively undisturbed by inte

, including the Provencal, was called Langue d'Oil. M. Littre, in the Preface to his Dictionary of the French language, says that h

h is the next, beginning in the ninth century; and that the English is the last, beginning in the fourteenth century. It must be remembered,

mostly of Saxon, Norse, and Norman-French with a mixture of Welsh or Ancient British. That language is, however, no test of the genealogy of a people, is illustrated by the history of France itself. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the Franks, a powerful German race, from the banks

Romans, irritated and disgusted by the barbarian rule; Franks more or less influenced by the manners and customs of civilised life; and 'Romans more or less barbarian in mind and manners.' The contrast may b

r of the West. Towards the end of his reign, the Norsemen began to devastate the northern coast of Franken-ric. Aix-la-Chapelle was Charlemagne's capital, and there he died and was buried. At his death, the Empire was divided among h

In 996 Paris was made the capital of France; and from that time, the language of Paris became, with various modifications, the languag

ill lingers. And in the south-west of France, where the population was furthest removed from the invasions of the Gauls, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths,

ians soon after his visit to the country of their origin. "Its abruptness and severity, and the sadness of its tone, are caused by their sudden perversion from the doctrine which the Apostle had taught them, and which at first they had received so willingly. It is no fancy, if we see in this fickleness a specimen of that 'esprit impretueux, ouvert a toutes les impressions,' and that 'mobilite extreme,' which Thierry marks as characteristic of the Gaulish race." At all events, the language of the Gauls disappeared in Central France to

f Aquitaine, when a Frenchman was another word for an enemy."{3} But the word has probably a more remote origin. When the Franks, of German origin, burst into Gaul

Gallic provinces, none but the southern ones succeeded in this great enterprise; and after the wars of insurrection, which, under the sons of Charlemagne, succeeded the wars of conquest, Aquitaine and Provence became distinct states. Among the South E

of reproach in the Gaulish country south of the Loire. Gascon and Provencal were the principal dialec

recitations were received with as much enthusiasm at Nimes

ltered and modified. They have suffered from the caprices of victory or of fortune. Of all the dialects of the Roman tongue, this patois alone preserves its purity and life. It still remains the sonorous and harmonious language of the Troubadours. The patois has the suppleness of th

ingenuous in the silence of the Provencals as to Jasmin's poems. They did not allow that he borrowed from them, any more than that they borrowed from him. These men of Southern France ar

and evolve their odour in the open air. Gascon and Provencal alike preserve the same relation to the cl

presenting it in a written form, was the result of laborious investigation. He did not at first realize the perfect comprehension of the idiom,

es and Iambic tetrameters, and to their irregular association in a sort of ballad metre, wh

et music from his heart and mind. Imagination spiritualised his nature, lifted his soul above the cares of ordinary life, and awakened the consciousness of his affinity with what is pure and no

poet is not uneducated at the beginning of his career? The

hears the lark's song filling the heavens, as the happy bird fans the milk-white cloud with its wings. He listens to the purling of the brook, the bleating of the lamb, the song of the milkmaid, and the joyous cry of the reaper. Thus his mind is daily fed

ory an

ough along the

Ramsay, the peruke-maker; Cooper, the shoemaker; and Critchley Prince, the factor

arche; Raval, Blondel, and Basselin de la Vive, whose songs were as joyous as the juice of his grapes; yet some of the best French poets of modem times have been of humble origin-Marmontel,

oper;{5} and finally, Jasmin the barber and hair dr

, which he subsequently altered to Me cal Mouri (Il me fait mourir), or "Let me die." It is a languishing romantic poem, after the manner of Florian, Jasmin

midst of his playful spirit, those tender accents which contrasted so well with his previous compositions. And did not Henry IV., in the midst of his Gascon gaieties and sallies, compose his sweet song of Charmante Gabrielle? Jasmin indeed is the poet who is nearest the region of Henry I

g ballads picked up in Languedoc, where there is a variety in the patois. I cannot resist giving them here, that my readers may compare the difference of dialec

they are not quite accurate; but her translation into English sufficiently render

ey encrumi

uille et tout

uche la brez

et succedo

as! bebi jus

is sans esp

hur, ey perd

uri! me c

llo thus transla

len night co

m is clothed wit

er is heard th

ghtingale the

rained the c

art has now no

me! what have

ost my love

the poem, but the secon

Phoebe, hasten

e while I beh

thou art no m

ppiness no m

rained the c

art has now no

me! what have

lost my love

to modem French, and, though somewhat artificial,

n the local journals; but the editors did not approve of his use of the expiring Gascon dialect. They were of opinion that his works might be better appreci

mns for festivals, and impromptus, scarcely worthy of being collected and printed. Jasmin said of the last description of verse: "One can on

ne passages of genuine beauty and graceful versification. It was in some respects an imitation of the Lutrin of Boileau. It was very different from the doggerel in which he had taken part with his humpbacked father so long ago. Then he had blow

he playfulness of joy. Thus, at the beginning of his career, Jasmin revealed himself as a poet in two very different styles; in one, touching the springs of grief, and in the other exhibiting brightness and happiness.

decided to name his collection 'The Curl-papers of Jasmin, Coiffeur of Agen.' The title was a good one, and the subsequent volumes of his works were known as La Papillotos (the Curl-papers) of Jasmin. The publication of this first volume served to make Jasmin's name p

red that the language of the Troubadours, which everyone supposed to be dead, was still in full life in France; that it not only lived, but that at that very moment a poor barber at Agen, without any instruction beyond that given by the fields, the woods, a

ated by success. He remained simple, frugal, honest, and hard-working. He was not carried off his feet by eclat. Though many illustrious strangers, when passing through Agen, called upon an

s to Ch

Ages,' iii. 434. 1

francais ancien, j'apercus tant de cas ou les sens et des locutions du jour ne s'expliquent que par les sens et les locutions d'autrefois, tant d'exemples ou la forme des mots n'est p

nd the Pyren

istorical Essa

an xix. Siecle. Par Alpho

ontemporains, i

age to Auver