1831.3 The Popular Literature of Frcmce. 47 



Cartouche, Mandrin, Desrues — or, lastly, a few romances, imitated from 

 Ann RadclifFe, which form at once the delight and despair of the por- 

 tresses ; interrupted at every paragraph of these fascinating studies, by 

 the fatal "cordon, s'il vous plait" (pull the string to open the gate, if 

 you please). We must also include in this list L'Histoire dii boiuie 

 Homme misere, Ic Capucin sans harhe, les Cinq Maris et la Fucelle, le 

 Testament de Michel Morin; mock sermons, remarkable for their 

 obscenity ; numerous discours, in defence of the god Crepitus, in which 

 the celebrated enigma of the Mercure Galant is commented on without 

 the slightest affectation of reserve in respect to style. We often also 

 find in cities the Catechisme des Maltoiiers (Tax-Gatherer's Catechism), 

 a pamphlet composed against Bouvalais, the Ouvrard of his day, who, 

 to render the resemblance complete, passed some time in the same prison 

 in which the celebrated contractor just named was lately confined. If 

 the old French reputation for gallantry were not already deeply com- 

 promised by the devotion of the present race of men to politics and 

 ecarte, there would be good grounds to tremble for its existence, in look- 

 ing at the manner in which le petit sexe is treated in the Miroir des 

 Femmes, la Mcchancete des Demoiselles, le Cattchisme d V Usage des 

 grandes Filles pour etre Mariees, &c. Ancient and modern writers, 

 Grecian philosophers and Persian moralists. Scripture itself, all are 

 brought forward, to prove that woman is " the source of quarrels, the 

 scum of nature, the scourge of wisdom, the firebrand of hell, the touch- 

 word of vice, the devil's bait, a most greedy animal, the shipwreck of 

 the soul, a forest of pride, the vanity of vanities, a goat in the garden, 

 a magpie at the door, an owl at the window, an angel in the street, and 

 a devil in the house." Fortunately, every one has it in his power to 

 find out that this is a pure calumny ; nevertheless, from the energy of 

 the preventive and repressive system of the heads of some families 

 among the people, we may see reason to fear that the opinion of the 

 calumniators is sometimes adopted literally. 



By a singular contrast, we find that, in conjunction with these absur- 

 dities, some of the old chivalric romances, inflated with lofty sentiments 

 and superannuated gallantry, have retained their place in the popular 

 estimation ; marvellous epopees, in which all the world, with the excep- 

 tion of a few licentious giants and perfidious magicians, brought in by 

 way of contrast, pass their time in annihilating crime, or cooing madri- 

 gals. These works, with the Cabinet des Fees, form the staple of the 

 Bibliotheqiie Bleue, some of the works of which deserve particular men- 

 tion : — 



" Conquests of the great Charlemagne, king of France, with the 

 heroic deeds of the twelve peers of France, and of the great Fier-a- 

 Bras, and the battle waged against him by Oliver the Little, who con- 

 quered him ; and of the three brothers who made the nine swords, three 

 of which Fier-a-Bras had to fight against his enemies, as you will see 

 hereafter." 



This romance, the title of which is a model of its kind, is the trans- 

 lation of an ancient chronicle in verse, in which the history of France 

 is traced up to the fall of Troy and the adventures of Francus, a com- 

 panion of j'Eneas. Pyramus is the first King of France, Mercurus the 

 second, Pharomond the third, &c. ; excellent historical lessons, as may 

 be perceived. Charlemagne, in all the works of that period, is a sort of 

 Pill Garlick, whom every one delights in making a dupe of. The con- 



