SCARRON 



SCATTERY ISLAND 



201 



madrigals, songs of drinking and of eating, and 

 satires ; in 1644 published Typhon, ou la Gtganto- 

 maehie, a long jocose poem in five cantos describ- 

 ing the war of the Giants against the God.s ; and 

 next year made a still greater hit with his laugh- 

 able metrical comedy, Jodelet, ou le Maitre Valet, 

 followed quickly by Les Trots Dorothees, ou Jodelet 

 soujflete and Les Koiitad.es du Caj/itan Matamore 

 et ses Comedies the last apparently never repre- 

 sented. The plote of these Scarron owed to the 

 .Spanish, and similarly the idea of his Virgile 

 Travesti he borrowed from the Italian poet J. B. 

 Lalli's Eneide Travestita. The first part of this 

 famous work of Scarrnn's appeared in 1648 ; the 

 whole included only eight of Virgil's books, and of 

 these the first and fourth were translated into 

 English, in all their coarseness and vigour, by a 

 kindred spirit, Charles Cotton. In 1648 appeared 

 also the popular comedy, L'Heritier Ri/linih . 

 which, it is said, the young king Louis XIV. liked 

 so much that he had it performed twice in one 

 day. During the struggle of the Fronde countless 

 satires appeared against Mazarin, and one of the 

 bitterest of these, entitled La Mazarinade, was 

 ascribed to Scarron. On the cardinal's return to 

 Paris in triumph the facile poet addressed him in 

 terms of unmeasured Battery 'Jule, autrefois 

 1'objet de I'injuste satire.' But he did not recover 

 his pensions, although the famous Surintendant 

 FoiKjiiet made good the loss to the poor poet. 

 Scarron was a consummate beggar, but he always 

 did it like a humorist and without spleen or mean- 

 ness. The exceptional sufferings of this ' living 

 epitome of human misery ' extenuate his ceaseless 

 applications for relief, and the facility with which 

 he accepted everything, money, books, a carriage, 

 pies, poultry, puppies. His iui|>ortunities were so 

 jocular that they never estranged him from his 

 friends, and he never lost his own kindness of 

 heart, for we find him troubling his powerful 

 friends for their good offices on behalf of others, 

 as well as sheltering within his house two nuns 

 thrown on the world through the bankruptcy of 

 their convent with one of these, Celeste Palaiseau, 

 in earlier days he had been in love. 



In 1651 appeared the first part of his famous work 

 Le Roman Comique (2d part, 1657), intended as 

 a reaction against the euphuistic and interminable 

 novels of Mile, de Scudery and Honor6 d'Urfe, 

 then at the height of popular favour. It descril>es 

 the adventures of a troop of strolling players in 

 the provinces, and, loose and ill-constructed as it 

 is, has the one surpassing excellence of the creative 

 faculty, of bringing before us real men and women. 

 It inspired Gantier's not altogether superior Capi- 

 taine Fracasie ; but more important still, gave the 

 impulse out of which sprang the masterpieces of 

 Le Sage, Defoe, Fielding, and Smollett. The third 

 part, which bears the title of 'Suite d'Offray,' was 

 not the work of Scarron. All three were translated 

 into English by Tom Brown, Savage, and others, and 

 an abridgment by Goldsmith was published post- 

 humously. Other works of Scarron's that deserve 

 mention are the comedies, Don Japhet d'Armenie 

 and La Precaution Inutile ; his Nouvelles Trayi- 

 romiavea, from one of which (Les Hi/pocrites) 

 Moliere took the idea of Tartnfe ; and the poem, 

 Relation des Parque et des Poetes tur la Mart 

 de Voiture, prefaced by a characteristically gay 

 description of his own appearance and condition. 

 Few men have had his sufferings, and fewer still 

 his courage ' I hate no man, and could wish all 

 the world had the same feelings for me ; I am as 

 lil i I In- ax a l>inl when I have money and should 

 be much more so were I in health ; I am merry 

 enough in company, and am qnite happy when "I 

 am alone ; I bear all my ills pretty patiently." 



The income he derived from his publisher his 



'Marquisat de Qninet' his pensions, and the fruits 

 of his dedications and his importunities enabled 

 him to enjoy good living and to receive in the 

 H6tel d'lmpecuniosite the visits of the greatest 

 figures of the day in the world of fashion as well 

 as letters. About 1650 he became filled with a 

 desire to visit the islands of America, and actually 

 journeyed as far as Tours in October ' I take my 

 leave of burlesque verse, of comedies and comical 

 romances,' wrote the brave-hearted cripple, 'logo 

 to a happy climate, where there are no affected 

 coxcombs, no canting rascals, no inquisition, no 

 rheumatism to cripple any one, nor no confounded 

 wars to starve me. But this craze brought him to 

 the strangest adventure of his life. One day a 

 friend brought to his house a beautiful but penni- 

 less young girl of fifteen, Francoise d'Auoigne, 

 who had been brought up at Martinique, and 

 whose character remains one of the enigmas of 

 history. The poet was enchanted with her, and 

 in 1652 married her to save her from a convent. 

 In the marriage contract, with characteristic buf- 

 foonery, he recognises her as bringing him a dowry 

 of four louis, two large and very expressive eyes, a 

 fine bosom, a pair of beautiful hands, and plenty 

 of intelligence ; while he on his part brought her 

 immortiilitv. 'The names of kings' wives die with 

 them,' said he, 'that of the wife of Scarron will 

 live for ever" a strange prophecy, strangely to be 

 fulfilled in the history of Madame de Maintenon. 

 For eight years she waited on her poor husband 

 with pious care, managed admirably his dubious 

 finances, and brought an unknown decorum and 

 refinement into his Bohemian household. Even 

 his writings henceforward lose their grossness under 

 that gentle influence ; although indeed this can 

 hardly be said of the earliest after the marriage, 

 l>,,n .In/ihct, which is prefaced by a dedication to 

 the king, a masterpiece of begging without humilia- 

 tion 'Sire, I will endeavour to persuade your 

 Majesty it would not be very wrong to assist me 

 a little, for if you did assist me a little I would lie 

 more jovial than I am ; and if I were more jovial 

 than I am I would write lively comedies ; if I 

 wrote lively comedies your Majesty would be 

 amused by them ; and if you were amused the 

 money liestowed on me would not be lost. All 

 this leads to such an inevitable conclusion that I 

 imagine I should 1* convinced by it if I were a 

 great king instead of being what I am, a poor 

 wretched creature.' Death came at last to relieve 

 the sufferer in Octolier 1660, but he saw it come 

 with anguish ; his greatest sorrow, to leave his 

 poor young wife In-hind in destitution. For a 

 heart beat warmly in that feeble and distorted 

 frame, and in his dying words we feel a penetrat- 

 ing pathos hardly hidden under an effort of irony : 

 ' If there be a hell I have nothing to fear from it, 

 having endured it in this world." The eight verses 

 of his own epitaph irresistibly touch the heart. 

 Dead, he could lay aside the mask, and confess all 

 that he hod borne in silence ' Passer-by, tread 

 lightly here, take care not to awake him, for it is 

 the first night that poor Scarron sleeps." 



There are editions by Brazen de la Martiniere (10 vols. 

 1737) Mid by Baume (2 vola. 1877); of the Roman 

 Comimif, by Victor Fournel ( 1857 ) and A. France (1881 ). 

 See Christian's tu<le (1841); Morillot, Scarron et le 

 genre burlesque (1888) ; Andri Le Breton, Le Bonian au 

 ^'Ptiime Sticle (1890); an excellent article by Van 



Lann in the Gent. Mag. for April 1885 ; and Jusserand's 

 introduction to a new edition of Tom Brown's translation 

 of The Comical Works of Scarron (1892). 



Scattery Island, an islet in the Shannon's 

 estuary, 3 miles SW. of Kilrush, containing a fort, 

 fragments of several small churches, and an ancient 

 round tower 87 feet high. It was a sacred place 

 in early Christianity St Senan's retreat in the 



