The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-18 00:00:00

DEATH 011 BEIM.NGER THE POET.

The severe jam as with which the poet has been
for some time struggling has at length terminated
f.taliy, his d.eceaso having tiken
place yesterday
eve ring at his resideuco in the Rue Vendome. A
great crowd of persons, chiefly of the working
classes, a.tnountinp; to upwards of a thousand, were
assembled thruughout the day iu front of the home,
the extreme weakness of the. patient rendering it
unliktly that he could get through the day. As
soon as his death became known, the Prefect of
Police had the following notice placarded in every
part of Paris :--
"Prance has just lost her national poet ! The
Government of the F
mperor has determined that
honours shall be paid to the memory of
Beranger. This pious homaga was due to the poet
whose songs, consecrated iu the worship of the
country, have aid7cl in
perpetuating in the hearts
of the people the reminiscence of the Imperial glo-
ries. I learn that party men only see in this sad
solemnity an occasion of renewing the disorders
which at other limes have signalised similar cere-
monies. The Government will not allow a tumul-
tuous manifesfation to be substituted for the re-
spectful and patriotic sorrow which ought to pre-
vail at the funeral of Beranger. On the other hand,
the wishes of the dece tsed have been expressed
in these touching words As to my funeral, if
you can avoid public noise, do so, 1 Irg of you,
my d. ar Perrotin. I hold in horror the tumult of
a crowd, and the eclat of speeches, at the inter-
ment of friends whom I lose ; and if mine can be
effected without a public gathering, one of my
wishes will be accomplished !' It has, therefore,
been resolved, in accord with the testamentary
executor, that the funeral procession shall be exclu-
sivelycomposed of official deputations andof persons
who receive letters of convocation. I request the
populati, nto conform to the prescriptions. Mea-
sures are taken to cause the determination of the
government and the desire of the deceased to be
rigorously and religiously respected. Paris, July,
16, 1857.

PIETRI, senator."
The 11lowiteur announces the event .in the fol-
lowing terms : ~
"France has sustained a painful loss ; Beranger
died yesterday after a long and severe malady.
The Emperor, wishing to do honour to the memory
of this national poet, whose works have so power-
fully contributed to keep up patriotic sentiment in
France, and to popularise the glory of the Empire,
has decided that the- expenses of the funeral
shall be defrayed by the Imperial civil list.
Th 9 funeral of Beranger will take place to-day
at noon." We cannot record the death of Beranger
without a passing word of admiration for his genius,
and regret for his loss, which robs France of another
of her few—her very few—real poets. It is true,
he was Int a song writer, but into -his songs his
genius threw the character and feeling of a nation
—and sometimes its wrongs. Essentially the poet
of the people, gallant, gay, witty, satirical, and
above all French; perhaps no writer ever so com-
pletely photographed the character of his country-
men as Beranger, or loved his country better. It
will be seen from the following sketch of his career
that the deceased had nearly reached his 77th

year :
"Pierre Jean Beranger was born on the 17th
August, 178), at the residence of his grandfather,
a poor tailor living at No. 50, Rue Montorgneile
His father, who followed the• same calling
was a man of unsteady propensities, who cared
little for his family, and was at no pains to pro-
vide for their euhsietence. His favourite crotchet
was that he was the descendant of illustrious an •
cestors, and the greater part of his time was occu-
pied in tracing his pedigree to noble and aristocra-
tical sources. Of his son he took little heed, leav-
sub
propensities
of
Peronne.,
eroing him to grow up as he pleased, and to wander
about the streets of Paris with any associates that
chance might throw in his way. The boy remained
Hw
iiiitsehndluile i
eiits grandfatherlvaosf
staverne n tto
bluntiliovye lwehfiett
bwhial
nisi s
ri ibi maternal
n butne.
yearslittle o
leisure
auntag
e:
w
forwh toie indulgencekiept
asmall
of inn
hilils vagrantthe b
at such brief intervals as he could snatch from' his
homely employment he managed to form an ac • quern-
tance with the writings of on
Fene 1 V • , Voltaire, and
Racine. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a
printer at Peronne, named Laisne,
having
acquired
what little he knew at the ' Institut Patriotique,' a
branch of the school founded by M. B. de Bellangese
upon the system of J. J. Rousseau for the dissemi-
nation of liberal principles. His new occupation
was doll]) it-es more favourable to his literary taste.
It was whilst he was Engaged in setting up the
types for an edition of the poetry of Andre Chenier
that young Beranger first attempted the composi-
tion of verse, and from that day his chief ambition
was to become a poet. At the age of 17 he returned
to the house of his grandfather, and tried his hand
in several styles of versification, but does not ap-
pear to have satisfied himself or those about him
that he was born a poet. Sick of the poverty by
which he was surrounded, and thewant of sympathy
which it was his fate to encounter on all sides—for
he liSd published before he left Peronne, without
exciting any attention, a small volume of songs, en-
titled. the ' Garland of Roses'—he determined to go
to Egypt, then in the occupation of the French
army, but the unpromising account given him
by an acquaintance who had returned thence,
induced him .to abandon his project. About
that time he wrote a comedy, entitled
' The Hermaphrodites,' but being unable
to get it accepted at any of the theatres, he threw
it into the fire. For more than a year be followed
no settled occupation, although deicing that inter-
val be is said to have produced his best songs.
Embittered by disappointment, and almost hope-
less of success, he resolved to collect all the poems
ho had written, and send them to Lucien Bona-
parte, the brother of the first consul, who was
known to be a liberal patron of literature. In
1803,' says be, ' without resources, tired of falla-
cious hopes, versifying without aim and without
encouragement, I conceived the idea—and how
many similar ideas have remained without result !
—I conceived the idea of enclosing all my crude
poems to M. Lucien Bonaparte, already celebrated
for his great oratorical talents, and for his love of
literature and of the arts. My letter accompanying
them was worthy of a young ultra-rePublicen
bran ! How well I remember it ! It bore the
impress of pride wounded by the necessity of
having recourse to a protector. Poor, unknown,
so often disappointed, I could scarcely count
upon the success of a we') which no one se-
conded. Nor was he, on this occasion, doomed to
further disappointment. The prince, favourably
disposed to the young poet, not only by the spe-
cimens which he had forwarded, but by the manly
tone of the letter by which they were accompanied,
relieved him almost immediately from his suspense.
He answered his application in the kindest and
most encouraging terms, and having sent for him to
his house advised him as to his future course, and
promised to afford him more substantial assistance.
Before he had an opportunity of carrying out his
benevolent intentions, the prince became himself
an exile. On his arrival at Rowe, however, he trans-
mitted to Beranger an order to receive and apply
the s Mary coming t o him as member of the Institute.
Tne aid thus afforded was moat seasonable. Hewes
soon able to find employment fur his pen. During the
tA o years 1805-6 he assisted in editing “ Landon's
Annals of the Muscle," and in 1809 he managed to
obtain
the post of copying clerk in the office of the
Secretary of the University, with a salary of 1,200 f.
a-year. He was now in comparatively independent
circumstances. His genius had, moreover, begun
- to attract notice iu high places. Napoleon's laugh-
ter on reading, for the first time, Beranger's ‘ Roi
d'Yvetot ' (a good-humoured satire on his own pre-
tensions) is said to have been exuberant. In 1813
Beranger was elected a member of the Society of
the Caveau, then the resort of the most distin-
guished. literary men of the time ; and, encouraged
i,y the cordial reception his songs met with from its
frequenters, he resolved to devote himself exclu-
sively to that class of composition. Towards the
latter part of the year 1815, when the first collected
edition of his songs made its appearance, he had
b gun to be widely known to the French public.
' La Requete des Chiens de Qualite ' and ' La Cen-
seur ' were by this time on the lips of all Paris.
The last newel song had well nigh brought him
into trouble ; but Bonaparte had made his escape
from Elba, and among oteer changes Beranger was ac-
tuilly offered a post in the office of the Imperial
censorship. The proposal vets received by Beran-
ger and his jovial friends of the Caveau with laugh-
ter, and he continued to retain his humble clerk-
ship in the office of the Secretary of the University.
His second series of songs, published in 1821, cost
- him his place (no great loss) and three months' im-
risonment in the prison of Ste. Pelagie. His
teird. (1828) subjewed him to nine months' impri-
sonment in La Force and a fine of 10,000 francs.
The fine was, howevert paid by the poet's admirers,
and the prison in which he was confined became
the rendezvous of the most distinguished men of
I
the day. From behind his prison bars Beranger
kept up so deadly a lire on the government that he
contributed more effectually to destroy it than all
a d the blows of the hercee of the Three Days. After
having assisted so importantly in winning the battle,
however, he refased to accept any share in the
si oil. His friends, who were now occupying the
high places, would have loaded him with titles
and hollows, but be declined all payment for his
services, and to avoid being mixed up with the
ever-variable politics of the capital he retired, first
to Passy, next to Fontainebleau, and finally to
Tours, where he completed what he called his
' Memoires Chantantes,' by the publication of his
fourth volume of songs, At the revolution of