The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-17
THE OCTOBER MAGAZINES.
ttPUTNAN,S.,,

the Troubadours." President Henry Coppee;
The Dream Of Pilates Wife" G. p. Cranch;
line Cheeebro; "Old Boston and St. Botolph's,"
Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne; Something about
Fungi" Z. G. Wright; The Charge at Valley
sLdy,, Msaloy," James 7; Mckay Treasure Troye"
Dean; Princess Begojoso on Italy," II. 7.
Tuckerman; "Leaves from Publishers Letter.
Book, g. P. Putnam; 'Notes among the
lndans"-I1, Vincent Colyer; To-Day" Ro-
mance-Chap. VIII-XI, r. B. Kimball; "a
Mining Adventure i'm New Mexico" Raphael
Pumpelly; Fallen Angels" Mrs. j. j. Piatt;
'Literature-At Homes" Fine Arts" "Table
Talk" Literature, Science, and Art Abroad;"
Current Events"
As interesting as anything in the magazine is
Professor Coppee's paper on Jasmin, "The Last
of the Troubadours," the Provencal barber-poet
known to most English readers solely through
Longfellow's fine translation of his exquisite
poem, ''Thc Blind Girl of Caste-Cuille:"-
Jacques Jasmin was born at Agen, the chief
town of the Department of Lot-et-Garonne. 1t
is worth nothing that the elder Scaliger died
and the younger was born here, because their
fame seems to have dwet in the memory and
affected the Imagination of Jasmin. He be-
came, he says, dreamer by the fountain when .
he was told that ga famous writer, Jules-Cesar
Scaliger, had made his immortal verses chime
with the sound of its silver wave"
We are indebted to one of his earlier poems
''Mous Soubenis' ones s0uDenirs), which ap.
pcared in 1880, for n simple and touching ac-
count of his early careers he describes the hard
. ships and extreme poverty of his youth, and
gives humorous account of his peccadioes
The Jasmins, for generations, had the unfortu-
nate habit of dying in the almshouse and he
tOuchingly describes the parting with his poor
old grandfather, as, overcome by poverty and
sickness, he sets off tottering for the same
final resting-place. Once the Jasmin
family were without bread, and his
mothers wedding ring, en- dernier
resort went to the pawnbrokers to furnish q
meal, add when it came, how the children
laughed and shouted, and ate, oblivious of the
morrow The furniture of the old room, how
meagre! Then come his lessons at the church
seminary or charity school, and the story of his
progress; in six months he had learned to read,
six months after he was an acoyte in the mass,
again slX months pass, and he is singer in the
choir, intoning the I'Gnhtn1 Ergo. A
comic account follows of his first love
scrape; he is caught and locked up,
but passes the time in stealing the preserves of
the superor-an objectionable sin; and thus, six
months after, he is driven away accursed.
At length, behold him in the nldjSOBette bleIe,
apprentice to the barber, to learn the silver
secrets, Of the razor and the comb" But
while he learned to make and dress wigs,
to cut hair and to shave, the burning passion
of song came upon him. His leisure time
was passed in reading, but he revolved
poems in his mind and sang them even with the
scissors or razor in his hand. He read FlOridn
and Duordy Dttl1inil fell in love with the lam
guage of Estelle, and determined to write in
that sweet patois which she spoke so charm
ingly." With crowd he went to the theatre,
and he was in ecstacies at the play, the music,
the scenes; ah,
que de pals nouvels
Oh coumo canton bien! qun parla dous ct
tendre."
With such simple events, double existence, he
says was engendered within him; the one cray
ing a solitude in which he dreamed a thou
sand sweet things" the other seeking the gay
world with its myriad pleasures. At eighteen
he married, blessed for tie occasion in his
''dyed cap, blue coat and coarse shirt with
calico front" Then in the hey-dey of youth,
and feeling the afliatus of poetry, the question
naturally arose whether he should shave or sing
for living; but seeing in country paper the
sage couplet-
pegasus was the horse that bore
Poets to the almshouse door,"
he made his final determination that he would
shave for living and sing for pleasure, and he
never deviated from this determination.
This is very simple recital, taken from the
souvenirs, but they throughout Illustrative of
the man; proud of his poverty, proud of his
trade, and proud of his verses.
His first published work, and one which i'm
medately gave him renown, was Lou ChdHbdrl
(Le Ch0rioarO, mock heroic poem, conceived
without a knowledge of Homer and the schools,
so correctly, and executed so powerfully, that,
in the opinion of Nodier, it contests the prize
with the Lutrils of Boileau and La Secchtd Rd-
pita (the rape Of the bucket of Tassoni. In 1885
Gdstelcuile (the Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille)
of which Leon de Lavergne speaks as "Cette
touchante historic qui a fait verser tant
de larmes sur toute la hgne des
PSrenees." Although it has been rem
dered by Longfellow in English as well
as both idioms would admit there a
freshness and naturalness in the story, ana a
harmony and tenderness in the language of the
original, which are not even approached in the
translation. In 1910 he gave to the world his
Franconneto Franconnette), which he dedicated
to the city of Toulouse, and which eminent
critics have considered his best poem. The elite
of Toulouse had given him a banquet in 1886,
and the President had offered as q sentiment,
1.-THE adopted son of the city of Toulouse-Jas-
min." This poem was his response.
In 1910 he published his MaHro PInOucentO
(Crazy Mdythd), which, if not much a work
of varied art, is n still more touching story than
Franconnette The next year appeared Les
Deu1 Freres Jttnedur (Lousdus trays besSous),
and in 1S49, La Senldine dun Fills (La semmano
dun fD.
We have mentioned only his principal poems;
his minor verses are all striking and beautiful;
but we must pass them by, to say that with all
the simplicity, causalty, and freshness OF
the improvisatore, in seeming, the poetry OF
.Jasmin is in reality thoroughly labored and
Chdtie. 1t comes indeed, fresh from the heart,
and speaks TO the heart, it is in the language OF
the people; there is no rhetorical artfce; he was
ignorant of the schools but like a skiltul
painter he works by rules, although self-taught
He makes the cartoon he studies his persons
and groups from life, he spreads his canvas, and
be spares no labor to make his hgures speak and
live before us. His poems are thus caDlnel
pictures of rare truth and rare finish
There is q passage in his life which IL
illustrates his high appreciation OF the labor Justly
demanded by the art of poetry, and in which he
speaks admirably for himself. There was Ger
tain Peyrotte, peasant poet, like himself, q
potter of the department of Herault who sen1
i'm fhrf-f -fr,,as hall In