"To-day!Fascinated by the laurel which Toulouse has sent me,and which fills my heart with joy,I cannot forget,my dear young lady,the sorrow which overwhelms me--the fatal illness of my mother--which makes me fear that the most joyful day of my life will also be the most sorrowful."Jasmin's alarms were justified.His prayers were of no avail.
His mother died with her hand in his shortly after the deputation had departed.Her husband had preceded her to the tomb a few years before.He always had a firm presentiment that he should be carried in the arm-chair to the hospital,"where all the Jasmins die."But Jasmin did his best to save his father from that indignity.He had already broken the arm-chair,and the old tailor died peacefully in the arms of his son.
Some four months after the recitation of Franconnette at Toulouse,Jasmin resumed his readings in the cause of charity.
In October 1840he visited Oleron,and was received with the usual enthusiasm;and on his return to Pau,he passed the obelisk erected to Despourrins,the Burns of the Pyrenees.
At Pau he recited his Franconnette to an immense audience amidst frenzies of applause.It was alleged that the people of the Pyrenean country were prosaic and indifferent to art.But M.
Dugenne,in the 'Memorial des Pyrenees,'said that it only wanted such a bewitching poet as Jasmin--with his vibrating and magical voice--to rouse them and set their minds on fire.
Another writer,M.Alfred Danger,paid him a still more delicate compliment.
"His poetry,"he said,"is not merely the poetry of illusions;it is alive,and inspires every heart.His admirable delicacy!
His profound tact in every verse!What aristocratic poet could better express in a higher degree the politeness of the heart,the truest of all politeness."[6]
Jasmin did not seem to be at all elated by these eulogiums.
When he had finished his recitations,he returned to Agen,sometimes on foot,sometimes in the diligence,and quietly resumed his daily work.His success as a poet never induced him to resign his more humble occupation.Although he received some returns from the sale of his poems,he felt himself more independent by relying upon the income derived from his own business.
His increasing reputation never engendered in him,as is too often the case with self-taught geniuses who suddenly rise into fame,a supercilious contempt for the ordinary transactions of life."After all,"he said,"contentment is better than riches."Footnotes to Chapter X.
[1]Journal de Toulouse,4th July,1840.
[2]The Society of the Jeux-Floraux derives its origin from the ancient Troubadours.It claims to be the oldest society of the kind in Europe.It is said to have been founded in the fourteenth century by Clemence Isaure,a Toulousian lady,to commemorate the "Gay Science."A meeting of the society is held every year,when prizes are distributed to the authors of the best compositions in prose and verse.It somewhat resembles the annual meeting of the Eisteddfod,held for awarding prizes to the bards and composers of Wales.
[3]The following was his impromptu to the savants of Toulouse,4th July,1840:--"Oh,bon Dieu!que de gloire!Oh,bon Dieu!que d'honneurs!
Messieurs,ce jour pour ma Muse est bien doux;Mais maintenant,d'etre quitte j'ai perdu l'esperance:
Car je viens,plus fier que jamais,Vous payer ma reconnaissance,Et je m'endette que plus!"
[4]This is the impromptu,given on the 5th July,1840:
"Toulouse m'a donne un beau bouquet d'honneur;Votre festin,amis,en est une belle fleur;
Aussi,clans les plaisirs de cette longue fete,Quand je veux remercier de cela,Je poursuis mon esprit pour ne pas etre en reste Ici,l'esprit me nait et tombe de mon coeur!"
[5]'Causeries du Lundi,'iv.240(edit.1852).
[6]"La politesse du coeur,"a French expression which can scarcely be translated into English;just as "gentleman"has no precise equivalent in French.