Jasmin,in one part of his poem,compares the ancient patois to one of the grand old elms in the Promenade de Gravier,which,having in a storm had some of its branches torn away,was ordered by the local authorities to be rooted up.The labourers worked away,but their pick-axes became unhafted.They could not up-root the tree;they grew tired and forsook the work.When the summer came,glorious verdure again clothed the remaining boughs;the birds sang sweetly in the branches,and the neighbours rejoiced that its roots had been so numerous and the tree had been so firmly planted.
Jasmin's deion of his mother-tongue is most touching.
Seasons pass away,and,as they roll on,their echoes sound in our ears;but the loved tongue shall not and must not die.
The mother-tongue recalls our own dear mother,sisters,friends,and crowds of bygone associations,which press into our minds while sitting by the evening fire.This tongue is the language of our toils and labours;she comes to us at our birth,she lingers at our tomb.
"No,no--I cannot desert my mother-tongue!"said Jasmin.
"It preserves the folk-lore of the district;it is the language of the poor,of the labourer,the shepherd,the farmer and grape-gatherers,of boys and girls,of brides and bridegrooms.
The people,"he said to M.Dumon,"love to hear my songs in their native dialect.You have enough poetry in classical French;leave me to please my compatriots in the dialect which they love.I cannot give up this harmonious language,our second mother,even though it has been condemned for three hundred years.Why!she still lives,her voice still sounds;like her,the seasons pass,the bells ring out their peals,and though a hundred thousand years may roll away,they will still be sounding and ringing!"Jasmin has been compared to Dante.But there is this immense difference between them.Dante was virtually the creator of the Italian language,which was in its infancy when he wrote his 'Divine Comedy'some six hundred years ago,while Jasmin was merely reviving a gradually-expiring dialect.Drouilhet de Sigalas has said that Dante lived at the sunrise of his language,while Jasmin lived at its sunset.Indeed,Gascon was not a written language,and Jasmin had to collect his lexicon,grammar,and speech mostly from the peasants who lived in the neighbourhood of Agen.Dante virtually created the Italian language,while Jasmin merely resuscitated for a time the Gascon dialect.
Jasmin was not deterred by the expostulations of Dumon,but again wrote his new epic of Franconnette in Gascon.
It took him a long time to clothe his poetical thoughts in words.
Nearly five years had elapsed since he recited The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille to the citizens of Bordeaux;since then he had written a few poetical themes,but he was mainly thinking and dreaming,and at times writing down his new epic Franconnette.
It was completed in 1840,when he dedicated the poem to the city of Toulouse.
The story embodied in the poem was founded on an ancient tradition.The time at which it occurred was towards the end of the sixteenth century,when France was torn to pieces by the civil war between the Huguenots and the Catholics.Agen was then a centre of Protestantism.It was taken and retaken by both parties again and again.The Huguenot captain,Truelle,occupied the town in April 1562;but Blaize de Montluc,"a fierce Catholic,"as he is termed by M.Paul Joanne,assailed the town with a strong force and recaptured it.On entering the place,Montluc found that the inhabitants had fled with the garrison,and "the terrible chief was greatly disappointed at not finding any person in Agen to slaughter."[2]Montluc struck with a heavy hand the Protestants of the South.In the name of the God of Mercy he hewed the Huguenots to pieces,and,after spreading desolation through the South,he retired to his fortress at Estellac,knelt before the altar,took the communion,and was welcomed by his party as one of the greatest friends of the Church.
The civil war went on for ten years,until in August 1572the massacre of Saint Bartholomew took place.After that event the word "Huguenot"was abolished,or was only mentioned with terror.Montluc's castle of Estellac,situated near the pretty village of Estanquet,near Roquefort--famous for its cheese--still exists;his cabinet is preserved,and his tomb and statue are to be seen in the adjoining garden.The principal scenes of the following story are supposed to have occurred at Estanquet,a few miles to the south of Agen.
Franconnette,like The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille,is a story of rivalry in love;but,though more full of adventure,it ends more happily.Franconnette was a village beauty.Her brilliant eyes,her rosy complexion,her cherry lips,her lithe and handsome figure,brought all the young fellows of the neighbourhood to her feet.Her father was a banished Huguenot,but beauty of person sets differences of belief at defiance.
The village lads praised her and tried to win her affections;but,like beauties in general,surrounded by admirers,she was a bit of a flirt.
At length two rivals appeared--one Marcel,a soldier under Montluc,favoured by Franconnette's grandmother,and Pascal,the village blacksmith,favoured by the girl herself.One Sunday afternoon a number of young men and maidens assembled at the foot of Montluc's castle of Estellac on the votive festival of St.Jacques at Roquefort.Franconnette was there,as well as Marcel and Pascal,her special admirers.Dancing began to the music of the fife;but Pascal,the handsomest of the young men,seemed to avoid the village beauty.Franconnette was indignant at his neglect,but was anxious to secure his attention and devotion.She danced away,sliding,whirling,and pirouetting.
What would not the admiring youths have given to impress two kisses on her lovely cheek![3]
