[Jasmin: Barber by Samuel Smiles]@TWC D-Link book
Jasmin: Barber

CHAPTER V
17/26

He cannot but appreciate the joy, the glory, the unconscious delight of living.

"The beautiful is master of a star." This feeling of beauty is the nurse of civilisation and true refinement.

Have we not our Burns, who "in glory and in joy Followed his plough along the mountain side;" Clare, the peasant boy; Bloomfield, the farmer's lad; Tannahill, the weaver; Allan Ramsay, the peruke-maker; Cooper, the shoemaker; and Critchley Prince, the factory-worker; but greater than these was Shakespeare,--though all were of humble origin.
France too has had its uneducated poets.

Though the ancient song-writers of France were noble; Henry IV., author of Charmante Gabrielle; Thibault, Count of Champagne; Lusignan, Count de la Marche; Raval, Blondel, and Basselin de la Vive, whose songs were as joyous as the juice of his grapes; yet some of the best French poets of modem times have been of humble origin--Marmontel, Moliere, Rousseau, and Beranger.
There were also Reboul, the baker; Hibley, the working-tailor; Gonzetta, the shoemaker; Durand, the joiner; Marchand, the lacemaker; Voileau, the sail-maker; Magu, the weaver; Poucy, the mason; Germiny, the cooper;{5} and finally, Jasmin the barber and hair dresser, who was not the least of the Uneducated Poets.
The first poem which Jasmin composed in the Gascon dialect was written in 1822, when he was only twenty-four years old.

It was entitled La fidelitat Agenoso, which he subsequently altered to Me cal Mouri (Il me fait mourir), or "Let me die." It is a languishing romantic poem, after the manner of Florian, Jasmin's first master in poetry.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books