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

CHAPTER V
23/26

Now his lyre was complete; it had its three strings--of sadness, joy, and sorrow.
These three poems--Me cal Mouri, the Charivari, and the ode On the Death of General Foy, with some other verses--were published in 1825.

What was to be the title of the volume?
As Adam, the carpenter-poet of Nevers, had entitled his volume of poetry 'Shavings,' so Jasmin decided to name his collection 'The Curl-papers of Jasmin, Coiffeur of Agen.' The title was a good one, and the subsequent volumes of his works were known as La Papillotos (the Curl-papers) of Jasmin.

The publication of this first volume served to make Jasmin's name popular beyond the town in which they had been composed and published.

His friend M.Gaze said of him, that during the year 1825 he had been marrying his razor with the swan's quill; and that his hand of velvet in shaving was even surpassed by his skill in verse-making.
Charles Nodier, his old friend, who had entered the barber's shop some years before to intercede between the poet and his wife, sounded Jasmin's praises in the Paris journals.

He confessed that he had been greatly struck with the Charivari, and boldly declared that the language of the Troubadours, which everyone supposed to be dead, was still in full life in France; that it not only lived, but that at that very moment a poor barber at Agen, without any instruction beyond that given by the fields, the woods, and the heavens, had written a serio-comic poem which, at the risk of being thought crazy by his colleagues of the Academy, he considered to be better composed than the Lutrin of Boileau, and even better than one of Pope's masterpieces, the Rape of the Lock.
The first volume of the Papillotes sold very well; and the receipts from its sale not only increased Jasmin's income, but also increased his national reputation.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books