Chapter IV: Part 4

The picturesque Muff of 1830 to 1850, is assuredly the big Muff of the Parisian or provincial tradeswomen, those Muffs, larders and lumber-rooms, which we meet in the deobstruent tales of Paul de Kock, and see figuring in the primitive tilted spring-carts driven by the master, in which are packed the mistress and all the assistant clerks, with a view to exploring some suburban corner on Sunday, there to laugh with their muffs pressed before their mouths, and to act a thousand follies of a doubtful taste, and to banquet plentifully, and to sing during the dessert some free-and-easy ditty, very jovial, after the fashion of those pleasant couplets of Laujon on /The Muff/, which I will quote here, with the more confidence, since they figure in the /Chansons de Parades/ collected by that boon companion, who was at the same time member of the Caveau and of the Institute:--

See what it is to be too good!
One morning, leaving the warm fold
Of home, Simon I saw, who stood
And shivered in the nipping cold;
He cried, "Come here, you little pearl,
I feel so very cold, my girl!"
Now warm yourself!
Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!

"I feel so very cold, my girl!"
Ay me! I had my new Muff on.
My head was surely in a whirl
To lend it to the good Simon.
That day my kindness cost me dear;
My Muff is spoilt for all the year!
Now warm yourself!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!

My Muff is spoilt for all the year,
For Simon's ways are rather rough;
And he knows nought of doubt or fear,
He quite destroyed my poor new Muff!
Simon, you've ruffled all its fur,
Made it too large, you careless sir!
Now warm yourself!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!

Made it too large, you careless sir!
See: it has been entirely spoiled,
'Tis metamorphosed, I aver;
And seems all rumpled up and soiled.
'Tis like my aunt's Muff, all agape,
Quite out of countenance and shape!
Now warm yourself!
Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
I'll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!

What laughter, what shouts, what chokings, in those parties /à la/ Paul de Kock, when an artless maiden--at the time when pleasant digestion had set its bloom on all faces--sang, one by one, these ancient couplets, with an air at once of a whimpering girl and of a woman full of coquettish intelligence.

The Muff has not always brought tears of laughter to the eyes, and a physiologist might draw from it many a curious deduction; only to cite a single instance, in the middle of the /Scènes de la Vie de Bohème/, in the episode of Francine's Muff, which should remain in every reader's memory--the tears come into all our eyes resultant from an emotion at once sincere and profound.

Francine has been condemned by her doctor, and /hears with her eyes/ the terrible sentence of the physician.

"Don't listen to him," says she to her love, "don't listen to him, Jacques, he is telling stories; we will go out to-morrow, it is All Hallows Day, it will be cold, . . . go and buy me a Muff, . . . mind it is a good one, . . . and will last a long while; I am afraid of having chilblains this winter."

Then, when Jacques has brought the Muff: "It is very pretty," said Francine; "I will carry it in our walk."

The morrow, All Hallows Day, about the time of the Angelus of noon, she was seized with the death-struggle, and all her body began to tremble. "My hands are cold, cold," she murmured, "give me my Muff, dear"--and she plunged her poor little fingers into the fur.

"It is over," said the doctor to Jacques, "give her a last kiss;" and Jacques glued his lips to those of his darling. At the last moment, they wished to take away her Muff, but her hands still clung to it.

"No, no," she cried, "let it be--we are in winter, it is cold. Ah my poor Jacques!"

And so Francine dies, without quitting her Muff. A poignant and lugubrious story, like the work of Murger in general; the /Muff of Francine/ will perhaps be the most durable chapter in the /Vie de Bohème/. We have not been able to set this realistic scene upon the stage, but a painter, M. Haquette, has displayed it after an admirable manner in one of his best pictures exhibited in one of the Paris annual Salons.

Truly the Muff calls up many sad thoughts for sentimental and charitable souls; this winter chattel reminds them of the sorrows of those who are without fire and home and comfortable clothing, and when the north wind blows without, and the snow falls softly in sombre silence, more than one dreaming girl, with her elbow leaning on the window-sill, lets her Muff fall while thinking of those unfortunates who suffer, of the careless grasshoppers and the laborious ants, of whom an adverse fortune has deceived the foresight.

The Muff, the mysterious Muff, hides many distresses: we see it at the present day on the hands of all the working girls and milliners, who set out early in the winter mornings from their homes for the distant workshops; and it is a load upon one's heart to see all these miserable little Muffs made of rabbit or black cat, out of which peeps often the golden point of a penny roll and a greasy paper which envelops a chlorotic piece of pork or an /Arlequin/ (bits of broken meat) bought in the early market. The Muff which warms so many pretty hands brave and toiling, seems in winter to be the refuge of virtue, shivering but victorious.

How much luxury is there, on the other hand, in the Muffs of the fine world during the last twenty years! They have been made very small, of sable tails, and very expensive; but there have been also some more modest, made with that marten of Australia which took the place of the Astrakhan, which passed out of fashion in 1860. They have been manufactured also in velvet plush or in cloth, with borders of fur or feathers, and a large bow of ribbons in the centre. Some became veritable scent-bags, perfumed with heliotrope, rose, gardenia, verbena, violet, or they were powdered inside with orris root or /poudre à la Maréchale/.

An elegant and witty lady-correspondent of fashion, who signs with the word /Étincelle/ the notes full of charming confusion in her /Carnet d'un Mondain/, lately gave the nomenclature of the Muffs of the day, painted in water-colours:

"The Nest-Muff, in satin /coulissé/, lined with black and white lace, with a whole company of little Indian birds and frightened paroquets hiding themselves in the satin folds.

"The Flower-Muff, very small, of ivory plush, rouge cardinal or marine blue, with bunches of roses, marigolds, camellias, and violets blossoming in the midst of a great deal of lace.

"The Watteau-Muff for the evening: a round of Loves painted on white satin. The Coppée-Muff: sparrows sunk in a sky of black satin. The Figaro-Muff, in black velvet, entirely covered with a net of black and gold chenille: three humming-birds in a nest of black lace. The Duchess Muff: all of Marabout, imitating fur, shaded with little bows of dead satin. The Castilian, in plush, covered with point noir: an orange parroquet in the middle standing out in relief on a fan of black lace. The Minerva, in skunk or sable, with a black satin bow and the head of a barn-door owl."

All these fashions of to-day are already fashions of yesterday, so perpetual is the inconstancy of /la Mode/! To-day the monkey, blue fox, beaver, swan, and ermine are metamorphosed into Muffs; to-morrow will come the furs of sable, of otter, of chinchilla, of squirrel, of marten, of wolf, &c. Women and furs change, and will change, soon and often.

Fashion is the everlasting Fairy; whether she take the Sunshade as a rod at the end of her gloved hand, or the Muff as a surprise-box or a cornucopia, she is never short of inventions, of prodigies, of follies, and of ruins; she seems to avenge herself on the moderns because the ancients gave her not divine honours, nor placed her upon the summit of their Olympus. Let, then, the head of this new and great goddess be adorned with a weathercock helmet, of which Love will furnish the magnetic arrow, and let a statue be raised to that great first French citizeness, who from Paris governs the world with so formidable a despotism, against whom none ever dreams of raising a revolt.

For us, who, /à propos/ of the Sunshade, the Glove, and the Muff, have just cast a glance upon the museum of this female ruler, we are in a state of dread from the inconceivable variety of objects which were for an hour a woman's pleasure, and, if we have not conducted our readers before all the glass cases of this national museum, great as the universe, or "the vastest in the world," as all large milliners' shops entitle themselves, it is because around the ornaments of women the fickle Loves will always dance their frenzied round, which only a madman can ever hope and wish to stop. It has been said that Fashion is woman's only literature; if, however, our elegant ladies were condemned to study the special archæology of this literature, very soon--as in love--would they desert History for Romance.

APPENDIX

We see sometimes appearing certain light little works connected either with literary history or ancient poetry, or manners and customs, which would be nothing but pretty and curious pamphlets, if the Appendix which follows them were not swelled out of all proportion with proofs and illustrations, annotated notes, documents with sidenotes, bibliographic bibliography, considerations and commentaries of all sorts, which put the reader to the torture. By this proceeding of an exaggerated literary conscience, an opuscule of thirty pages arrives sometimes at three hundred: it is in some sense a case of erudite exaltation, sometimes also a vain-glory of the investigator, who has a mind to climb up the pyramid of books he has examined, proudly there to set up his silhouette, as we plant a flag on a building as soon as it is complete.

As an epilogue to another volume of this series, /The Fan/, we published a sketch of documentary bibliography to indicate the principal works which we had searched for the little materials necessary for that monograph. You will find there six or eight pages of titles placed without order, and ending with this phrase of a man out of breath, and expressing extreme fatigue--/et cœtera/.

And in this /et cœtera/ we have set now a hundred library shelves in the shadow--sparing thus our most fastidious readers an extremely bitter pill, and sparing ourselves also the fatigues of an interminable catalogue of no great profit to any one, considering the nature of the work in question, and the fashion in which we have treated it.

At the conclusion of the three unpretending pieces of chit-chat which we have just engaged in about /The Sunshade, the Glove, and the Muff/, people may expect to see figuring here the lineaments or first matters of the canvas on which we embroidered our bold arabesques. People will be deceived. It will please us for this time to hide the innumerable instruments of our thefts; they are still there by our sides, making walls and barricades upon our tables and the seats round about us. But if, on the termination of a task, we love usually to put back regularly in order a library turned upside down by the fever of researches, happy in being nourished by the intellectual juice of old books, sometimes also we are prostrated by that intense discouragement which "dumfounds a man," according to an every-day expression. In fact, the result has not answered so great a working up of material, a picture has been dreamed of too big for the frame, the artist has been obliged to reduce himself, to resign himself, and to put in nothing of his own essence; in short, the Mosaic /littérateur/ looks at the Little Thing he has just finished beside the Great Matter which he had conceived.

In like conditions, the /meâ culpâ/ is the sole preventive parade that can be made in his retreat to questions which become twisted into a note of interrogation on the smiling lips of the reader.

To make an inventory of the books we have consulted would be a torture worse than that of Tantalus, for desire, far from looking forward with eagerness, would look sadly back, like an old man who sees again in memory the women of his twentieth year, whom he has let fly under the willows without profiting in their pursuit by the vigour of his legs.

These books--which we serve not up here--are full of documents which we have not been able to enshrine, and it seems that the crumbs which fall from the table make a larger volume than the repast which has just been taken.

For the rest, a truce to sadness and superfluous regrets! Who knows whether we are not odiously unjust to ourselves? Who knows whether the little schoolboy path which we have chosen is not the prettiest, the least rugged, the most unforeseen--that is to say, the least painful and the most verdant, and at the same time the shortest?

Every work, however small it may be, requires distance, a time of calm and oblivion. The eye of the painter wanders in distress before one and the same picture for entire days; the brain of an investigator becomes anchylosed and petrified by dreaming in one and the same atmosphere of small ideas which remain attached to dress.

When we shall have unfurnished our skull of those delicate things, /the Sunshade, Glove, and Muff/, to carry thither a current of more serious conceptions, we shall perhaps have leisure to read again our little work as strangers, and not as producers, and thus, doubtless, we shall reflect with a satisfied smile, that there was much more in us of wisdom than carelessness in not tarrying too long amongst such charming trifles!

/LONDON/, 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. /May 1883./

IN TWELVE VOLUMES, CROWN 8VO, PARCHMENT BOARDS OR CLOTH, PER VOLUME, 7S. 6D.

THE OLD SPANISH ROMANCES

/ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS./

THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA. Translated from the Spanish of MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA by MOTTEUX. With copious Notes (including the Spanish Ballads), and an Essay on the Life and Writings of CERVANTES by JOHN G. LOCKHART. Preceded by a Short Notice of the Life and Works of PETER ANTHONY MOTTEUX by HENRI VAN LAUN. Illustrated with Sixteen Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS. Four Volumes.

LAZARILLO DE TORMES. By DON DIEGO MENDOZA. Translated by THOMAS ROSCOE. And GUZMAN D'ALFARACHE. By MATEO ALEMAN. Translated by BRADY. Illustrated with Eight Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS. Two Volumes.

ASMODEUS. By LE SAGE. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS.

THE BACHELOR OF SALAMANCA. By LE SAGE. Translated from the French by JAMES TOWNSEND. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS.

VANILLO GONZALES; or, The Merry Bachelor. By LE SAGE. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS.

THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS OF SANTILLANE. Translated from the French of LE SAGE by TOBIAS SMOLLETT. With Biographical and Critical Notice of LE SAGE by GEORGE SAINTSBURY. New Edition, carefully revised. Illustrated with Twelve Original Etchings by R. DE LOS RIOS. Three Volumes.

IN TWELVE VOLUMES, CROWN 8VO, PARCHMENT BOARDS OR CLOTH, PER VOLUME, 7S. 6D.

OLD ENGLISH ROMANCES

/ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS./

THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY, GENTLEMAN. By LAURENCE STERNE. In Two Vols. With Eight Etchings by DAMMAN from Original Drawings by HARRY FURNISS.

THE OLD ENGLISH BARON: A GOTHIC STORY. By CLARA REEVE.

ALSO

THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO: A GOTHIC STORY. By HORACE WALPOLE. In One Vol. With Two Portraits and Four Original Drawings by A. H. TOURRIER, Etched by DAMMAN.

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS. In Four Vols. Carefully Revised and Corrected from the Arabic by JONATHAN SCOTT, LL.D., Oxford. With Nineteen Original Etchings by AD. LALAUZE.

THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK. By WM. BECKFORD. With Notes, Critical and Explanatory.

ALSO

RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. By SAMUEL JOHNSON. In One Vol. With Portrait of BECKFORD, and Four Original Etchings, designed by A. H. TOURRIER, and Etched by DAMMAN.

ROBINSON CRUSOE. By DANIEL DEFOE. In Two Vols. With Biographical Memoir, Illustrative Notes, and Eight Etchings by M. MOUILLERON, and Portrait by L. FLAMENG.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. By JONATHAN SWIFT. With Five Etchings and Portrait by AD. LALAUZE.

A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. By LAURENCE STERNE.

ALSO

A TALE OF A TUB. By JONATHAN SWIFT. In One Vol. With Five Etchings and Portrait by ED. HEDOUIN.

/SOME PRESS NOTICES./

Daily Telegraph.

"These editions are noteworthy as containing original etchings by artists of high repute. Thus nineteen exquisite plates by the French etcher, M. Lalauze, gives especial attractiveness to the 'Thousand and One Nights;' and the two fanciful histories of the Caliph Vathek and Prince Rasselas are illustrated by designs of Mr. A. H. Tourrier, etched by M. Damman. It is a pleasure to hold a 'Robinson Crusoe' or the 'Tale of a Tub' in one's hands; it is a positive luxury to read those masterpieces in a luxurious shape, large print, on good paper, accompanied by exquisite illustrations."

The Scotsman.

"These volumes will take rank, for beauty of typography and general excellence of appearance, with any books of the kind that have recently been published; while the etchings by M. Lalauze are among some of the finest of his productions. They are full of vigour and striking originality, and are what they profess to be--good illustrations of the story to which they relate. There are not many men of wholesome minds who do not find enjoyment in 'Robinson Crusoe' whenever they can lay hands on it; and assuredly there is no one possessing anything in the shape of a library who would not desire to have a good edition of the work among his books; in short, nothing but praise can be given to this edition of these books. No one can pretend to be acquainted with English literature who is ignorant of any of the works here published."

Glasgow Herald.

"The merits of this new issue lie in exquisite clearness of type, completeness; notes and biographical notices, short and pithy, and a number of very fine etchings and portraits. The illustrations of Gulliver are particularly effective, such as the 'Academy of Laputa' and the 'Visions of Glubbdubdrib.'"

London Figaro.

"We congratulate the publishers upon the issue of a capital series of Old English Romances. They will form a most delightful collection."

Magazine of Art.

"The text of the new four volume edition of the 'Thousand and One Nights' is that revised by Jonathan Scott from the French of Galland. It is, in fact, the text in which the incomparable 'Arabian Nights' became in England the classic it is. The etchings are uncommonly skilful and finished work; they contain some charming figures; they constitute a true attraction. In another volume of this series Beckford's wild and gloomy 'Vathek' appears side by side with Johnson's admirable 'Rasselas.'"

The Literary World.

"A publishers' notice prefixed to each volume states that 'one thousand copies of this edition have been printed and the type distributed. No more will be published.' Although some of these works are now easily obtainable in a cheap form, good editions are rare and eagerly sought by those who make any pretence of making a library. Here is an opportunity of securing as choice an edition as can be desired at a comparatively low price, the value of which will be enhanced before long by its scarcity."

The Times.

"Prettily printed and prettily illustrated, these attractive volumes deserve their welcome from all students of seventeenth century literature."

The Daily News.

"The merit for modern readers of these old stories lies partly in their inexhaustible wit, their knowledge of human nature, which never grows stale, and partly in their pictures of the old reckless life of Spain. A typical example of these novels is the fictitious autobiography of Guzman d'Alfarache, the Spanish rogue, written by Matthew Aleman at the beginning of the seventeenth century."

Daily Telegraph.

"A handy and beautiful edition, in twelve volumes, of the works of the Spanish masters of romance calls for a word of acknowledgment from all who desire to see the lights of foreign literature fitly presented to the notice of English readers. We may say of this edition of the immortal work of Cervantes, that it is most tastefully and admirably executed, and that it is embellished with a series of striking etchings from the pen of the Spanish artist, De Los Rios. . . . Those who have already made acquaintance with these masterpieces of exotic humour will need no encouragement to send them once again to a fountain from which such pure enjoyment is to be derived, and in so acceptable a shape as Messrs. Nimmo & Bain have provided."

The Scotsman.

"What man of middle age is there, who has been a reader of books, who does not look back with pleasure to his first acquaintance with 'Don Quixote' or the 'Adventures of Gil Blas'? If he has been a wise man of equal mind, he has gone further afield in these romances, and has made acquaintance with 'Asmodeus,' 'The Bachelor of Salamanca,' and other works of a like kind. They have been read by many thousands of British readers, and they will be read by many thousands more. . . . What the reading public have reason to congratulate themselves upon is, that so neat, compact, and well-arranged an edition of romances that can never die is put within their reach. The publishers have spared no pains with them. It has already been said that Mr. Saintsbury has written a prefatorial notice of Le Sage; a similar work has been done by other hands in the case of Cervantes. It is satisfactory to find publishers turning their attention to the reproduction, in worthy form, of classic fiction; and the hope may be entertained that in this case the enterprise will meet with merited reward."

Westminster Review.

"We notice with warm welcome a new and very handsome illustrated edition of the original 'Arabian Nights Entertainment,' the 'real Simon pure,' and never have we seen the fascinating companion of our youth more 'daintily dight.' Type and paper are both of the finest quality, while M. Lalauze's graceful and delicate etchings lend an additional charm to the text. 'The Thousand and One Nights of Schéhérézade' occupy four goodly volumes, and uniform with them is Beckford's 'Vathek' and Dr. Johnson's 'Rasselas' in one volume."

J. C. NIMMO & BAIN, 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Original printed spelling and punctuation variations are mostly retained. This was a profusely illustrated book, but none had captions or titles, and are therefore not indicated herein. The html and mobile editions retain most of the illustrations. Small caps and bolded text have been converted to capital letters. Italics are indicated /like this/. The carat symbol indicates that the following phrase or character is superscript, as in "M^{me.}".

Page 104: "villanously" changed to "villainously".