BERANGER AND DE BERANGER. TO TILE EDITOR OF TIIE SPECTATOR.
Srd August 1831.
MR. EDITOR—In the last number of yourvaluable paper, I read with surprise that " DE BERANGER is a competitor for the Presidency of the French Chamber ;" and by the context, it'is evident that some inexpli- cable confusion has taken place in the editorial brain, between DZ. BERANGER, the well-known and eloquent Deputy, and BERANGER (who abjures the de) the immortal poet. I own, Mr. Editor, that I shuddered in reading your paragraph. A thousand recollections of pleasant hours of merriment, mingled with the remembrance of sundry scraps of convivial poetry, came over me. " Je ne suis qu'uo vieux bonhomme,
Menetrier du hameau-
Je vois deux sots renting a leer province :
Messieurs, dit l'un, sifflons le troubadour,.
Il vent des crolx, et pour l'offrir au prince'
A son recueilamis !'habit de cow."
Alas ! alas ! has then the poet of Bacchus and Venus thing-away the garland of the festival, to don the cap of a President ? are the tones of merriment departed from his lyre? or worse, are they to be succeeded by the stiff decrees of an official personage ?
We have listened- indeed long since to the accents of his patriotism ; and even by the tomb of MANUEL we have heard him say- " Pres de sa tombe un soil s'agenouille,
Pretez secours au pauvre chansonnier."
But we cannot bring ourselves to lose the companion of our gaiety, or to exchange the pauvre chansonnier for a placeman.
Nor is it so, Mr. Editor ; I have since learnt that there is no con- nexion.between the two BE RANGERS, and I- hope you will strip them of the masks of the- Antipholi in your next Number, as many of your readers may have been as surprised by-the paragraph in question as was Your most obedient servant, UN CIVANSONNTER. [We thank our correspondent for his correetion: it is worth while to wander, when we have so pleasant a guide to put us on our road again.]
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