anville wrote a song which parodied all popular aspirations to be a
flower. M. Limayrac was supposed to have become a blossom:

"Sur les coteaux et dans les landes
Voltigeant comme un oiseleur
Buloz en ferait des guirlandes
Si Limayrac devenait fleur!"

There is more of high spirits than of wit in the lyric, which became as
popular as our modern invocation of Jingo, the god of battles. It
chanced one night that M. Limayrac appeared at a masked ball in the opera-
house. He was recognised by some one in the crowd. The turbulent waltz
stood still, the music was silent, and the dancers of every hue howled at
the critic

"Si Paul Limayrac devenait fleur!"

Fancy a British reviewer, known as such to the British public, and
imagine that public taking a lively interest in the feuds of men of
letters! Paris, to be sure, was more or less of a university town thirty
years ago, and the students were certain to be largely represented at the
ball.

The "Odes Funambulesques" contain many examples of M. De Banville's skill
in reviving old forms of verse--_triolets_, _rondeaux_, _chants royaux_,
and _ballades_. Most of these were composed for the special annoyance of
M. Buloz, M. Limayrac, and a M. Jacquot who called himself De Mirecourt.
The _rondeaux_ are full of puns in the refrain: "Houssaye ou c'est; lyre,
l'ire, lire," and so on, not very exhilarating. The _pantoum_, where
lines recur alternately, was borrowed from the distant Malay; but
primitive _pantoum_, in which the last two lines of each stanza are the
first two of the next, occur in old French folk-song. The popular trick
of repetition, affording a rest to the memory of the singer, is perhaps
the origin of all refrains. De Banville's later satires are directed
against permanent objects of human indignation--the little French
debauchee, the hypocritical friend of reaction, the bloodthirsty
_chauviniste_. Tired of the flashy luxury of the Empire, his memory goes
back to his youth--

"Lorsque la levre de l'aurore
Baisait nos yeux souleves,
Et que nous n'etions pas encore
La France des petits creves."

The poem "Et Tartufe" prolongs the note of a satire always popular in
France--the satire of Scarron, Moliere, La Bruyere, against the clerical
curse of the nation. The Roman Question was Tartufe's stronghold at the
moment. "French interests" demanded that Italy should be headless.

"Et Tartufe? Il nous dit entre d