#beranger

BERICHT: Popsalon #10, 07. – 09.04.2022 in Osnabrück

Vom 7. bis 9. April 2022 war es endlich wieder so weit. Der Osnabrücker Popsalon hat nach zweijähriger Zwangspause wieder seine Pforten geöffnet. Trotz aller Widrigkeiten und der sich im Vorfeld stets ändernden Corona-Lage, haben die örtlichen Veranstalter von Zukunftsmusik ein Festival erschaffen, welches vielen Menschen wunderschöne, unvergessliche und herbeigesehnte Momente beschert hat.  Die…

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: 19th Century CE French Politics RPF Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jacques-Antoine Manuel/Pierre-Jean de Béranger Characters: Jacques-Antoine Manuel, Joseph Fouché, Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Antoine Jay, Jacques Lafitte, Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette Additional Tags: Politics, it's the Second Bourbon Restoration and everyone is compromised, except Béranger, who has never done anything wrong in his life, digress like a 19th-century novelist Summary:

Four letters Jacques-Antoine Manuel received from exile; or, A Gothic breakup fic between a shady puppet-master and his incorruptible protege.

Beranger im Mauerpark.

I’m so glad you asked- and I really love your reasoning on it! Let me give you the basic explanation first.

Joly is punning on, yes, “an old coat (habit, which in French sounds more like “abi” ) is an old friend (ami)”. (Hence, Grantaire’s ” particularly in the mouth of a man with a code in his nose” because the way Joly’s pronouncing it they sound the same.)

This pun is ALSO a reference to a Beranger song— Beranger being a very popular lyricist with Hugo’s generation of Romantics, apparently, to go by references— called, shockingly, Mon Habit. Full lyrics are provided by the excellent swutol-sang-scopes   here, the first verse already makes the connection pretty clear:

Sois-moi fidèle, ô pauvre habit que j’aime !Ensemble nous devenons vieux.Depuis dix ans, je te brosse moi-même,Et Socrate n’eut pas fait mieux.Quand le sort à ta mince étoffeLivrerait de nouveaux combats,Imite-moi, résiste en philosophe :Mon vieil ami, ne nous séparons pas.(translated)Stick to me still, old coat, beloved though poor Alike we feel this coming on of age : Ten years my hand hath brushed thee — and what more Could have been done by Socrates the sage ? If cruel Fortune to thy threadbare stuff Should new encounters send, Like me, philosophize, to make thee tough : We must not part, old friend ! Oh, and of course the last verse, Ne crains plus tant ces jours de courses vaines Où notre destin fut pareil :Ces jours mêlés de plaisirs et de peines, Mêlés de pluie et de soleil. Je dois bientôt, il me le semble, Mettre pour jamais habit bas.Attends un peu ; nous finirons ensemble :Mon vieil ami, ne nous séparons pas.(translated:

No longer fear those days of courses vain, In which our destiny alike was fixed — Those days made up of pleasure and of pain, When rain and sunshine were together mixed. Soon must I doff my coat for ever here — That way my thoughts will tend — Hold on — we’ll close together our career : We must not part, old friend !)So yeah, it’s a pun and a reference to a song that’s mostly funny and then gets REALLY UPSETTING if you think about the context ! Yaaay, thanks Hugo!