La chanson du roi Dagobert

Pierre Baudouin

FOR THE FIRST OF APRIL OF THE FOURTH SERIES

PIERRE BAUDOUIN

THE SONG OF KING DAGOBERT

FIRST CHANSONNEE

EDITIONS OF THE CAHIERS

PARIS

8, rue de la Sorbonne, ground floor

To the memory of my grandmother, a peasant, who could not read, and who first taught me the French language.

Pierre Baudouin

Orsay in Hurepoix, Ile-de-France, included today in the department of Seine-et-Oise, for elections in the second or third constituency of Versailles, unless it be the fourth, if there is a fourth,

the tenth day before the calends of April in the year one thousand nine hundred and three,

My dear Peguy,

Here is the first treatise in which I set forth my system of the world. The first twenty couplets are the traditional couplets, which we sing in the evening to put our children to sleep. I have taken the liberty of composing the following couplets. I am not one to lecture our old authors. I am just like the one who made, or those who made, the traditional couplets.

These new couplets move between the rhythm of the traditional couplets and two bases which are prose and the alexandrine; the traditional couplets and the new couplets built on the traditional rhythm are to be sung to the traditional air; of the two bases, prose is to be spoken, and the alexandrine is to be declaimed; the airs of the other new couplets move between this axis and the two bases.

The new airs derived from the old air, the secondary airs derived from the primary air, needed to be fixed. In this sense, the music of this song needed to be written. I asked Romain Rolland to be so kind as to write it. He did me the friendship of accepting.

Pierre Baudouin

THE SONG OF KING DAGOBERT

First Chansonnee

Good King Dagobert Had put his breeches on backward; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is badly breeched; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’ll put them back the right way.

As he was putting them back, A bit too much he bared himself; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your skin is showing, Blacker than a crow; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, The queen’s is even blacker than mine.

Good King Dagobert, His stockings were moth-eaten; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your two worn stockings Show off your calves; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Yours are fine, give them to me.

Good King Dagobert Wore a short coat in winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is all cut short; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Have it lengthened by two fingers.

Good King Dagobert Had a fine green waistcoat; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your fancy coat Is torn at the elbow; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Yours is fine, lend it to me.

Good King Dagobert Rarely shaved in winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You need some soap For your chin; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Have you two sous? Lend them to me.

Good King Dagobert, His wig was all askew; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your wigmaker Has badly coiffed you; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’ll take your mop for myself.

Good King Dagobert, His hat made him look like a stag; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The horn in the middle Would suit you better; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I had modeled mine on yours.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to set sail on the sea; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Will get drowned; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, They’ll cry: the king is drinking!

Good King Dagobert Hunted on the plain of Antwerp; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is all out of breath; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, A rabbit was chasing me.

The king used to write verse But he wrote it all wrong; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Leave to the goslings The making of songs; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, You shall make them for me.

Good King Dagobert Went hunting for woodpeckers; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Hunting cuckoos Would suit you better; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’m going to shoot --- mind yourself.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to conquer the universe; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, To travel so far Is such a bother; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Better to stay home.

Good King Dagobert Fought right and left; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Will get killed; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Quick, get yourself in front of me.

Good King Dagobert Had a great iron saber; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Could cut himself; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Give me a wooden saber.

The king waged war But he waged it in winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Will freeze; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’m going back home.

Good King Dagobert Ate dessert like a glutton; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You are greedy, Don’t eat so much; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’m not as greedy as you.

Good King Dagobert Had an old iron armchair; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your old armchair Has caught my eye; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Have it taken to your place at once.

Good King Dagobert Having drunk, walked all askew; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is going all sideways; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, When you’re tipsy, do you walk straighter?

When Dagobert died, The devil came running; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Satan is coming, You must confess; --- Alas, said the good king, Could you not die for me?

Good King Dagobert Had put on his fine green suit; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Looks like a parrot; --- We look, said the king, Like the parrots on the corner of the quay.

Good King Dagobert Looked like a fine green parrot; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You mean to speak Of the bird market, Facing the city, By the great waters; --- We look, said the king, Like the parrots on the corner of the quay.

Good King Dagobert Hopped about like a green parrot; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Walks like a parrot; --- We shall perch, said the king: A cage-perch on the corner of the quay.

Good King Dagobert Jabbered like a green parrot; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Jabbers like a parrot; --- We shall chatter, said the king: A cage-parlor on the corner of the quay.

Good King Dagobert Looks like a green academician; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Wants to stand for election? --- I shall be, said the king, Elected by forty votes.

In advance Dagobert Donned an embroidered green suit; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is badly breeched; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, I’ll put myself back to rights.

Good King Dagobert Has taken off his fine green suit; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Wants to withdraw His candidacy? --- They are too green for me, They are too green, he said, and good for boors. (1)

(1) Was he not wiser than to complain?

Good King Dagobert Had sown winter wheat; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The wheat you’ve sown You shall not harvest; Our granaries Shall not be filled; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Frozen, they died of cold.

Frozen, drenched, trembling, they died of cold.

Dagobert did not have A velvet glove and iron hand; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Just firmness, Supreme goodness; --- I know, said Dagobert, An iron hand and a velvet glove.

Let us have, said Dagobert, A velvet glove and iron hand; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You err always, Tomorrow as yesterday, And as today: Your wits are heavy At any altitude, At any level of air: Understandings deaf With decrepitude, And your senses clumsy, And your thoughts sluggish With beatitude, Summer as winter; You babble always, By day and by night, You bore me stiff; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, Saving the respect you owe me.

Indeed, said Dagobert, Velvet gloves will cost dear; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Velvets Are heavy For making gloves, Iron Is not dear For tin-plated hands; --- I shall have then, said the king, An iron hand beneath a silken glove.

Good King Dagobert Had a wood of evergreen oak; The great bald Eloi Said to him: O my king, The hairs of those forests Never fall; --- We shall not be, said the king, Green as long as our woods.

Dagobert was rereading The voyages of Gulliver; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He could not have seen men Tall as three apples; --- Three apples? said the king, He saw some tall as three walnuts.

Spoken: Three apples and a cap, my grandmother used to say.

Good King Dagobert Said: I do not know Abner; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He was a general, A government man; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, We shall have him made a grand cross.

Old King Dagobert Had a thicket of evergreen oak; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The wood you have planted You shall not fashion; --- We shall be, said the king, Fashioned before our woods.

Good King Dagobert Worshipped the winter sun; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Kindly worship Only the Creator, And refer everything To the first Author; If God had wanted it cold, The sun would freeze you with dread.

Good King Dagobert Had coins struck: on the obverse The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, We shall put an emblem; --- Beneath a diadem My portrait shall be made, Nothing is finer than a well-made king.

Good King Dagobert Had coins struck: on the reverse The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, We shall put a motto And not a blunder; --- We shall put, said the king, That it is worth two pounds tournois.

Good King Dagobert Knows Fabert very well; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He was a loyal man Of the great Cardinal, And under the great king Became a marshal; --- Faber? said the king, That is a number three pencil.

Good King Dagobert Had no knowledge of Martin Luther; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He was an Augustinian monk… The king, humming: Who went to bed late And rose early; Don’t tell me so much: He was a Protestant pastor.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to fight at Champaubert; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, That battle was fought Ninety years ago; --- A pity, said the king, I would have been brave this time.

Good King Dagobert Went hunting at Ouzouer; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is not invited; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, They have robbed us of our great forests.

Good King Dagobert Asked what is liber; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Look in the trunk: Between bark and wood; --- I know, said the king, That is where, in a dispute, One must not put one’s finger.

Good King Dagobert Had billiard cloth cut from green; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, That is for an embassy And for surly talk; --- Can you, said the king, Play billiards with me?

Dagobert was humming The song of the gallant green king; Long live Henri the Fourth; Long live this valiant king; This devil of a fellow Has the triple talent Of drinking and fighting, And being a gallant; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He was a Bourbon, A Gascon squire; --- ‘Tis true, said the king, He was not even a Valois.

Spoken: I, at least, am a Merovingian.

Marlborough goes off to war, Came to King Dagobert’s court; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He is a conqueror, Do not tremble so; --- I tremble, said the king, With my whole body, but it’s from cold.

Good King Dagobert Was acquainted with Old Man Winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He is a character Painted in pictures; --- I have seen him, said the king, White-bearded and in a cloak of cold.

Dagobert was reciting The fable of the iron pot; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Shall we always be Breakers or broken; With no recourse Thieves or robbed; With no relief Killers or killed; Is there not a third Path forward; --- I shall make, said the king, The fable of the wooden pot.

Good King Dagobert Floated a bond, no one subscribed; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Is not well-silvered; --- I was going to, said the king, Build a bourgeois monument.

Good King Dagobert Never gambled at the green table; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, These little horses Have in their hooves More than one fortune; --- Let us never wager, said the king, Except on wooden horses.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to preach in the desert Like the Baptist; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Speak in Paris, Near Saint-Denis; It is the greatest desert That we have in the kingdom of France.

Good King Dagobert Had an open account at the Cahiers; The wise Bourgeois Said to him: O my king, Let us not confuse The credit and the debit; --- The credit is what comes in, And what goes up is the debit.

I saw, said Dagobert, The funeral of Canrobert; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He was a general Of siege warfare; --- All is well, said the king, It is a marshal who signs.

Said King Dagobert: One must not eat one’s wheat while green; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, So many Mazarins Have made us pay, So many mandarins Have had themselves gloved, That the great king of the people Will sleep on a wooden plank.

Said King Dagobert: We need a new Colbert; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The finances Of France Are badly balanced; --- Buffoon of the king of the people, Colbert would not last six months.

Dagobert was pulling up A shoot of green quince; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, I have no need Of that quince tree, I myself have carved My crozier; --- A golden crozier, said the king: A golden bishop, a wooden crozier.

Said King Dagobert: I am never caught unawares; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, When the time comes, In less than an instant, I know one, though, Who will catch you out; --- I declare, said the king, That I am never caught without wood.

Said King Dagobert: Who do you know who catches me unawares? The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, When the time comes, In less than an instant, I know of one Of constant knowledge Who will hold you there; --- I declare, said the king, That none shall hold me without wood.

Said King Dagobert: You know who holds me unawares; O great Saint Eloi, Neither prince nor king, Neither heat nor cold, Neither daring nor fear, Caught, will hold me there; I declare, said the king, That none shall hold me without wood.

Said King Dagobert: You know who will hold me unawares; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Capital death, Fatal to every body, Vital to the living, One day will take you; Provost death, Experiential, Fundamental, Every day will hold you; The monumental Death will have you; Our dotal death Will hold the wedding; Sacerdotal death Will say the mass; On the finger, digital, Will pass the ring; This frontal death Will touch the forehead; Parietal death Will gleam on the skull; This dental death Will set the teeth chattering; Palatal death Will be bitter; Congenital death Will be born with us; Truly natal death Will cause birth; Not total death, It will tear out the soul; Not mental death, It will save the spirit; Not sentimental, Love will be perfected; When the horizontal Lays you down; Decretal death Will impose discipline; Transcontinental, It goes everywhere; East-to-west, It will pass here; West-to-east, It will return; This brutal death Will therefore take you; Will take you unawares, Without wood or green; --- No death, said the king, Comes to us but God sends it.

Good King Dagobert Loved dry wood in winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, A cheerful blaze Is the joy Of the eyes; A wordy assembly Is the joy Of the old; --- Nothing is worth a wood fire, O my fine wood fire, Fire dearer than Greek fire, Nothing is worth a wood fire To warm my old royal bones.

Good King Dagobert Loved dry wine in winter; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, A pretty bottle Is the joy Of the eyes; A bottle, my dear, Is the joy Of the old; A lusty draught Is the joy Of the gods; --- Nothing is worth the Blesois, The little wine of Blois, Wine of sand and of wood, Nothing is worth the Blesois To warm my old royal heart.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to go coursing the stag; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, An hereditary Ferocity Rises to your heart; You will go in chorus After a lone beast; You will be the tracker Of a frantic beast; You will be the clapper And master of the hounds In a baying pack; You will end the victor Of an exhausted beast, Of a doe at bay; Basely mocking A cornered beast; An easy stabber, Bloody carver Of a swooning doe; --- What can I say, said the king, I love the sound of the horn at dusk deep in the woods.

Every year Dagobert Bought himself a Mathieu Laensberg; The great Saint Eloi Said each time: Books that you buy Are held in ill repute; Trust no authors But peddlers’; Books that you buy Will be ill-noted; --- ‘Tis true, said the king; But he read it on the sly.

Good King Dagobert Saw a balloon rise in the air; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, It is some scholar Who goes rising; --- No, it is a number, Pointing to the poster: Annual fete at Palaiseau.

Every day Dagobert Consulted his Mathieu Laensberg; The great Saint Eloi Said to him this time: Read our learned Meteorologists And not deceiving Astrological swindlers; --- Nothing beats, said the king, A genuine triple Liegeois.

Good King Dagobert Had to ride in a railway car; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Will be carted about; --- I preferred the style Of my old wooden carriage.

Good King Dagobert Had a winter overcoat; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The prosperous bourgeois Have overcoats; --- When the bourgeois are kings, It’s just as well that kings be bourgeois.

Good King Dagobert Wanted to climb into the tender; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, The tender is good Only for coal; --- I am worth, said the king, Two hundred kilos of Charleroi.

Good King Dagobert Wept for old Scheurer-Kestner; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He died in time, Do not weep so; He did not live to see His friends forswear their faith.

Good King Dagobert Voted for Monsieur Paul Doumer; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, He is a deputy Full of activity; --- He is the great viceroy, Rising sun of the Tonkinese.

Said King Dagobert: I knew the Humberts well; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Were you a minister Or a sinister bandit? --- Why no, said the king, I speak of those who are kings.

Spoken: Umberto, king of Italy: have you never had a forty-sou coin refused at the windows of my tax-collectors?

Good King Dagobert Was appointed prefect of Quimper; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your constituents Are not well-lettered; --- A valiant soldier of the king Should sign only with his cross.

Good King Dagobert Babbled right and left; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty Will be elected to parliament; --- I shall remain king then; The king is dead: long live the king!

Good King Dagobert Said to all comers: my dear; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You shake the hands Of all these villains; --- They vote, said the king, Nine thousand three hundred twenty-seven votes.

Good King Dagobert Said to all comers: good day, dear; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, To court so many friends You seem like ants; --- A friend I am, said the king, Not of their hearts, but of their votes.

Good King Dagobert Became a parliamentarian; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty, Deign to listen; --- I am deaf, said the king; It is raining on my profession of faith.

Good King Dagobert Then became authoritarian; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, Your Majesty, Kindly look; --- Blind, said the king, I make, unmake, and remake the law.

Imitating a blind man: Have pity on a poor blind man!

Imitating a street hawker, then a workman: Step right up for the mender, the patcher, the re-paperer, the fixer, the tinker of laws; have you scissors, knives to sharpen? Here is the grinder, here is the sharpener.

Good King Dagobert Was coming down the Place Walhubert; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, You can ride Down to the Quai d’Orsay; --- I’m afraid, said the king, Of suffocating beneath all those quays.

For a while Dagobert Here broke the rhyme in -ert; The great Saint Eloi Said to him: O my king, We have sung so much That we must sing off-key; --- We cannot, said the king, Chime as long as a belfry.

Finished printing two thousand copies of this fifteenth cahier on Tuesday, March 24, 1903.

Manager: CHARLES PEGUY