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Ancient And Modern Saturnalia
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The Saturnalian spirit has not been extinct even in our days. The Mayor of Garrat, with the mock addresses and burlesque election, was an image of such satirical exhibitions of their superiors, so delightful to the people.[139] France, at the close of Louis the Fourteenth’s reign, first saw her imaginary “Regiment de la Calotte,” which was the terror of the sinners of the day, and the blockheads of all times. This “regiment of the skull-caps” originated in an officer and a wit, who, suffering from violent headaches, was recommended the use of a skull-cap of lead; and his companions, as great wits, formed themselves into a regiment, to be composed only of persons distinguished by their extravagances in words or in deeds. They elected a general, they had their arms blazoned, and struck medals, and issued “brevets,” and “lettres patentes,” and granted pensions to certain individuals, stating their claims to be enrolled in the regiment for some egregious extravagance. The wits versified these army commissions; and the idlers, like pioneers, were busied in clearing their way, by picking up the omissions and commissions of the most noted characters. Those who were favoured with its “brevets” intrigued against the regiment; but at length they found it easier to wear their “calotte,” and say nothing. This society began in raillery and playfulness, seasoned by a spice of malice. It produced a great number of ingenious and satirical little things. That the privileges of the “calotte” were afterwards abused, and calumny too often took the place of poignant satire, is the history of human nature as well as of “the calotins.”[140]
Another society in the same spirit has been discovered in one of the lordships of Poland. It was called “The Republic of Baboonery.” The society was a burlesque model of their own government: a king, chancellor, councillors, archbishops, judges, etc. If a member would engross the conversation, he was immediately appointed orator of the republic. If he spoke with impropriety, the absurdity of his conversation usually led to some suitable office created to perpetuate his folly. A man talking too much of dogs, would be made a master of the buck-hounds; or vaunting his courage, perhaps a field-marshal; and if bigoted on disputable matters and speculative opinions in religion, he was considered to be nothing less than an inquisitor. This was a pleasant and useful project to reform the manners of the Polish youth; and one of the Polish kings good-humourdly observed, that he considered himself “as much King of Baboonery as King of Poland.” We have had in our own country some attempts at similar Saturnalia; but their success has been so equivocal that they hardly afford materials for our domestic history.
[Footnote 127:
Miscellaneous Works, vol. v. 504. ]
[Footnote 128:
Seneca, Ep. 18. ]
[Footnote 129:
Horace, in his dialogue with his slave Davus, exhibits a lively picture of this circumstance. Lib. ii. Sat. 7. ]
[Footnote 130:
A large volume might be composed on these grotesque, profane, and licentious feasts. Du Cange notices several under different terms in his Glossary–Festum Asinorum, Kaleudae, Cervula. A curious collection has been made by the Abbe Artigny, in the fourth and seventh volumes of his “Memoires d’Histoire,” etc. Du Radier, in his “Recreations Historiques,” vol. i. p. 109, has noticed several writers on the subject, and preserves one on the hunting of a man, called Adam, from Ash-Wednesday to Holy-Thursday, and treating him with a good supper at night, peculiar to a town in Saxony. See “Ancillon’s Melange Critique,” etc., i. 39, where the passage from Raphael de Volterra is found at length. In my learned friend Mr. Turner’s second volume of his “History of England,” p. 367, will be found a copious and a curious note on this subject. ]
[Footnote 131:
Thiers. Traite des Jeux, p. 449. The fete Dieu in this city of Aix, established by the famous Rene d’Anjou, the Troubadour king, was re markable for the absurd mixture of the sacred and profane. There is a curious little volume devoted to an explanation of those grotesque ceremonies, with engravings. It was printed at Aix in 1777. ]