"C'est bien, disne, quand on eschappe
Sans desbourcer pas ung denier,
Et dire adieu an tavernier,
En torchant son nez a la nappe."
The meaning of this doggrel, which is somewhat broad, may be rendered--"He
dines well who escapes without paying a penny, and who bids farewell to
the innkeeper by wiping his nose on the tablecloth."
Side by side with this poem of Yillon we ought to cite one of a later
period--"La Legende de Maitre Faifeu," versified by Charles Boudigne. This
Faifeu was a kind of Villon of Anjou, who excelled in all kinds of
rascality, and who might possibly have taught it even to the gipsies
themselves. The character of Panurge, in the "Pantagruel," is no other
than the type of Faifeu, immortalised by the genius of Rabelais. We must
also mention one of the pamphlets of Guillaume Bouchet, written towards
the end of the sixteenth century, which gives a very amusing account of
thieves of every description, and also "L'Histoire Generale des Larrons,"
in which are related numerous wonderful tales of murders, robberies, and
other atrocities, which made our admiring ancestors well acquainted with
the heroes of the Greve and of Montfaucon. It must not be supposed that in
those days the life of a robber who pursued his occupation with any degree
of industry and skill was unattended with danger, for the most harmless
cut-purses were hung without mercy whenever they were caught; the fear,
however, of this fate did not prevent the _Enfants de la Matte_ from
performing wonders.
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