A MONSEIUR DE BROUSSEL CONSEILLER

Du Roi au Parlement de Paris.

Editor: Timila Kulkarni

Introduction:

This is a critical edition of “A Monsieur de Broussel Conseiller du Roi au Parlement de Paris.” This is a Mazarinade, a type of pamphlet published during the Fronde of the late 1640s that was characterized by its satirical view of Cardinal Mazarin and the Queen. These pamphlets often criticized the Cardinal and the Queen and how they were handling the Fronde and the political issues of the time. Since they were written to be easy to digest as well as reenact or reproduce, they were widely popularized and distributed across France during this time. The specific Mazarinade I chose has to do with the arrest of Broussel, a Parlementarian at the time. The Mazarinade is very interesting in what it reveals about the sentiments about the author about the whole situation, as well as about the Religious Wars in general.

As a part of this edition, I first transcribed the text, then translated it. In the transcription, I transcribed almost exactly, only making changes for transcribign middle french to modern french. For example, changing “roy” to “roi,” adding relevant accents, removing unnecessary letters like the “s” in “nostre,” and changing the letter “u” to “v,” asin the example of “enlever.” These changes make the transcription easier to read, while also retaining the original intention, context, and meaning of the text.

With the translation, I attempted to stay as true to the literal translation as possible, only making changes when better words were more appropriate, and restructuring sentences so they make grammatical sense in english. Additionally, I didn’t translate certain french words that had meaning in english or were names; for example, “lit de justice” has context for meaning in english as well (CITE?). I put the literal translation, “bed of justice,” in brackets. Similarly, I didn’t literally translate Pont Neuf (which means “New Bridge), since it is the name of a prominent bridge in Paris.

Transcriptions:

A MONSIEUR DE BROUSSEL CONSEILLER

Du Roi au Parlement de Paris^[1]:

STANCES

Illustre Senateur, Heros Incomparable,

Qu’on ne m’accuse pas te croyant adorable

Si j’eleve à ta gloire un si fameux autel^[2]:

Quel honneur dans ces lieux ne doit-on point te rendre

Dans les siecles passez vit-on jamais mortel,

Qui pour le bien du peuple osa plus entreprendre.

        Ni le bruit des prisons, des tourments, ni des chaînes,

Ny l’horreur des bourreaux, ny de leures dures genes,

N’ont jamais ébranlé ton invincible coeur:

Tu l’as tout exposé pour l’honneur de la France^[3]

Et pour le bien public, ton extrême vigueur

A montré les effets de ta ferme assurance.

        Que tu t’es travaillé pour détourner l’orage

Qui menaçait nos jours d’un funeste naufrage:

Pilote genereux de l’Empire Gaulois

Sans l’art industrieux de ta sage conduite

Serions nous pas captifs dans les injustes loix

D’une troupe de gens que l’Enfer a produite.

        Injustes Partisans, qui brûlent d'avarice,

Bannisez la vertu pour establir la vice,

Et ne nous repaissez que du sang des humains:

Larrons, audacieux, impudent, heretiques,

Retiendrez vous toujours nos trésors dans vos mains

Sans vouloir soulager nos miseres publiques.

        De Broussel est armé du bras d’un Déesse

Qui veut vous punissant finir notre tristesse,

Et de notre seul bien ourdir vostre mal-heur

Voyez comme il combat pour avoir la victoire,

Malgré tous les demons le Ciel pour son bon-heur

Le sera triompher dans un thrône de gloire^[4].

        Vostre rage a vomi contre lui sa furie,

Et le plus grand effort de vostre barbarie

Produit son effet quand il fut enlevé:

Cet énorme attentat, cette lâche industrie

L’ont mis dedans les fers, qu’en est-il arrivé?^[5]

Les François ont rendu le Père à sa Patrie.

        Parmi les legions des soldats tous en armes,

Parmy le bruit confus du peuple en ses alarmes

Qui demandoit avoir ce Soleil eclipsé:

Qu’on fut ravi voyant éclater sa lumière

Lors que plus on croyait qu’il estoit oppressé

Ou qu’il fut le butin de quelque cimetière.

        Quel heureux changement cette forte tempête,

Qu’on eut dit qui vouloit tomber sur notre tête

Et qui si promptement avoit armé Paris,

Se calma dès l’instant qu’on vit libre Brousselles

Alors tous nos pleurs se changèrent en ris

Madrid seul s’affligea d’en savoir les nouvelles.

        Au milieu du Pont-neuf se fit cette entrevue,

Qui surprit nos esprits d’une joye imprévue

De te voir de retour mon Heros glorieux;

Que d'applaudissements & que de bien-veillances,

L’air retantit des cris qui furent jusqu’aux Cieux

Raconter le succés de nos rejouissances.

Un seul homme pour toi fit qu’il s’en arma mille

Aux armes croient il en chacune famille,

On nous vient d'enlever nostre unique support,

Retirons-le des fers garantissons sa vie,

Puis qu’il nous a si bien affranchis de la mort:

Allons, disait Lisis, où l’honneur nous connuie.

        Enfin on t’a rendu nostre Ange tutélaire,

Object qui d’un clin d’œil calme nostre misere,

Et remets en splendeur l’authorité du Roi:

Vous regnez maintenant dans son lit de Justice,

Sénat Auguste & Saint en faisant une loi

Pour punis les méchants par un juste supplice.

        Que vous reste-t’il plus pour couronner vos peines,

Qu’à ranger au devoir ces ames inhumaines,

Qui sans crainte de Dieu, volent impunément,

Faites les regorger ces infames harpies,

Par vos fameux Arrests, Auguste Parlement,

Et vous verrez bientôt, nos haines assoupies.

FIN.

Translation:

To Mr. Broussel, Councillor, from the King to the Parlement of Paris

STANZAS

        Illustrious Senator, incomparable hero, that no one may accuse me to believe you to be adored if I raise your famous glory to the altar: what an honor, in these places one cannot give you a mortal who we have ever seen in the past centuries who has dared to undertake more for the good of the people.

Neither the threat of prisons, of torments, nor the chains, nor the horror of persecutors, nor of their tough characteristics, have never shaken your invincible heart: you have exposed all of it for the honor of France and for the good of the public, your extreme strength has shown the effects of your firm assertion.

What you have worked for to divert the storm that threatens our days with a gruesome shipwreck: generous pilot of the Gaul empire, without the industrious art of your wise conduct, we would be captive in the unjust laws of a group of people that Hell has produced.

Unjust supporters, who burn with greed, banish virtue for establishing vice, and only feed us the blood of humans: theives, audacious, impudent, heretics, you will remember everyday our treasures in your hands without wanting to relieve our public miseries.

Broussel is equipped by the arms of a goddess who wants to punish you to finish our sorrow and our only good to plot your misfortune, see how it fights for victory, despite all the demons Heaven will triumph over in a throne of glory for its pleasure.

Your rage has vomited its fury against him, and the bigger effort of your brutality, produced its effect when it was removed: this enormous attack, this cowardly industry, put them inside the irons, what happened? The French returned the Father to His Homeland.

Among the legions of armed soldiers, amongst the confused noise of alarmed people, who demand to have this Sun eclipsed: that we are thrilled to see his light be broken as soon as we still believed he was oppressed or that he is the fruits of your labor of some cemetery.

What a sad change is this strong tempest, that we had said who had wanted to fall on our head and who so promptly had armed Paris, and who calmed himself the instant that we saw Brussels free so all our tears change into laughter only Madrid is distressed to know the news.

This meeting was in the middle of the Pont Neuf which surprised our spirits of an unexpected joy of seeing you return my glorious Heros; that of applause and that of benevolence, the air resounded of the cries that were until the Heavens recounted the success of our rejoices.

A single man made for you who himself armed a thousand that every family believes in, we come to take for ourselves our unique support, remove the rails, guarantee his life, so that he so well liberated us from death: Come, said Lisis, where honor knew us.

Finally we returned to you our guardian Angel, object that of a wink calms our misery, and puts the authority of the King back in splendor: you reign now in his lit de justice (bed of justice), Senate August and Saint in making a law for punishing the unkind by a fair torture.

That you rest more for crowning your pains, that in putting away these inhuman souls, who without fear of God steal unpunished, overflow them with these infamous harpies, by your famous arrests, Auguste Parlement, and you will see soon our numb hatred.

Bibliography:

“A monsieur de Broussel, conseiller du roi au parlement de Paris”. Noel, 1649.

Coons, J. (2021). How to feel French: the politics of community and emotion in the siege of

Paris (1649). French History, 35(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/craa057.

J. Russell Major, Christian Jouhaud. Mazarinades: La Fronde Des Mots. (Collection Historique.)

Paris: Aubier. 1985. Pp. 287. 98 Fr.” The American Historical Review, vol. 91, no. 4, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 933–34, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/91.4.933-a.

Sosnowski, Thomas C. “The Cult of France and its King: Political Theory in the Mazarinades 

During the Fronde.” Journal of the Western Society for French History, vol. 42, 2014.

Vélez, Juan M. H. “PAMPHLET LITERATURE REFLECTING PARLIAMENTARY

OPPOSITION AT THE TIME OF THE FRENCH FRONDE: THE EXAMPLE OF THE MAZARINADES (1648-1649).”