Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume I Part 10

Visitez ce tombeau, baignez-le de vos pleurs; Rechauffez vos esprits d'une divine flame; Touchez-le settlement du doigt, Et vous y trouverez (si vous avez la foi) Et la sante du corps, et la sante de l'ame."

The building retains, at this time, only two of its celebrated painted windows; but they are fortunately the two which were always considered the best. One of them represents the history of St. Romain; the other, the genealogy of Jewish kings, from whom the Holy Virgin descended.

Rouen has, from a very early period, been famous for its manufactories of painted gla.s.s. But the windows of this church were still esteemed the _chef d'oeuvre_ of its artists; and these had so far pa.s.sed into a proverb, that Farin[104] tells us it was common throughout France to say, in recommendation of choice wine, that "it was as bright as the windows of St. G.o.dard." The saying, however, was by no means confined to Rouen, for it was also applied to the windows of the Ste. Chapelle, at Dijon.

It was at St. G.o.dard that the burst of the reformation was first manifested. The Huguenots, taking courage from the secret increase of their numbers, broke into the building, in 1540, demolished the images, and sold the pix to a goldsmith. But the man suffered severely for his purchase: he was shortly afterwards sentenced, by a decree of the parliament, to be hanged in front of his shop; and two of those concerned in the outrage also suffered capital punishment. The spark thus lighted, afterwards increased into a conflagration; and, to this hour, there is a larger body of Protestants at Rouen, than in most French towns.

I do not expect that you will reproach me with the prolixity of these details. The subject is attractive to me, and I feel that you will accompany me with pleasure in my pilgrimage, from chapel to shrine, dwelling with me in contemplation on the relics of ancient skill and the memorials of the piety of the departed. Nor must it be forgotten, that the hand of the spoliator is falling heavily on all objects of antiquity. And the French seem to find a source of perverse and malignant pleasure in destroying the temples where their ancestors once wors.h.i.+pped: many are swept away; a greater number continue to exist in a desecrated state; and time, which changes all things, is proceeding with hasty strides to obliterate their character. The lofty steeple hides its diminished head; the mullions and tracery disappear from the pointed windows, from which the stained gla.s.s has long since fallen; the arched entrance contracts into a modern door-way; the smooth plain walls betray neither niches, nor pinnacles, nor fresco paintings; and in the warehouse, or manufactory, or smithy, little else remains than the extraordinary size, to point out the original holy destination of the edifice.

Footnotes:

[91] The following brief statement of their excesses is copied from a ma.n.u.script belonging to the monastery: the full detail of them engages Pommeraye for nearly seven folio pages:--"Le Dimanche troisieme de May, 1562, les Huguenots s'etans ama.s.sez en grosse troupe, vinrent armez en grande furie dans l'Eglise de S. Ouen, ou etant entrez ils rompirent les chaires du choeur, le grand autel, et toutes les chapelles: mirent en pieces l'Horloge, dont on voit encore la menuiserie dans la chapelle joignant l'arcade du coste du septentrion, aussi bien que celles des orgues, dont ils prirent l'etaim et le plomb pour en faire des balles de mousquet: puis ils allumerent cinq feux, trois dedans l'Eglise et deux dehors, ou ils brulerent tous les bancs et sieges des religieux, auec le bois des bal.u.s.tres des chapelles, les bancs et fermetures d'icelles, plusieurs ornemens et vestemens sacrez, comme chappes, tuniques, chasubles, aubes, vne autre partie des plus riches et precieux ornemens de broderie et drap d'or ayant este enlevee en l'hotellerie de la pomme de pin, ou ils les brulerent pour en auoir l'or et l'argent. Ils firent la mesme chose des saintes reliques, qu'ils brulerent, ayant emporte l'or, l'argent, et les pierreries des reliquaires."--_Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale de St. Ouen_, p. 205.

[92] Farin, Histoire de Rouen, IV. p. 134.

[93] _Histoire de l'Abbaye Royales de Saint Ouen_, p. 204.

[94] The following are the dimensions of the interior of the building, in French feet:

Length of the church.................. 416 Ditto of the nave..................... 234 Ditto of the choir.................... 108 Ditto of the Lady-Chapel.............. 66 Ditto of the transept................. 130 Width of ditto........................ 34 Ditto of nave, without the aisles..... 34 Ditto, including ditto................ 78 Height of roof........................ 100 Ditto of tower........................ 240

[95] _Figured in Cotmans Norfolk Sepulchral Bra.s.ses_.

[96] The house of the abbess of St. Amand is still standing, though neglected, and in a great degree in ruins. What remains, however, is very curious; and is, perhaps, the oldest specimen of domestic architecture in Rouen. It is partly of wood, the front covered with arches and other sculpture in bas-relief, and partly of stone.

[97] _Farin, Histoire de Rouen_, IV. p. 156.

[98] The dimensions of the building, in French feet, are,--

Length of the nave.................... 70 Ditto of choir........................ 40 Ditto of Lady-Chapel.................. 30 Ditto of the whole building.......... 140 Width of ditto........................ 76 Height to the top of the lanthorn.... 142

[99] _Farin, Histoire de Rouen_, IV. p. 168.

[100] _Antiquitez et Singularitez de la Ville de Rouen_, p. 186.

[101] _Farin, Histoire de Rouen_, IV. p. 132.

[102] _Histoire des Archeveques de Rouen_, p. 130.

[103] _La Normandie Chretienne_, p. 487.

[104] _Histoire de Rouen_, IV. p. 134.

LETTER XII.

PALAIS DE JUSTICE--STATES, EXCHEQUER, AND PARLIAMENT OF NORMANDY--GUILD OF THE CONARDS--JOAN OF ARC--FOUNTAIN AND BAS-RELIEF IN THE PLACE DE LA PUCELLE--TOUR DE LA GROSSE HORLOGE--PUBLIC FOUNTAINS--RIVERS AUBETTE AND ROBEC--HOSPITALS--MINT.

(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

Amongst the secular buildings of Rouen, the Palais de Justice holds the chief place, whether we consider the magnificence of the building, or the importance of the a.s.semblies which once were convened within its precinct.

The three estates of the Duchy of Normandy, the parliament, composed of the deputies of the church, the n.o.bility, and the good towns, usually held their meetings in the Palace of Justice. Until the liberties of France were wholly extirpated by Richelieu, this body opposed a formidable resistance to the crown; and the _Charte Normande_ was considered as great a safeguard to the liberties of the subject, as Magna Charta used to be on your side of the channel. Here, also, the _Court of Exchequer_ held its session. According to a fond tradition, this, the supreme tribunal of Normandy, was inst.i.tuted by Rollo, the good Duke, whose very name seemed to be considered as a charm averting violence and outrage. This court, like our _Aula Regia_, long continued ambulatory, and attendant upon the person of the sovereign; and its sessions were held occasionally, and at his pleasure. The progress of society, however, required that the supreme tribunal should become stationary and permanent, that the suitors might know when and where they might prefer their claims. Philip the Fair, therefore, about the year 1300, began by enacting that the pleas should be held only at Rouen. Louis the XIIth remodelled the court, and gave it permanence; yielding in these measures to the prayer of the States of Normandy, and to the advice of his minister, the Cardinal d'Amboise. It was then composed of four presidents, and twenty-eight counsellors; thirteen being clerks; and the remainder laymen. The name of exchequer was perhaps unpleasing to the crown, as it reminded the Normans of the ancient independence of their duchy; and, in 1515, Francis Ist ordered that the court should thenceforward be known as the _Parliament of Normandy_; thus a.s.similating it in its appellation to the other supreme tribunals of the kingdom. There is an old poem extant, written in very lawyer-like rhyme, which invests all the cardinal virtues, and a great many supernumerary ones besides, with the offices of this most honorable court, in which purity is the usher, truth has a silk gown, and virginity enters the proceedings on the record.

"De ceste _court_ grace est grand _chanceliere_, Vertus ont lieu de _presidens_ prudens: Verite est premiere _conseillere_, Et purete _huyssiere_ la-dedans: La _greffiere_ est virginite feconde, Et la _concierge_ humilite profonde.

Pythie _procure_ a vuider les discords, Comme _advocat_, amour ayde aux accords.

De _geolier_ vacque le seul office: Aussy on voyt par _officiers_ concors, La n.o.ble _court_ rendante a tous justice."

In the same style and strain is a ballad, which, thanks to the care of De Bourgueville, the author of the _Antiquities of Caen_, hath been preserved for the edification of posterity. It enumerates all the members of the court _seriatim_, and compares their lords.h.i.+ps and wors.h.i.+ps, one after another, to the heroes and demi-G.o.ds of ancient story.

The parliament in its turn has given way to the _Court of a.s.sizes_; and, where the states once deliberated, the electors of the department now come together for the purpose of naming the deputies who represent them in the great council of the nation;--such are the vicissitudes of all human inst.i.tutions.

When the Jews were expelled from Normandy, in 1181, the _Close_, or Jewry, in which they dwelled, escheated to the king. The sons of j.a.phet spoiled the sons of Shem with pious alacrity. The debtor burnt his bond; the bailie seized the store of bezants; the synagogue was razed to the ground. In this _Close_ the palace was afterwards built. The wise custom of Normandy was mooted on the spot where the law of Moses had once been taught; and, by a strange, perhaps an ominous, fatality, the judge held the scales of justice, where whilome the usurer had poised his balance.

The palace forms three sides of a quadrangle. The fourth is occupied by an embattled wall and an elaborate gate-way. The building was erected about the beginning of the sixteenth century; and, with all its faults, it is a fine adaptation of Gothic architecture to civil purposes. It is in the style which a friend of mine chooses to distinguish by the name of _Burgundian architecture_; and he tells me that he considers it as the parent of our Tudor style. Here, the windows in the body of the building take flattened elliptic heads; and they are divided by one mullion and one transom. The mouldings are highly wrought, and enriched with foliage. The lucarne windows are of a different design, and form the most characteristic feature of the front: they are pointed and enriched with mullions and tracery, and are placed within triple canopies of nearly the same form, flanked by square pillars, terminating in tall crocketed pinnacles, some of them fronted with open arches crowned with statues. The roof, as is usual in French and Flemish buildings of this date, is of a very high pitch, and harmonizes well with the proportions of the building. An oriel, or rather tower, of enriched workmans.h.i.+p projects into the court, and varies the elevations.

On the left-hand side of the court, a wide flight of steps leads to the hall called _la Salle des Procureurs_, a place originally designed as an Exchange for the merchants of the city, who had previously been in the habit of a.s.sembling for that purpose in the cathedral. It is one hundred and sixty feet in length, by fifty in breadth.

"In this great hall," says Peter Heylin, "are the seats and desks of the procurators; every one's name written in capital letters over his head.

These procurators are like our attornies; they prepare causes, and make them ready for the advocates. In this hall do suitors use, either to attend on, or to walk up and down, and confer with, their pleaders."--The attornies had similar seats in the ancient English courts of justice; and these seats still remain in the hall at Westminster, in which the Court of Exchequer holds its sittings. The walls of the Salle des Procureurs are adorned with chaste niches. The coved roof is of timber, plain and bold, and dest.i.tute either of the open tie-beams and arches, or the knot-work and cross timber which adorn our old English roofs. If the roof of our priory church was not ornamented, as last mentioned, it would nearly resemble that in question.--Below the hall is a prison; to its right is the room where the parliament formerly held its sittings, but which is now appropriated to the trial of criminal causes. The unfortunate Mathurin Bruneau, the soi-disant dauphin, was last year tried here, and condemned to imprisonment. He is treated in his place of confinement with ambiguous kindness. The poor wretch loves his bottle; and, being allowed to intoxicate himself to his heart's content, he is already reduced to a state of idiotism.--Heylin, who saw the building when it was in perfection, says, speaking of this _Great Chamber_, "that it is so gallantly and richly built, that I must needs confess it surpa.s.seth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life. The palace of the Louvre hath nothing in it comparable; the ceiling is all inlaid with gold, yet doth the workmans.h.i.+p exceed the matter."--The ceiling which excited Heylin's admiration still exists. It is a grand specimen of the interior decoration of the times. The oak, which age has rendered almost as dark as ebony, is divided into compartments, covered with rich but whimsical carving, and relieved with abundance of gold. Over the bench is a curious old picture, a _Crucifixion_. Joseph and the Virgin are standing by the cross: the figures are painted on a gold ground; the colors deep and rich; the drawing, particularly in the arms, indifferent; the expression of the faces good. It was upon this picture that witnesses took the oaths before the revolution; and it is the only one of the six formerly in this situation that escaped destruction[105]. Round the apartment are gnomic sentences in letters of gold, reminding judges, juries, witnesses, and suitors, of their duties. The room itself is said to be the most beautiful in France for its proportions and quant.i.ty of light. In the _Antiquites Nationales_, is described and figured an elaborately wrought chimney-piece in the council-chamber, now destroyed, as are some fine Gothic door-ways, which opened into the chamber. The ceiling of the apartment called la _seconde Chambre des Enquetes_, painted by Jouvenet, with a representation of Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts at Vice, is also unfortunately no more. It fell in, from a failure in the woodwork of the roof, on the first of April, 1812. It was among the most highly-esteemed productions of this master, and not the less remarkable for having been executed with the left hand, after a paralytic stroke had deprived him of the use of the other.

Millin observes, with much justice, that one of the most remarkable of the decrees that issued from this palace, was that which authorized the meetings of the _Conards_, a name given to a confraternity of buffoons, who, disguised in grotesque dresses, performed farces in the streets on Shrove Tuesday and other holidays. Nor is it a little indicative of the taste of the times, that men of rank, character, and respectability entered into this society, the members of which, amounting to two thousand five hundred, elected from among themselves a president, whom they dressed as an abbot[106], with a crozier and mitre, and, placing him on a car drawn by four horses, led him, thus attired, in great pomp through the streets; the whole of the party being masked, and personating not only the allegorical characters of avarice, l.u.s.t, &c.

but the more tangible ones of pope, king, and emperor, and with them those of holy writ. The seat of this guild was at Notre Dame de Bonnes Nouvelles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sculpture, representing the Feast of Fools]

In the cathedral itself the more notorious _Procession des Fous_ was also formerly celebrated, in which, as you know, the a.s.s played the princ.i.p.al part, and the choir joined in the hymn[107],--

"Orientis partibus Adventavit Asinus," &c.

These, or similar ceremonies, call them if you please absurdities, or call them impieties, (you will in neither case be far from their proper name,) were in the early ages of Christianity tolerated in almost every place. Mr. Douce has furnished us with some curious remarks upon them in the eleventh volume of the _Archaeologia_, and Mr. Ellis in his new edition of _Brand's Popular Antiquities_. I am indebted to the first of these gentlemen for the knowledge that the inclosed etching, copied some time ago from a drawing by Mr. Joseph Harding, is allusive to the ceremony of the _feast of fools_, and does not represent a group of morris-dancers, as I had erroneously supposed. Indeed, Mr. Douce believes that many of the strange carvings on the _misereres_ in our cathedrals have references to these practices. And yet, to the honor of England, they never appear to have been equally common with us as in France.--According to Du Cange[108], the confraternity of the Conards or Cornards was confined to Rouen and Evreux. I have not been able to ascertain when they were suppressed; but they certainly existed in the time of Taillepied, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, about fifty years previously to which they dropped their original name of _Coqueluchers_. At this time too they had evidently degenerated from the primary object of their inst.i.tution, "ridendo castigare mores atque in omne quod turpiter factum fuerat ridiculum immittere." Taillepied was an eye-witness of their practices; and he prudently contents himself with saying; "le fait est plus clair a le voir que je ne pourrois icy l'escrire."

At a short distance from the palace is a small square, called the _Place de la Pucelle_, a name which it has but recently acquired, in lieu of the more familiar appellation of _le Marche aux Veaux_. The present t.i.tle records one of the most interesting events in the history of Rouen, the execution of the unfortunate Joan of Arc, which is said to have taken place on the very spot now covered by the monument that commemorates her fate. Three different ones have in succession occupied this place. The first was a cross, erected in 1454, only twenty-four years after her death; for even at this early period, the King of France had obtained from Pope Calixtus IIIrd, a bull directing the revision of her sentence, and he had caused her innocence to be acknowledged. The second was a fountain of delicate workmans.h.i.+p, consisting of three tiers of columns placed one above the other, on a triangular plan, the whole decorated with arabesques and statues of saints, while the Maid herself crowned the summit, and the water flowed through pipes that terminated in horses' heads. The present monument is inferior to the second, equally in design and in workmans.h.i.+p: it is a plain triangular pedestal, ornamented with dolphins at the base, and surmounted by the heroine in military costume. Of the two last, figures are given by Millin[109], who could not be expected to suffer a subject to escape him, so calculated for the gratification of national pride. In a preceding volume of the same work[110], he has represented the monument erected to her memory by Charles VIIth, upon the bridge at Orleans: the latter is commemorative of her triumphs; that at Rouen, only of her capture and death. But the King testified his grat.i.tude by more substantial tokens: he enn.o.bled her three brothers and their descendants; and even allowed the females of the family to confer their rank upon the persons whom they married, a privilege which they continued to enjoy till the time of Louis XIIIth, who abolished it in 1634.

In the square is a house within a court, now occupied as a school for girls, of the same aera as the Palais de Justice, and in the same _Burgundian style_, but far richer in its sculptures. The entire front is divided into compartments by slender and lengthened b.u.t.tresses and pilasters. The intervening s.p.a.ces are filled with ba.s.so-relievos, evidently executed at one period, though by different masters. A banquet beneath a window in the first floor, is in a good _cinque-cento_ style. Others of the ba.s.so-relievos, represent the labors of the field and the vineyard; rich and fanciful in their costume, but rather wooden in their design: the Salamander, the emblem of Francis Ist, appears several times amongst the ornaments, and very conspicuously. I believe there is not a single square foot of this extraordinary building, which has not been sculptured.--On the north side extends a s.p.a.cious gallery.

Here the architecture is rather in Holbein's manner: foliaged and swelling pilasters, like antique candelabra, bound the arched windows.

Beneath, is the well-known series of bas-reliefs, executed on marble tablets, representing the interview between Francis Ist of France, and Henry VIIIth of England, in the _Champ du Drap d'or_, between Guisnes and Ardres. They were first discovered by the venerable father Montfaucon, who engraved them in his _Monumens de la Monarchie Francaise_[111]; but to the greater part of our antiquaries at home, they are, perhaps, more commonly known by the miserable copies inserted in Ducarel's work, who has borrowed most of his plates from the Benedictine.--These sculptures are much mutilated, and so obscured by smoke and dirt, that the details cannot be understood without great difficulty. The corresponding tablets above the windows, are even in a worse condition; and they appear to have been almost unintelligible in the time of Montfaucon, who conjectures that they were allegorical, and probably intended to represent the triumph of religion. Each tablet contains a triumphal car, drawn by different animals, one by elephants, another by lions, and so on, and crowded with mythological figures and attributes.--A friend of mine, who examined them this summer, tells me, that he thinks the subjects are either _taken_ from the triumphs of Petrarch, or _imitated_ from the triumphs introduced in the _Polifilo_.

Graphic representations of allegories are susceptible of so many variations, that an artist, embodying the ideas of the poet, might produce a representation bearing a close resemblance to the mythological processions of the mystic dream.--Of one of the most perfect of the historical subjects, I send you a drawing: it is the first in order in Montfaucon's work, and exhibits the suite of the King of England, on their way from the town of Guisnes, to meet the French monarch. Two of the figures might be mistaken for Henry himself and Wolsey, riding familiarly side by side; but these dignified personages have more important parts allotted them in the second and third compartments, where they appear in the full-blown honors of their respective characters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bas-Relief, from the representations of the Champ du Drap d'or]

The interior has been modernized; so that a beam covered with small carvings is the only remaining object of curiosity. On the top, a bunch of leaden thistles has been a sad puzzle to antiquaries, who would fain find some connection between the building and Scotland; but neither record nor tradition throw any light upon their researches. Montfaucon, copying from a ma.n.u.script written by the Abbe Noel, says, "I have more than once been told that Francis Ist, on his way through Rouen, lodged at this house; and it is most probable, that the bas-reliefs in question were made upon some of these occasions, to gratify the king by the representation of a festival, in which he particularly delighted." The gallery sculptures are very fine, and the upper tier is much in the style of Jean Goujon. It is not generally known that Goujon re-drew the embellishments of Beroald de Verville's translation of the Polifilo; and that these, beautiful as they are in the Aldine edition, acquired new graces from the French artist.--I have remarked that the allegorical tablets appear to coincide with the designs of the Polifilo: a more accurate examination might, perhaps, prove the fact; and then little doubt would remain. The building is much dilapidated; and, unless speedily repaired, these ba.s.so-relievos, which would adorn any museum, will utterly perish. In spite of neglect and degradations, the aspect of the mansion is still such that, as my friend observed, one would expect to see a fair and stately matron standing in the porch, attired in velvet, waiting to receive her lord.--In the adjoining house, once, probably, a part of the same, but now an inn, bearing the sign of _la Pucelle_, is shewn a circular room, much ornamented, with a handsome oriel conspicuous on the outside. In this apartment, the Maid is said to have been tried; but it is quite certain that not a stone of the building was then put of the quarry.

Hence I must take you, and still under the auspices of Millin[112], to the great town-clock, or, as it is here called, _la Tour de la Grosse Horloge_; and I cannot help wis.h.i.+ng on the occasion, that I had half the powers of instructing and amusing which he possessed. Like the writers in our most popular Reviews, he uses the subjects which he places at the head of his articles as little more than a peg, whereon to hang whatever he knows connected with the matter; and the result is, that he is never read without pleasure or information. Such is peculiarly the case in the present instance, in which he takes an opportunity of giving the history of the origin of clocks, tracing them from the simple dial, and particularising the most curious and intricate contrivances of modern ingenuity. Another name of the tower which contains this clock, is _la Tour du Beffroi_, or, as we should say in English, the _Belfry_; for the two words have the same meaning, and it is not to be doubted but that they originated from the same root, the Anglo-Saxon _bell_, whence barbarous Latinists have formed _Belfredus_ and _Berfredus_, terms for moveable towers used in sieges, and so denominated from their resemblance in form to bell-towers. I mention this etymology, because the French have misled themselves strangely on the subject; and one of them has wandered so widely in his conjectures, as to derive _beffroi_ from _bis effroi_, supposing it to be the cause of double alarm!

Happily, in the most alarming of all times for France, that of the revolution, this bell, though appointed the _tocsin_, had scarcely ever occasion to sound. There is, however, another purpose, alarming at all periods, and especially in a town built of wood, to which it is appropriated, and to which we only yesterday heard it applied, the ringing to announce a fire. The precautions taken against similar accidents in Rouen, are excellent, and they had need be so; for insurance-companies of any kind are unknown, I believe, in France[113], or exist only upon a most limited scale, at the foot of the Pyrenees, where the farmers mutually insure each other against the effects of the hail. The daily office of this bell is to sound the curfew, a practice which, under different names, is still kept up through Normandy. Here it rings nightly at nine. In other towns it rings at nine in winter only, but not till ten in summer. In some places it is called _la retraite_.

Adjoining the bell-tower is a fountain, ornamented with statues of Alpheus and Arethusa, united by Cupid; a specimen of the taste of the far-famed _siecles de Louis XIV et de Louis XV_, and a worthy companion of the water-works at Versailles. There are in Rouen more than thirty public fountains, all supplied by five different springs, among which, those of Yonville and of Darnetal are accounted to afford the purest water.--The Robec and the Aubette also flow through Rouen in artificial channels. St. Louis granted them both to the city in 1262; but it was the great benefactor of the place, the Cardinal d'Amboise, who brought them within the walls, by means of a ca.n.a.l, which he caused to be dug at his own expence. For a s.p.a.ce of two leagues their banks are uninterruptedly lined with mills and manufactories of various descriptions; and it is this circ.u.mstance which has given rise to the saying, that Rouen is a wonderful place, for "that it has a river with three hundred bridges, and whose waters change their color ten times a day."