July 9, 1689

The New monthly magazine, was a London periodical edited by Theodore Hook. One typical 1840 issue preserves a lot of topical criticism and literary work. An 18th century French dramatist, Alexis Piron, is the subject of a poem included, and we excerpt it here, both to introduce Piron, and because there is a cat metaphor in the poem. Piron (July 9, 1689 to January 21, 1773) was famous for his epigrams also. The joke below about the academicians, references the fact Piron was rejected for membership in the Academie Francaise after publicity arose about a bawdy poem he had written.

If poets have a fault, which I very much doubt,

Since they from heaven catch their inspiration

It is......

that they're......

vain....[The author, uses Piron, to prove the point of the poem]

....

Piron, a Frenchman, d—d to deathless fame,

For bringing Jean Jacques Rousseau on the stage,
And of immortal Voltaire making game,
Piron, the greatest jester of his age,—
A cursedly provoking epigrammatist,
Though, on the whole, a rather poorish dramatist,—
Piron, upon a time,
Sought in the Bois de Boulogne'/ shade
To cool his spleen, or wed his caustic rhyme.
All in the way of trade,
To some new vaudeville's pleasant tune,
"His custom ever of an afternoon."
There, at his ease, far from the world's controlling,
His " poet's eye in a fine phrensy rolling,"
Like to a true French rhyming rhetorician
...
He dealt out many a furious blow
'Gainst D'Alembert and Diderot,
And, ...each academician. .....

At length an ancient crone
Came hobbling down the road, with weary stride,
Too old to walk, and yet too poor to ride;
And when arriving near to Piron's seat,
Down at his feet
She dropped ....
A fishwife worshipping a man of rhyme
Was never known at any time:
No wonder then it worked on his hilarity;
Twas quite absurd, astonishing, and what
Might have stirred laughter in a cat:
What's more, it proved enormous popularity.
But soft, she moves her lips in whispers low,
And what she says, the poet longs to know;
Some thing that's to the action supplementary,
Of course, quite complimentary;
So stooping forward, he inclines his ear,
Near;
And hears she's only muttering a pray'r;
Instead of, " Piron, sir, God save ye,"
Salve regina, or perhaps, an ave.
Her upturned gaze directs his glance to where,
Over his head, as fine as she could stare, he
Saw a large painted image of the Virgin Mary :—
He saw, and on himself his eyes let fall:
Abash'd and humbled, as he inward fried,
He cried,
"So then, it's not the Poet after all!"

....

Alexis Peron, we read, received a pension from the king the last part of his life. A life he shared at the end, with a niece, a servant and a cat.