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Additional Notes on Modern Folk Pageantry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Passing mention was made in English Pageantry of the appearance of civic giants on the Continent—notably in Belgium and the North of France; and the fact that such figures as Saint Christopher of Salisbury and his European colleagues have reappeared since the recent war has been recorded in an article entitled Post-Bellum Giants. Since the publication of that paper, in Studies in Philology for January 1921, additional details concerning French and Belgian giants have come to my attention.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1922
References
1 Cf. “Post-Bellum Giants,” Studies in Philology, xviii, 1, p. 6. Cf. also English Pageantry, i, pp. 55, and n. 2; 254, 256, for mention of giants and other pageantry at Antwerp.
2 Cf. English Pageantry, i, 254, n. 4. Professor van Roosbroeck recounts the story in detail, noting that it is found in sixteenth-century historians. A statue to Brabo (the work of Jef Lambeaux) is in front of the Hôtel de Ville of Antwerp, and the legend is perpetuated on the City Seal. In some accounts, this giant is named “petit Eckhof”; M. van Roosbroeck does not name him; he says: “About the time of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar there lived in a castle near the Schelde a terrific giant who stopped all the ships on the river and exacted a high income tax [sic]. Any captain who refused to submit to his demands was killed. The giant cut off the hands of his numerous victims and threw them into the Schelde, and therefore the city was called Hand Werpen (Antwerpen)… . One of Caesar's generals, Sylvius Brabo, killed the giant, cut off his hand and threw it into the Schelde. Brabo became the first Duke of the country around Antwerp, which was called after him: Brabant.” It may be noted that the modern province of Brabant is that district surrounding Brussels, which is the capital of Brabant, as well as of Belgium.
3 It may be noted that the French papier-mâché is literally “chewed paper.”
4 Post-Bellum Giants, already referred to, records this fact. M. Delannoy notes, in 1921, that the giants had suffered much at the hands of the Occupying Forces: he says: “Les Allemands logés dans le magasin des géants ont commis beaucoup de dégâts, en enlevant les cordages et la voilure du bateau, les cuirs des géants, et en brisant méchammant ces chars et engins.”
5 Cf. English Pageantry, i, pp. 254, 256 and n. 6. Many examples of ships in pageants will be found in this book; see the Index under Ship, Ships, Half-Moon, Clermont, Laclede, Don de Dieu, Welcome, drakar, etc.
6 Cf. the element of the unexpected in the squibs of the London street-processions, and the tricks of the crowd humorously described by Ned Ward. (A Civic “Triumph” circa 1700, in Journ. Eng. Germ. Philol. for January, 1918, [xvii, 1] pp. 128 ff.)
7 Post-Bellum Giants, p. 6.
8 M. Delannoy notes that “de cet Ommegang il existe encore: la baleine et les trois dauphins, le bateau et les trois barquettes, le géant et la géante. Sont disparus: le cheval marin, l'éléphant, le dromadaire, le dragon, l'enfer, le Parnasse, etc.” It is interesting to compare this list with such a one as that of the pageants at Chester (Eng. Pag., i, pp. 44, 45, and, notes), and with the arbors and “wildernesses” of the London civic pageants (ibid., ch. vi, passim). The “enfer” suggests a survival of miracle-plays.
9 A letter from another Belgian source records that on this occasion “est sorti un géant qui lançait un jet d'eau qui a fort amusé la foule.” Cf. above, note 6, and Eng. Pag., i, pp. 254 and 256, n. 6.
10 See English Pageantry, i, p. 55, and n. 2. A post-card bearing the name of the giant (“Ambiorix (Géant). Le Tyran”) and his picture, which was mailed at Ath on 26 August, 1912, has been given me by Mlle. Pierron, of Lille.
11 Corpus Christi (Cantab.) MS. 298 (no. 8), cited in Eng. Pag., i, p. 176.
12 See English Pageantry, i, p. 16, [cf. ii, p. 156, n. 5,] i, p. 26, n. 4, and p. 27, n. 2. Judases apparently appeared in Norwich processions early in the sixteenth century.
Cf. Letters of Susan Hale (Boston: 1919) p. 147 f., for a description of Good Friday at Mexico City. In a letter dated Easter Sunday, 5 April, 1885, Miss Hale writes: “… Friday was Good Friday, which they celebrate here as a day of great rejoicings; all the world is in the street… . This country is a great place for children's toys, especially this anniversary, for they make a great time about Judas (Iscariot). The streets are full of hideous images called Judases, most of them full of fireworks, and on Saturday at ten o'clock in the morning these are all set off amid pealing of bells. [Cf. the ”squibs“ of the London Lord Mayor's Shows.] There are Mrs. Judases as well. Someone gave Mrs. Church a little silver Judas; it is a Devil;—the man who sold it said, ‘Yes, Devil, yes, Judas, same thing.‘ They are all sizes and designs. I have several choice ones which we can set off on the Fourth of July. Then every being has in his hand a sort of watchman's rattle, which makes a noise called grinding the bones of Judas, and these are of every imaginable design, frying-pans, bedsteads, locomotives, flower-vases, birds, bath-tubs, and then there are little wooden carts, with wheels that grind the bones. The true thing is to buy your Judas, selecting him with care from millions, and put him in his little cart and draw him home. We saw countless children doing this, the little carts decorated with real flowers, and the children so pleased!
“… Saturday was Judas-day, and we saw from our balconies crowds of Judases carried to their doom. These big ones are the size of a man, made of frames covered with tissue paper or what masks are made of. One was hung across corners of our two streets; he had a grinning face; they had put a straw hat on him and festooned him with bread and bananas. He had a placard on him in very bad spelt Spanish, saving among other things, ‘Adios amigos, voy a morir.‘ But we couldn't stop to see him morir, but all hastened to the Zocolo, where we got separated and I was alone in a street leading off with an immense crowd all waiting to see three Judases set off. They were hung on ropes stretched across the second story, and the crowd pleased themselves with throwing missiles at them with yells of joy when anything hit; but very gentle and polite, and very nice to me. At last one went off and then another with a great rushing sound, and snorting smoke and flame which issued from the boots chiefly. Then I got away in the wake of a horse-car that cleaved the crowd—and found the Longfellows in the Cathedral… .”
13 Eng. Pag., i, p. 26, n. 4, already referred to. There seem to have been two Judases on this occasion, and four in 1535 (ibid., p. 27, n. 2.)
14 From The Vanished Pomps of Yesterday, by Lord Frederick Hamilton, (New York: 1920) p. 165 f.
15 Post-Bellum Giants, p. 7. The folk-song sung on this occasion need not be reprinted here, but may be compared with the Antwerp songs given above.
16 Ibid., p. 5.
17 Nos Géants d'Auterfoés, by Jean Baffier (Paris: 1920), tells the “geste populaire et berrichonne” of Gargantua, which the author got from his father, “un vrai paysan.” The charm of its style is noteworthy. I am indebted to Professor van Roosbroeck for calling the book to my attention. (This quotation is on p. 10.)
18 M. Boulenger (op. cit., p. 12) remarks: “Pour les rabelaisants, elle a cet intérêt de rappeler de la façon la plus frappante, non du tout par l'affabulation, mais, ce qui est plus intéressant, par le tour et l'accent du récit, le roman de Maître François… . Et je ne puis m'empêcher de rester persuadé, après avoir lu les récits du père Baffier, que Rabelais s'est proposé d'imiter les conteurs villageois qu'il avait certainement entendus souventes fois à la veillée et d'écrire dans ce style parlé et traditionnel les aventures de ses héros.”
19 Op. cit., p. 158 ff. M. Baffier notes (p. 155) that the bourrée is a kind of dance, “d'origine religieuse et guerrière.” On p. 128 f., the arrival of the géante is described: “Coument était venue et de là où était venue la Géante. Parsoune, à cetelle heure, ne peu mettre en doutance la venue à Sancoing de la Géante. Coument alle était venue, de là où alle était venue? Moé j'en sais ren, mais ren du tout!
“Chariot Robet disait qu'alle venait de Bertagne, et i' chantait une chanson que marquait son voyâge en parlant des Pays qu'alle avait travarsés. Je m'en rappelle pus de cetelle chanson. Le père Bordier disait qu'alle venait de Langres, par Autun et Nevers. Girard le plemeu de brères asseurait qu'alle venait de l'Auvargne, par Clermont et Moulins, le père Enault m'a açartené qu'alle venait des Flandres, par Lille, Paris, Bourges. Mon grand-père Regnaud la tenait pour berruyère simpelment, et la mère à Ugène crai qu'alle venait de la Marche… .”