that effect, to which he answered
impatiently, 'Nonsense! don't you see they are in tears?' This was
unanswerable; we were allowed to hear the poem to the end, and I
certainly never listened to anything more feelingly and energetically
delivered.

"We had much conversation, for he was anxious to detain us; and in the
course of it, he told me that he had been by some accused of vanity.
'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'what would you have? I am a child of nature, and
cannot conceal my feelings; the only difference between me and a man of
refinement is, that he knows how to conceal his vanity and exaltation at
success, while I let everybody see my emotions.'

"His wife drew me aside, and asked my opinion as to how much money
it would cost to pay Jasmin's expenses, if he undertook a journey to
England. 'However,' she added, 'I dare say he need be at no charge, for
of course your Queen has read that article in his favour, and knows
his merit. She probably will send for him, pay all the expenses of his
journey, and give him great fetes in London!" Miss Costello, knowing the
difficulty of obtaining Royal recognition of literary merit in England,
unless it appears in forma pauperis, advised the barber-poet to wait
till he was sent for--a very good advice, for then it would be never!
She concludes her recollections with this remark: "I left the happy
pair, promising to let them know the effect that the translation of
Jasmin's poetry produced in the Royal mind. Indeed, their earnest
simplicity was really entertaining."

A contributor to the Westminster Review{5} also gave a very favourable
notice of Jasmin and his poetry, which, he said, was less known in
England than it deserved to be; nor was it well known in France since
he wrote in a patois. Yet he had been well received by some of the most
illustrious men in the capital, where unaided genius, to be successful,
must be genius indeed; and there the Gascon bard had acquired for
himself a fame of which any man might well be proud.

The reviewer said that the Gascon patois was peculiarly expressive
and heart-touching, and in the South it was held in universal honour.
Jasmin, he continued, is what Burns was to the Scottish peasantry; only
he received his honours in his lifetime. The comparison with Burns,
however, was not appropriate. Burns had more pith, vigour, variety,
and passion, than Jasmin who was more of a descriptive writer. In some
respects Jasmin resembled Allan Ramsay, a barb