Volume 3/Book 1/Chapter 1

Les Misérables, Volume 3: Marius, Book First: Paris Studied in its Atom, Chapter 1: Parvulus
(Tome 3: Marius, Livre premier: Paris étudié dans son atome, Chapitre 1: Parvulus)

French text

Paris a un enfant et la forêt a un oiseau; l'oiseau s'appelle le moineau; l'enfant s'appelle le gamin.

Accouplez ces deux idées qui contiennent, l'une toute la fournaise, l'autre toute l'aurore, choquez ces étincelles, Paris, l'enfance; il en jaillit un petit être. Homuncio, dirait Plaute.

Ce petit être est joyeux. Il ne mange pas tous les jours et il va au spectacle, si bon lui semble, tous les soirs. Il n'a pas de chemise sur le corps, pas de souliers aux pieds, pas de toit sur la tête; il est comme les mouches du ciel qui n'ont rien de tout cela. Il a de sept à treize ans, vit par bandes, bat le pavé, loge en plein air, porte un vieux pantalon de son père qui lui descend plus bas que les talons, un vieux chapeau de quelque autre père qui lui descend plus bas que les oreilles, une seule bretelle en lisière jaune, court, guette, quête, perd le temps, culotte des pipes, jure comme un damné, hante le cabaret, connaît des voleurs, tutoie des filles, parle argot, chante des chansons obscènes, et n'a rien de mauvais dans le cœur. C'est qu'il a dans l'âme une perle, l'innocence, et les perles ne se dissolvent pas dans la boue. Tant que l'homme est enfant, Dieu veut qu'il soit innocent.

Si l'on demandait à l'énorme ville: Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela? elle répondrait: C'est mon petit.

English text

Paris has a child, and the forest has a bird; the bird is called the sparrow; the child is called the gamin.

Couple these two ideas which contain, the one all the furnace, the other all the dawn; strike these two sparks together, Paris, childhood; there leaps out from them a little being. Homuncio, Plautus would say.

This little being is joyous. He has not food every day, and he goes to the play every evening, if he sees good. He has no shirt on his body, no shoes on his feet, no roof over his head; he is like the flies of heaven, who have none of these things. He is from seven to thirteen years of age, he lives in bands, roams the streets, lodges in the open air, wears an old pair of trousers of his father's, which descend below his heels, an old hat of some other father, which descends below his ears, a single suspender of yellow listing; he runs, lies in wait, rummages about, wastes time, blackens pipes, swears like a convict, haunts the wine-shop, knows thieves, calls gay women thou, talks slang, sings obscene songs, and has no evil in his heart. This is because he has in his heart a pearl, innocence; and pearls are not to be dissolved in mud. So long as man is in his childhood, God wills that he shall be innocent.

If one were to ask that enormous city: "What is this?" she would reply: "It is my little one."

Textual notes

Plautus

Titus Maccias Plautus is one of two renowned ancient Roman comic playwrights, the other being Publius Terentius Afer, aka Terence..

" / "Homuncio, Plautus would say."

In 'Notes', under "PART THREE: MARIUS", translator Christine Donougher states that Plautus never used the term "homuncio" but that Terence, the playwright often compared to Plautus, did use "homuncio." Donougher's statement is verifiable by searching for "homuncio" in the Latin archives at The Packard Humanities Institute's Classic Latin Texts site and Tuft University's Perseus Digital Library, discussed below.

Hugo's apparent confusion concerning which playwright used 'homuncio' is mysterious, since he began learning Latin at the age of 9 and he continued studying, reading, and translating it during his youth. Also, many references to Plautus are found throughout Hugo's vast body of work. Hugo may have made a simple mistake attributing 'homuncio' to Plautus, or not. In the Preface of Cromwell, Hugo wrote in a note about a sentence comparing Plautus and Aristophanes, that Plautus was qualitatively incomparable to the greatness of Terence, but this seems to be in the context of their own epoch, rather than Hugo's. Further consideration of Terence and Plautus' use of similar terms may invite slightly comparative knowledge of these renowned ancient playwrights to that of Hugo.

Moses Slaughter's 1891 thesis, The Substantives of Terence states, that 'homuncio' is irregular and that Terence used diminutives sparingly, and if he were to use them, his plays would have benefited. Plautus, however, used diminutives, and with good affect. "Instead of homuncio Plautus uses homullus and homunculus," Slaughter writes. However, searching the Perseus Digital Library and Packard Humanities' Classic Latin Texts in January 2017, only forms of 'homunculus' appear in Plautus' works. No forms of 'humullus' were found.

Consider the meanings of Terence and Plautus' similar terms. Terence uses 'homuncio' once in The Eunuch (Eunuchus), in act 3.5, and it's meaning is not quite the same as Plautus' use of forms of 'homunculus' in the Prologue of The Captives (Captivi), in The Fisherman's Rope (Rudens), in act 1.2, and in Three Pieces of Money (Trinummus), in act 2.4.

In The Eunuch, 'homuncio' compares the little-ness of a human to the might and power of a god, such that if a god does such and such in a similar instance that a mere human finds zirself in, then ze should do similarly. On the other hand, Plautus' uses of forms of 'homunculus' express not only humankind's vulnerability in the face of overwhelmingly powerful forces, they express sympathy for those suffering under exertion of such forces.

Therefore, given Plautus' use of 'homunculus' - denoting a sympathy for those suffering miserable conditions, such that, if Hugo had been an ancient Roman, then he might have written an epic poem called Homunculi - Hugo's association of 'homuncio' with Plautus seems accurate even if 'homuncio' was used by Terence. Perhaps Hugo did consider Terence a god of playwrights and Plautus a mere homuncio in the former's shadow, as Hugo suggests, hence inserting a term clearly used by Terence but never by Plautus, but given the apt meaning of Plautus' 'homunculus', married the latter's meaning to the former's word.