Editing Volume 3/Book 1/Chapter 3

Les Mis&eacute;rables, Volume 3: Marius, Book First: Paris Studied in its Atom, Chapter 3: He is Agreeable<br />
(Tome 3: Marius, Livre premier: Paris &eacute;tudi&eacute; dans son atome, Chapitre 3: Il est agr&eacute;able)

==General notes on this chapter==

==French text==

 
Le soir, gr&acirc;ce &agrave; quelques sous qu'il trouve toujours moyen de se
procurer, l'''homuncio'' entre dans un th&eacute;&acirc;tre. En franchissant ce seuil
magique, il se transfigure; il &eacute;tait le gamin, il devient le titi. Les
th&eacute;&acirc;tres sont des esp&egrave;ces de vaisseaux retourn&eacute;s qui ont la cale en
haut. C'est dans cette cale que le titi s'entasse. Le titi est au gamin
ce que la phal&egrave;ne est &agrave; la larve; le m&ecirc;me &ecirc;tre envol&eacute; et planant. Il
suffit qu'il soit l&agrave;, avec son rayonnement de bonheur, avec sa puissance
d'enthousiasme et de joie, avec son battement de mains qui ressemble &agrave;
un battement d'ailes, pour que cette cale &eacute;troite, f&eacute;tide, obscure,
sordide, malsaine, hideuse, abominable, se nomme le Paradis.

 
Donnez &agrave; un &ecirc;tre l'inutile et &ocirc;tez-lui le n&eacute;cessaire, vous aurez le
gamin.

 
Le gamin n'est pas sans quelque intuition litt&eacute;raire. Sa tendance, nous
le disons avec la quantit&eacute; de regret qui convient, ne serait point le
go&ucirc;t classique. Il est, de sa nature, peu acad&eacute;mique. Ainsi, pour donner
un exemple, la popularit&eacute; de mademoiselle Mars dans ce petit public
d'enfants orageux &eacute;tait assaisonn&eacute;e d'une pointe d'ironie. Le gamin
l'appelait mademoiselle ''Muche''.

 
Cet &ecirc;tre braille, raille, gouaille, bataille, a des chiffons comme un
bambin et des guenilles comme un philosophe, p&ecirc;che dans l'&eacute;gout, chasse
dans le cloaque, extrait la ga&icirc;t&eacute; de l'immondice, fouaille de sa verve
les carrefours, ricane et mord, siffle et chante, acclame et engueule,
temp&egrave;re Alleluia par Matanturlurette, psalmodie tous les rythmes depuis
le De Profundis jusqu'&agrave; la Chienlit, trouve sans chercher, sait ce qu'il
ignore, est spartiate jusqu'&agrave; la filouterie, est fou jusqu'&agrave; la sagesse,
est lyrique jusqu'&agrave; l'ordure, s'accroupirait sur l'Olympe, se vautre
dans le fumier et en sort couvert d'&eacute;toiles. Le gamin de Paris, c'est
Rabelais petit.

 
Il n'est pas content de sa culotte, s'il n'y a point de gousset de
montre.

 
Il s'&eacute;tonne peu, s'effraye encore moins, chansonne les superstitions,
d&eacute;gonfle les exag&eacute;rations, blague les myst&egrave;res, tire la langue aux
revenants, d&eacute;po&eacute;tise les &eacute;chasses, introduit la caricature dans les
grossissements &eacute;piques. Ce n'est pas qu'il est prosa&iuml;que; loin de l&agrave;;
mais il remplace la vision solennelle par la fantasmagorie farce. Si
Adamastor lui apparaissait, le gamin dirait: Tiens! Croquemitaine!

 
==English text==

 
In the evening, thanks to a few sous, which he always finds means to
procure, the homuncio enters a theatre. On crossing that magic threshold,
he becomes transfigured; he was the street urchin, he becomes the titi. Theatres
are a sort of ship turned upside down with the keel in the air. It is in
that keel that the titi huddle together. The titi is to the gamin what the
moth is to the larva; the same being endowed with wings and soaring. It
suffices for him to be there, with his radiance of happiness, with his
power of enthusiasm and joy, with his hand-clapping, which resembles a
clapping of wings, to confer on that narrow, dark, fetid, sordid,
unhealthy, hideous, abominable keel, the name of Paradise.

 
Bestow on an individual the useless and deprive him of the necessary, and
you have the gamin.

 
The gamin is not devoid of literary intuition. His tendency, and we say it
with the proper amount of regret, would not constitute classic taste. He
is not very academic by nature. Thus, to give an example, the popularity
of Mademoiselle Mars among that little audience of stormy children was
seasoned with a touch of irony. The gamin called her Mademoiselle Muche&mdash;"hide
yourself."

 
This being bawls and scoffs and ridicules and fights, has rags like a baby
and tatters like a philosopher, fishes in the sewer, hunts in the
cesspool, extracts mirth from foulness, whips up the squares with his wit,
grins and bites, whistles and sings, shouts, and shrieks, tempers Alleluia
with Matantur-lurette, chants every rhythm from the De Profundis to the
Jack-pudding, finds without seeking, knows what he is ignorant of, is a
Spartan to the point of thieving, is mad to wisdom, is lyrical to filth,
would crouch down on Olympus, wallows in the dunghill and emerges from it
covered with stars. The gamin of Paris is Rabelais in this youth.

 
He is not content with his trousers unless they have a watch-pocket.

 
He is not easily astonished, he is still less easily terrified, he makes
songs on superstitions, he takes the wind out of exaggerations, he twits
mysteries, he thrusts out his tongue at ghosts, he takes the poetry out of
stilted things, he introduces caricature into epic extravaganzas. It is
not that he is prosaic; far from that; but he replaces the solemn vision
by the farcical phantasmagoria. If Adamastor were to appear to him, the
street Arab would say: "Hi there! The bugaboo!"

==Translation notes==

==Textual notes==

===Paradis===

The last areas of a theatre above the boxes and balconies. These are generally the cheapest seats.

==Citations==
<references />