“I have lately been reading some of Beranger's Chansons. The hour was not propitious.”
Author
Pierre-Jean de Béranger(1780–1857)
Pierre-Jean de Béranger is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, and manuscripts (1839–1848). 13 distinct works are named, most often in Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
- Engagement
- ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
- Present in
- Letters · Books · Essays · Manuscripts
- Documented
- 1839–1848
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Confirmed reading
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Pierre-Jean de Béranger’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
- Dated
- 1839ChansonsAttested
“I have lately been reading some of Beranger's Chansons.”
Manuscripts (Houghton Library, Margaret Fuller Family Papers) · Sept 1839_
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re557 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-05, line 11093; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. 'I have lately been reading some of Beranger's Chansons' is an explicit, dated first-person reading statement.
In Fuller’s words
“There are fine lines in his Cinq' Mai', the sentiment is as grand as Manzoni's, though not sustained by the same majestic sweep of diction. As, "Ce rocher repousse l'espérance / L'aigle n'est plus dans le secret des Dieux." [...] "Il fatiguait la victoire à le suivre. / Elle était lasse: il ne l'attendit pas.”
When Fuller engaged with Pierre-Jean de Béranger
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Béranger in Fuller’s reading world
- “Adieux à la Campagne, Souvenirs du Peuple, La Déesse de la Liberté, Le Convoi de David, in Chansons”1839
- “C'n'est plus Lisette, Mon Habit, L'Indépendant, Vous vieillirez, ô ma belle maîtresse, in Chansons”1839
- “La Faridondaine, in Chansons”1839
- “La Fortune and La Métempsychose, in Chansons”1839
- “Le Cinq Mai, in Chansons”1839
- “Le Dieu des bonnes gens, Les Étoiles qui filent, Les Conseils de Lise, Treize à table, in Chansons”1839
- “Le Violon brisé, in Chansons”1839
- “Les Mirmidons, in Chansons”1839
Documentary evidence
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
1839—
Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger
p46–p52“Thus, in Les Mirmidons, the refrain Mirmidons, race feconde, / Mirmidons, / Enfin nous commandons: / Jupiter livre le monde, / Aux mirmidons, aux mirmidons, (bis)”
“In La Faridondaine every sound is a witticism, and levels to the ground a bevy of what Byron calls 'garrison people'.”
Inferred Fuller also alludes to Byron ('what Byron calls garrison people'), but as a casual attribution, not reading evidence — see non_references_considered.
“In "Adieux à la Campagne", "Souvenirs du Peuple", "La Déesse de la Liberté", "La Convoi de David", A melancholy pathos breathes, which touches the heart the more that it is so unpretending”
They share a quality of 'melancholy pathos.' Cataloged as one row since they receive a single grouped comment; all are distinct chansons within the Chansons collection.
“C n'est plus Lisette" "Mon l'Habit", "L'Indépendant"_ "vous vieillirez, ô ma belle maitresse", A gentle graceful sadness wins us.”
Cataloged as one row since grouped in Fuller's text.
“In "Le Dieu des bonnes gens" "Les Etoiles qui filent" "Les conseils de Lise", "Treize à table," a noble dignity is admired”
Cataloged as one row since grouped in Fuller's text.
“While such as "La Fortune" and "La Metempsychose" are inimitable in their childlike & playfulness.”
Cataloged as one row since grouped.
“Ma vocation", I have had and admired for many years.”
“There are fine lines in his Cinq' Mai', the sentiment is as grand as Manzoni's, though not sustained by the same majestic sweep of diction.”
“I admire also Le Violon brisé, for its grace and sweetness,”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
1845—
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
source lines 1016–1018analyzed · read
“As we read the poem addressed to her not long since, by Beranger, we can scarcely refrain from tears as painful as the tears of blood that flowed when "such crimes were committed in her name.”
Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.
Inferred Fuller names Béranger (Pierre-Jean de Béranger, 1780–1857), the enormously popular French chansonnière and poet, and 'the poem addressed to her [the Goddess of Liberty] not long since.' Béranger wrote several poems on Liberty as a goddess figure;
1845—
Review.
“Review.”mentioned
“Just compare his "Wandering Jew" with that of Beranger. The latter is as diamond compared with charcoal.”
Also reprinted in Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Counted once, at its first appearance.
Fuller, Margaret. "Review." New-York Daily Tribune, 1 February 1845. · 1 February 1845
1845—
Prince’s Poems.
“Prince’s Poems.”mentioned2 selected passages
“Beranger, the man of the people, is the greatest poet, and, in fact, the greatest literary genius of modern France.”
Also reprinted in Papers on Literature and Art. Counted once, at its first appearance.
“the lightest song of Beranger echoes to a melancholy sense of the defects of this world with its Tantalus destinies”
Fuller, Margaret. "Prince’s Poems." New-York Daily Tribune, 13 August 1845.
1846—
Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson
p248analyzed
“All were depreciating, except that of Beranger. Of him he spoke with perfect justice, because with hearty sympathy.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
1847—
Letter to Félicité-Robert de Lamennais
p255analyzed · read
“I have felt all the enchantment of the lyre of Beranger; have paid my warmest homage to the truth and wisdom adorned with such charms, such wit and pathos.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
1847—
Letter to Mary Howitt
analyzed · read
“it is my present plan to return to Paris next winter and that then I shall probably be willing to engage for sketches of George Sand, La Mennais, and, if you wish, them Beranger and Le Roux.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
1847—
Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . X.
“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . X.”quoted · read2 selected passages
“But how quickly were those feelings displaces by joy when he named to me the great national lyrist of France, the unequaled Bèranger.”
“Wherever there is a genius like his own, a germ of the finest fruit still hidden beneath the soil, the “ Chante pauvre petit ” of Béranger shall strike, like a sunbeam and give it force to emerge”
Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . X." New-York Daily Tribune, 3 March 1847.
1848—
Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XXIV.
“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XXIV.”mentioned
“What a real wisdom and pure dignity in the letter of Beranger! He was always absolutely true; an oasis in the pestilential desert of Humbug”
Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XXIV." New-York Daily Tribune, 15 June 1848. · 15 June 1848
Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
1852—
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
p35analyzed · quoted · read2 selected passages
“I have lately been reading some of Beranger's chansons... yet I am not quite insensible to their wit, high sentiment, and spontaneous grace.”
Inferred Margaret Fuller engaged with Pierre-Jean de Béranger's Chansons, noting that she found herself "not quite insensible to their wit, high sentiment, and spontaneous grace." While Fuller does not name a specific collection, her references to songs such as "Les Mirmidons" and "La Déesse de la Liberté" allow for the inference of her reading from Béranger's prolific output of popular poetry across several decades.
“All were depreciating, except that of Beranger. Of him he spoke with perfect justice, because with hearty sympathy.”
Inferred She identifies his "wit, his pathos, and exquisite lyric grace" as particularly affecting, stating that she has "felt all the enchantment of the lyre of Beranger" and paid her "warmest homage to the truth and wisdom adorned with such charms." Fuller's personal connection and heartfelt appreciation suggest a significant influence of Béranger's poetry on her own sensibility.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.