The Queen Pedauque

shop-I turn the Spit and learn to

Ménétrier, kept a cookshop at the sign of Queen Pédauque, wh

f Saint Catherine, not far from the Little Bacchus, the gate of which, decorated with vine branches, was at the corner of the Rue des Cordiers. He loved me v

d that one has eaten him, and the little Riquiqui had nothing at all. Sauce, sauce

ff to sleep, and my mother used to affirm that the smi

holidays the banner of the Cooks' Guild, on which a fine-looking St Lauren

ther is a holy a

urch every Sunday with a prayer-book printed in big type. She could har

t? the hurdy-gurdy player and Catherine the lacemaker were regular frequenters. And every time he re

just said to the limping cutler: '

eadjusting his apron, with him alway

smallest morsel of turkey or goose. He was always satisfied to lick the roaster as his wage. But he is getting old. His legs are getting stiff; he can't see, and is no m

nd wagged his tail as a sign of

y heart some grammar or morality book, or those fine maxims of the Old and New Testaments. And that because the knowledge of God and the distinction between good and e

my father, taught me how to spell. He did so the more willingly as my father, who had a consideration for knowledge, paid for his lesson with a savoury morsel of roast turkey and a large glass of

, he sat down at my side, and, warming his naked feet on the hot

sage, net

femmes

itié d

l of noble appearance, clad in the ecclesiastical habi

mouth was laughing and his eyes were sprightly, his cheeks were somewhat heavy and his three chins drop

y profession, lifted h

to warm yourself near the fire, I'll

priest took a seat near the fire

good friar r

sage, net

femnies e

his hands

A Capuchin who is able to read! Eh

worthy Capuchin,"

om the upper room descended to t

with an already famil

istress; Friar Ange is a Cap

all sorts of writing

of St Margaret by the picture representing the mai

te sufficient, when in labour-pains, to apply it like a plaster on the place where the most pain is felt and it operates just as

ison of St Margaret is sovereign for what you mentioned, but un

mother had filled up for him and, throwing his wallet over

of bread, a flagon of wine and a knife, the copper handle of which represented the

rned round on my father and asked for some salt, rather sur

salt as a sign of hospitality. They also placed salt

the wooden shoe which was hung on the mantelpiec

ll repasts, and held it in so high esteem that they metaphoric

ncients may have valued it, the exci

le she knitted a woollen sto

f the babies held over the christening font. When my Jacques felt the salt on his tongue he made a gri

looked on m

y is painted on his features and he reads

' which Friar Ange has given him, and the history of that fellow who has been devoured, in

ured into the priest's ear that I learned anything

o be, is one of the honours of mankind, the consolation of human life and a remedy agai

eem, and am quite willing to believe that it also is, as your reverence say

replied the priest; "but it gives some solace,

r bonnet sideways over her ear and her neckerchief very much creased.

pots without paying for them, so as not to go contrary to the rules of St Francis, he said. But the worst of it is, that he, seeing me in company under the arbour, came near me to teach me a new prayer. I told him it was not the

a stool with which he struck anyone approaching him, this vile taverner swore like a real devil and called for the watch. Monsieur M

d. He said plainly that he could not find any excuse for the Capuchin, and that he wished him to get a good punish

d up in

the tavern to play the deuce with some ill-famed creatures, depraved enough to prefer the company o

ays on my mother, who, standing up at the entry to the stair

by this unfriendly

say a good word to the t

tell them to take the

and laughed, "the cu

father sharply. "A ragamuffin

s true, really true, that h

e shop, shaking

nd to the priest, wh

hat Capuchin friar gives to my child, I pay him with a goblet of wine and a fine piece of

bout that," sa

ver my threshold again, I'll dr

he cure of chilblains and that history of the bugbear, with which that monk poisoned your son's mind. For the same price you paid for Friar Ange's lessons, I'll give him my own; I'll teach him Latin and Greek, and

ng parties having a drink together as a token of agreement. We will drink here. I'll never in my life

hands on the back of his chair, s

follow Him too closely. Because being universal He is to be found in all sorts of encounters, sublime by the conduct which He keeps, but obscene or ridiculous for the part man takes in it and which is the only part where they appear to us. And therefore one must not shout, in the

is goblet, he

warmth. It is a liquor worthy to be sung at Teos and at the Temple by the princes of ba

let under my ch

ves in harmonious swarms on the mouth of Jacobus T

should place themselves on the mouth of my Jacquot, as their sting is cruel. One day in biting into a peach a bee stung me on the tongue, and I had to suff

reproachfully: "Barbe, you're a holy and worthy woman, but many a time I have noticed that you have a pee

. I may not know all the sorts of bees, but I know how to manage a home and understand the good manners a

and poured some wine for the

ans, although degenerated at the time when rhetoric brought Eugenius to the Emperor's throne. It is not a rari

near it as the weakness of my age allowed me to hear distinctly and hereafter keep in my memory. I believe I have