In the extreme of
dissolution, when not so much as a man's name is remembered,
when his dust is scattered to the four winds, and perhaps the
very grave and the very graveyard where he was laid to rest
have been forgotten, desecrated, and buried under populous
towns, - even in this extreme let an antiquary fall across a
sheet of manuscript, and the name will be recalled, the old
infamy will pop out into daylight like a toad out of a
fissure in the rock, and the shadow of the shade of what was
once a man will be heartily pilloried by his descendants. A
little while ago and Villon was almost totally forgotten;
then he was revived for the sake of his verses; and now he is
being revived with a vengeance in the detection of his
misdemeanours. How unsubstantial is this projection of a
man's existence, which can lie in abeyance for centuries and
then be brushed up again and set forth for the consideration
of posterity by a few dips in an antiquary's inkpot! This
precarious tenure of fame goes a long way to justify those
(and they are not few) who prefer cakes and cream in the
immediate present.
A WILD YOUTH.
Francois de Montcorbier, ALIAS Francois des Loges, ALIAS
Francois Villon, ALIAS Michel Mouton, Master of Arts in the
University of Paris, was born in that city in the summer of
1431. It was a memorable year for France on other and higher
considerations.
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