Peter le Roy's ruminations on Huguenot writings has prompted me to share a little puzzle from my family history which someone may be able to shed light on. When Holloway Hastings, a 31 year old first cousin once removed of my Irish-born great-grandmother ( she who told her family she was of Huguenot stock) came to NZ from Ireland on a visit in 1896, he wrote this entry in her autograph book: "To my cousin Jane Clements (this was her maiden name so he followed the French tradition here): La vie a des attraits Pour qui la ceuil joyeuse Faut il dans les regrets La paper tou ciruse? Jamais, Jamais, Le Plaisir est Francais." I showed this to a cousin who teaches French and he showed it to an expert in Middle and Old French who said it did not appear to be that. Neither knew where it came from. I think it makes sense if you change the spelling of "ceuil" to "coeur est" and of "ciruse" to "serieuse". My translation then becomes: "Life has its attractions for which the heart rejoices. Is it necessary in your regrets to be serious on paper? Never, never! Pleasure is French." My own tentative conclusion is that Holloway may have heard this verse spoken by his Huguenot family in Ireland but not have studied French at school long enough to know how to spell it properly. I would be glad to hear from anyone who has an alternative explanation to suggest or who knows the author of this poem. Barbara Holt in New Zealand.
Barbara, I looked on google, I found nothing. There might be something in gallica http://gallica.bnf.fr/ , the French national library site. My explanation or other translation is an inversion in ceuil , which might be cueil(le) , to pick , gather even French speaking people do that error between cuei and ceui which then would translate= Life has its attractions if you pick it gladly (if you view it with a glad heart). The rest of the text could be the same. It then means remember also the good parts of your life's journey. Français at the end could have been written françois in the 15-16th century. A Belgian collegue told me that you could find the political affiliation of a Flanders person of that time if he had named his son Philip (Spanish king) or François (french king). Luc