la légende des siecles

LE CRAPAUD.
To Hugo ugliness was as much a subject for pity as degradation or misery. Compare the
following passage from Les Contemplations: Ce que dit la Bouche d'Ombre:—
Pleurez sur les laideurs et les ignominies.
Pleurez sur l'araignée immonde, sur le ver,
Sur la limace au dos mouillé comme l'hiver,
Sur le vil puceron qu'on voit aux feuilles pendre,
Sur le crabe hideux, sur l'affreux scolopendre,
Sur l'effrayant crapaud, pauvre monstre aux doux yeux,
Qui regarde toujours le ciel mystérieux.
For Hugo's feeling for the brute creation, see Dieu: L'Ange.
Augustules. The last Emperor of Rome, Romulus, was given by the people the derisive
nickname of Augustulus, or 'the little Augustus'. The capture of Ravenna in his reign by
Odoacer marks the end of the Western Empire.
vermeils. See note on AYMERILLOT.
miroitait, glittered with light.
farouche, hard, cruel.
fauve, wild, shy. See note on ÉVIRADNUS, 1. 529.
L. 103. A difficult expression. Apparently it refers to the harsh grating of the wheel
against the side of the rut.
connivence: the complicity of the burden upon his back with his master in keeping the
ass in a straight course.
I. 134. i.e. the sad and melancholy, such as the ass, are equal to the angels, if they feel
pity.
LES PAUVRES GENS.
musoir, the head of a pier or jetty.
vertes couleuvres. The serpent appealed to Hugo's poetic instinct, and he saw its shape
and its glitter in many natural objects. Compare the following passages, for most of