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Pan-Slavism and Slavophilia in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. Origins, Manifestations and Functions Mikhail Suslov full chapter instant download
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Pan-Slavism and
Slavophilia in
Contemporary Central
and Eastern Europe
Origins, Manifestations and Functions
Edited by
Mikhail Suslov · Marek Čejka ·
Vladimir Ðorđević
Pan-Slavism and Slavophilia in Contemporary
Central and Eastern Europe
“The heyday of Pan-Slavism may be long gone, but the idea of the brotherhood
of Slavs continues to inspire a range of cultural, civilisational and geopolit-
ical imaginations in Europe. This book is a veritable treasure trove for anyone
interested in the curious evolution of this understudied phenomenon and its
contemporary ramifications.”
—Filip Ejdus, Associate Professor at Faculty of Political Science, University of
Belgrade, Serbia
Mikhail Suslov · Marek Čejka ·
Vladimir Ðord-ević
Editors
Pan-Slavism
and Slavophilia
in Contemporary
Central and Eastern
Europe
Origins, Manifestations and Functions
Editors
Mikhail Suslov Marek Čejka
Department of Cross-Cultural Department of Territorial Studies
and Regional Studies Mendel University Brno
University of Copenhagen Brno, Czech Republic
Copenhagen, Denmark
Vladimir Ðord-ević
Department of Territorial Studies
Mendel University Brno
Brno, Czech Republic
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Preface
The term ‘Pan-Slavism’ may sound quite archaic in the context of today’s
world as if being some sort of a utopian pan-ideology that belongs only in
the pages of history textbooks. Perhaps this impression is also helped by
the current political situation, in which two of the largest Slavic nations—
the Russians and the Ukrainians—are immersed in a brutal conflict caused
by the Russian invasion. And although the Slavic nations of the Balkans
are no longer, as they were in the 1990s, at war with each other, their
mutual relations are certainly no model of fraternal coexistence. The
concept of Pan-Slavism, which has so strongly resonated among the Slavic
nations since the nineteenth century, thus seems to be, at face value, dead.
The situation, however, is much more complicated, with Pan-Slavism
still having a strong potential for political and societal mobilisation. Even
a pan-nationalist—in our case Pan-Slavic—emphasis on ‘equality’ among
fraternal nations can be but one of the driving forces of future disputes
and, possibly, conflicts in the Slavic world. Where is the line that sepa-
rates the attitude: They are like us, let’s be friends —as between today’s
Russians and Serbs—from the attitude: They are like us, but in the mean-
time they have become traitors and fascists —as between today’s Russians
and Ukrainians? Can it not also be a Pan-Slavic line that, apart from
its emphasis on geopolitical friendship, also produces enormous internal
tensions between ‘fraternal’ nations, even mutual hatred? In other words,
are there also certain elements of Pan-Slavism that cause not only ‘fra-
ternal love’ to flourish between ‘Slavic brothers’ but also cruel fratricidal
v
vi PREFACE
1 See Suslov, M. (2012). ‘Geographical Metanarratives in Russia and the European East:
Contemporary Pan-Slavism’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 53(5): 575–595. Also,
Ðord-ević, Vladimir, Marek Čejka, Ondřej Mocek, and Martin Hrabálek. (2021). ‘Beyond
Contemporary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’,
Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
2 Adams, I. (2001). Political Ideology Today. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
p. 73.
3 See Kohn, H. (1949). ‘Arndt and the Character of German Nationalism.’ The Amer-
ican Historical Review 54(4): 787–803. Also, Kohn, Hans. (1952). ‘Pan-Slavism and
World War II’, In American Political Science Review, 46(3), 1952: 699–722. Also,
Ðord-ević, Vladimir, Marek Čejka, Ondřej Mocek, and Martin Hrabálek. 2021. “Beyond
Contemporary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism”,
Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
PREFACE vii
4 Ðord-ević, V., Čejka, M., Mocek, O. and Hrabálek, M. (2021). ‘Beyond Contemporary
Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’, Canadian-
American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
5 Henaxeva, Zor Cepgeevna. (1984). Ideuno-politiqeckar bopbba v Qexii i
Clovakii v naqale XX v: qexi, clovaki i neoclavizm, 1898–1914. Moskva: Nauka.
Also, Ðord-ević, Vladimir, Marek Čejka, Ondřej Mocek, and Martin Hrabálek. (2021).
‘Beyond Contemporary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of
Pan-Slavism’, Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
6 Laruelle, M. (2008). Russian Eurasianism – An ideology of Empire, Baltimore: The
John Hopkins University Press. Also, Laruelle, Marlene. 2008. ‘Alternative Identity, alter-
native religion? Neo-paganism and the Aryan Myth in contemporary Russia’, In Nations
and Nationalism, 14 (2): 283–3.
7 Ðord-ević, V., Čejka, M., Mocek, O. and Hrabálek, M. (2021). ‘Beyond Contemporary
Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’, Canadian-
American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
viii PREFACE
this concept in updated and reinterpreted forms, hence the usage ‘his-
torical’ Pan-Slavism, either in a more comprehensive way or only with
respect to certain aspects of it. Even these new forms of Pan-Slavism are
very vague, and—like the traditional ones—are perhaps even more diffi-
cult to define and grasp. For some aspects of this Pan-Slavic revival, it
would be more appropriate to use the term Slavophilia, as they may also
contain political aspects of Slavic unity and often oscillate on the border
of largely romantic-cultural perception of today’s Slavic identity. Very
often, contemporary references to Pan-Slavism may highlight Russian
influence in various political (largely nationalist) and cultural contexts
and discourses, at times being about directly pro-Russian politics, only
shrouded in a certain Pan-Slavic garb.8
New forms of Pan-Slavism/Slavophilia have in the last decade been
visibly (ab)used for illiberal political agendas in the Slavic societies where
the Christian Orthodox milieu often plays a major role in identity
politics—primarily in contemporary Russia under the rule of Vladimir
Putin, with that country’s foreign policy ambitions having grown signif-
icantly and some aspects of Pan-Slavism having re-emerged (or been
introduced).9 However, similar tendencies can be found in other Slavic
countries without a predominantly Orthodox milieu, as the case of
the very secular Czech Republic indicates.10 These new forms of Pan-
Slavism/Slavophilia may manifest themselves in both domestic and
foreign policy, where they can disproportionately favour Russian atti-
tudes and ambitions; deepen anti-democratic, anti-civic, and populist
tendencies; and at the same time threaten EU integration.11
8 Ðord-ević, V., Čejka, M., Mocek, O. and Hrabálek, M. (2021). ‘Beyond Contemporary
Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’, Canadian-
American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
9 Suslov, M. (2012). ‘Geographical Metanarratives in Russia and the European East:
Contemporary Pan-Slavism’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 53(5): 575–595. Also,
Ðord-ević, Vladimir, Marek Čejka, Ondřej Mocek, and Martin Hrabálek. (2021). ‘Beyond
Contemporary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’,
Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
10 Ðord-ević, V., Čejka, M., Mocek, O. and Hrabálek, M. (2021). ‘Beyond Contem-
porary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-Slavism’,
Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
11 Ðord-ević, Vladimir, Marek Čejka, Ondřej Mocek, and Martin Hrabálek. (2021).
‘Beyond Contemporary Scholarship and toward Exploring Current Manifestations of Pan-
Slavism’, Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 55(2): 147–159.
PREFACE ix
Last of all, what also needs to be mentioned, and what this volume also
addresses, are the more current and rather specific forms of Pan-Slavism,
whereby a certain number of cultural (and, in most cases, quite apolitical)
conceptions of Slavic unity have also begun to emerge, inspired by the
more contemporary trend of the rise of various neo-pagan movements.12
Therefore, this multifaceted nature and the differences in understandings
of contemporary manifestations of Pan-Slavism are important, though
(unjustly) neglected, and pose a challenge for the research of nationalisms
and related issues in the context of the Slavic world. This volume, there-
fore, is intended to bring a deeper and more systematic insight to these
complex issues, providing an update to the field that is both well-deserved
and an invitation to further research on the topic at hand.
12 See Golovneva, E. (2018). The Native Faith: Religious Nationalism in Slavic Neo-
Paganism September 5, 2018, Online: https://brewminate.com/the-native-faith-religi
ous-nationalism-in-slavic-neo-paganism/. Also, Laruelle, Marlene. 2008. ‘Alternative Iden-
tity, alternative religion? Neo-paganism and the Aryan Myth in contemporary Russia’, In
Nations and Nationalism, 14 (2): 283–3.
Contents
Introduction
Examining Pan-Slavism: Conceptual Approach,
Methodological Framework, and the State of the Art 3
Mikhail Suslov, Marek Čejka, and Vladimir Ðord-ević
Structure of the Volume 27
Mikhail Suslov, Marek Čejka, and Vladimir Ðord-ević
Pan-Slavism as History
Russian Pan-Slavism: A Historical Perspective 35
Mikhail Suslov
A Short History of Pan-Slavism and Its Impact on Central
Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 47
Jakub Woroncow
Pan-Slavism in the Balkans: A Historical View 59
Susan Baker
xi
xii CONTENTS
Afterword 399
Appendix 403
Index of Persons 417
Index of Subjects 421
Notes on Contributors
Susan Baker took her Ph.D. in American Studies from Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland. She taught American history and
Western Civilisation for eighteen years in Ohio, Missouri, and Utah.
In 1997 she began participating in election monitoring and training
missions with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Between 1997 and 1998, she worked in Bosnia, preparing for elec-
tions and being a trainer for incoming monitors. Since then, she has
monitored elections in Ukraine, Belorussia, Macedonia, and Albania. In
2001, she received a second M.A. degree from the School of Interna-
tional and Public Affairs at Columbia University, having done research on
Southwestern Europe. In 2002, she received the Harriman Institute East
Central Europe Certificate.
Marek Čejka is an associate professor at the Department of Territorial
Studies of Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic, a former assis-
tant at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, and a former
researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Czech
Republic. He specialises in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Middle East
and Maghreb regions, exploring the relationship between religion, poli-
tics, and ideology in the Middle East while researching Arab nationalism,
(radical) Islamism, and Christian fundamentalism. He was the coordinator
xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
1 This volume was supported by and included in the Czech Science Foundation
(GAČR) grant number GA20-07592S. See more information at: https://starfos.tacr.
cz/en/project/GA20-07592S.
2 The editors of this volume would like to express their gratitude to Evan McEl-
ravy, B.A., alumni of McGill University, Canada, mail: evan.mcelravy@gmail.com, a writer,
editor, translator, and teacher in Brno, Czech Republic, for his excellent copy-editing skills.
In addition, the editors would like to thank Amar Khairi, Ph.D. Candidate at Mendel
University, Czech Republic, mail: amar.khairi@mendelu.cz, for his help in managing the
formal aspects of this volume.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xvii
now researching the notion of illiberalism and is the editor of the Oxford
Handbook of Illiberalism (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Aliaksei Lastouski is an affiliated researcher at IRES, Uppsala University.
He is also a senior research fellow at the Institute for Political Studies
(“Political Sphere”), Lithuania, and a researcher at the Centre of Belarus
and Regional Studies at European Humanities University. He completed
his Ph.D. in Sociology in 2007 at the Institute of Sociology, National
Academy of Sciences of Belarus. He is one of the organisers of the Inter-
national Congresses of Belarusian Studies, held annually since 2011. In
March 2022, he was dismissed from Polotsk State University for polit-
ical reasons. He has published articles on cultural and collective memory,
national identity, and cultural geography.
Miroslav Mareš is a professor at the Department of Political Science,
Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno (Czech
Republic). He is the head of the Security and Strategic Studies study
programme and a researcher at the International Institute of Political
Science. He focuses on extremism, terrorism, and security policy issues
in the Central European context. He is a member of the European
Expert Network on Terrorism Issues, an expert in the expert pool of
the Radicalization Awareness Network, and an expert in the European
Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. He is the co-author,
with Astrid Bötticher, of the volume Extremismus—Theorien—Konzepte—
Formen (Oldenburg Verlag, 2012), co-editor, with Tore Bjørgo, of
Vigilantism against Migrants and Minorities (Routledge, 2019), and
author and co-author of more than 300 scientific publications.
Juraj Marušiak is a political scientist and historian. Since 1996, he has
worked as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political Science,
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava. His research is on the history of
Slovakia in the twentieth century, the political development of Slovakia
after World War II, and comparative politics and international relations
in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989, primarily in the V4 coun-
tries, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. In 2002–2003, Marušiak
was the recipient of the Lane Kirkland scholarship at Warsaw University,
specialising in East European Studies. He authored Slovenská literatúra
a moc v druhej polovici päťdesiatych rokov [Slovak Literature and Power
in the Second Half of the 50´s ] (Prius, 2001), (Dez)integračná sila
stredoeurópskeho nacionalizmu [The (Dis)integration Power of Central
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xix
Czech Republic, as well as those with several NGOs. His research inter-
ests include EU enlargement, neighbourhood policies, and contemporary
political developments in SEE and CEE.
Tin Puljić earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Political Science summa
cum laude at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, Croatia. In his
MA, he focused on the influence of religion on foreign policy discourse
in the Middle East. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in International Relations at
the same institution. He has written several analytical texts for Croatian
NGOs Faktograf and GONG, including the ones on the Israeli-Palestine
conflict, American presidential elections, and the regulation of big tech.
Mykola Riabchuk is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Polit-
ical Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a lecturer at
the University of Warsaw and Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
He penned several books and articles on civil society, state/nation-
building, nationalism, national identity, and post-communist transition in
Eastern Europe. Five of them have been translated into Polish, one into
French (De la petit Russie á l’Ukraine, 2003), German (Die reale und
die imaginierte Ukraine, 2005), and Hungarian (A ket Ukraina, 2015).
He received numerous national and international awards and fellow-
ships, including Fulbright (1994, 2016), Reagan-Fascell (2011), EURIAS
(2013), and l’Institut d’études avancées de Paris (2021). His most recent
books published in English are Eastern Europe since 1989: Between
the Loosened Authoritarianism and Unconsolidated Democracy (Warsaw
University, 2020) and At the Fence of Metternich’s Garden. Essays on
Europe, Ukraine, and Europeanisation (ibidem-Verlag, 2021). From 2014
to 2018, he headed the Ukrainian PEN Centre and was awarded the title
of Honorary President at the end of his term.
Senada Šelo Šabić is a senior research associate at the Institute for Devel-
opment and International Relations in Zagreb, Croatia. Her research
focuses on issues related to the Balkans, primarily foreign policy, security,
democratisation, and migration. She holds Ph.D. in political and social
science from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and has
two M.A. degrees: one in international relations from the University of
Zagreb, Croatia, and one in peace studies from the University of Notre
Dame, USA.
Maja Savić-Bojanić is an associate professor of Political Science at Sara-
jevo School of Science and Technology. She holds a Ph.D. in political
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxi
«C’est une chose convenue, dit Balzac, qu’en fait de poésie il n’y a que
les coiffeurs, et nous n’hésitons pas à dire qu’en fait de vers M. Lacroix a
mis le sceau à la réputation du corps.» Lacroix, perruquier-coiffeur, rue
Basse, Porte Saint-Denis, nº 8, avait mis ce quatrain au bas de son tableau
d’enseigne représentant Absalon pendu par les cheveux aux branches d’un
arbre:
Nous regrettons de n’avoir pas parlé des écriteaux poétiques, qui sont de
véritables enseignes sans figures: ainsi toute la jeunesse du quartier latin a
connu ce facétieux brocanteur de la rue de l’École-de-médecine, qui, chaque
matin, apposait sur les objets hétéroclites de son commerce les plus étranges
annonces en prose et en vers; la prose était de sa façon, les vers sortaient de
la fabrique d’un poète crotté, qui ne manquait pas d’originalité et qui
trouvait les plus incroyables drôleries relatives à l’origine des marchandises
d’occasion.
Les contemporains de la révolution de 1830 se rappellent aussi les
affiches en vers que le marquis de Chabannes, pair de France, chansonnier,
journaliste et rimeur politique, improvisait tous les jours pour annoncer ses
brochures, ses chansons, ses prospectus, qu’il distribuait et vendait lui-
même, au Palais-Royal, dans sa boutique de la galerie d’Orléans, que la
police eut tant de peine à faire fermer, après avoir cent fois saisi, enlevé et
déchiré les affiches, au milieu des éclats de rire des spectateurs.
Enfin, en faisant appel à nos souvenirs personnels, nous revoyons encore,
vers 1840, rue Neuve Saint-Augustin, non loin de la place de la Bourse, une
boutique mystérieuse qui étalait au-dessus de son vitrage dépoli un grand
tableau représentant un monsieur mis à la dernière mode, prenant vivement
congé d’une dame non moins élégante. Au bas, se lisait ce distique
révélateur:
C ETTE espèce d’enseignes est tout à fait moderne, car elle ne date que de
l’époque où les grandes enseignes, peintes comme des tableaux et
quelquefois rivalisant avec eux, furent adoptées par la mode avec une
sorte de passion essentiellement parisienne. On peut fixer une date précise
pour le commencement des enseignes qui reproduisirent quelque scène de la
pièce en vogue. Ce fut seulement sous l’Empire que parurent les premiers
essais de ce genre nouveau d’enseignes, qui ont attiré presque exclusivement
l’attention des curieux de ce qu’on appela dès lors le Musée des rues. Il n’y a
que les pièces de théâtre, à grand succès, qui aient mérité la consécration de
l’enseigne. C’étaient donc, chaque année, quatre ou cinq enseignes
nouvelles, qui rappelaient au public les grands succès récents. Le type de
l’enseigne devenait ainsi populaire, et la vogue de la pièce profitait à
l’industriel qui l’avait adopté. Les enseignes théâtrales firent fureur pendant
plus de cinquante ans; elles s’étaient, pour ainsi dire, emparées de la ville
entière, et le succès d’une pièce de théâtre n’était jamais mieux constaté que
par l’apparition d’une enseigne qui en portait le nom.
On peut affirmer que l’idée de faire des enseignes de ce genre n’était
jamais venue à l’esprit des marchands avant le Directoire; du moins n’en
connaissons-nous qu’une seule, l’enseigne du Huron, consacrant, en 1769, le
succès d’un opéra-comique de Grétry, et dont nous parlerons plus loin, au
chapitre XXIX. Les succès les plus extraordinaires, comme celui de Jeannot,
ou les Battus paient l’amende, le proverbe-comédie-parade de Dorvigny,
représenté trois cents fois de suite chez Nicolet, ou comme celui du Mariage
de Figaro, qui fit autant de bruit qu’une révolution, ces succès ne donnèrent
pas lieu à la création d’une seule enseigne. Le moment n’était pas venu,
quoique depuis 1761 les enseignes, appliquées contre le mur des maisons, au
lieu d’être suspendues à des potences en fer dans des cadres mobiles, se
prêtassent mieux à l’exposition de tableaux. On comprend que le goût du
spectacle, si décidé et si général chez les habitants de Paris, se soit traduit
par cette innovation dans le système des enseignes, en un temps où le
nombre des théâtres avait triplé. Il faut dire aussi qu’avant ce temps-là les
marchands menaient une vie très retirée et très parcimonieuse, sans songer à
imiter les habitudes des autres classes de la société, qui ne se faisaient pas
faute d’aller à la comédie. Les enseignes des boutiques ne subirent
l’influence du théâtre que quand les boutiquiers commencèrent à se montrer
et à s’acclimater dans les salles de spectacle.
Nous trouvons cependant que les ballets de cour eurent, dans la première
moitié du XVIIᵉ siècle, certaines analogies avec plusieurs enseignes de Paris.
Ainsi l’enseigne primitive du Cherche-Midi, qui a précédé celle dont nous
avons parlé plus haut, page 84, était sans doute bien antérieure au ballet des
Chercheurs de midi à quatorze heures, ballet qui fut dansé, au Louvre, en
présence du roi, le 29 janvier 1620. Ce ballet[260], que nous ne connaissons
que par un petit programme en vers très libres, a peu de rapport avec
l’enseigne qui représentait des gens de diverses conditions, cherchant l’heure
de midi sur un cadran dont les aiguilles marquaient quatorze heures, comme
dans les horloges d’Italie. Les chercheurs de midi à quatorze heures, qu’on
appelait des cherche-midi, étaient de pauvres hères faméliques en quête du
dîner, qu’ils ne trouvaient pas à quatorze heures, car on dînait partout à midi.
Un roman picaresque d’Oudin, sieur de Préfontaine[261], nous apprend le
véritable rôle d’un cherche-midi, que le ballet mit en scène sous les traits du
joueur de gobelets, du batteur de fusil, du ramoneur, du vendeur de lunettes:
«La grande nécessité où j’estois m’ayant pourveu d’un office de cherche-
midy, j’allois parfois en des couvents, mais j’y trouvois petite chance, au
moins pour moy, car, pour les moynes, ils faisoient une telle chère, que, si la
fumée de leurs bons morceaux qui me passoient devant le nez avoit esté
rassasiante, cela m’auroit bien nourry.» Un autre ballet de cour, qui a pour
titre la Fontaine de Jouvence[262], imprimé en 1643 et par conséquent dansé
cette année-là au château de Saint-Germain, pourrait bien avoir été inspiré
par la jolie enseigne du XVIᵉ siècle dont nous avons parlé et qui attirait tous
les regards dans la rue du Four-Saint-Germain. Enfin, dans un ballet du roi, à
la naissance du Dauphin, en 1643, les Enseignes de Paris faisaient leur
entrée sous la figure d’une femme qui se plaignait des dégâts que les grands
vents lui avaient causés dans les derniers orages. Voici deux strophes que
Dassoucy avait mises dans la bouche de cette fée des enseignes[263]:
Je suis cette aimable Syrène,
Qui, des orages précédents,
Vient faire une plainte à la Reyne,
Contre l’insolence des vents,
Afin que leur Dieu se retire,
Et qu’il trouble les flots plutôt que mon empire:
Ce monstre, plein d’insolence,
A causé, par nostre débris,
Que l’on trouve plus d’assurance
A Saint-Germain qu’à Paris.
Aussi, pour éviter sa rage,
Nous nous rendons ici à l’abry de l’orage.