Robert Darnton
An Early Information Society
[Page 27]
But to return to the medium of singing, the song that circulated most actively among the Fourteen, "Qu'une bâtarde de catin," typified the ballads that had the most popular appeal in Paris. Its simple, eight-syllable lines fit a common tune, "Quand mon amant me fait la cour," which was also identified in some sources as "Dirai-je mon Confiteor?" The "catin" (strumpet) in the first line was Mme. de Pompadour. And the catchy refrain, "Ah! le voilà, ah! le voici / Celui qui n'en a nul souci," pointed a finger at the king, clueless, carefree Louis. The first verse went as follows:43
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Each verse satirized a public figure. After Pompadour and the king, the song worked its way down through ministers, generals, prelates, and courtiers. Everyone appeared incompetent or corrupt; and in each case, the refrain reiterated the song's main theme: that the king, who should have taken responsibility for the welfare of his people, paid no heed to anything but drink and sex. While the kingdom went to hell, Louis remained "he who doesn't have a care." Although I cannot prove it, I think the song suggests a children's game—the kind where one person stands in the middle of a circle and the rest join hands and skip around him singing "the farmer in the dell" or "the cheese stands alone"—except here the singing is pure mockery: the king is the ultimate idiot.
The verses cover all the major events and political issues between 1748 and 1750, and the versification is so simple that new subjects of mockery could easily be added as events evolved. That is exactly what happened, as you can see by comparing all the surviving versions of the song. I have found nine, scattered through various
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