PAUL DE MUSSET, Charles Bennett, BEEBLIOME BOOKS, Emily Makepeace
Mr. Wind and Madam Rain: Exceptional Tales for Exceptional Kids
(Crushed Lime Media LLC June 17, 2020)
You must know, my dear children, that there was once upon a time in Scotland an old blind man, with beard of silvery whiteness, named Ossian, who played exceedingly well upon the harp, and who went about the streets singing songs of his own composing. His father, whose name was Fingal, had been a great warrior; and therefore Ossian loved most of all to sing the exploits of his great warlike sire. When Ossian was dead, other bards continued to chant his poems, and so it has come to pass that his productions have come down to our time. Other verses, however, were added by these bards to those of Ossian; so that, as some sang the deeds of the great warrior in one way, and others in another, it became at length impossible to trace the real history of the great Fingal.
At last an Englishman, named Macpherson, determined to extricate the truth from this mass of confusion. He went to Scotland, and there, collecting the different songs of the bards, so arranged them as to show their agreement one with another. From these he composed other poems, which the Emperor Napoleon I. was very fond of, and used often to read. It has been suspected, but never proved, that Macpherson drew a great part of these poems from his own imagination, and set them down as those of Ossian. But what matters it whose they be, if only they are beautiful and entertaining?
It has been the same with Mr. Wind and Madam Rain as with the great Fingal. My grandmother used to tell the story of Madam Rain without mentioning Mr. Wind; my uncle knew the history of Mr. Wind, though he never spoke of Madam Rain. But my nurse, who was a native of Brittany, had heard the two stories, and she jumbled them together into one, more complete and more wonderful than either taken alone.
Now I went myself to Brittany a long time ago, and, following the example of Macpherson, I collected all that was there related to me about Mr. Wind and Madam Rain, who are still frequent visitors in that part of the country
Well, as your mammas doubtless teach you to abhor deception, I will not say that I have added nothing to the unconnected recitals of the Breton peasants, because that would be telling an untruth; but I have added only what was necessary to link together the different events, and to supply passages that were entirely wanting.
May this nursery tale, my dear children, amuse you still more than the history of the great Fingal did the Emperor Napoleon.
PAUL DE MUSSET
At last an Englishman, named Macpherson, determined to extricate the truth from this mass of confusion. He went to Scotland, and there, collecting the different songs of the bards, so arranged them as to show their agreement one with another. From these he composed other poems, which the Emperor Napoleon I. was very fond of, and used often to read. It has been suspected, but never proved, that Macpherson drew a great part of these poems from his own imagination, and set them down as those of Ossian. But what matters it whose they be, if only they are beautiful and entertaining?
It has been the same with Mr. Wind and Madam Rain as with the great Fingal. My grandmother used to tell the story of Madam Rain without mentioning Mr. Wind; my uncle knew the history of Mr. Wind, though he never spoke of Madam Rain. But my nurse, who was a native of Brittany, had heard the two stories, and she jumbled them together into one, more complete and more wonderful than either taken alone.
Now I went myself to Brittany a long time ago, and, following the example of Macpherson, I collected all that was there related to me about Mr. Wind and Madam Rain, who are still frequent visitors in that part of the country
Well, as your mammas doubtless teach you to abhor deception, I will not say that I have added nothing to the unconnected recitals of the Breton peasants, because that would be telling an untruth; but I have added only what was necessary to link together the different events, and to supply passages that were entirely wanting.
May this nursery tale, my dear children, amuse you still more than the history of the great Fingal did the Emperor Napoleon.
PAUL DE MUSSET