Funeral Orations for the King

When Louis XIV died in 1715, all the great preachers of the day set about delivering sermons to mark his passing. 

Indeed, over 50 sermons given upon the King's death were published, including one by Honoré Quiqueran de Beaujeu, Bishop of Castres, first preached at the official funeral of the King held at Saint-Denis on 23 October. 

As soon as the sermon was preached, songs began to circulate, in order to inform those who had not been present at the funeral. 

One song, set to the tune ‘M Le Prevost des Marchands’, refers directly to Beaujeu’s sermon and questions the preacher’s rhetorical flourishes, where he compares Louis to Christ, with added hyperbolic assertions like: 'tant il est vrai que le Roy des Rois veut élever LOUIS au-dessus des autres Rois!' (such is the truth that the King of Kings wishes to elevate Louis above all other Kings). 

Such sentiments immediately caught the satirical ear of the song-writer, who decided to make her or his own analogy between the respective deaths of Christ and the French King, with the strong suggestion that many innocent and good people who had been wrongly imprisoned by the monarch would now be free. 

The arrangement of the song on the recording by the period instrument group Badinage is simple, with an untrained voice accompanied by a single plucked string instrument, designed to show how easily a singer could set him or herself up on the Pont-Neuf and perform the latest news or gossip, with the capability to leave the bridge swiftly should the need arise:

Ce grand Prélat en Orateur,

Qui dans le Stile adulateur,

Passe pour un homme célèbre,

S’est fait siffler de l’auditeur,

Dans sa longue Oraison funebre,

Comparant Louis au Sauveur.

Pour moy je trouve dans sa mort,

Avec Jesus un grand raport;

Et le Censeur mérite blâme,

De siffler la comparaison,

Puisqu’on voit plus d’une Ste Ame,

A sa mort sortir de prison.

[This great Prelate in the role of Orator/ Who in using such a fawning style/ Tries to pass for a famous man/ And was booed by the listener/ During his long funeral Oration,/ Comparing Louis to the Saviour./ As for me, I find in his death,/ A very strong point of comparsion with Jesus;/ And the Censor is deserving of blame/to boo at the comparison,/ Because more than one Holy Soul can be seen/ leaving prison after his death.]

Now listen to the song (played and sung by Jonathan Rees): Ce grand Prélat