Mastering the Cant in Cafés of Complaint

Abstract

Chapter 12 follows the rough and tumble baggage of a language carried along the geographical and existential roads of bohème. It traces the Egyptian-Gypsy-Bohemian language in an unease of confusion with the so-described secret slang of the Jews. It explores the gossip of gutter-sniping, banter, and slang evident in books of copie and the commonplace. Yet its main purpose is to observe the transfiguration of the cant of common words, the claimed mastery that turned the cant to a master-singing or to an art-speak for poetry, literature, song, music, opera, and painting. Watching the turns, it enters the café, vaudeville, and theater of spectacle in different countries until it reaches a high point of intoxication in a song sung for the Red Sea. It follows Moses, Marsyas, Momus, and Midas with an eye always to understanding Murger’s Marcel