THE KING AMONG HIS PEOPLE

IN THOSE CRAMPED TOWNS BRIDGES WERE COVERED WITH HOUSES...   

   Jousting at Notre-Dame bridge by Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, 1756 / zoom 

...except on pont Neuf...*

*Begun in 1578, stalled by civil war between 1588 and 1589, finished in 1607

          Pont Neuf and the Samaritan pump by Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, 1777, Musée Carnavalet

      A pump to provide water for the Louvre and Tuileries palaces is the only building

...where Henri IV replaced them with the first sidewalks and their "balconies"...  

They were spaces for jugglers, snake-oil dealers, tooth pullers, anyone who could draw a public...

     Pont Neuf seen from the entry of place Dauphine, anonymous, toward 1665, Musée Carnavalet

            The Charlatan by Franz Anton Maulbertsch, 1795 / zoom

The Tooth-puller of pont Neuf  by Jean Brioché, toward 1650 / zoom (please scroll down)

Notice the thief.

...and actors.

The entry to place Dauphine, wide enough for a stage, was where French modern comedy began:

    Tabarin at place Dauphine, eBay

Tabarin, the first French comic to tear away from the humor of medieval demons

Pont Neuf by Hendrick Mommers, toward 1670 / zoom

   Pont Neuf in the 17th century by Hendrick Mommers, toward 1670 / zoom 

• Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, "Molière," France's greatest comedy writer, was an actor and troupe director who grew up steps away. 

The activity on the bridge may have inspired his practice of having players constantly improvise and move, a reason for the popularity that led from the street to the Sun King's court... 

Zoom

Molière on stage with his troupe toward 1670 

• ...and to the Musée Carnavalet, in a rare hommage to the people:

# # #

Henri IV is France's most popular king, for his good humor and because life for the poor improved during his peaceful, well-run, stable reign:

• "Every French laborer should have a chicken in the pot on Sundays," he is supposed to have said, and "Poule au pot Henri IV" is standard bistro fare.

Zoom

• During the bridge's construction he jumped on horseback over the gap at its center to onlookers' delighted applause. Amiable cartoons recall the feat:

His statue hovers over the bridge, summoning up the monarchy...

            The Congestion of Paris, pont Neuf at rue Dauphine by Nicolas Guérard, 1715 / zoom

Zoom

...at a time when powerful forces

try to erase it.

 More later.

End of this section. 

 *     *    *

Next section:

III.1.2.

A design inconceivable elsewhere