Very Rare. OCLC records only a single copy at BnF (rebound in 19th-century red morocco).Kept in “L’Enfer” [Hell] section of the BnF reserved for explicit works not suitable for a general readership (see L’Enfer de Bibliothèque Nationale (1919), Les Fouteries Chantantes is no. 648 “Très rare”. No copies recorded in Rare Book Hub.
An extraordinarily obscene collection of illustrated anti-Royalist songs published in France during the Revolution.
The preface (set to the tune of “On compterait les Diamans”, a pointed reference to the Diamond Necklace Affair) sets the tone for the rest of the work:
Que chacun chante en ces bas lieux ;
Le Vaudeville est fait pour plaire :
Quant à moi, je fouts tout au mieux.
Oui, bien foutre, c’est mon affaire.
Mon seul plaisir est, sans façon,
De voir le cul de ma Déesse ;
Et lorsque je touche à son con,
Elle ne fait pas la tigresse. (p.3)
[Let everyone sing in this lowly place;
Vaudeville exists to please:
As for me, I fuck for all I’m worth.
Yes, fucking well is my calling.
My only pleasure, plain and simple,
Is to gaze upon my Goddess’s arse;
And when I touch her cunt,
She doesn’t act the tigress.]
This is followed by various other short “airs” on the subject of sexual intercourse, venereal diseases, prostitutes, buggery and masturbation, before turning to equally obscene songs, based on various real-life political and Royal figures. They are in keeping with the tone of the scandalous, defamatory and pornographic libelles of the pre- and early Revolutionary period, similarly aimed at high-profile Royalists, and the monarchy; yet the ‘airs’ here are made more sophisticated, as each one is accompanied by an engraved “portrait” of its subject, assembled from phalluses and naked female bodies in an Arcimboldo-esque manner.
The first subject is André Boniface Louis Riqueti de Mirabeau (1754-1792) who was known as “Barrel Mirabeau” due to his large size and heavy drinking. He is shown here in the illustration accompanying the text as a barrel topped with the bodies of naked women and phalluses. The song is titled “Foutre et Boire” [Fucking and Drinking]:
Venez voir dans un tonneau
Le buste de Mirabeau.
Ce grivois bornait sa gloire
A bien foutre et à bien boire ;
Ce fait-là n’est pas nouveau :
C’est beau, c’est beau ;
C’est un fort joli tableau.
Chantons donc tous en sa mémoire,
Foutre et bien boire,
Foutre et bien boire. (p.6)
[Come and see, inside a barrel,
The bust of Mirabeau.
That ribald fellow limited his glory
To fucking well and drinking well;
That fact is nothing new:
It’s a fine sight, a fine sight;
It makes for quite a pretty picture.
So let us all sing to his memory:
Fucking well and drinking well,
Fucking well and drinking well.]
It continues:
“Lors ivre, ce gros bonneau,
Ce Riquiqui Mirabeau
Troussait Fauchon complaisante,
Et dans son cul de Servante,
Enfonçait son chalumeau :
C’est beau, c’est beau :
Pour un cul, quel beau cadeau !
Ce trait ornera son histoire,
Foutre et bien boire.
Lorsque sous un cotillon,
Mirabeau prenait un con,
Il disait, dans son ivresse :
Branle-moi donc, ma Déesse ;
Fais-moi redresser l’engin :
C’est bien, fort bien :
Ah ! qu’un vit roide va bien !
Le seul plaisir, j’aime à le croire,
C’est foutre et boire.“ (p.7)
When drunk, that big oaf,
That puny Mirabeau,
Would hoist up obliging Fauchon
And, into the maid’s arse,
Ram his pipe:
It’s a fine sight, a fine sight:
For an arse, what a splendid gift!
This feat shall grace his history:
Fucking and drinking deep.
When, beneath a petticoat,
Mirabeau took a cunt in hand,
He’d say, in his drunken state:
“Stroke me then, my Goddess;
Make my tool stand tall again:
That’s good, mighty good:
Ah! How fine a rigid prick feels!
The only pleasure—or so I like to think—
Is fucking and drinking.”]
The volume continues with songs attacking Louis-René-Édouard, Cardinal de Rohan (1734-1803) who was involved in the infamous diamond necklace affair (he is accused in the song of wanting to “foutre la Reine”); “Le Adieux d’un Ministre aux Putains de la Ville (the subject is most likely Jean-Frédéric de la Tour du Pin-Gouvernet (1727-1794) a nobleman and politician who was executed by guillotine after defending Marie-Antoinette during her trial):
“Adieu, Putains ; adieu, Ribauds ;
Vous n’aurez plus de ma finance,
Et quoique mes couillons soient chauds,
Je ne foutrai plus en France ;
Je bande pourtant toujours bien :
Tout est foutu, je le vois bien.” (p.14)
[Farewell, whores; farewell, rakes;
You’ll get no more of my cash,
And though my balls are hot,
I’ll fuck no more in France;
Yet I still get a good hard-on:
It’s all fucked, I see that well.]
There is also a supposed dialogue between Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès (1758-1805) and “une Branleuse [female masturbator] de la rue Saint-Honoré” (p.16); a song on Jean Sifrain Maury 1746-1817, Archbishop of Paris (in which he is infected with a sexually transmitted disease by a prostitute); and a song titled “Le Paillard [Bawdy] Aristocrate et Démocrate, ou deux têtes dans le même bonnet,” with the plate depictingreversible head with two boides (a soldier and a prelate) and “Les Dolèances de la foutue guese de Polignac, ou regrets sur la perte des vits de France” [The Lamentations of that damned slut De Polignac, or regrets over the loss of the pricks of France] with a portrait of the Duchess de Polignac (1749-93).
The etched and aquatint illustrations are not signed. In December 2018 Christie’s sold a painting by Louis Léopold Boilly titled Head of a man in profile composed of six female nudes which is very much in the same style. The catalogue description stated:
“While the circumstances of the original commission behind Boilly’s small portrait are not known, it is most closely related to the satirical engravings that appeared during the French Revolution. A pamphlet that was published in 1791 under the title Les fouteries chantantes ou Les récréations priapiques des aristocrates en vie showed the heads of political figures made up of nude women and explicit imagery, a particularly scathing form of political mockery used as a weapon against ancien régime defenders, such as Jean-Sifrein Maury” The painting was sold for £68,750 (Lot 1, Important Old Master Paintings from the Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection, 6th December 2018).
The printed waste leaves at the beginning and end of the volume are similar in content to the main text. We have been unable to identify them but appear to be from a similar format pamphlet perhaps associated with Le Père Duchesne, a radical newspaper edited by Jacques Hébert which spawned a number of similar pamphlets. The printed waste at the beginning of the volume is a satirical library auctions catalogue:
“On vendra pendant l’année 1791, à l’Hôtel de Bullion, à la foutue maniere, une sameuse Bibliothèque, dont les articles principauix feront:
1.0. Les Tours, de Passe-Passe d’un Général à deux visages, édition superbe, converte en maroquin, dorée, sur tranche. Prix…le bonheur du Peuple.
2.0. Le Guide-Ane des Juges de paix, ou les Sottises réitérées de nos nouveaux Tribunaux, ouvrage proposé, suivant la sacrée bougre de méthode, en souscription. En Maid il y en aura déjà 577 volumes. Prix…., le pain des Artisans….“
This extraordinary pamphlet requires considerable further scholarly investigation on many fronts including the identity of the author and the artist behind the highly unusual plates as well as the representation of women in the text, attitudes to sex, satire and political influence in the period.
