Chapter 253: Chapter 253

I Origin Pigritia is a terrible word. It engenders a whole world, la pègre, for which read “theft,” and a hell, la pègrenne, for which read “hunger.” Thus, idleness is the mother. She has a son, theft, and a daughter, hunger. Where are we at this moment? In the land of slang. What is slang? It is at one and the same time, a nation and a dialect; it is theft in its two kinds; people and language. When, four and thirty years ago, the narrator of this grave and sombre histo…