Pleasure (46 page)

7
.
Centocelle:
The name derives from Centum Cellae, literally “one hundred rooms,” dating back to ancient Rome. In the nineteenth century it was still wild and well stocked with foxes, favored by D'Annunzio himself for his foxhunts. It is a suburb of Rome.

8
.
Not at the Four Fountains:
The joke here plays on the fact that Elena's home in Palazzo Barberini is found in Via delle Quattro Fontane (Four Fountains Road), where Andrea attempted vainly to go “hunting,” whereas his friends went foxhunting in the area south of Rome called Tre Fontane (Three Fountains).

9
.
Menelaus:
Menelaus, husband of Helen (of Sparta, later of Troy), was cuckolded when Paris lured Helen away from him.

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER III

1
.
Musa paradisiaca palm:
Banana plant.

2
.
Quirinal Palace:
Palazzo Quirinale—originally the papal residence, then the residence of Italian kings, now the official residence and workplace of presidents of the Italian Republic.

3
.
Montecitorio:
Building that houses the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

4
.
Dogali case:
Battle that had taken place the week before, on January 26, 1887, at Dogali in Eritrea, which Italy had colonized in 1879. More than four hundred Italian soldiers died, as well as several hundred Eritreans.

5
.
Au pays du Tendre?:
A reference to the 1660 novel
Clélie, Histoire romaine,
by Madeleine de Scudéry, which describes an imaginary country, Tendre. (French.)

6
.
Far, far away:
In English in the original.

7
.
Via dei Due Macelli:
Literally, “Street of the Two Butcheries” (Italian).

8
.
Via del Tritone:
Literally, “Street of the Triton” (Italian).

9
.
Nunc
:
“Now” (Latin).

10
.
“Asperges me”:
From Psalms 51:7: “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Latin).

11
.
Rosa mystica:
“Mystical Rose.” At the summit of the Column of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna there is a bronze statue of the Madonna, also known as Mystical Rose. The rose is associated with the Virgin Mary, as it is with the rosary. (Latin.)

12
.
Piranesi:
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), an Italian artist.

13
.
dux:
In the original Italian,
duca,
with the common meaning of “duke.” One of the meanings of
duca,
however, is “guide,” referring to its ancient derivation from the Latin
dux
(from the verb
ducere,
which in Italian is
condurre,
meaning “to lead, guide, conduct”). The words
duce
and
doge
also derive from this. Other ancient meanings of
duca
are spiritual guide, and ruler or leader.

14
.
Virgilian excursion:
In the original Italian
vergiliato,
a term coined by D'Annunzio to signify a route followed by two people, as in the case of Dante, who was accompanied or guided by Virgil through Hell and Purgatory in the
Divine Comedy
.

15
.
Perugino:
Pietro Perugino (1446–1524), Umbrian artist.

16
.
Caffè Nazzarri:
A coffeehouse in Piazza di Spagna that had a pastry shop and confectioner's attached to it.

17
.
Barberini factory:
Cardinal Barberini founded a tapestry factory at Palazzo Barberini in Rome in about 1630.

18
.
Pieter van Laer:
Pieter van Laer (1592–1642), nicknamed “Il Bamboccio,” lived in Rome. His style of humorous/grotesque paintings were called “Bambocciate.”

19
.
Le papillon s'est envolé:
“The butterfly has flown away” (Bizet's
Tarantelle
) (French).

20
.
Fantasia sonatas:
Piano Sonata no. 13 in E-flat major, op. 27, no. 1.
Quasi una fantasia
(In the Manner of a Fantasy); Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 27, no. 2.
Moonlight Sonata
.

21
.
Giulietta Guicciardi:
Beethoven's student, with whom he fell in love. He proposed to her but her parents forbade the marriage.

22
.
Ariostean architecture:
A reference to Ludovico Ariosto's
Orlando furioso,
in which he creates an enchanted castle that represents illusion, ambiguity, the falsity of ephemeral things, and above all the elusiveness of the objects of men's desires, which, as soon as they are satisfied, make way for new ones.

23
.
candida super nivem
:
“Whiter than snow.” Could be a reference to a poem, “The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,” by Adam of Saint Victor, a twelfth-century French poet who composed liturgical hymns. In the poem, the phrase is
super nivem candida
(white beyond snow).

24
.
“incedit per lilia et super nivem”:
“Advances through lilies and over snow” (Latin).

25
.
“Comis suis obumbrabit tibi et sub comis peccabit”:
“He will cover you up with his fleece and he will commit sin under the covers.” Possible distortion of Psalms 91:4: “
Scapulis sui obumbrabit tibi, et sub pennies ejus sperabis”:
“He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.” (Latin.)

26
.
Symphonie en blanc majeur:
“Symphony in White Major,” poem by Théophile Gautier (French).

27
.
“
Pro amore curriculum / Pro amore cubiculum”:
“The vehicle or small carriage for love / the bedchamber for love” (Latin).

28
.
Fuga:
Ferdinando Fuga, who designed the Palazzo della Consulta between 1732 and 1737.

29
.
Dioscuri:
Twin brothers Castor and Polydeuces/Pollux, depicted in great marble statues in Piazza del Quirinale. Mythologically, they are the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, all born to Leda, wife of Tyndareus, seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan.

30
.
the Mani:
Spirits of the dead, revered by the ancient Romans as gods.

31
.
Genii:
Plural of Genius. See Second Book, Chapter III, note 3 (Latin).

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER IV

1
.
Pausias:
Reference to poem by Goethe: “Der neue Pausias und sein Blumenmädchen” (The New Pausias and His Flower Maiden) (1797).

2
.
“Immer allein sind . . .”:
“Lovers are always alone unto themselves in the largest gathering / but when they are a twosome, a third one joins them” (German).

3
.
“Amor, ja!”:
“Love, yes!”

4
.
“A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudabile nomen Helles”:
“From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same: the name of Helen is to be praised.” (The name Helen is to be linked to that of Elena, its Italian equivalent.) The origin of this phrase is liturgical, from Psalms 112:3:
A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudabile nomen Domini
:
“From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same: the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Latin).

5
.
“I always loved . . .”:
Petrarch,
Il Canzoniere,
Sonnet 85, “Io amai sempre ed amo forte ancora.”

6
.
“Ahora y no siempre”:
“Now and not forever” (Spanish).

7
.
Die ultima februarii 1885:
“Last day of February 1885” (Latin).

8
.
Helena Amyclaea:
Literally, “the Spartan Helen.” Reference to Helen of Troy, who was from Sparta. (Latin.)

9
.
Academy building:
Villa Medici has housed the French Academy for the arts since 1803.

10
.
“with you”:
Until this point in the novel, in every exchange between Andrea and Donna Maria, they have used the formal
voi,
which creates social and psychological distance between interlocutors, instead of the familiar (informal)
tu,
which breaks down this barrier and allows for intimacy; “with you” in the original Italian is expressed as
“con te”
—using the familiar
tu
form for the first time.

11
.
“And from her lips”:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, from the poem “Epipsychidion” (1821).

12
.
mystical familiar “you”:
Here, Andrea is about to use the familiar form
tu
rather than the formal
voi
with Donna Maria, and it is a significant moment, because it symbolizes a new, unprecedented intimacy.

FOURTH BOOK, CHAPTER I

1
.
in quarto:
Reference to format of printed book, namely how the paper on which a volume is printed has been folded, and the size of the original paper. “In folio” means that the paper has been folded once; “in quarto” means that it has been folded twice, producing eight pages. It is also written as “in-4°.”

2
.
Lampsaque:
Lampsaque
was a fictitious publishing house in Paris in the 1700s and 1800s, specializing in erotic material: bibliographical references cite “A Lampsaque [Paris]” followed by the year. It published all libertine material that otherwise would have been subject to censorship, such as Nerciat's
Les Aphrodites.
This name is that of the town Lampsacus in ancient Greece, home to the god Priapus, and associated with erotica.

3
.
Nerciat: 1734:
This reference by D'Annunzio to Andrea (André-Robert) de Nerciat's
Les Aphrodites
is incorrect; all bibliographical references to Nerciat show that he lived from 1739 to 1800, and various sources show the work as dated at 1793 or 1794.

4
.
De Concubitu—libri tres:
“On sleeping together—book three” (Latin).

5
.
god of Lampsacus
:
Here the reference is to the ancient Greek town, origin of the cult of the fertility god Priapus, son of Aphrodite and possibly of Dionysus.

6
.
Salve, sancte pater:
Reference to Tibullus's
Elegiae,
I, 4, which begins
“Salve, sancte pater Priape rerum, salve”
(Hail, Priapus, primal father).

7
.
his own language:
English.

8
.
rictus:
Gaping grimace, open mouth (Latin).

9
.
Sicinnide dance:
A dance carried out by satyrs and menads in honor of Dionysus and the goddess Cybele.

10
.
De verberatione amatoria:
“On love beating” (Latin).

11
.
In Sperelli's imagination:
In this paragraph, D'Annunzio's “borrowings” from other authors become evident. D'Annunzio's knowledge of de Sade's work is derived from the Goncourts'
Journal
and from French translations of the English journalist William T. Stead's articles “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” serialized in the
Pall Mall Gazette
in 1885. Transcription errors in the French versions are worsened by D'Annunzio: Halfmoon Street (Halfsoon Street in French) becomes Halfousn Street in
Il piacere
. The paragraph refers to shocking practices uncovered by Stead, of pedophilia and child prostitution in London.

12
.
Black Army
: This reference is from Stead's “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” referring to the large numbers of young women recruited to become prostitutes; they are referred to therein as the “Black Army.”

13
.
Anna Rosemberg
: Anna Rosenberg is referred to in Stead's “Maiden Tribute,” with regard to the practice of strapping down women in order to violate them, in her brothel in Liverpool. Text of novel shows the author's misspelling.

14
.
Jefferies woman
: Mary Jeffries (1854–1907) was engaged in running brothels in London, in abducting girls and young women and selling them to foreign countries. Text of novel shows the author's misspelling.

FOURTH BOOK, CHAPTER II

1
.
Lucius Verus:
A Roman emperor.

2
.
attendre pour atteindre:
“Wait in order to achieve” (French).

3
.
“Death is here”:
“Death” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1824.

4
.
“These are two friends”:
Shelley's “Epitaph,” also inscribed on his grave. The last phrase in the original text is given in English.