In Search of Lost Time (68 page)

12
.
like Molé, like the Duc Pasquier, like the Duc de Broglie
: Louis Mathieu, Comte Molé (1781–1855), was Prime Minister under Louis-Philippe and a member of the Chamber of Peers. He was elected to the Académie Française for his book
Essais de morale et de politique
. Étienne-Denis Pasquier (1767– 1862) was named President of the Chamber of Peers by Louis-Philippe, who made him a duke in 1841. Duc Achille de Broglie (1785–1870) was a member of the Chamber of Peers under the Restoration, then, under Louis-Philippe, President of the Council and Minister.

13
.
Flora
: Proust inadvertently attributes both remarks to Flora.

14
.
Maubant
: Henri-Polydore Maubant (1821–1902), a member of the Comédie-Française, specialized in the roles of noble father, king and tyrant. He retired in 1888.

15
.
Mme Materna
: Amalie Materna (1844–1918), German opera star who created some of the great Wagnerian roles. She retired in 1897.

16
.
Saint-Simon:
Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon (1675–1755), French author of the
Mémoires
, which cover the period 1675–1723 and give a detailed picture of the life of the Court at that time.

17
.
Spain
: Saint-Simon was sent to Spain as
ambassadeur-extraordinaire
to negotiate the royal marriage of the Infanta of Spain to Louis XV.

18
.
Maulévrier
: Jean-Baptiste-Louis Andrault, Marquis de Maulévrier-Langeron (1677–1754), Marshal of France. He is described in Saint-Simon's
Mémoires
of the year 1721.

19
. ‘
What virtues… abhor
': the line is from Corneille's
La Mort de Pompée
, act III, scene 4, and actually reads, ‘
Ô ciel, que de vertus vous me faites haïr
.'

20
.
‘against my heart'
:
à contrecœur
, ‘reluctantly'.

21
.
the miracle of Saint Théophile or the four sons of Aymon
: the
Miracle de Théophile
, composed by Rutebeuf, a thirteenth-century troubador, relates the adventures of Théophile d'Adana, who was not in fact a saint but a simple cleric, and who signed a pact with the devil, repented, and was saved through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. The story of the four sons of Aymon who offended Charlemagne, fled his wrath and were finally reconciled with him is told in the late twelfth – or early thirteenth-century
chanson de geste Renaud de Montauban
.

22
.
granité
: granulated ice cream served as dinner course or dessert.

23
.
Benozzo Gozzoli
: Florentine painter (1420–97), one of the creators of the frescoes of the Campo Santo at Pisa badly damaged during World War II.
One scene depicts the sacrifice of Isaac, but there is no gesture of dismissal of Sarah.

24
.
Indiana
: a novel by George Sand published in 1832.

25
.
Corot
: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796–1876), French painter especially known for his pastoral subjects and the serenity of his interpretations.

26
.
Hubert Robert
: Hubert Robert (1733–1808), French landscape painter, precursor of the Romantics.

27
.
Turner
: Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1858), English painter, precursor of the Impressionists and of lyrical abstraction, much admired by Ruskin.

28
.
Morghen
: Raphael Morghen (1758–1833), engraver commissioned by the Duke of Tuscany to make an engraving of the Leonardo da Vinci fresco of the Last Supper.

1
.
King Charles VI
: Charles VI
le Bien-Aimé
(1328–1422), King of France (1380–1422), experienced alternating periods of lucidity and madness. A tarot game was invented to entertain him.

2
.
Saint Eloi
: (
c
.588–660) treasurer and goldsmith of Clotaire II and Dagobert I, King of the Franks in 632.

3
.
Louis the Germanic:
King of the Franks 817–43. He had three sons who conspired constantly against him. The tomb of the sons of Louis in the church at Combray is a fiction.

4
.
Sigebert's:
Sigebert was the name of three early kings of Austrasia – a part of the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks – in the sixth and seventh centuries.

5
.
Second Empire
: the Empire of Napoleon III, 1852–70, a period of financial and industrial expansion; its positivist and materialistic spirit was reflected in the pursuit of money and pleasure and its brilliant social life.

6
.
Morris column
: the name given to columns on Paris streets on which plays and other entertainments are advertised. Named for the printer, Morris, who was the first concession-holder.

7
.
Le Testament de César Girodot… Le Domino Noir
:
Le Testament de César Girodot
was a comedy by A. Belot and E. Villetard.
Oedipe-Roi
was the French translation by Jules Lacroix of Sophocles'
Oedipus Rex. Les Diamants de la Couronne
and
Le Domino Noir
were comic operas with words by Eugène Scribe and music by Daniel Auber.

8
.
gentleman
: ‘gentleman' is in English in the original, as is ‘a cup of tea'.

9
.
blue
:
bleu
, an express letter transmitted by pneumatic tube within Paris.

10
.
Vaulabelle
: Achille de Vaulabelle (1799–1879), a French journalist and historian.

11
.
Virtues and Vices of Padua
: frescoes by Giotto in the Arena Chapel in Padua; seven virtues – Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Charity, Hope – face seven vices – Folly, Inconstancy, Anger, Injustice, Infidelity, Envy, Despair.

12
. ‘
La Nuit d'Octobre
': (
October
, 1837), poem by Alfred de Musset (1810–57), one of the series
Les Nuits
.

13
.
La blanche… Pasiphaé
: the first line means ‘The white Oloossone and the white Camyre'. The actual line, from ‘La Nuit de Mai', is
la blanche Oloossone à la blanche Camyre
. The second line means literally ‘The daughter of Minos and Pasiphaé'. From Racine's
Phèdre
, act I, scene I, line 36.

14
. ‘
Bhagavat
'
and
‘
Le Lévrier de Magnus
': both poems by Leconte de Lisle. ‘Bhagavat' is from the collection
Poèmes antiques
(1852), and ‘Le Lévrier de Magnus' from
Poèmes tragiques
(1884).

15
.
La Juive
: opera by Fromental Halévy first performed in 1835 at the Paris Opéra.

16
. ‘
Israel, break thy bond
': a line from the opera
Samson et Dalila
by Saint-Saëns.

17
.
Archers… sans bruit
: literally, ‘Archers, be on your guard!/Watch without rest, without sound'.

18
.
De ce timide… des pas!
: literally, ‘Let you now guide/The steps of this timid Israelite!'

19
.
Champs paternels, Hébron, douce vallée
: literally ‘Fields of our fathers, sweet valley of Hebron'.

20
.
Oui je suis de la race élue
: literally, ‘Yes, I am of the chosen race'.

21
.
Malay kris
: a dagger with a ridged serpentine blade.

22
.
Athalie or Phèdre
: dramas by Jean Racine (1639–99). Their dates are respectively 1691 and 1677.

23
.
Portrait of Mohammed II by Bellini
: Mohammed II, Sultan of the Ottoman empire from 1451 to 1481, was painted in Constantinople by the Venetian painter Gentile Bellini (
c.
1429–1507).

24
.
Le Cid
: 1636 tragedy by Pierre Corneille (1606–84); part of the classic repertory of the Comédie-Française.

25
.
the Queens of Chartres
: statues on the western portal of Chartres Cathedral, for a long time assumed to be kings and queens of France but in fact representing characters from the Bible.

26
.
Le bonheur des méchants comme un torrent s'écoule
: ‘The happiness of the wicked rushes down like a mountain stream.' Racine,
Athalie
, act II, scene 7, line 688.

27
.
Hubert Robert
: French painter (1733–1808) of landscapes and architecture, especially garden statues, porticos, ruins and fountains.

28
. ‘
theatre in bed
': allusion to Alfred de Musset's
Theatre in an Armchair
, i.e. a play meant to be read to oneself from a book.

29
.
proud as Artaban
: expression derived from the novel
Cléopâtre
by Gauthier de la Calprenède (1614–63). The character Artaban has become proverbial for his pride.

30
.
the ‘mechanics' of life at Versailles
: the phrase recurs several times in Saint-Simon's
Mémoires
.

31
.
Les bois sont déjà noirs, le ciel est encor bleu
: ‘The woods are dark already, the sky still blue', a line by Paul Desjardins (1859–1940), French writer and thinker.

32
.
Qui du cul d'un chien s'amourose,/ Il lui paraît une rose
: ‘He who falls in love with a dog's bottom/Will think it's a rose.'

33
.
Fabre
: Jean-Henri Fabre (1823–1915), French teacher and entomologist who retired in 1871 to devote himself to the study of insect life, one of his special interests being the Hymenoptera. He published ten volumes of studies,
Souvenirs entomologiques
, from 1879 to 1907.

34
.
Balzac's flora
: the plant, sedum, appears in at least two of the novels in Balzac's
La Comédie humaine
.

35
.
for wounded hearts… shadow and silence
: epigraph from a novel by Balzac,
Le Médecin de campagne: ‘Aux coeurs blessés l'ombre et le silence.'

36
.
Andromedas
: in Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cassiopeia, who boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than the daughter of Nereus, the Sea God. The daughter was punished for the mother's arrogance and, chained to a rocky cliff by the sea, was rescued by Perseus.

37
.
Ar-mor, the Sea
: Ar-mor is the Celtic name for Brittany, meaning ‘on the sea'.

38
.
Anatole France
: French novelist, critic and literary figure (1844–1924). He wrote about the Cimmerians in
Pierre Nozière
(1899).

39
.
country of the Cimmerians in the Odyssey
: the Cimmerians were an ancient people from the north shore of the Black Sea who invaded Lydia in Asia Minor in the seventh century. In the
Odyssey
, Homer describes them as living in darkness.

40
.
that erudite crook
: the crook in question is most likely Vrain-Lucas, who forged signatures which he attributed to Rabelais, Pascal, Joan of Arc, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. His story was told by Alphonse Daudet in
L'Immortel
(1888).

41
.
burdened… across my brow
: indirect quotation from Racine's
Phèdre
, act
I, scene 3:
Que ces vains ornements, que ces voiles me pèsent!/Quelle importune main en formant tous ces noeuds/A pris soin sur mon front d'assembler mes cheveux?

42
.
some novel by Saintine
: Joseph Xavier Boniface, known as Saintine (1798– 1865), French novelist best known for his novel
Picciola
.

43
.
some landscape by Gleyre
: Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806–74), Swiss academic painter.

44
.
the little hooded monk in the optician's window
: a figure in a box that predicted weather changes.

45
.
Chanson de Roland
: Song of Roland, most famous of the
chansons de geste
of the Middle Ages.

46
.
kith and kindred
: the humour of Françoise's mistake is more evident in the original. Instead of
parenté
, ‘family', ‘relations', she says
parentèse
, ‘parenthesis'.

47
.
Viollet-le-Duc
: Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–79), French architect and writer who restored many monuments of the Middle Ages, including the Sainte-Chapelle, Notre-Dame and the feudal châeau of Pierrefonds.