In Search of Lost Time (69 page)

48
.
that painting by Gentile Bellini… Saint Mark's
: the reference must be to Gentile Bellini's
Procession in St Mark's Square
, valued especially for its quality as documentary evidence of the appearance of St Mark's cathedral in the fifteenth century.

49
.
their pretty name
:
boutons d' or
, or ‘gold buttons'.

50
.
holiday house
: the irony is lost in translation, since the French
maison de plaisance
, though it means ‘country house', translates literally as ‘pleasure house' (along the lines of ‘pleasure boat').

51
.
Lohengrin
: opera by Richard Wagner (1813–83), who was immensely popular in Europe in the late nineteenth century.

52
.
Carpaccio
: Vittore Carpaccio (
c
. 1455–1525), Venetian painter.

53
.
Baudelaire
: Charles Baudelaire (1821–67), French poet and critic.

54
.
flowery Delos
: Greek island; in mythology, the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.

1
.
Planté
: Francis Planté (1839–1934), a French pianist and composer whose concerts were very successful beginning in 1872.

2
.
Rubinstein
: Anton Grigorievitch Rubinstein (1829–94) was, along with Liszt, the most illustrious pianist of his time.

3
.
Potain
: Pierre-Charles-Édouard Potain was elected to the Académie de Médecine in 1882, to the Institute in 1893.

4
.
the ride from The Valkyrie or the prelude from Tristan: The Valkyrie
(1854– 6) and
Tristan and Isolde
(1865) are both operas by Richard Wagner.

5
.
fishing for compliments
: in English in the original.

6
.
conclave
: a meeting of Roman Catholic cardinals to choose a new pope. Proust is probably referring to the conclave of 1878.

7
.
Quel… comprendre
: ‘What is then this mystery?/I cannot understand'; a quotation from the end of Act 1 of
La Dame blanche
, an opera by François-Adrien Boieldieu.

8
.
Vision fugitive
…: ‘Fleeting vision…'; an allusion to Herod's aria in Act 2 of
Hérodiade
, an opera by Jules Massenet.

9
.
Dans… voir
: ‘In these affairs / 'Tis better to be blind'; quotation from the end of
Amphitryon
, a comic opera by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry.

10
.
home
: in English in the original.

11
.
Vermeer of Delft
: Jan Vermeer de Delft (1632–75), Dutch painter.

12
.
Areopagus
: the ancient tribunal of Athens; used figuratively to indicate an assembly of virtuous, wise people. The reference seems to be to some fable, but its identity remains unclear.

13
. ‘
Patronne's
': feminine form of
patron
, ‘boss' or ‘manager'.

14
.
Ninth… The Meistersingers
: the reference is to Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony
and Wagner's opera
The Meistersingers
.

15
.
di primo cartello
: Italian term indicating singers of highest quality, who have ‘top billing'.

16
.
Academy
: Potain was elected to the Académie de Médecine in 1882. The Académie was founded (in 1880) primarily to advise the government on questions of public health.

17
.
Gambetta's funeral
: Léon Gambetta, an important political leader and Deputy to the National Assembly, was buried in January 1883.

18
.
Les Danicheff
: play by Pierre de Corvin-Koukowsky in collaboration with Dumas
fils
(see
note 53
below).

19
.
M. Grévy's
: Jules Grévy was President of the Republic from 1879 to 1887.

20
.
gentleman
: in English in the original.

21
.
Pieter de Hooch
: Dutch painter (1629–83?) known for his handling of light and perspective.

22
.
cattleyas
: orchids with large, richly coloured flowers developed by the English horticulturist W. Cattley.

23
.
Our Lady of Laghet
: Notre-Dame de Laghet is a place of pilgrimage situated in the Alpes-Maritimes, to the north of Turbie and close to Nice.

24
.
Zipporah… Sistine Chapel
: the figure of Zipporah appears in the Sistine
Chapel in a series of frescoes by Botticelli depicting the life of Moses, her husband.

25
.
Antonio Rizzo
: the Correr Museum in Venice possesses a bronze bust of Andrea Loredan (who, as opposed to Pietro Loredan, was never a doge) attributed to the Paduan sculptor Andrea Briosse (1471–1532), known as Riccio or Rizzo.

26
.
Ghirlandaio
: Ghirlandaio (1449–94), Florentine painter, one of the best of the Italian primitives. The reference here is to his
Portrait of an Old Man and his Grandson
, which hung in the Louvre in Proust's day. The old man in the picture, a nobleman, has a large prominent nose covered with warts.

27
.
Tintoretto
: Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto (1518–94), Venetian painter whose self-portrait hung in the Louvre in Proust's day.

28
.
La Maison Dorée
: an elegant restaurant started in 1840 and situated at 1, rue Lafitte, at the corner of the boulevard des Italiens.

29
.
the Paris-Murcia fête… Murcia
: a fête given on 18 December 1879, in aid of the victims of the flooding that occurred in the Murcia province of Spain on 14 and 15 October 1879.

30
.
Prévost's
: tearoom at 39, boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, which opened in 1825 and owed its reputation to its chocolate.

31
.
Tortoni's
: a café at 22, boulevard des Italiens.

32
.
Café Anglais
: a café at 13, boulevard des Italiens.

33
.
the Valse des Roses or Pauvre Fou by Tagliafico
: both pieces in ‘bad taste'. The
Valse des Roses
was the best-known composition of Olivier Métra, conductor at the Chacirc;telet and the Folies Bergères; Joseph Dieudonné Tagliafico was a French opera singer who made his debut in 1844 at the Théâtre des Italiens. He wrote a ballad whose correct title is
Pauvres fous
(‘poor lunatics').

34
.
Watteau
: Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), French painter said to have spent hours in the Luxembourg Gardens sketching the faces and figures of the passers-by.

35
.
the rue Abbatucci
: former name, from 1868 to 1879, of part of the rue de La Boétie, in the eighth arrondissement.

36
.
the Vicomte de Borelli
: Raymond de Borelli (1827–1906) was a society poet.

37
.
the avenue de l'Impératrice
: in the sixteenth arrondissement, it runs from the place de l'Étoile to the Porte Dauphine. It was created in 1854, called by this name until the 1870s, when, with the fall of the Empire, it was renamed avenue du Bois de Boulogne, finally becoming the avenue Foch in 1929.

38
.
the Tour du Lac
: the
lac
in question is the Lake (in fact two lakes) in the
Bois de Boulogne. In Proust's day, the favourite promenade routes led from the avenues to the Lake.
Tour du Lac
must refer to a road around the lakes.

39
.
Éden Théâtre
: theatre erected in 1882 for the performance mainly of ballets, it was located on the rue Boudreau near the Opéra.

40
.
Hippodrome
: a stadium located, from 1875 to 1892, between the avenue de l'Alma and the avenue Marceau. It held 10,000 spectators and presented races, ballets, horse shows and other performances.

41
.
Château de Blois
: historic castle on the Loire river, and a favourite residence of the French kings during the sixteenth century. It combines styles from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and it is in fact remarkable for its elaborate Renaissance chimney-pieces, which rise to the ceiling.

42
.
La Reine Topaz
: ‘The Topaz Queen', a comic opera with music by Victor Massé first performed in 1856.

43
.
muffins and toast
: in English in the original, as ‘muffins' and ‘toasts'.

44
. ‘
Thé de la rue Royale
': ancient establishment which at the turn of the century was located at 3 and 12, rue Royale and served afternoon tea in the English style.

45
.
Serge Panine
: (1881) novel by Georges Ohnet first produced as a play in 1882. Ohnet (1848–1918) was a dramatist and the author of sentimental novels immensely popular with the public and disparaged by the critics. His
Le Maître de Forges
, mentioned elsewhere, was a novel and play produced with great success during the 1884 season.

46
.
Olivier Métra
: (1830–89), French composer and conductor best known for his waltzes.

47
.
the Righi
: mountain in Switzerland, with villages at its foot and hotels at intervals on the way to the summit, from which there is a wonderful panorama. The Riviera and Switzerland, along with the English things one could find there, were very much in vogue at the time.

48
.
blanche
: ‘white'; Blanche de Castille (1188–1252) was the wife of Louis VIII and mother of Louis IX.

49
.
Suger and other Saint Bernards
: the
Chronicle of Saint-Denis
, a history of the kings of France, was begun by Abbot Suger in the twelfth century and continued at the Abbey of Saint-Denis until 1286.

50
.
Henry Plantagenet
: Henry II of England (1133–89) married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. The latter was not the mother of Blanche de Castille, but her grandmother.

51
.
Rembrandt or Hals: La Ronde de Nuit
(The Night Watch) by Rembrandt (1606–69) is an open-air scene depicting militia and a variety of other types of faces;
Les Régentes
by Franz Hals (1580–1666) is a group portrait of Lady Governors of the Almshouse of Haarlem. It hangs in the museum of Haarlem.

52
.
the Ninth and the Winged Victory
: the reference is to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and
The Winged Victory of Samothrace
, a Greek statue of a draped and winged woman found on the island of Samothrace in 1863 and now standing at the top of the Daru staircase in the Louvre.

53
.
Dumas's astonishing new play
: Alexandre Dumas, known as Dumas
fils
(1824–95), French dramatist and novelist. The Japanese salad appears in his play
Francillon
.

54
. ‘
speech
': in English in the original.

55
.
the La Trémoïlles
: a celebrated family whose duchy was one of the oldest in France.

56
.
the Palais de l'Industrie
: the Palais de l'Industrie (‘hall of industry') was built for the Exposition of 1855 on the site of the present Grand Palais and Petit Palais beside the Seine. It housed the annual Salons of painting and sculpture.

57
.
Fénelon
: François de Salgnac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651–1715), French theologian who was in charge of the education of the grandsons of Louis XIV. In his
Treatise on the Existence and Attributes of God
, he defines God as ‘universal intelligence' and ‘infinitely intelligible'. He posits that nothing is intelligent except through God, but intelligence is ‘real in His creatures'; our ideas ‘are a perpetual mingling of God's infinite being which is our object, and of the limits he gives always and essentially to each creature'.

58
.
Trémouailles
: Brichot is pronouncing the name wrong; it should be ‘Trémoïlles'.

59
.
Se non è vero
: first words of the adage
Se non è vero, è ben trovato
: ‘If it isn't true, it's still a happy thought.'

60
.
the Duc d'Aumale
: a pun on the name of the fourth son of King Louis-Philippe and the word
mâle
, ‘male'.

61
.
the Baronne Putbus
: according to
Gotha's Almanac
, the Putbus family dated back to the twelfth century, at which time it owned a château and fifteen villages in Pomerania.