The Human Comedy (61 page)

Like Fontenelle, he was sparing with his vital energies
:
Fontenelle lived to be nearly a hundred years old.

name was Gobseck
:
the name in French sounds like Gobe-sec, “gulp dry”

He had known Monsieur de Lally
. . . :
Some of the names that follow are of historical figures, while others are fictional.

the
Monsieur Dimanche
scene:
Molière,
Dom Juan
(act IV, scene 3).

the Counts de Horn, the Fouquier-Tinvilles, the Coignards
:
The Comte de Horn assassinated Gustav III, the King of Sweden; Fouquier-Tinville was a notorious public prosecutor during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution; Coignard was an escaped convict who assumed the false title Comte de Sainte-Hélène.

the new Haitian government
:
The unification of Haiti and Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) occurred in 1822 and lasted until 1844.

The Torpedo
:
Gobseck’s great-grandniece, Esther Gobseck, appears in Balzac’s
Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
. She commits suicide only hours before she would have inherited Gobseck’s fortune.

“
Who will all these riches go to?
”:
See previous note. In
Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
, after Esther’s suicide, Gobseck’s fortune goes to her lover Lucien de Rubempré. However, he is prevented from marrying the rich Clotilde de Grandlieu when her father finds out the true source of his fortune. Suspected of being connected to Esther’s death, Lucien is arrested and ends up committing suicide. Gobseck’s fortune then passes to Lucien’s relatives and eventually to Vautrin, the criminal mastermind behind Lucien’s provisory rise to social prominence.

THE DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS

the French expedition to Spain
:
This expedition took place in 1823.

his
Moses
:
Rossini’s
Moses in Egypt
, which premiered in 1818.

Theater Favart
:
A venue at the Paris Opéra-Comique.

“
Fleuve du Tage
”:
Benoît Pollet’s song “The River Tagus,” which was popular in the 1820s.

alcalde
:
The mayor or magistrate of a Spanish town.

The visitor
:
A clergyman whose duty is to inspect convents.

a robe whose color has become proverbial
:
Pale brown.

knight
banneret:
A medieval knight entitled to carry a rectangular banner and lead a military troupe.

Fuggers
:
A powerful dynasty of German bankers in the sixteenth century.

its defeat in 1830
:
The July Revolution saw the end of the Bourbon Restoration and of the sovereign power of the nobility.

the marriage of Monsieur de Talleyrand
:
Talleyrand married an English adventuress.

Madame’s
:
The title of the Duchesse de Berry.

the uprising of the Hundred Days
:
Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of Elba and marched on Paris with an army of men, in a campaign that lasted from March until June, 1815, ending with his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Shortly after Waterloo, Louis XVIII returned to power, initiating the second Bourbon Restoration.

Chevalier de Folard
:
A French soldier and military writer of the eighteenth century.

Joubert’s side at Novi
:
At the Battle of Novi in August 1799, the French, led by Barthélemy-Catherine Joubert, were defeated by Austrian and Russian forces. Joubert was killed in the conflict.

the Fontainebleau disaster
:
The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau stipulated Napoleon’s abdication and exile to Elba.

The Gardener’s Dog
: A play by Lope de Vega which illustrates the proverbial theme of the dog in the manger.

Faublas
:
A libertine novel of the late eighteenth century by Louvet de Couvray (the novel’s full title is
Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas
).

Crillon hearing the story of Jesus Christ
:
Apparently, upon hearing a sermon on the Passion, the sixteenth-century military officer Crillon drew his sword and cried, “Where were you, Crillon?”

“morganatic” unions
:
A marriage between a member of the royalty or nobility and an individual of inferior social rank, whose children do not inherit the former’s titles and privileges.

the break between Madame de Beauséant and Monsieur d’Ajuda, who, they say, is marrying Mademoiselle de Rochefide
:
This story line is depicted in Balzac’s
Père Goriot
and continues in
La Femme abandonnée
.

nec plus ultra
: “Nothing further beyond.”

Génie du Christianisme
:
In 1802, Chateaubriand wrote this defense of Christianity in response to attacks made on the faith during the French Revolution.

Sulla
:
A prominent Roman statesman who famously marched on Rome, initiating a civil war. He became dictator before abdicating power shortly before his death.

the Battle of Dreux
:
A 1562 battle in which the Catholics defeated the Huguenots.

Andiam, mio ben
:
A phrase from the duet “Là ci darem la mano” in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni
.

Pyrrhonists
:
The disciples of Pyrrho of Elis, an ancient Greek skeptic philosopher.

as Poppaea played with Nero
:
Poppaea was the second wife of the Roman emperor Nero. It was widely believed among ancient historians that Nero murdered Poppaea.

place de Grève
:
A site of public executions and torture.

“Non so”
:
“I don’t know.”

Paris’s ten thousand Sévignés
:
The Marquise de Sévigné was a seventeenth-century writer, best known for the letters she wrote to her daughter.

the wigmaker’s knife-wielding that so affected Canning in the assize court
:
An obscure allusion to the career of the British statesman George Canning.

until some poet comes along to tell
:
Alfred de Vigny, in his historical novel
Cinq-Mars
.

Boeotian stupidity
:
An allusion to the ancient Greek region of Boeotia.

Monsieur, as he once was . . . The bad brother who voted so wrongly . . . This philosophical cant will be just as dangerous for his younger brother
: The current monarch, “the bad brother,” was Louis XVIII. He was formerly known as “Monsieur” (the title given to the eldest brother of the reigning king) when Louis XVI was on the throne. Charles X was the youngest of the three brothers.

fideicommissum
:
In a legal will, a gift that is bequeathed to an intermediary, with the intention that he or she will give it to a third person, the desired recipient of the bequest.

young de Horn
:
The Count de Horn conspired to assassinate Gustav III, the King of Sweden.

The Du Barry woman . . . the widow Scarron
: Once a courtesan, Madame Du Barry became Louis XV’s last official mistress. Madame Scarron was widowed prior to coming to court and eventually became Louis XIV’s second wife (he gave her the title of Marquise de Maintenon).

Not one of your Werthers
:
The Romantic hero of Goethe’s
The Sorrows of Young Werther
.

braving the Duke de Modena’s daggers
:
After marrying the Duke de Modena against her wishes, the daughter of the Regent for Louis XV, Charlotte-Aglaé d’Orléans, was visited by her former lover the Duc de Richelieu.

Monsieur de Jaucourt’s little finger
:
Surprised by the return of his mistress’s husband, the Marquis de Jaucourt hid himself in a cabinet. Jaucourt’s finger was crushed in the door, but he did not cry out.

Königsmarck’s mistress
:
Philip Christoph von Königsmarck was murdered shortly after attempting to elope with his mistress, the wife of the elector of Hanover. It was rumored that Königsmarck’s body was buried under the floorboards.

Mambrino’s helmet
:
In Cervantes’s novel, Don Quixote takes a barber’s bowl to be the Moorish king Mambrino’s golden helmet and wears it on his head, believing it will render him invincible.

Duchesse de La Vallière
:
Louis XIV’s first mistress, who became a Carmelite nun.

the way General Lamarque had conquered in the assault on Capri
:
General Lamarque led a surprise attack on the British (commanded by Sir Hudson Lowe—see the next note), who occupied Capri at the time.

Sir Hudson Lowe
:
The British general and governor of Saint Helena when Napoleon was exiled on the island. Lowe was criticized for his severe treatment of Napoleon.

SUB INVOCATIONE SANCTAE MATRIS THERESAE!
:
Under the invocation of the holy mother Theresa!

ADOREMUS IN AETERNUM
:
Let us adore [her] for eternity.