Authors: Gustave Flaubert trans Lydia Davis
Madame Bovary (57 page)
| 188 | troubadour seminarists or repentant bluestockings: Seminary students striving to be poets; “bluestocking” was a derisive term originally applied to certain eighteenth-century women who held, or attended, evening salons devoted to intellectual discussions. |
| 188 | Think On It Well … Intended for the Young: The first title is Pensez-y, ou refléxions sur les quatre fins dernières by the Jesuit Paul de Barry (1587–1661); the second, Homme du monde aux pieds de Marie (1836) by Victor d’Anglars; and the third, an adaptation of the anti-Voltairean Des Erreurs de Voltaire (1762) by the Jesuit Claude-Adrien Nonnotte (1711–93). |
| 189 | Good Friday … sausage: In Christian ritual, Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the anniversary of Christ’s death on the cross and is observed as a day of mourning. Meat is not eaten on that day (or on any Friday, in Catholic practice); the elder Bovary’s behavior would therefore be very offensive to his pious wife. |
| 190 | catechism class: A class of instruction in Christian doctrine, using the catechism. |
| 191 | the famous tenor Lagardy: A fictional character. |
| 191 | Castigat ridendo mores: “It corrects our morals with laughter”—eventually to become the motto of classical comedy, it was composed by the poet (and champion of “living Latin”) Jean de Santeuil (1630–97) for the Italian harlequin Dominique to use in his theater. |
| 191 | Voltaire’s tragedies: See note to p. 68. |
| 191 | The Urchin of Paris: A vaudeville play (1836) in two acts by Jean-François-Alfred Bayard (1796–1853) and Émile Vanderbruch (1794–1862). |
| 191 | Galileo: Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who upheld the Copernican theory that the earth revolved around the sun—a theory denounced as dangerous to the faith—and was tried by the Inquisition in 1633. Threatened with torture, he was forced to recant the theory of the Copernican solar system and sent into exile in Siena under house arrest. |
| 191 | the Fathers: The Church Fathers: early Christian writers from the first century A.D. to Saint Gregory I (c. 540–604); they formulated doctrines and codified religious observances, and their scholarly works were subsequently used as precedent. |
| 193 | Sieur Lheureux: The word sieur (literally, “lord”) is a formal title equivalent to monsieur (literally, “my lord”), now either obsolete or restricted to legal use. It could also be used ironically. In one of his letters to Louise Colet, Flaubert referred irritably to their friend Maxime as “sieur Du Camp”; Du Camp had suggested he needed to live in Paris in order to succeed as a writer. Du Camp caused further irritation by suggesting that Flaubert wear a “small wig” to disguise his premature baldness. |
| 194 | parterre … loges: The parterre is the part of the floor of a theater behind the orchestra; the loges are the boxes or small compartments in various sections of a theater, containing a few seats. |
| 194 | Lucie de Lammermoor: The French version of Lucia di Lammermoor (1836), an opera by the popular Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848), was first performed in Paris in 1839. It was based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor (1819). |
| 195 | cavatina: In opera, a short aria. |
| 196 | doublet … dirk: A doublet is a man’s close-fitting jacket; dirk is the Scots word for “dagger.” |
| 198 | barley water: Also called orgeat, a drink based on a syrup originally made using barley, later with an emulsion of sweet and bitter almonds; during these years it was customarily served at evening dancing parties as well as at the theater. |
| 201 | O bel ange, ma Lucie!: The last words sung by Edgar, Lucie’s lover, after he stabs himself (in act 3, scene 2, in the French version). |
| 201 | Tamburini, Rubini, Persiani, Grisi: Respectively, Antonio Tamburini, an Italian baritone; Giovanni Battista Rubini, an Italian tenor; Fanny Tacchinardi-Persiani, an Italian soprano; and Giulia Grisi, an Italian soprano, all famous opera singers of the early nineteenth century. |
| PART III | |
| 205 | La Chaumière: La Grande Chaumière was a dance hall on the boulevard Montparnasse near the boulevard Raspail (then known as the boulevard d’Enfer [Hell]). It was started as a combination amusement park and beer garden by an Englishman, Tickson, in 1783, the name coming from the fact that it was then a collection of thatched cottages ( chaumières ). After a change of ownership in 1837, it eventually became so popular that the boulevard Montparnasse was called “the boulevard that leads to La Grande Chaumière.” Its customers were mostly students, and the polka and the cancan were danced there for the first time. |
| 205 | Luxembourg: The Luxembourg Garden, a large park in Paris bordering the Latin Quarter. |
| 205 | Code: This is the Napoleonic, or Civil, Code, promulgated by Napoléon I in 1804 and embodying the private law (i.e., regulating relations between individuals) of France. A version of it is still in force. |
| 205 | grand apartment … garret: The original French text contrasts entresol (entresol or mezzanine) with quatrième étage (fourth floor). The entresol apartment was one located on a mezzanine floor, usually between the ground floor and the second floor. In the sort of tenancy arrangement that existed in Paris at that time, the wealthier families occupied the lower floors of a building, with tenants becoming progressively poorer as one ascended, since the upper floors, being less attractive—colder and with lower ceilings, besides being harder to reach in the days before elevators—were cheaper to rent. |
| 208 | clematis: A vine with three leaflets and usually white or purple flowers. |
| 209 | four scenes from The Tower of Nesle: La Tour de Nesle was an immensely popular historical drama (1832) by Frédéric Gaillardet (1808–82), rewritten by the elder Alexandre Dumas (1802–70); set in the early fourteenth century, it was based on a legend concerning torrid love affairs that took place there involving the daughters-in-law of Philip IV. The tower itself was an early-thirteenth-century guard tower on the Left Bank of the Seine opposite the old castle of the Louvre, on the present site of the Institut de France. |
| 212 | parvis: From the word for “paradise,” a court, a square, or an enclosed space in front of a church. |
| 212 | trefoiled: Ornamented with a stylized leaf having three rounded leaflets. |
| 212 | verger: A church official in charge of looking after the church, keeping order during services, or serving as an usher or a sacristan (see note to p. 75). |
| 212 | Marianne Dancing: The folk name for the thirteenth-century stone carving, on the left-hand portal, of Salome dancing before her father, King Herod of Palestine, who ordered the execution of John the Baptist. The descriptions of the cathedral in this chapter are entirely faithful, except concerning the holy-water basins that reflect the nave; these are to be found in another Rouen church, Saint-Ouen. |
| 213 | holy-water basins: Small basins attached to a pillar or wall inside the entrance to a church containing water blessed by the priest; the devout, upon entering the church and, often, before leaving it (see p. 216), may dip three fingers (symbolizing the Trinity) or five (symbolizing Jesus’s wounds) or any other number or combination of fingers in the water and cross themselves. |
| 213 | blue window that shows boatmen: As pointed out in the note to p. 38, every now and then Flaubert’s narration shifts into the present tense, when he is describing something that still exists at the time of his writing, or that he wishes to portray as though it still existed. In this instance the present tense reflects reality: the cathedral still exists, as does this window. |
| 214 | Amboise bell: Cast in 1501, it actually weighed over thirty-six thousand pounds and lasted nearly three hundred years, when it cracked and was melted down for cannon. A fragment of it could still be seen in a Rouen museum in 1847, according to a memoir written in that year by a visiting Englishman. |
| 214 | Pierre de Brézé: A soldier and politician (c. 1410–65) in the service of Charles VII, for a time very powerful in court, who died seneschal of Normandy. |
| 215 | Louis de Brézé: Grandson (1463–1531) of Pierre de Brézé, Louis was also a grandson of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel. |
| 215 | Diane de Poitiers: A noblewoman (1499–1566), widow of the much older Louis de Brézé, and subsequently mistress of Henri II, having a strong influence over him till his death in 1559. |
| 215 | the Amboises: Uncle and nephew, both cardinals. The uncle, Georges d’Amboise (1460–1510), minister to Louis XII, was also a patron of the arts and contributed to the promotion of the Renaissance in France. The nephew, Georges II d’Amboise (1488–1550), was elected archbishop of Rouen in 1511 and cardinal in 1545. |
| 215 | Richard the Lionhearted: Richard I of England (1157–99), who was rarely in England and had an event-filled reign scarred by conflict. He appears in Sir Walter Scott’s novels Ivanhoe and The Talisman. |
| 215 | Calvinists: Adherents of the movement started by French Protestant theologian John Calvin (1509–64). |
| 215 | The steeple: Still being constructed at this time, it was made of iron and replaced several earlier wooden ones destroyed by fire; it incorporated open spaces so as to be less vulnerable to strong winds. |
| 216 | the north door … flames of hell: The reference is to the Portail des Libraires, one of the side entrances to the cathedral, with its thirteenth- and fourteenth-century carvings. |
| 216 | And the heavy vehicle started off: The itinerary followed by the carriage is more fantastical than reasonable, though the places mentioned along its route are real. |
| 216 | Pierre Corneille: Playwright (1606–84) and native of Rouen. |
| 219 | capharnaum: The name is that of a town in northeastern Palestine associated with Jesus of Nazareth’s ministry, but the word, meaning a place containing many objects in disorder, was probably associated with cafourniau , meaning “lumber room” or “box room.” |
| 220 | court of assizes: Superior court for the trial of civil and criminal cases. |
| 220 | sword of Damocles: An ever-present danger; from the story in classical mythology wherein Syracusan tyrant Dionysius I (c. 430–367 B.C. ) demonstrated to one of his courtiers, Damocles, the precariousness of rank and power by suspending a sword over his head by a single hair, during a banquet. |
| 220 | Fabricando fit faber, age quod agis: “Practice makes perfect” or, more literally, “It is by making that you become a maker, whatever it is that you do.” |
| 221 | “ Conjugal … Love!”: This is the Tableau de l’amour conjugal by Nicolas Venette (1632–98), a professor of anatomy and surgery at La Rochelle. Published in 1686, it was considered the first study of human sexuality in the West and was reprinted numerous times, though Flaubert, in a letter to Louise Colet, called it “an inept production.” |
| 226 | power of attorney: A legal document authorizing one to act as the attorney or agent of the one granting it—that is, if Charles gives Emma the power of attorney, she will be able to act for him, legally and financially. |
| 228 | “One evening—dost thou recall?—we were sailing … ” : The opening of the fourth verse of a poem called “Le Lac” by Lamartine (see note to p. 33) published in his Méditations poétiques in 1820. The poem is addressed to the lake and evokes the poet’s absent love. |
| 229 | the briefs: A brief is a concise statement of a client’s case made out for the instruction of counsel in a trial at law. |
| 230 | Mère Rolet came: The lovers were corresponding by way of Mère Rolet—thus her frequent appearances at the house. |
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