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Authors: Gustave Flaubert trans Lydia Davis

Madame Bovary (58 page)

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230
staves:
A staff in music is a set of five horizontal lines and the four spaces between them on which the notes to be played are marked; there are two staves in a piece of piano music—generally, the right hand plays the higher notes (on the upper staff) and the left hand the lower.
231
the Miséricorde:
A convent school in Rouen.
235
bathing odalisque:
The reference is to a series of paintings by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780–1867). The odalisque, a female slave or concubine in a harem, was a popular subject of paintings at this time and earlier.
235
the
pale beauty of Barcelona:
The reference is most likely to a poem by Alfred de Musset (1810–57) titled “L’Andalouse,” which appeared in his first collection,
Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie
(Tales of Spain and Italy, 1829).
236
Some of them would get out:
In other words, they would walk up the hill in order to lighten the load for the horse.
236
beaver hat:
A hat made of beaver skin or a fabric imitation.
237
Oft in the warmth
 …
:
Flaubert evidently noted on his manuscript page that he had taken the blind man’s song from Nicholas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne (1734–1806), a novelist and dramatist who wrote prolifically about Paris low-life, including particularly its women, as well as a number of tracts on social reform.
241
hectares:
Metric units for measuring area, each equal to about two and a half acres.
247
monacos:
Slang for money, cash (literally, the coin of Monaco).
247
dazzle … the bourgeoisie:
With the ellipsis in his phrase,
éblouir … les bourgeois
, Flaubert may be alluding to the common expression
épater les bourgeois
(“shock the conventionally minded”).
247
footmuff:
An open box or bag lined with fur, for keeping the feet warm.
248
Pommard:
A Côte de Beaune wine from Burgundy in eastern France.
249
garus:
An elixir composed of cinnamon, saffron, nutmeg, et cetera, used as an aid to digestion.
249
Cujas and Bartole:
Jacques Cujas was a sixteenth-century French lawyer; Bartolo da Sassoferrato was a fourteenth-century Italian jurist.
252
protest of nonpayment:
A sworn statement in writing that payment of a promissory note or a bill has not been received.
254
ells:
An ell was a unit of length, mainly for cloth, equal to about forty-five inches.
254
antimacassars:
An antimacassar (from “anti-” plus “Macassar,” a brand of hair oil) was a cover to protect the back or arms of a piece of furniture.
256
nanny:
Flaubert describes Félicité variously as “servant,” “maid,” “cook,” “nanny”—she functioned as all of these.
258
Mid-Lent Day:
A day halfway through Lent, the period of fasting and penitence in the Roman Catholic religion; in some places and at some times, it was marked by festivities.
265
cheminots:
Usually spelled
chemineaux
, the name, in Rouen, for little unleavened loaves that were eaten during Lent. Originally Flaubert planned to make a love of this bread Homais’s “one human weakness,” then transferred the weakness to his wife.
265
century of the Crusades:
The Crusades were a series of wars, most of them in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, undertaken by European Christians to recover the Holy Land (historic Palestine) from the Muslims.
265
hippocras:
A sweet wine infused with cinnamon and cloves or other spices, popular in medieval Europe.
266
“cornea” … “sclerotic,” “facies”:
The
cornea
is the transparent part of the eyeball that covers the iris and pupil and allows light into the interior;
sclerotic
means affected with sclerosis, or hardening of certain tissues of the body; a
facies
is a facial appearance and expression characteristic of a specific medical condition.
266
liards:
A liard was a coin made of copper and worth one-fourth of a sou.
266
antiphlogistic salve:
An ointment that counteracts inflammation.
268
Steuben’s
Esmeralda
and Schopin’s
Potiphar:
Reproductions of popular paintings of the day. The German painter Charles Auguste Guillaume Steuben, or Karl August von Steuben (1788–1856), did more than one painting in which the Gypsy Esmeralda appears, at least one of them including her pet goat Djali; she was a character in Victor Hugo’s novel
Notre-Dame de Paris
(1831;
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
). Henri-Frédéric Schopin (1804–80) was a German-born, naturalized French painter of historical and biblical subjects; it is not clear which painting of his this is.
272
at Bautzen and at Lützen:
Victories of Napoléon I in 1813 over the Russians and the Prussians.
272
the French campaign:
Lasting from January to April 1814, this was Napoléon I’s doomed attempt to resist the invasions of France by allied forces and to keep his throne.
272
Legion of Honor:
A national hierarchical order created by Napoléon I in 1802 as recompense for civil and military service.
277
damascened:
Ornamented with inlaid work using precious metals.
277
display of arms:
A wall ornament consisting of weapons arranged in a pattern.
277
Boulle clock:
A clock featuring inlaid decoration of tortoiseshell, yellow metal, and white metal, named after André Charles Boulle, a cabinetmaker who died in 1732.
283
my little shoe:
The custom was for a child to set out one of her shoes the night before New Year’s Day or Mid-Lent Day; it would contain one or more small gifts or coins in the morning.
284
theriaca:
A mixture of many animal, plant, and mineral ingredients and honey once thought to be an antidote to poison.
284
berlin:
A fast, light, fashionable covered carriage with two interior seats, four wheels, and a separate hooded rear seat.
284
Bichat:
Marie François Xavier Bichat (1771–1802), French anatomist and physiologist. He studied and classified tissues and wrote several books on anatomy. His work was the basis for modern histology, the branch of anatomy that deals with the microscopic structure of plant and animal tissues.
286
siccity … pharynx … epigastrium … superpurgation:
Again, Homais is using some specialized medical vocabulary;
siccity
is dryness; the
pharynx
is the part of the alimentary canal between the cavity of the mouth and the esophagus; the
epigastrium
is the part of the abdomen above and in front of the stomach;
superpurgation
is extreme purging—as would result from the use of an emetic.
286
Amphitryon:
The name is that of a king in Greek mythology in whose absence a banquet was provided by the god Zeus, assuming his form and deceiving the guests as well as Amphitryon’s wife, Alcmene. The story has been retold in many different dramatic works. In the version offered by Molière in his play of the same name, when Amphitryon returns home in the midst of the banquet and challenges the assembled banqueters to decide which of them, he or Zeus, is the true host, their answer is “Le véritable Amphitryon est l’Amphitryon où l’on dine” (“The true Amphitryon is the one who provides the feast”). “Amphitryon” has since come to be synonymous with “generous host.”
287
cantharides, the upas tree, the manchineel, the viper:
Cantharides
was a preparation of dried beetles (such as Spanish flies) used as a counterirritant;
the upas tree
is an Asiatic and East Indian tree with a latex that contains poisonous substances used as arrow poison; for
manchineel
, see note to p. 178; a
viper
is a venomous snake.
287
Cadet de Gassicourt:
Charles-Louis Cadet de Gassicourt (1769–1821), an illegitimate son of Louis XV and eventually chief pharmacist to Napoléon I (1809), published numerous works on the sciences and other subjects.
287
torrefied it himself, triturated it himself, and compounded it himself:
Again, Homais is using technical vocabulary, in this case pharmaceutical—he has roasted, ground, and mixed the coffee.
287
Saccharum:
Latin for “sugar”—Homais is once again parading his (superficial) learning.
287
holy oil:
Olive oil blessed by a bishop for use in a Roman Catholic sacrament, in this case extreme unction, a ritual in which the priest anoints a critically ill person and prays for his or her recovery and salvation.
287
soutane:
An ankle-length robe with close-fitting sleeves and buttons down the front worn by Roman Catholic secular clergy.
288
stole:
A long, narrow band worn around the neck by bishops and priests.
288
Misereatur
 …
Indulgentiam:
Two short prayers normally following confession and preceding extreme unction, in the Roman Catholic rite. The
Misereatur
consists of the following: “May the Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins, and bring you to everlasting life.” The
Indulgentiam
consists of the following: “May the Almighty and Merciful Lord grant us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins.”
288
began the unctions:
During the anointing, the priest traditionally says the following as he anoints certain specified parts of the body: “Through this Holy Unction, and through the great goodness of His mercy, may God pardon thee whatever sins thou hast committed by evil use of (sight, hearing, smell, taste and speech, touch, and ability to walk).” Traditionally the priest anoints six places; in this scene Flaubert specifies five, for some reason omitting the ears (and with them the sense of hearing).
289
passing bell:
The church bell that is tolled to announce a death.
292
Cover her entirely with a large piece of green velvet:
Although the original could mean that the cloth should cover the outermost coffin, Flaubert’s earlier drafts make it clear that the cloth was to be placed directly over her body inside the oak coffin.
292
rationalist:
The French term is
philosophe.
The
philosophes
held that human reason ought to be the supreme guide in human affairs, and they were therefore skeptical of religious and political authority. As usual, Flaubert is not entirely sincere in dubbing Homais a
philosophe:
it is Homais who styles himself a rationalist, not Flaubert who respects him as such.
294
Voltaire … d’Holbach … the
Encyclopedia:
For Voltaire, see note to p. 68. Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (1723–89), a French philosopher, was a proponent of naturalistic and materialistic views and vigorously opposed Christianity. The twenty-eight-volume
Encyclopedia
, or
Methodical Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades
, published between 1751 and 1789, was mainly the work of Denis Diderot, the French philosopher, novelist, and dramatist. It was one of the great literary works of the eighteenth century, with articles contributed by a group known as the Encyclopedists, or
philosophes
(which included Voltaire); its spirit of rational inquiry led it to oppose religious authority, superstition, and the like.
294
Letters of Some Portuguese Jews
 …
Proof of Christianity
, by the former magistrate Nicholas:
The first is the truncated title of
Letters of Some Portuguese, German, and Polish Jews to Monsieur Voltaire
(1772), a rebuttal to Voltaire’s skepticism by the prominent Christian apologist Abbé Antoine Guénée (1717–1803). The second is apparently not by Nicholas but actually by one M. de Genoude (1792–1849).
294
catalepsy:
A condition characterized by the persistence of postures or facial expressions and the lack of response to external stimuli.
294
magnetism:
Perhaps a reference to the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer’s (1734–1815) theories concerning the curative powers of magnetic force fields, especially popular for a time in Paris in the late eighteenth century.
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