Madame Bovary (57 page)

Read Madame Bovary Online

Authors: Gustave Flaubert trans Lydia Davis

BOOK: Madame Bovary
5.61Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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.

Other books

All Work and No Play by Coleen Kwan
Beggar Bride by Gillian White
Journey into Violence by William W. Johnstone
Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams
Red Ridge Pack 1 Pack of Lies by Sara Dailey, Staci Weber
Ridin' Red by Nikki Prince