LA COMTESSE

De plaider.

Chicanneau

Certes, le trait est noir.

Racine, Plaideurs, i. 7.

P. 76 1. 2399. cui bono f * in whose interest ? ' Commonly ndsused in English as though meaning ' of what use ? ' :

L. Cassius ille, quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum judicem putabat, identidem in causis quaerere solebat, ' Cui bono fuisset ? '

CiC. Pro Sex. Pose. A m. 30.

P. 76 1. 2406. Lea envieux mourront ... : Madame Pemelle's adaptation of an old French proverb :

La vertu dans le monde est toujours poursuivie ; Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l'en vie.

Molière, Tartufe, v. 3.

P. 76 1. 2425. Xënophon : the translation made at Luceme (see Bibliography, p. 224).

P. 77 L 2430. Labey: Courier's old mathematical tutor (see Introd. p. xii).

P. 77 1. 2438. l'AImanach royal : a kind of * Whitaker.'

P. 77 1. 2439. Panthéon : building occupying the site of the church of Ste. Geneviève, established under the First Republic as place of burial for national heroes. It would appear fîrom Courier that it was used, at the time, also as an adjunct of the neighbouring Sorbonne.

P. 77 1. 2444. deux ministres : the Minister of the Interior, stirred up by the Italians, had çaused the remaining copies of Courier's translation to be seized at Florence, and deliberated taking measures against the author himself. The affair of the tache (Vettcre also drew upon Courier the attention of the Minister of War, who had lost sight of him

since bis désertion after Wagram. On Sept 5 Courier had addressed to this Minister, General Gassendi, a letter explaining his reasons for regarding himself as no longer a member of the army and giving a very falsified account of his doings in Austria. This letter ends with the following cool paragraph : ** Depuis ce temps, mon général, je parcours la Suisse et l'Italie. Maintenant je suis sur le point de passer à Corfou, pour me rendre de là, si rien ne s'y oppose, aux îles de l'Archipel; et, après avoir vu l'Egypte et la Syrie, retourner à Paris par Constantinople et Vienne."

P. 77 L 2452. Lobau : an island in the Danube (see Note on p. 58

P. 78 1, 2477. mamamouchtx the title conferred on Monsieur Jourdain by the son of the ** Grand Turk." The word was coined by Molière, perhaps from an Arabie phrase meaning ' good-for-nothing ' :

Il vient vous demander votre fille en mariage ; et, pour avoir un beaupère qui soit digne de lui, il veut vous faire mamamauchi, qui est une certaine grande dignité de son pays. — Bourgeois gentilhomme, iv. 5.

P. 78 1. 2483. heureux sont ... : as misquoted by Courier the verse does not scan :

Trop heureux les mortels inconnus à leur maître.

Voltaire, Orpheline de la Chine^ i. 3.

P. 78 1. 2484. hoc: 'assured.' From a game of cards called hoc» The phrase is common in seventeenth-century comic writers :

Mon congé cent fois me fût-il hoc, La poule ne doit pas chanter devant le coq.

Molière, Femmes savantes, v. 3.

Eh ! que n'es-tu mouton ! car tu me serais hoc.

La Fontaine, Fables, v. 7.

P. 79 1. 2495. cinquante-deux : the Greek text was published by Courier at Rome, and copies were sent by him to his friends and other European Hellenists. The British Muséum possesses two of thèse présentation copies, formerly the property of Dr. Charles Burney and the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville respectively. See Bibliography, p. 224.

P. 79 L 2499. Boequillon : a Parisian doctor who had Courier for a patient (1799) ^^^ introduced him to the Claviers. Bosquillon (1744- 1816), who was also a distinguished Greek scholar, probably made Courier acquainted with other eminent scholars (Boissonnade, Akerblad, d'Ansse de Villoison, Sainte-Croix), with whom the latter corresponded later on.

P. 79 L 2508. Boissonnade: distinguished Hellenist and critic

(1774-1857). He had ¥rritten in the Journal de V Empire a very eulogistic accountof Courier's translation, without, howeYer, mentioning the tache d*encre. This led to his being cautioned by the authorities, so minute was the supervision of personal liberty under Napoléon.

P. 80 1. 2525. ses mains redoutables i from Jezebel's warning to Athaliah :

Tremblez, m'a-t-elle dit, fille digne de moi. Le cruel Dieu des Juifs l'emporte aussi sur toi. Je te plains de tomber dans ses mains redoutables, Ma fille.

Racine, Athalie, ii. 5.

P. Sol. 2538. Rousseau : Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) sufiered during the latter part of his life from acute persécution mania.

P. 80 1. 2554. cent dix sous le cent : see Molière, Médecin mcUgré lui, i. 6.

P. 81 1. 2560. haro ; c£ p. 24 L 764.

P. 81 1. 2562. rien que la mort ... : from Les animaux malades de la peste:

Rien que la mort n'était capable D'expier son forfait. On le lui fit bien voir.

La Fontaine, Fables, vii. i.

P. 81 1. 2564. princesse de Salm-Dyck: Mlle, de Théis (1767- 1845), poetess and noyelist, married Pipelet de Leury, and, having dlYorced him, became the wife of the Prince of Salm-Dyck, a noble of Alsace. She was known in her day as *' la muse de la raison/' and "le Boileau des femmes."

P. 81 1. 2578. votre ch&teau : the castle of Salm is near Schirmeck (Vosges).

P. 81 1. 2582. Doutez- vous ... : adapted from Racine :

Doutez-vous que l'Euxin ne me porte en deux jours Aux lieux où le Danube y vient finir son cours ?

Mithridate, iii. i.

P. 82 1. 2589. la princesse de Clèves : title of a novel (1678) by Mme. de La Fayette, which is regarded as the earliest French novel in the now accepted sensé, as distinguished from romance and burlesque.

P. 82 1. 2590. la Dame des Belles Ck>usines : from the médiéval romance, Histoire et plaisante chronique du petit Jehan de Saintré et de la jeune dame des Belles-Cousines (1456), by Antoine de La Salle.

P. 82 1. 2594. Anio : a tributary of the Tiber.

P. 82 1. 2601. J*ai passé un hiver: Courier's first expérience of military life (see Introd. p. xv).

NOTES aoi

p. 83 1. 2622. jouer à la fossette :

Il n'y a pas trois semaines encore qu'un jeune enfant de douze ans tomba du haut du clocher en bas, et se brisa sur le pavé la tête, les bras et les jambes. On n'y eut pas plus tôt amené notre homme, qu'il le frotta par tout le corps d'un certain onguent qu'il sait faire ; et l'enfant aussitôt se leva sur ses pieds, et courut jouer à la fossette. — Molière, Médecin maigri luit i. 5.

P. 83 1. 2630. à tout le moins ... :

Tous tes péchés confesseras, A tout le moins une fois l'an.

Commandements de VÉglise^ 3.

P. 83 1. 2632. votre ëloffe de Lalande : apparently the astronomer Lalande (f 1807). The princess was famous for her prose éloges of departed celebrities.

P. 83 1. 2647. flbctum : the Lettre à Monsieur Renouard,

P. 84 1. 266a Sylvestre de Sacy : the greatest French Orientalist of his time (i 758-1 838), and a leading figure among French savants. Courier*s doubts as to his correspondent's approval were well founded, for the latter at once " dropped " him, and later on opposed his élection to the Academy (see p. 109 1. 335) : ** M. de Sacy ne peut me pardonner, et je vois bien, quoi qu'il en dise, que ma justification n'est à ses yeux qu'un crime de plus " {Letter to Bosquillon^ Nov. 10, 1810).

P. 85 L 2698. un désir inné de visiter la Orèce : this favourite project, though often alluded to, was never carried out, the resuit of Courier's temperamental irrésolution and procrastination.

P. 85 1. 2707. Frascati : near Rome.

P. 85 1. 2709. Fauris de Saint- Vincent : properly Saint- Vincens, a distinguished Provençal archaeologist (1750-1819).

P. 86 1. 2719. vos : Boissonnade signed thus his articles in the Journal de V Empire.

P. 86 1. 2731. les Jean-Jacques, Diderot, d'Alembert: Jean- Jacques Rousseau, sentimental philosopher and novelist (see Note on p. 80 1. 2538). Diderot ( 1 7 1 3- 1 784), versatile polygraph and editor of the Encyclopédie, D' Alembert (171 7-1 783), philosopher and mathematician, and Diderot's collaborator in the Encyclopédie^ for which he wrote the famous Discours préliminaire, It is characteristic of Courier that, in expressing his contempt for the eighteenth century, he conveniently forgets Voltaire, his own literary ancestor :

M. Courier est peut-être l'homme de France qui, depuis Voltaire, a écrit le pamphlet avec le plus de piquant, de malignité, et surtout avec une verve de plaisanterie qui ne permet jamais à son lecteur de ne pas pouffer de rire aux dépens du pauvre diable qu'il a entrepris de ridiculiser. — Stendhal, April 1825.

P. 86 L 2732. sous le rapport : on this phrase, now so common, Littré remarks : ** Sous le rapport est une loculion qui est devenue très commune. Elle est fort lourde et n'est pas exacte en soi. Une chose est en rapport avec une autre, est dans un certain rapport, a rapport avec ; mais elle n'est pas sous un rapport ; si elle était sous un rapport ou sur un rapport, elle serait en dehors du rapport ; et au fond, en s'en servant, on s'exprime inexactement. Elle ne paraît donc pas bonne à employer; et ceux qui écrivent avec pureté doivent l'éviter. P.-L. Courier la blâmait. . . . Cette locution est pourtant antérieure au XVIII* siècle. Bourdaloue est le plus ancien auteur oii nous l'ayons trouvée."

P. 861. 2737. Ameilhon: archaeologist and historian( 1730-18 11). His death created a vacancy in the Institut, but Boissonnade was not elected till 18 13, as successor to Larcher.

P. 86 1. 2742. Millin: archaeologist (1759-1818), and one of the founders of the Magasin encyclopédique ^ in which he praised highly Courier's translation of LonguSy accepting his explanation as to^ the accidentai origin of the pâté,

P. 87 1. 2770. baciamano, * kiss-hand.'

P. 87 1. 2772. Sainte Ampoiile : the holy vessel containing the oil used in consecrating the kings of France, traditionally brought to Saint-Rémi by a dove for the coronation of Clovis at Reims. It really did not exist at this time, having been ceremonially broken in 1793 by a Revolutionary poseur.

rëpëe de Oharlemaerne : a sword claiming to be Charlemagne's Joyeuse was preserved in his tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle until its appropriation by Napoléon.

P. 89 1. I. The circumstances under which this pamphlet was written are sufficiently, if one-sidedly, indicated in the text. François Fouquet in real life was a brutal ruffian, who had leamt under the Republic that priests could be insulted and maltreated with impunity. The royalist and ecclesiastical reaction after the fall of Napoléon was intense and indiscreet. See Desternes et Galland, ' La Réaction royaliste en Touraine, 1816/ in La /^évolution française Qan. 14, 1903) and * La Réaction cléricale en Touraine, 1814-1824 ' [jib, April 14, 1903). The places mentioned in the pamphlet are ail in the department of Indre-et-Loire, almost corresponding to the old province of Touraine.

P. 89 1. 4. Je suis Touransreau ; J'habite Lujaies : this statement is not strictly true. Although Courier had property in Touraine and went to Luynes on business, he was still living in Paris.

P. 89 1. 15. la saint-Martin : this is in rural France, and especially in Touraine, the time of the great hiring fair, by which a peasant would naturally date events.

P. 91 1. 67. le livre défendu : Chateaubriand's brochure De la monarchie selon la charte (Paris, 18 16), which was seized by the police.

P. 92 1. 96. PaIais-Bo3ral : originally built (1629) for Richelieu and called the Pâlots- Cardinal, It now consists of a quadrangle of shops.

P. 92 1. 106. le père Canaye : see footnote. Saint-Évremond (1613-1703) was the most original French critic of the seventeenth century and the most caustic of wits. Exiled in 1661, he spent the rest of his life in London, where he was a prominent figure in the literary group which frequented Will's coffee-house, and where his coUected works were first published (1705). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The cowuerscUion hère alluded to is his most famous work (1665). It is given by the author as having taken place in 1654 at Péronne, where Hocquincourt was govemor. Sainte-Beuve has called it ' la dix-neuvième Provinciale,' as continuing in style and tone PascaVs great attack on the Jesuits :

Point de raison ; je ne saurais que vous dire ; je ne sais POURQUOI ! Les beaux mots ! Ils devraient être écrits en lettres d'or. Ce n'est pas que j'y voie plus de raison ; au contraire, moins QUE jamais. En vérité, cela est divin, pour ceux qui ont le goût des choses du ciel Point de raison !

P. 96 1. 239. depuis vinfirt-cinq ans : i,e» dating from the German invasion of 1792, which was intended to crush the Republic and reestablish monarchy.

P. 96 1. 247. les désastres de Lyon : Lyon, with several other towns of the south, went royalist after the exécution of Louis XVI. (1793). The movement was bloodily repressed, after nlne weeks résistance, by Collot d'Herbois, Couthon, and Fouché.

les horreiirs de la Vendée: the peasants of La Vendée, of Brittany and Maine, rose in insurrection in March 1793, met with many successes against the Republican troops, and were not finally subdued till 1795. See Balzac's Chouans and Hugo's Quatre-vingttreize.

P. 96 L 249. firrand-prétre de la raison: Robespierre (1758-94) was chiefly responsible for the Reign of Terror, which ended with his death on the guillotine after the 9 thermidor. The worship of la Raison^ as a substitute for Christianity, was inaugurated at Paris on the 20 brumaire, Year II of the Republic (Nov. 10, 1793). . ce ffénie : Napoléon Bonaparte.

P. 97 1. 265. la ftunée d'un camp : the history of the whole

passage is inexact. One of the greatest battles in the history of the world, the defeat of the Moors by Charles Martel (732), was fought between Tours and Poitiers.

P. 97 1. 279. Vive le Roi t vive la Lifirue : the Catholic League, formed to combat the French Protestants in the sixteenth century, usurped the royal power of Henry III. and fought against Henry IV. (Henry of Navarre). The movement was inspired chiefly by the Guises and Spain :

Plusieurs se sont trouvés qui, d'écharpe changeants, Aux dangers, ainsi qu'elle [la chauve-souris], ont souvent fait la figue. Le sage dit, selon les gens, Vive le roi ! vive la ligue I

La Fontaine, Fables, ii. 4 (La Chauve-souris et les deux belettes).