The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics eBook)

1. eventually revert to her son: It was not unheard of for girls to be put into convents in order to concentrate the family wealth; above all, this discussion illustrates how few options a girl in Valentine’s position could have, despite her apparent wealth and privilege, and how powerless she is to decide her future. It also throws a new light on the behaviour of Eugénie Danglars, the unfeminine counterpart to Valentine (the latter being presented as the ideal, submissive, caring, modest, timid, selfless young woman).

  LX

  THE TELEGRAPH

  1. the Montagne: The name given to the radical, Jacobin group in the revolutionary Convention.

  2. A telegraph: The telegraph, introduced in 1793 and using a form of semaphore, was considered one of the great inventions of the age; by the 1840s there were over 3,000 miles of communication lines, all belonging to the War Department. It was superseded in 1845 by the electric telegraph, using Morse Code.

  3. : Tele graphein; ‘distance writing’. Montalivet was Minister of the Interior from 1837 to 1839, succeeded by Duchâtel.

  LXI

  HOW TO RESCUE A GARDENER FROM DORMICE WHO ARE EATING HIS PEACHES

  1. Delacroix: See note 1 to Chapter XLI.

  LXII

  GHOSTS

  1. like Vatel at Chantilly: Vatel was chef to the Prince de Condé, and committed suicide in 1671 because, one fast day when the prince was playing host to the king, the fish for dinner failed to arrive.

  LXIII

  DINNER

  1. cupitor impossibilium: ‘One who desires the impossible’. In fact, what Tacitus says of Nero (Annals, XV, 42) is cupitor incredibilium – ‘one who desires the incredible’.

  2. the Marquise de Ganges… Desdemona: The Marquise de Ganges was assassinated in 1667 by her two brothers-in-law; another of Dumas’ Crimes célèbres. Desdemona was strangled by Othello (Othello, V, 2).

  3. Ugolino’s tower: For Ugolino, see Chapter XV, note 2. The poet Torquato Tasso spent seven years in prison, after a bout of madness. Francesca da Rimini married Giovanni Malatesta, but fell in love with her husband’s younger brother, Paolo. Giovanni ran them through with a single thrust of his sword. They figure among those tossed on the winds of passion in a celebrated passage in Dante’s Inferno (Canto V).

  4. Lucina: Goddess of childbirth.

  LXIV

  THE BEGGAR

  1. nil admirari: ‘Not to be impressed by anything’. See Horace, Epistles, I, 6.

  2. Bossuet: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), an eminent orator and theologian.

  3. Number one hundred and six: In Chapter LXXXII, however, Caderousse says that his number was 58 and Andrea’s 59.

  LXV

  A DOMESTIC SCENE

  1. like Nathan in Athalie: In Racine’s tragedy (III, 5), the character shows his inner turmoil by his inability to find the way out. Debray’s actions, bumping into the wall, are not in Racine’s text and must reflect a memory of the play in performance.

  2. Don Carlos: See note 2 to Chapter XXXIX.

  LXVI

  MARRIAGE PLANS

  1. fat cows… lean cows: See Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41.

  2. Jupiter… mixing species: The Roman god ‘became a Proteus to gratify his passions. He introduced himself to Danae in a shower of gold, he corrupted Antiope in the form of a satyr and Leda in the form of a swan. He became a bull to seduce Europa, and he enjoyed the company of Aegina in the form of a flame of fire. He assumed the habit of Diana to corrupt Callisto, and became Amphitryon to gain the affections of Alcmena…’ (Lemprière, Classical Dictionary).

  LXVIII

  A SUMMER BALL

  1. Queen Mab… Titania: See Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet (I, 4).

  LXIX

  INFORMATION

  1. Homer… Belisarius: The engravings of works by Gérard and Morel both in fact represent the Byzantine general, Belisarius.

  2. Battle of Navarino… King Otto: The Greek war of independence against the Turks began in 1821. It was supported by Britain, France and Russia, who defeated the Egyptian and Turkish fleets at the Battle of Navarino (1827). In 1832, Frederick of Bavaria was appointed King of Greece, under the name Otto I. He ruled until 1862.

  LXX

  THE BALL

  1. the cachucha: An Andalusian dance, very popular in the early part of the nineteenth century. The scene in which the two leading female characters dance the cachucha, in Coralli and Burat de Gurgy’s ballet Le Diable boiteux (1836), had been made famous by Fanny Elssler’s performance.

  2. the Institut: Set up in 1795 to combine the functions of the two major existing learned societies, the Académie Française and the Académie des Inscriptions. In 1803, the two académies were reinstated, together with the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, under the umbrella of the Institut.

  3. to design them a coat: Morcerf is quite right about the republican period: it did like dressing up. In fact, it was not the painter David but the more humble embroiderer Picot who designed the Academician’s dress, a frock-coat heavily embroidered in gold.

  4. July Monarchy: See note 1 to Chapter XLVIII.

  5. Partons pour la Syrie: A song, with music by Philippe Droult and words variously attributed to Queen Hortense and to Count Alexandre de Laborde, which became a Bonapartist anthem.

  LXXII

  MADAME DE SAINT-MÉRAN

  1. Hamlet: In Shakespeare’s play, Act I, Scene 2.

  2. Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin: See note 3 to Chapter XV.

  LXXIII

  THE PROMISE

  1. Don Juan: At the end of the story (eg. in Molière’s play, Don Juan, Act V, Scene 5) the statue of the Commander comes to lead Don Juan down to hell.

  2. I have no pretensions to be Manfred or Antony: See note 6 and note 4 to Chapter XXXVI.

  LXXIV

  THE VILLEFORT FAMILY VAULT

  1. King Louis XVIII and King Charles X: The two kings who reigned during the Restoration, from 1815 to 1830. See note 1 to Chapter VI.

  2. Tenacem propositi virum: ‘A man who is firm in his intentions’; Horace, Odes, III, 3, line 1. Already quoted (see note 11 to Chapter X).

  3. Conventionnel: A member of the revolutionary Convention.

  4. Marengo… Austerlitz: Scenes of Napoleon’s great victories in 1800 and 1805.

  5. eo rus: ‘I am going to the country.’ No letter of Voltaire’s using this phrase has been identified, but Schopp, in his edition of the novel, points to an anecdote in Voltaire’s Le Siècle de Louis XIV in which Voltaire recalls having asked the Abbé de Saint-Pierre how he considered his impending death, to which the abbé replied: ‘Like a journey to the country.’

  LXXVI

  THE PROGRESS OF THE YOUNGER CAVALCANTI

  1. Sappho: Greek poet of the sixth century BC, born on Lesbos, whose name has long been associated with female homosexuality: ‘Her tender passions were so violent, that some have represented her attachment with three of her female companions, Telesiphe, Atthis and Megara, as criminal… The poetess has been censured for writing with that licentiousness and freedom which so much disgraced her character as a woman’ (Lemprière, Classical Dictionary). Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, noted for her chastity: her breastplate would ward off tender looks and protect against desire. The references confirm the interlinked notions of Eugénie’s lesbianism and her ‘masculine’ independence.

  2. Antonia in the Violon de Crémone: A tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Antonia has a sublimely beautiful voice, but is forbidden to sing by her doctor, who says that it will kill her. She takes up the violin instead. One night, her father dreams that he hears the sound of his daughter’s voice, singing to the violin. The next morning, he finds her dead.

  3. three or four days: According to Chapter LXXII, M. de Saint-Méran had covered only 6 leagues (about 25 kilometres); ‘three or four hours’ seems more plausible.

  4. as Claudius says to Hamlet: See Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2.

  5. Thalberg: Sigismund Thalberg (18
12–71), pianist, made his Paris début in 1835.

  LXXVII

  HAYDÉE

  1. Haydée… Lord Byron: See Byron’s Don Juan, Canto II.

  2. Denys the Tyrant: Denys the Younger, fourth-century tyrant of Syracuse, who was said to have become a teacher after being expelled from the city in 343 BC.

  3. Ali Tebelin: See note 3 to Chapter XXVII.

  4. a delightful picture: A direct reference to the similarity of the scene evoked by Dumas and paintings of Oriental subjects.

  5. ‘He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord’: Dumas notes the origin of this in Proverbs 19.

  6. hegumenos: The bursar.

  7. cangiar: A scimitar, or curved sword.

  8. pythoness: A female soothsayer or prophetess.

  9. Palicares: Greek soldiers during the War of Independence (modern Greek: palikaris, ‘brave’).

  10. seraskier Kurchid: A seraskier is a commander-in-chief under the Turks. Kurchid gave Ali Tebelin his assurance that, if he surrendered, his life would be spared, but broke his word.

  11. firman: An edict of the sultan.

  LXXVIII

  A CORRESPONDENT WRITES FROM JANINA

  1. Lucy of Lammermoor: A reference to Walter Scott’s novel, The Bride of Lammermoor (Chapter XXXIII).

  LXXIX

  LEMONADE

  1. false angostura or St Ignatius’ nut: The Indian tree Strychnos nuxvomica, the seeds of which contain strychnine and other poisons.

  LXXX

  THE ACCUSATION

  1. Locusta… Agrippina: Locusta was employed by Nero to poison Britannicus, then was executed for trying to poison Nero himself. Agrippina, Nero’s mother, poisoned her husband, the emperor Claudius, then, ‘after many cruelties and much licentiousness’ (Lemprière, Classical Dictionary) was assassinated by her son. Brunhaut and Fredegonde were rival Frankish queens in the sixth century. Fredegonde seems to have had a particularly murderous career: her rivalry with Brunhaut began when she had Brunhaut’s husband done to death.

  2. like Polonius in Shakespeare: Killed accidentally while hiding behind the arras. See Hamlet, Act III, Scene 4.

  LXXXI

  THE RETIRED BAKER’S ROOM

  1. ‘Confiteor’: ‘I confess’: the start of a prayer in the Latin mass.

  LXXXII

  BREAKING AND ENTERING

  1. Fiesco: A reference to Schiller’s play, Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Gena, which Dumas had adapted as Fiesque de Lavagna, a five-act historical drama turned down by the Comédie-Française in 1828.

  2. the three blows: In French theatres, before the curtain goes up, the stage manager demands the audience’s attention by knocking three times on the floor with a rod. The phrase, frapper les trois coups (here applied to the striking of the clock), indicates the hush before the action starts.

  3. the antique knife-grinder: A marble statue which Dumas saw in Florence and which intrigued him because the pose of the figure suggests that he is preoccupied with something other than grinding his knife.

  4. Louis XVI: Guillotined in January 1793.

  LXXXV

  THE JOURNEY

  1. Augustus… master of the universe: A reference to Corneille’s play, Cinna (Act V, Scene 3).

  2. britzka: A light horse-drawn carriage with a covered rear seat.

  3. François I… Shakespeare: François I wrote a couplet on the fickleness of women. Othello says of Desdemona: ‘She was false as water’ (Act V, Scene 2); and Hamlet exclaims: ‘Frailty, thy name is woman!’ (Act I, Scene 2).

  LXXXVI

  JUDGEMENT IS PASSED

  1. the glorious Egyptian campaign: One of Napoleon’s earliest successes was the conquest of Egypt in 1798 (though it was abandoned after Nelson’s victory over the French fleet at Aboukir).

  2. Virgil… goddess: ‘Her walk revealed a true goddess…’; Virgil, Aeneid, Book I, lines 404–5.

  LXXXVIII

  THE INSULT

  1. Duprez… O, Mathilde, idole de mon âme: Gilbert Duprez, tenor, whom Dumas had met in Naples in 1835. The phrase is sung by Melchthal in Rossini’s opera William Tell (Act I, Scene 5).

  2. Lara… Manfred… Lord Ruthwen: See note 4 to Chapter XXXIV and note 6 to Chapter XXXVI.

  LXXXIX

  NIGHT

  1. ‘Suivez-moi!’: In William Tell, Act II, Scene 2.

  XC

  THE ENCOUNTER

  1. Brutus… Philippi: ‘Plutarch mentions that Caesar’s ghost made its appearance to Brutus in his tent and told him that he would meet him at Philippi’ (Lemprière, Classical Dictionary). Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Antony and Octavian at Philippi in 42 BC.

  XCI

  MOTHER AND SON

  1. Feuchères… Barye: The Romantic sculptor Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807–52) and the animal specialist Antoine-Louis Barye (1796–1875).

  XCIV

  A CONFESSION

  1. holy Vehme or francs-juges: The vehme was a church court in medieval Germany which, like the courts of the francs-juges, held its sessions in secret and gave account to no one for its judgements. The reference to Sterne seems to refer to Yorick’s sermon in Tristram Shandy, Book II, Chapter 17.

  2. Atreides: Members of the accursed family of Atreus in Greek myth.

  XCV

  FATHER AND DAUGHTER

  1. Phaedrus… Bias: The maxim is found in Plato’s Philebus and is sometimes attributed to Solon, rather than to the Latin translator of Aesop’s Fables. Bias was one of the seven wise men of Greece.

  2. at the Porte Saint-Martin or the Gaîté: The sites of popular theatres showing the kind of melodrama in which fathers would behave in this way.

  3. Pasta, Malibran or Grisi: Famous opera singers.

  4. Law… Mississippi: John Law (1671–1729) was a Scotsman who played an important role in French finances in the early eighteenth century, firstly as controller of finances, then as the creator of the Compagnie d’Occident which for a long time had a monopoly on trade with North America. His plans to raise money to colonize Louisiana led to the collapse of the scheme and caused many bankruptcies.

  5. Desdemona: From Rossini’s Otello (1816).

  XCVI

  THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

  1. Dorante… Valère… Alceste… Théâtre Français: Lovers in plays by Molière (Le Misanthrope, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Tartuffe). The Théâtre Français is another name for the Comédie-Française, the leading French classical theatre, which originated in Molière’s own company.

  2. Boileau: Nicolas Boileau (1636–1711), a literary critic who offered the most consistent formulation of the theory underpinning French literary classicism.

  3. quaerens quem devoret: The Devil, ‘seeking whom he may devour’ (I Peter 5:8).

  XCVII

  THE ROAD FOR BELGIUM

  1. Hercules… Omphale: Omphale, Queen of Lydia, bought Hercules as a slave, not knowing who he was, and fell in love with him. The pair were also in the habit of cross-dressing: ‘As they [Hercules and Omphale] once travelled together, they came to a grotto on Mount Tmolus, where the queen dressed herself in the habit of her lover, and obliged him to appear in a female garment…’ (Lemprière, Classical Dictionary). However, by casting herself in the role of Hercules, Eugénie is simply indicating that she is the dominant partner, and physically the stronger.

  2. britzka: See note 2 to Chapter LXXXV.

  XCVIII

  THE INN OF THE BELL AND BOTTLE

  1. excellent hostelry… remember: The building that once housed the Hôtel de la Cloche et de la Bouteille still exists in Compiègne. Dumas greatly admired the proprietor, Vuillemot, and often stayed here. It was in Compiègne, he tells us, that he finished writing The Count of Monte Cristo.

  2. Achilles with Deidamia: The print could be from a painting by either Rubens or Teniers, both of whom depicted Achilles at the court of Lycomedes, King of Scyros, whose daughter was seduced by Achilles. In order to win her favours, he came to her father’s court disguised in women
’s clothes.

  CII

  VALENTINE

  1. Germain Pilon’s three Graces: The group, The Three Graces, was commissioned from the sculptor Germain Pilon (1528–90) to support the funerary urn of King Henri II. It is now in the Louvre.

  CIV

  THE SIGNATURE OF BARON DANGLARS

  1. Robert Macaire… Frédérick: ‘Robert Macaire’ was the central character in Antier, Saint-Amant and Paulyanthe’s melodrama, L’Auberge des Adrets (1823) and its sequel Robert Macaire (1834). It was famously played by Frédérick Lemaître (1800–76), who features in this role in Marcel Carné’s film, Les Enfants du paradis (played by Pierre Brasseur).