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.
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 stim
uli.
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.
295 camphor, benzoin:Camphor is a fragrant compound obtained from the camphor tree; benzoin is a fragrant balsamic resin, one of whose uses is as an incense.
295 miasmas: Noxious atmospheres, or vaporous exhalations formerly thought to cause disease.
297 fill the gaps with wool: Although the original is ambiguous, Flaubert’s earlier drafts make it clear that the gaps he had in mind were between her body and the oak coffin, not between the two outer coffins.
297 she was placed on display: The French is on l’exposa—she “lay in state.”
298 chasubles: A chasuble is the long, sleeveless outer vestment worn by the priest celebrating mass.
299 serpent: A bass cornet made of wood and shaped like a snake, no longer in common use.
300 the De profundis: This is Psalm 130, a penitential psalm—that is, one especially expressive of sorrow for sin; it is used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed and takes its name from its opening line, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.”
301 aspergillum: A perforated vessel containing a wet sponge and used for sprinkling holy water.
304 Pentecost: Again, a date is identified by the religious observance associated with it. Pentecost occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
306 leprosy: A chronic, infectious bacterial disease mainly affecting the skin and the peripheral nervous system and resulting in rashes, numbness, weakening of muscles, and often deformity.