The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century

by Stendhal

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  24th of August 1572: St Bartholomew's day. Date of the massacre of Protestants ordered by Charles IX at the instigation of Catherine de Medici.

  First Prince of the Blood: the Duc d'Alençon.

  d'Aubigné: 1552-1630, French writer and historian; companionat-arms of Henri IV. His account of La Mole's plot was published in 1660. Brantôme: 1560-1614, French historian; chamberlain of the Duc d'Alençon. His minutely detailed chronicle of Court life contains an account of La Mole's adventures.

  L'Etoile: 1546-1611, French chronicler. His Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous Henri III is a daily record of the period 1574-1610.

  Henri III's reign: 1574-89.

  the League: the Sainte Ligue was a Catholic confederation founded by the Duc de Guise to defend Catholicism against the Calvinist movement when Henri III made peace with the Protestants in 1576. There ensued a religious war in which the Guises tried to seize the throne. It ended when Henri IV finally renounced Calvinism in 1593.

  Mérimée: 1803-70, French writer best known for his short stories.

  Wagram: defeat of the Archduke Charles of Austria by Napoleon on 6 July 1809.

  Abbé Maury: 1746-1817; a cobbler's son who rose to become bishop, then cardinal.

  Manon Lescaut: novel by the Abbé Prévost ( 1697-1763), published in 1731.

  Bassompierre: 1579-1646, marshal of France and diplomat.

  Louis XIII: 1601-43; reigned from 1610.

  Vendée: département on the west coast of France. Royalist stronghold during the Revolution, and site of a counter-revolutionary uprising in 1793-5.

  Charter see n. to p. 156.

  Duc d'Angoulême: Charles de Valois, 1573-1650, illegitimate son of Charles IX and Marie Touchet. His Memoirs document the reigns of Henri III and Henri IV.

  A little trip to Greece or Africa: like Lord Byron, many young men from different parts of Europe went to Greece from 1821 onwards to fight in the War of Independence against Turkey. French

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  troops set off for North Africa in May 1830 and seized Algiers on 4 July.

  died in 1816: reference to the dissolution of the newly elected Chamber by Louis XVIII, because it had an ungovernable reactionary majority. Stendhal explains in his correspondence that the broad left/right split in party politics after 1816 killed off ridicule by replacing a single aristocratic stereotype (from which one was ridiculed for deviating) with alternative models which guaranteed that one man's fool would be another's hero.

  . . . only its shadow: La Fontaine, The Shepherd and his Flock ( Fables, IX, 19).

  restore their forests to the clergy: a continuing grievance of the Ultras: the Revolution had dispossessed the Church of its forests, and the liberals succeeded in thwarting proposals to hand them back in the early days of the Restoration.

  Coblenz: reputed to be a place of loose morals.

  Schiller: 1759-1805. Critics have seen in this epigraph (not identified in Schiller's works) a free interpretation by Stendhal of the following lines from Shakespeare Othello ( III.3): 'Trifles light as air / Seem to the jealous confirmations strong / As proofs from holy writ.'

  fake Memoirs: There was such a vogue for memoirs in 1829-30 that numerous fake ones of famous people were published and avidly read.

  disinvoltura: 'carefree abandon' (Italian).

  Languedoc: former province in south-western and central-southem France.

  Léontine Fay: famous actress of the time.

  English handwriting: French term for a cursive, right-leaning script widely taught in France.

  footstool: reference to the ancient privilege of being seated at Court in the presence of the king and queen, which had recently been reinstated.

  St Louis: Louis IX, 1214-70, King of France from 1226.

  Bishop of Beauvais: consecrated in 1825 at the age of 40.

  Granvelle: Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle ( 1517-86), born in Besançon, became Bishop of Arras, and went on to be a minister of the Emperor Charles V. His father had in fact also served in the same capacity.

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  in Poissy: Fontan and Magalon, editors of a satirical publication, were imprisoned in 1824 and later condemned to hard labour in the prison at Poissy for criticizing the Government.

  Colonel Caron: French officer executed in 1822, after being framed by the police and accused of insurrection.

  Esprit per. pré. gui.II.A. 30: Stendhal's cryptic note has been deciphered as: Esprit per[d) pré[fecture]. Gui[zot]. 11 août 1830. (' Wit loses Prefecture. Guizot. 11 August 1830'). Stendhal had applied to Guizot (an official at the ministry of the interior) for a post as prefect, and been turned down. He took pleasure in alluding cryptically to this rejection in a footnote to his novel, and also in the header at the top of the page in question (not included in this translation because of pagination constraints), which reads: L'ESPRIT PERD. He was appointed consul at Trieste a few weeks later.

  Alfred de Musset: 1810-57, French writer.

  Jarnac . . . Moncontour: victories won in 1569 by the Catholics, led by the Duc d'Anjou (the future Henri III), over the Protestant forces of the Prince de Condé and Admiral Coligny respectively.

  Algiers: see n. to p. 325.

  Jacobins: see n. to p. 8.

  surrender of Baylen: General Dupont signed a disastrous capitulation at Bailén in Andalucia in 1808.

  . . . MYSELF: echo of a line from Corneille tragedy Médée, 1635 ( I. 5).

  Schiller: Critics have noted similarities between this epigraph (not identified in Schiller's works) and the following lines from Shakespeare Julius Caesar: 'Between the acting of a dreadful thing / And the first motion, all the interim / Is like a phantasm, or a hideous dream' ( II.1).

  Don Diego: the father of the hero Rodrigue in Corneille play Le Cid ( 1636) says to his son: 'We only have one honour. There are so many sweethearts!' ( III.6).

  Gascon: people from Gascony (former duchy in S.W. France) have a reputation for humour and bragging.

  Abelard's fate: Pierre Abélard ( 1079-1142) was a scholastic philosopher best remembered for his ill-fated passion for his pupil Héloïse. Her uncle took revenge by breaking into Abélard's room at dead of night and castrating him.

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  Pailida morte futura: 'Pale with her approaching death' ( Virgil, Aeneid, IV. 643).

  Massinger: 1584-1640, English dramatist.

  Café Tortoni: fashionable café on the Boulevard des Itatiens.

  Charles IX: 1550-74; reigned from 1560 under the regency of his mother Catherine de Medici. Henri III: see n. to p. 340.

  St Valery's church: in the Rue de Bourgogne (now no longer standing).

  The Opera Bouffe: also known as the Italian Opera, and situated on the Boulevard des Italiens. Like the Grand Opera, it was a meeting-place for the aristocracy.

  the revolution of 1688 in England: comparisons between Restoration France and England under James II were a recurrent theme in the French press at the end of the 1820s. Whether Charles X might suffer a fate similar to that of James II in 1688 was a live topic.

  Roland: Roland de la Platière ( 1734-93), politician. He was minister of the interior in 1792 and supported the Girondins (see n. to. p. 307). He committed suicide on learning of his wife's execution. Mme Roland: 1754-93. She had an influential political salon frequented by Girondins, and perished on the scaffold.

  Mme de Staël: see n. to p. 302.

  this sublime aria: the opera appears to be fictitious.

  Devo punirmi . . . : 'I must punish myself, I must punish myself, if I've loved too much.'

  a purely imaginary figure: despite these protestations, a recent society scandal had provided Stendhal with a model for Mathilde's behaviour. In Jan. 1830, Marie de Neuville, the 17-year-old niece of a former Government minister, had eloped to London with Edouard Grasset, a commoner who had made a name for himself by fighting in the War of Greek Independence. After a brief escapade, she returned to her family and refused to marry Grasset.

  Me
udon: on the S.W. outskirts of Paris.

  Jean Paul: Johann Paul Richter, 1763-1825.

  Saint-Cloud: château on a hillside overlooking the Seine on the western outskirts of Paris, built by Louis XIV's brother, with gardens by Le Nôtre. Napoleon used it as a summer palace, and it

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  was adopted as a Parisian residence by Louis XVIII and Charles X.

  Chelles: town near Meaux on the Marne, to the east of Paris. The abbey is now in ruins.

  Duke of Orleans: Phillipe III ( 1674-1723) was Louis XV's regent from 1715 to 1723.

  secret memorandum: in 1829-30 the liberal press warned of an ultra-reactionary plot to call upon foreign powers to intervene against the threat of renewed revolution in France. The campaign alluded specifically to a 'Secret Memorandum'. The king's aidede-camp, the Duc de Fitz-James (from whom Stendhal borrowed many attributes for his portrayal of the Marquis de la Mole), left in haste on a mission to Germany in July 1830 after the French Government suffered a severe electoral defeat. Scholars have recognized a number of contemporary political figures in the character in this scene.

  La Quotidienne: see n. to p. 264.

  Place de Grève: see n. to p. 246.

  On the Pope: see n. to p. 22.

  La Gazette des Tribunaux: a publication which appeared every weekday, containing full reports on court proceedings.

  advocating assassination: the idea of resorting to drastic measures to rid Europe of Bonaparte was openly voiced abroad in 1814-15.

  Go out and seek your own help: the French sentence echoes a proverb Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera which had been adopted as the name of a liberal society formed in 1827.

  1794: year of sweeping victories for the revolutionary armies.

  It will be a god!: La Fontaine, Fables, IX, 6: 'The Sculptor and the Statue of Jupiter'. The sculptor contemplates his block of marble and wonders what his chisel will make of it.

  Louis XVI: reigned 1774-91; guillotioned 1793.

  M. de Richelieu: the Duc de Richelieu ( 1766-1822) was prime minister twice under Louis XVIII, and represented France at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle.

  1817: Allied forces occupied France from 1815 (Congress of Vienna) until 1818.

  former imperial general: modelled on General Bourmont, minister of war in 1829, who had deserted Napoleon at Waterloo.

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  Le Globe: review which voiced the anti-establishment opinions of a group of gifted young writers in the late 1820s.

  Kléber: 1753-1800, French general who commanded the revolutionary armies in the Vendée, the Rhine and in Egypt. Hoche: 1768-97, French general who commanded the revolutionary armies in the Moselle and the Vendée. Jourdan: 1762-1833, marshal of France who defeated the Austrians at Fleurus in 1794, and headed the revolutionary armies in Spain. Pichegru: see n. to p. 309.

  1815: Napoleon's former soldiers rallied round him when he landed from Elba and marched on Paris in March 1815 at the beginning of the Hundred Days.

  Cathelineau: 1759-93, leader of the counter-revolutionary uprising in 1793.

  Jacobins' song: the Marseillaise.

  Gustave-Adolphe: King of Sweden, 1594-1632. Intervened in the Thirty Years War on the side of the German Protestant princes against the Holy Roman Emperor.

  towards the. . . tonight: see n. to p. 402 on Mainz.

  Hume: 1711-76, Scottish philosopher and historian.

  Saints: strict dissenters.

  Mr Brougham: Lord Brougham, 1778-1868; lord chancellor from 1830 to 1834. He was admired by Stendhal for his liberalism.

  doggerel: reference to the Marseillaise quoted in the previous chapter.

  Vendée: see n. to p. 328.

  clergy . . . forests: see n. to p. 328.

  parish priest: one of the terms of the Concordat of 1801 was the payment of clerical salaries by the State.

  Nerval: modelled on the Prince de Polignac, 1780-1847. He served as foreign minister, and prime minister from Aug. 1829 until his reactionary measures brought about the downfall of Charles X. He had a reputation for mysticism.

  under Louis XV: the regional Parliaments were suppressed from 1770 to 1774.

  Saint-Rock cannon: in 1795 a detachment of the National Guard

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  trying to storm the Convention was dispersed from the steps of Saint-Roch, a church off the Rue Saint-Honoré, by a single small cannon manned by the revolutionary forces.

  Mainz: this reference to Mainz is the key to the unknown destination of Julien's mission. The last sentence of 11. 22 can be read as 'I shall be galloping off to the [Grand Duchy of Hesse] tonight'. The Duke of --- then plausibly becomes the Austrian statesman Prince Metternich ( 1773-1859), who resided in Hesse and was backed by the forces of the Holy Alliance. He opposed the development of liberal movements in Europe in the 1820s.

  Café-hauss: Stendhal's version of the German Kaffeehaus.

  the Congregation's police: see n. to p. 25.

  Gouvion Saint-Cyr: 1764-1830, marshal of France. With General Desaix ( 1768-1800) he defended Kehl against the Austrians in 1796. He served as minister of war under Louis XVIII. His Mémoires sur les campagnes des armées du Rhin et Moselle appeared in 1829.

  Lope de Vega: 1562-1635, Spanish writer.

  Don Diego Bustos: Stendhal may have modelled this character on the Spanish republican Don Bastos, who appears in Lebrun play the Cid d'Andalousie. This was first performed in 1825, after being banned for over 4 years by the censorship on account of a scene where Don Bastos strikes the King of Spain in the dark.

  carbonaro: member of an Italian secret political society formed in the early years of the 19th c. to promote republican ideals.

  furia francese: 'French ardour' (Italian).

  Collé: 1709-83, song-writer and dramatist.

  'Tis my caprice . . . etc.: J'ai la marotte / D'aimer Marote, etc.

  took against this song: critics have detected here an allusion to the treatment of the song-writer Béranger (see n. to p. 263) by Mme du Cayla, 1785-1852, Louis XVIII's mistress. Before his conviction in 1828, he had been remanded in 1821 for offences against public morality and against the person of the king, and had been sacked from a position worth 1,800 francs a year, to which he had been appointed under Napoleon. The song in question depicts the king's virility in scurrilous terms which neither the monarch nor his mistress could have been expected to appreciate. In 1822 Béranger attacked Mme du Cayla herself in another song. She was noted for her striking beauty, her religious devotion, and her

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  prudishness, which she displayed with great éclat in her salon. In these respects she may provide a model for Mme de Fervaques.

  Hôtel d'Aligre: situated on the Rue de Richelieu near the PalaisRoyal.

  Opera-Buffa: the Opera Bouffe, or comic opera.

  clandestine government: name given under Louis XVIII to the Ultra faction which backed the Comte d'Artois (the future Charles X).

  Camarilla: Spanish term designating the extremist supporters of Ferdinand VII. The expression was applied to the Ultra faction in France in 1830.

  Saint-Simon: 1675-1755. His Memoirs span the period 1694-173, and contain a detailed account, from a traditional monarchist perspective, of Court life and the chief characters involved.

  Massillon: 1663-1742, French preacher.

  Telemachus: Les Aventures de Télémaque, 1699; written by Fénelon (see n. to p. 504) for the edification of the young Duke of Burgundy.

  Dorat: 1734-80, French poet; prolific writer of elegant froth.

  had the pictures corrected: Mme du Cayla (see n. to p. 414) was on close terms with the minister for the arts, who made a point of rectifying the indecency of statues and paintings m public places.

  Bishop of --- one of Mme du Cayla's protégés (though not her uncle) was the Bishop of Hermopolis, Monsignor Frayssinous ( 1765-1841). At her instigation, Louis XVIII made him minister for ecclesiastical affairs in 1824. He held this office until 1828, and was again given responsibility for Church posit
ions in 1829.

  Lichtemberg: 1744-99, German physicist and satirical writer.

  the ballet based on Manon Lescaut: a grand spectacle first performed in May 1830. The libretto (based on the novel by the Abbé Prévost, see n. to p. 322) is by Scribe ( 1791-1861), and the score by Halévy (1799-1862).

  Girodet: 1767-1824, French painter. His literary writings and part of his correspondence were published m 1829.

  Matrimonio Segreto: The Secret Marriage, opera by Cimarosa ( 1749- 1801). The heroine Caroline becomes secretly engaged to one of her father's subordinates.

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  si fata sinant: 'if the Fates allow' ( Virgil, Aeneid, 1.19)

  Memoirs dictated . . . by Napoleon: the 8-vol. Mémoires de Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène were compiled by Gourgaud and Montholon (two officers who had accompanied Napoleon to St Helena), and published 1822-7.

  Beaumarchais: 1732-99, French dramatist; author of the Mariage de Figaro ( 1784), from which this epigraph is taken (V.3).

  I am no angel: Molière, Tartuffe ( III.3).

  a footstool: see n. to p. 335.

  Chêteau d'Aiguillon: built in the 17th c.

  like Othello: echo of Desdemona's speech to the Venetian Senate ( I.3).

  Louis XI: 1423-83; reigned from 1461. In his strife with his great lords and his feud with Charles the Bold he displayed cold, calculating cunning.

  Duchess of Burgundy: Adelaide of Savoy had married Louis XIV's grandson Louis of Burgundy in 1697, and the old king delighted in her company.

  fifteenth regiment of Hussars: there were only 14.

  Article 1342 of the Penal Code: the Penal Code of 1810 contained only 484 articles. Article 295 deals with 'murder', defined as 'voluntary homicide'. Article 296 deals with 'assassinat', defined as 'murder committed with premeditation'.