French Literature – Children Books – Émile Zola – His Excellency Eugène Rougon – Contents
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NOTES
[1]16,000l.
[2]This is a reference to the Peace of Paris after the Crimean War.—Ed.
[3]Morny (Marsy), it will be remembered, was the illegitimate son of Queen Hortense, the Emperor Napoleon’s mother.—Ed.
[4]Charles X., the exiled king, was then living there.—Ed.
[5]The idea of this clothier’s advertisement—La Redingote grise—was derived from the circumstance that Napoleon I. wore a grey overcoat, like the one depicted, during his last campaigns.—Ed.
[6]1,000 frs. = £40.
[7]Napoleon I.
[8]An allusion to M. Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary.’—Ed.
[9]This was the duel between St. Arnaud and Cornemuse, in which the latter was killed. Both had been accused of stealing 4,000l. in notes off the Emperor’s table, but the real culprit was probably King Jérôme, Napoleon’s uncle.—Ed.
[10]There was a similar instrument—like a cottage piano in shape but with a handle at the side—in the Empress’s private rooms at the Tuileries; and at her Majesty’s Monday receptions, Prince Richard Metternich, the Austrian Ambassador, would ‘grind’ it by the hour just like some professional of the streets. Mérimée fell out for a time with Chevalier Nigra, Victor Emmanuel’s representative, because he suggested one afternoon that the latter should relieve the Prince, maliciously adding that organ grinding was essentially an Italian art.—Ed.
[11]One million sterling per annum for himself; 400,000l. for the Empress Eugénie; and 200.000l. for the Prince Imperial!—Ed.
[12]The narrative which follows above is virtually matter of history, only for Gilquin’s name one should substitute that of a detective officer who carried his information to M. Claude, afterwards famous as the chief of the French detective police.—Ed.
[13]Felice Orsini.
[14]A favourite nickname for Napoleon III.; properly the name of the workman whose clothes he donned when escaping from the fort of Ham.—Ed.
[15]The Opera-house then stood there.—Ed.
[16]The ‘Commission de Colportage,’ by which at that period all books dealing with politics or social economy had to be licensed before being hawked about. The object of this regulation was to prevent the circulation of all literature in any way hostile to the Imperial policy or the organisation of the Empire.—Ed.
[17]The functions of the Minister of State—an office which no longer exists, and which might therefore puzzle even the reader acquainted with French affairs—comprised the following matters:—The intercourse of the Crown with the Senate, the Corps Législatif, and the Council of State; the Sovereign’s official correspondence with the various ministries; the duty of countersigning all decrees, appointing ministers, senators, and state councillors. The supervision of the Imperial opera-house, the Théâtre Français, the Odéon theatre, the Institute, the Salon, the public libraries, &c., was also within the attributions of the Ministry of State until June, 1863, when a decree instituted the Ministry of Fine Arts as an adjunct to that of the Imperial Household.—Ed.
[18]This was the favourite device of the Imperial Government. Even money voted for the army was diverted to other purposes, and France paid the penalty in 1870.—Ed.
[19]That of retailing books and pamphlets by peddlers.
[20]When Napoleon III. was a lad his mother, Queen Hortense, as her letters show, was wont to call him ‘mon doux entêté,’ virtually ‘my gentle but stubborn boy.’—Ed.
[21]November 24 and 27, 1860. These decrees gave the right of presenting an address; promised the Legislature full explanations on questions of home and foreign policy; and made certain provisions to enable the deputies to present amendments to Government bills.—Ed.
[22]Jules Favre.—Ed.
[23]An allusion to the Coup d’État of Dec. 2, 1851.—Ed.
[24]Jules Favre, Ernest Picard, Henon (of Lyons), Emile Ollivier, and Alfred Darimon. Unhappily the two last subsequently sold themselves to the Empire.—Ed.
[25]A second call to order would have carried with it expulsion and suspension for five days, according to the rules then in force.—Ed.
[26]Sedan.—Ed.
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French Literature – Children Books – Émile Zola – His Excellency Eugène Rougon – Contents
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