Livre VII

Berlin, Vienne étaient ses maîtresses; Il les forçait, Leste, et prenant les forteresses Par le corset; Il triompha de cent bastilles Qu'il investit.-- Voici pour toi, voici des filles, Petit, petit.

These two passages are good specimens of what Brunetière called Hugo's barbarous and Merovingian humour, a species of humour which suits well the reproduction of a mediaeval _Chanson_, even if it offends the critical in a modern satire.

_gentil_, used in its original sense of 'noble'.

_maillot_, Old French form of _maillet_, a mace or club. _salade_, head-piece worn by knights, a word used in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

_duché_, which is now masculine, was formerly of the feminine gender.

_liais_, lias; _pierre de liais_ is Portland stone.

_douve_, as a term in fortification, means the wall of a ditch.

_estramaçon_, a long, straight, two-edged sword. The word is of Italian origin and first came into use in the sixteenth century. In an adaptation of a thirteenth-century _Chanson_ it is out of place, as is _salade_ above.

_escarcelle_, a kind of large purse which was carried at the belt.

l 193. The reference to the Sorbonne, which was founded in 1252, is of course an anachronism.

_estoc_. See note on MARIAGE DE ROLAND.

_bachelier_. In the Middle Ages the word was used of a young man of good birth who, being too poor to raise his own standard, fought under the banner of a knight, but not as a squire. The juxtaposition of _Je suis bachelier_ with _Je sais lire en latin_ has given rise to the suspicion that Hugo, who found the word in one of Jubinal's articles, understood it in the modern sense. In the absence of further evidence, however, the poet may be considered entitled to a verdict of 'not proven'.

BIVAR.

_Bivar_, in Spanish _Vivar_, was the name of the ancestral home of the Cid. It is a castle near Burgos, in which the Cid was born in 1040.

_patio_ (Spanish), a court or open space in front of a house. The _ti_ is pronounced as in French _question_.

_buenos dias_=good day.

l 18. The full name of the Cid was Rodrigue Ruy Diaz de Bivar, or in Spanish Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar.

_campéador_. The Spanish word _campeador_, derived from _campear_, to be eminent in the field, signifies _excellent_, _pre-eminent_, and was the title given to their champion by the Spaniards, The Moors called him the Cid, i.e. Seid, an Arabic word for _chief_.

_pavois_, an old word for a large shield, which protected the whole body, and on which the Franks raised the king whom they had elected.

_richomme_, from the Spanish _ricohombre_, a title given to the Barons of Aragon.

_servidumbre_ (Spanish), an establishment of servants. In Spanish the last syllable is sounded.

EVIRADNUS. (PAGE 26.)

As far as is known, the story is of Hugo's own invention. The epoch may be supposed to be the later Middle Ages, the place anywhere in Teuton lands. The proper names are mostly of Hugo's own invention; some are, however, echoes from German mediaeval history. The poem and another called _Le Petit Roi de Galice_ form a section of the _Légende_ called _Les Chevaliers Errants_.

l 1. There was a Ladislaus, King of Poland, in the fourteenth, and a Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, in the fifteenth century. But the personages of the poem are in reality wholly imaginary.

_stryge_ (written also _strige_), a vampire or demon that wanders about at night. Derived from Latin _striga_, a bird of night, or a witch.

_lémure_: Lémures (the singular is very rare) is the Latin _lemures_, the disembodied spirits which haunted houses and caused terror to the living.

_val_, valley, The word is now little used and only in poetry, except in the phrase _par monts et par vaux_.

_preux_. See note on AYMERILLOT, l 54.

_munster_ (German), cathedral.

_bauges_, properly the lairs of wild boars.

_Amadis_, commonly called Amadis of Gaul, the hero of a celebrated mediaeval poem, written originally in Spanish, which recounts his heroism in war and constancy in love. He is the typical knight-errant and true lover.

_Baudoin_. This is Baldwin, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon. He became King of Jerusalem and died in 1118. During the Crusade he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy City.

Sir G.Young in his _Poems from Victor Hugo_ suggests that _Corbus_ may stand for _Cottbus_, the capital of Old or Lower Lusatia.

_burg_ (German), a castle.

_guivre_ (also written _givre_), a heraldic term meaning a serpent.

_drée_, a fantastic stone ornament.

_fôhn_ (German _Föhn_), the south wind.

_le Grand Dormant_: Frederick Barbarossa, who, tradition says, never died, but is still sleeping in a cave.

_roture_, i.e. his position as a peasant. _Roture_ is derived from the Latin _ruptura_, the action of breaking the earth, and is the base of the common word _roturier_.

_relève_, used in its feudal sense of 'to hold of'; the castle was not feudally dependent on the city.

L. 214, i.e. the castle reflects the history of the ancient kings.

_les deux haches de pierre_. This is said figuratively and alludes to the deeds of Attila, who ravaged the Eastern Empire and extended his dominions almost to the Ural Mountains, whilst later on, crossing the Rhine, he attacked the Goths of Southern France and Spain.

_Lusace_, Latin Lusatia, German Lausitz, was a district between the Elbe and the Oder, in what is now the kingdom of Saxony. But the name has no significance. The personages and places in the poem are in reality all imaginary.

_la griffe_ is the claw of a beast or bird of prey; _la serre_ is the foot of a bird of prey.

_Sortent de leur tenaille_. A somewhat obscure expression. Apparently _tenaille_ is used in the sense of 'vice', and the words mean 'are of their manufacture or moulding.'

L. 291. i.e. the Emperor is the superior in rank.

_dromons_. See note on AYMERILLOT, L. 39.

_l'ordre teutonique_, the Order of Teutonic Knights. Originally founded to protect the Christians in Palestine, the Teutonic Knights received domains in Italy and Germany from the Pope and Emperor, conquered Prussia (1228), and established there a military power which lasted four centuries.

_hydre_. In Greek legend the hydra was a serpent with seven heads, and, when one of them was cut off, two grew in its place. It is Hugo's favourite figure for cruelty or tyranny.

_Lusace_ consisted of two margraviates, the upper and the lower.

_elle a peur du fleuron_, i.e. she is afraid to be marchioness. The flower-shaped ornaments in a crown are called _fleurons_. A marquis's coronet was adorned with 'fleurons' alternating with pearls and the contrast between the pointed 'fleuron' and the round pearl suggests the figure employed in the next line.

_tribunaux d'amour_, or _cours d'amour_, were the celebrated courts of the Middle Ages, presided over by ladies of high rank, which gave judgement in cases of love and gallantry and laid down laws for lovers. They existed principally in France, especially in Southern France.

L. 369. The Wends were a Slav people who lived in Lusatia, but the name Thassilo is Bavarian.

_Nemrod_. See note on PLEINE MER, l.107.

_Fenris_: the great wolf of Scandinavian mythology whose growth was such that the gods in fear chained him to a rock. Some day his upper jaw will touch the sky, while his lower still rests on earth, and then Odin will tremble for his throne.

_le serpent Asgar_. This serpent is probably of Hugo's invention and its name taken from the mythical city of the Scandinavians, Asgard, built by the gods and in which they often resided.

_l'archange Attila_. This is not the king of the Huns, nor is he one of the known archangels. However, as the Scriptures mention only three archangels, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, out of the seven, Hugo may or may not be right in speaking of an archangel of the name of Attila. _Le grand chandelier_ brought from the lower regions by the archangel is merely a poetic fancy and a reminiscence of the seven-branched candlestick of the tabernacle (Exod. XXV. 31-7).

_Actéon_. Actaeon in Greek mythology was a hunter who saw Diana bathing, and was in consequence changed by the goddess into a stag.

L. 437. _chanfrein_, the piece of armour which covered the head of the horse.

_Les chatons des cuissards sont barris de leurs clés_. A difficult line. The _chatons_ were the studs or screws which held the thigh-piece (_cuissard_) in its place, and the instrument which worked them was called _la clé_. _Barrés_ appears to mean simply 'fastened'. Sir G.Young translates:--

'Their cuissart-studs up to the socket braced'

_boutoir_, the sharp spike on the knee-piece.

_crible_. The word refers to the visor with seven bars, which was one of the marks of a marquis's rank.

_mortier_. The round cap which was the ancient emblem of sovereignty in France. It was worn by barons who possessed full powers of administering justice in their domains, also by the presidents of the 'parlements', and by the chancellors. A modified form is still part of the official dress of some of the judges of the highest courts.

It will be noted that the antiquities in this passage are French, not German.

_tortil_, a ribbon twisted round a crown, the special ornament of a baron, not of a duke. It also signifies in heraldry a circular band or pad to which heraldic negroes' heads were attached.

_rondache_, a round shield.

L. 492. The reference is to the coronet of a French marquis, which bore eight jewelled ornaments, four of which consisted each of three great pearls arranged as a trefoil, while the other four were 'feuilles d'ache,' the heraldic representation of the leaf of the wild parsley.

_hydre_: see note on L. 323.

_timbre_, in heraldry, signifies anything placed above the escutcheon to mark the rank of the person to whom it belonged. Here Hugo seems to use it of the shield, perhaps because the triangular shield was a mark of knightly rank.

_fauves_, here 'terrible'.

A chapter might be written on Hugo's bold and occasionally strange uses of this word. Its primary meaning is either 'dull red' or 'tawny', but in Hugo's poetry it is used rather as a somewhat vague epithet to suggest darkness, gloom, cruelty, savagery, or oppressive power. It never denotes merely a physical quality; in such expressions as 'leur fauve volée', speaking of the ravens in _La Fin de Satan_, 'le désert fauve' (_Androclès_), 'son bec fauve', of the vulture (_Sultan Mourad_), the suggestion of wildness or ruthlessness predominates. Usually the word is used in a wholly figurative sense. Thus in _La Fin de Satan_ the fallen archangel, flying from Jehovah, is 'fauve et hagard', Barabbas stumbling against the Cross is 'fauve', and of the lunatic in the tombs it is said: 'fauve il mordait'. In all these cases the meaning is 'wild','savage '. In _Dieu_ we have `Vénus, fauve et fatale' ('cruel'), in _L'Ane_ les canons dont les fauves gueulées' ('terrible'), in _L'Année Terrible_'un hallier fauve où des sabres fourmillent' ('wild'), and France is called upon to be 'franchement fauve et sombre' ('fierce'). In the following passages we have bolder uses still:

Le progrès a parfois l'allure vaste et fauve ('awe-inspiring') Et le bien bondissant effare ceux qu'il sauve. (_Dieu_.)

If man had been unselfish,

L'ombre immense serait son fauve auxiliaire. (Ibid.)

Of war,

Elle chantait, terrible et tranquille, et sa bouche Fauve bavait du sang dans le clairon farouche. (_Changement d'Horizon._) La fauve volupté de mourir. (_Mangeront-ils?_)

It is applied even to sound. 'Le fauve bruit' is used in _L'Ane_ of the battles of primeval monsters, and more mystically in _La Vision d'où sortit le livre_ of the passing of the Spirit of Fatality.

Also of smell

Que l'homme au ciel s'égare ou qu'il fanatise Avec la fauve odeur des bûchers qu'il attise. (_Religions et Religion_.)

Nor must the strange well-known line in _La Bouche d'Ombre_ be forgotten

Le fauve Univers est le forçat de Dieu.

_Fauve_ is always used of what is dark and gloomy, just as _vermeil_ is always applied to what is bright and pleasant.

_cimier_. See note on LE MARIAGE DE ROLAND.

_mélusine_. A heraldic figure, half woman, half serpent, bathing in a basin. Taken from the name of a fairy, celebrated in the folklore of Poitou.

_alérion_, a heraldic figure, representing an eagle without beak or claws.

_le manche d'une guitare_ is the small end.

_bourguignotte_, a small helmet without throat-piece, so called because it was first used by the Burgundians.

_Diane éblouissait le pâtre: a reference to the `old sweet mythos,' as Browning calls it, of Diana, the goddess of the Moon, stooping from heaven to kiss the shepherd Endymion, as he lay asleep on Mount Latmos.

_Rhodope_, the wife of Haemus, king of Thrace, who was changed into a mountain because she thought herself more beautiful than Hera.

1. 839. The allusions are to the quarrels between the Greek and Roman Churches.

_galoubet_. A little wind instrument in shape like a flageolet, with three holes. It was played with the left hand, while the right beat a tambourine. It was peculiar to Languedoc and Provence.

_marche_, German _Mark_, military frontier.

_L'idée._ In the original edition of 1859 the word was L'épée.

_Josaphat._ The valley of Josaphat or Jehosaphat is between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and according to both Jewish and Moslem tradition is to be the place of the Last Judgment. This tradition may be based on Joel iii. 12, or on the meaning of the word Josaphat, which is, 'Jehovah will judge,' or on both.

_goules_, from Arabic _ghul_. English _ghoul_. The creatures who, according to Eastern superstition, devour dead bodies.

_lamies_, from Lat. _lamia_, a fabulous being possessing the head of a woman and the body of a sea-serpent, which was supposed to devour children.

_en rupture de ban_. _Rompre le ban_ is to set at defiance a decree of banishment, the punishment for which was death.

_un dogue en arrêt_. The name _dogue_ is given to a kind of large dog, akin to a bloodhound, but the term is not correctly used here, as _en arrêt_ means _pointing_.

_vermeille_. See note on AYMERILLOT.

SULTAN MOURAD.

In his preface to the volume of 1859 Hugo appeals to the history of the Turks by Cantemir as a justification for his picture of Sultan Mourad. This was Demetrius Cantemir (1673-1723), who had a remarkable history, and wrote a valuable book. Though not a Turk, he attached himself to the Turks, and fought under the banner of the Crescent during his early life. In 1710 he was made Waiwode, or Governor, of Moldavia, Then, deserting the setting for the rising sun, he allied himself with Czar Peter the Great, then at war with Turkey. But the campaign was unsuccessful, and Cantemir, flying from Moldavia, took refuge in the Ukraine. For the rest of his life he divided his time between study and instructing the Moldavians who had accompanied him. He is said to have spoken Persian, Turkish, Arabic, modern Greek, Russian, Moldavian, and Italian. The work to which Hugo refers was a history of the aggrandizement and decadence of the Ottoman Empire. Written in Latin, and translated subsequently into English, French, and German, it was long the standard work on the subject.

It does not seem probable that Hugo had any particular Sultan in mind when he delineated Sultan Mourad. Indeed the geography of the poem suggests that he is depicting an idealized Oriental tyrant.

The nearest approximation to the monster to be found in the pages of Cantemir is Ammath IV (r. 1623-40), of whose cruelty and bloodthirstiness the historian gives a vivid account. His principal exploit was the taking of Bagdad from the Persians, on which occasion he slaughtered 1,000 of the citizens in cold blood.

For Hugo's conception of the power and influence of the Turkish Empire when at its zenith, see _Le Rhin: Conclusion_, II, III.

_Liban_ is Lebanon.

_rampantes_. The word is used with the heraldic sense.

I. 19. The so-called Temple of Theseus (its real dedication is doubtful) stands on a low hill just outside Athens. It is in a state of almost perfect preservation. The nails which crowded its woodwork were doubtless those on which the heads of slaughtered Greeks were fastened. Of course in the Greek temple there was no woodwork, except possibly in the roof.

_cangiar_, a short Turkish sword, with an almost straight blade, having a single edge.

_Naxos_ is an island in the South Aegean Sea; _Ancyra_, a town in Asia Minor.

_épiques_. A curious use of the word. It appears to mean `worthy of epic poetry,' i.e. the spectres were those of great heroic men. In _Les Chants du Crépuscule_ Hugo has 'des grenadiers épiques' (_Napoléon II_).

Elea, Megara, are towns in Greece, Famagusta is in Cyprus.

Agrigentum was a well-known Greek colony in Sicily; Fiume, at the head of the Adriatic Sea, is now an Austrian port.

_Modon_, a maritime town in the Peloponnesus.

_Alep_, Aleppo. _Brousse_, a town in Anatolia.

_Damas_, Damascus.

_Tarvis_ (English Treviso) is a town in the province of Venice.

_boyard_. The boyards were the feudal nobles of Roumania and other Balkan countries.

_Rhamséion_, a sepulchral monument built by Ramses III, king of Egypt, in the fourteenth century B.C.

_Généralife_, the palace of the Moorish kings at Granada in Spain. It is scarcely necessary to say that no Turkish Sultan ever held any part of Spain.

_échouait_. The word is here used transitively (a rare use) in the sense of 'drove against.'

_soudan_, a word of Arabic origin, was a mediaeval name for certain Mahometan princes in Egypt and Asia Minor. The word seems here loosely to designate the Turkish sultans.

_turbé_, a kind of small round chapel, usually attached to a mosque, in which the tombs of Sultans and other great persons are placed.

LA CONFIANCE DU MARQUIS FABRICE. (PAGE 71.)

This is the third section of a poem called _L'Italie: Ratbert_. The story is of Hugo's own invention, and is intended to delineate on the one hand the savagery, and on the other the knight-errantry, of the Middle Ages.

_Pharamond_, a somewhat legendary Frankish chieftain of the fifth century A.D.

_Final_. The name, alone or in composition, is borne by three small towns or villages on or near the Genoese coast. There was a marquisate of Final in the Middle Ages.

_Witikind_. Hugo possibly had in mind the Saxon chief of this name (A.D. 750-807) who for five years successfully resisted the power of Charlemagne, and finally made an honourable peace with him. It does not appear that he ever bore the title of king. His country was the ancient Saxony, that is the country between the lower Rhine and the lower Elbe. He had no connexion with Genoa, whither Hugo has dragged the Saxons without justification.

_Albenga_: the name is taken from a small town on the Genoese coast, not far from Final.

_abbé du peuple_, a name of a popularly elected magistrate at Genoa. The office was in existence from 1270 to 1339.

_tribun militaire de Rome_: Latin, _tribunus militaris_; the officers of the legion, six in number, who in republican times commanded in turn, six months at a time.

_architrave_, the lower part of the entablature, that which rests immediately on the column. To understand the line, it must be remembered that the tower is conceived as a ruin.

_alleux_, a feudal term, signifying hereditary property. The word is misused here in the sense of feudal dues.

_censive_. Another feudal term, meaning the dues owed by an estate to the lord of whom it was held.

_balistes_ (from Latin _ballista_), mediaeval machines for hurling stones and darts.

_le puits d'une sachette_, a hole in which a recluse lived. _Sachette_ (masc. _sachet_) was the name given to certain nuns of the Augustinian order who wore a loose woollen garment (_sac_), whence the name was derived. It afterwards became used of any recluse. In _Notre-Dame de Paris_ Hugo applies it to the half-crazy inhabitant of the Tour-Roland.

_cruzade_, an old Portuguese coin, so called because it was marked with a cross. There was an old cruzade worth about 3 fr. 30, and a new cruzade worth not quite 3 fr.

_Narse_, or Narses, was king of Persia A.D. 294-303.

_Tigrane_, the name of an Armenian, not a Persian dynasty. There were seven kings of this name, and they occupied the Armenian throne from 565 to 161 B.C.

_nonce_. This word is in strictness used only of the emissaries of the Pope. Its use in any sense is an anachronism, as it was not introduced till the sixteenth century.

_Ratbert_ is thus described at the beginning of the poem:--

Ratbert, fils de Rodolphe et petit-fils de Charles, Qui se dit empereur et qui n'est que roi d'Arles.

Arles, which Hugo spells with or without the _s_ according to the exigencies of the metre, was the capital of the kingdom of Provence, one of the kingdoms formed out of the fragments of Charlemagne's empire. It embraced most of S.E. France, and lasted from A.D. 855 to 1032. This kingdom was frequently called _le royaume d'Arle_. _Roy d'Arle_ is therefore a historical title, but the names Ratbert and Rodolphe, as grandson and son respectively of Charlemagne, are imaginary.

_Macchabée_. Judas Maccabaeus, the Jewish hero, who freed his country from the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes.

_Amadis_ See note on EVIRADNUS.

_Aétius_, a Roman general who lived in the fifth century A.D. One of the last heroes and defenders of ancient Rome, he fought Franks, Burgundians, Huns, and succeeded in uniting the German kings of Gaul against Attila, and inflicting a crushing defeat upon him (A. D. 451).

_latobrige_. The Latobriges were an ancient German tribe who lived in what is now Wurtemberg and Baden.

_Platon_: the Athenian philosopher Plato, justly placed amongst the poets.

_Plaute_: Plautus, the Roman writer of comedies, who lived in the second century B.C.

_Scaeva Memor_, a Roman poet and tragedian of the first century A.D., rescued from oblivion by this line. The three make a bizarre trio; see note on BOOZ ENDORMI.

_Sicambre_. The Sicambres were the German tribe who in Roman times lived on the Rhine.

_incrusté d'érable_, i. e. inlaid with maple.

_bailli_, i. e. governor.

_reître_, an old word, derived from the German _Reiter_, used of the German knights.

_buccin_, properly a whelk, is a name given to a musical instrument very similar to a trombone.

_brassière_, a little jacket or vest worn close round the body. The word is usually used in the plural. Likely enough Hugo intends simply the corset.

_au penchant des mers_, i. e. where the land slopes to the sea. A peculiar expression; _au penchant de la terre_ would be more usual.

_les chouettes félines_. The epithet refers to their nocturnal habits.

L. 353. The antecedent of _que_ is _vautours_. The reference is to gladiatorial combats in the Roman Circus, and the _louve d'airain_ is the famous bronze wolf of the Capitol, a statue representing a wolf suckling two children.

_fauve_, here `savage'. See note on ÉVIRADNUS.

_cru_, i. e. unashamed.

_faîte vermeil_. See note on AYMERILLOT, where the same phrase occurs.

L. 391. figurant, 'suggesting the form of'. A highly characteritic touch. Hugo possessed a faculty of poetic vision which changed the shapes of things so as to bring them into harmony with the dominant ideas of the moment. Cf. LA ROSE DE L'INFANTE, and LA CONFIANCE.

_Héliogabales_. Heliogabalus was a Roman Emperor (r. 217-222) noted for his sensuality and his caprices.

_cistre_, cittern or cithern, a musical instrument resembling the guitar.

_un Louvre_: the Louvre is the well-known palace in Paris where many kings of France resided. Note the antithesis in the same line, _antre de rois, Louvre de voleurs_.

_les ors_, various kinds of gold. _Sixte Malaspina_, introduced as one of the counsellors of Ratbert in a poem entitled 'Ratbert' not given here.

_chape_ is the Picard form of 'cape' (see note on LES PAUVRES GENS, l. 97). It is the name for a long cloak, fastened in front, and worn by clergy and choristers when performing Divine Service. Formerly any long loose cloak was called a _charpe_. As is still the custom in the Greek Church, images of the Virgin or saints are largely used, and they are found as ornaments on pieces of furniture and sacerdotal vestments.

L. 455. A peacock roasted whole and served up ornamented with its feathers was a favourite dish at the banquets of the fifteenth century.

_hypocras_, an infusion of cinnamon, sweet almonds, amber, and musk in sweetened wine.

_Le roi d'Arle_. See note to l. 179.

_l'araignée_. See note under PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ.

_jacque_ (also written jaque), a short close-fitting coat or tunic.

_vair_ (English _vair_), the fur of the squirrel, a highly esteemed and costly material for dress in the later Middle Ages.

_chevalier haubert_, i. e. a knight who has the right to wear the haubert or cuirass.

_Urbain quatre_, Pope (1261-. 1264). He is rightly described as the son of a cobbler.

_Afranus_, introduced as the bishop of Fréjus, and one of Ratbert's evil counsellors, in the poem of 'Ratbert'. See note on l. 435 _supra_.

L. 721. For the element of supernatural vengeance on cruelty compare _L'Aigle du casque_, published in the 1877 series.

LA ROSE DE L'INFANTE.

A French critic has said happily of this poem: '"La Rose de l'Infante" est un chef-d'oeuvre, digne d'être illustré par Vélasquez.' (Gaston Deschamps in Petit de Julleville's _Histoire de la langue et de la littérature françaises_.)

The little princess, of whom such an enchanting picture is given in this poem, is an imaginary figure. There was no Infanta of five years of age at the epoch of the Armada.

_ basquine_, a rich skirt worn by Spanish women.

_point de Gênes_, Genoese lace, which at one time rivalled that of Venice.

_fil d'or florentin_, gold thread of Florence.

_Duc de Brabant_ was one of the many titles of the King of Spain.

L. 69. See note on LA CONFIANCE.

_glas_ (pronounced _glâ_), 'passing bell.'

_vitreux_: 'glassy,' 'lack-lustre.' The sunken eyes seemed of an unfathomable depth.

_Iblis_. See note on PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ,

_Escurial_. The vast and gloomy palace near Madrid built by Philip II in the form of a gridiron in memory of St. Laurence, on whose feast-day he won the battle of St. Quentin.

_L'Inde_. The inclusion of India in Philip's dominions can hardly be justified. As King of Spain he possessed nothing in India, and as King of Portugal only a few trading stations and fortresses.

For Hugo's conception of the power and position of Spain at this epoch, see _Le Rhin: Conclusion_, II, III.

L. 130. Prescott describes Philip as being habitually grave in manner, unsocial and sombre, and always dressed in black. The Order of the Golden Fleece was the only jewel he ever wore.

L. 137. 'Better a ruined kingdom, true to itself and its king, than one left unharmed to the profit of the Devil and the heretics. '--Correspondence of Philip, quoted by Prescott in the History of Philip II.

_Burgos_, the ancient capital of Old Castile. _Aranjuez_, a town in the province of Toledo, where Philip had a summer residence.

_la toison d'or_, the Golden Fleece, an order of knighthood founded by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1420.

_grincer un sourire_: a bold and vivid expression, _grincer_ meaning 'to gnash the teeth.'

_gastadour_, from the Lat. _vastator_, ravager, despoiler.

_l'Escaut_, the Scheldt. The _Adour_ is a river in Southern France, but no ships for the Armada came from France. One suspects the influence of _gastadour_ in the line above.

_mestre de camp_, an old term for commander of a regiment.

L. 182. There were no German vessels in the Armada. _ourque_, more usually written _bourque_, is a small Dutch or Flemish cargo-boat with two masts. It is something between the modern ketch and the old Flemish 'bilander'.

_moço_, Spanish word for 'cabin-boy'.

_Pausilippe_, a promontory near Naples.

LES RAISONS DU MOMOTOMBO.

Placed by itself under the heading _L'Inquisition_ in the series of 1859, and preceded by the following note:--'Le baptême des volcans est un ancien usage qui remonte aux premiers temps de la conquête. Tous les cratères du Nicaragua furent alors sanctifiés, à l'exception du Momotombo, d'où l'on ne vit jamais revenir les religieux qui s'étaient chargés d'aller y planter la croix.' (SQUIER, _Voyage dans l'Amérique du Sud_.)

Momotombo is a volcano in the state of Nicaragua. E.G.Squier was an American antiquarian and author who was appointed _chargé d'affaires_ to all the Central American States in 1849. He does not appear to have written any work with the title quoted by Hugo. The passage quoted occurs in his _Nicaragua, its people, scenery, and monuments_, published in 1852. He relates in this book an instance of a bishop being asked to baptize a volcanic vent which had suddenly opened in a mountain!

_Torquemada_ (1420-1489) was the notorious inquisitor-general of Castile and Aragon, whose name has become a by-word for relentless persecution and cruelty.

LA CHANSON DES AVENTURIERS DE LA MER. (Page 101)

_le golfe d'Otrante_, between Italy and Albania.

_au Phare_: it is not clear what lighthouse is intended.

_une Tarentaise_, woman of Tarentum, in South Italy.

_Gaëte_, English Gaeta, a bay and town on the west coast of Italy, north of Naples.

L. 47. The historical allusion here is not clear. Prince Eugene of Savoy, Marlborough's colleague, and Cardinal Mazarin were not contemporaries.

_Livourne_, Leghorn. _Spinola_: the reference may or may not be to the famous Imperialist general in the Thirty Years War.

_prames_, big flat-bottomed boats, capable of carrying cannon, and used for coast defence.

_Notre-Dame de la Garde_, a sanctuary at Marseilles.

_Palma_, a town in Majorca.

APRÈS LA BATAILLE.

Victor Hugo's father was an officer in the army of the great Napoleon and fought in Spain as a general, but nothing is known of this incident except what is here told.

_Caramba_ (Spanish), a colloquial interjection, implying surprise and astonishment.

LE CRAPAUD.

To Hugo ugliness was as much a subject for pity as degradation or misery. Compare the following passage from _Les Contemplations: Ce que dit la Bouche d'Ombre_:--

Pleurez sur les laideurs et les ignominies. Pleurez sur l'araignée immonde, sur le ver, Sur la limace au dos mouillé comme l'hiver, Sur le vil puceron qu'on voit aux feuilles pendre, Sur le crabe hideux, sur l'affreux scolopendre, Sur l'effrayant crapaud, pauvre monstre aux doux yeux, Qui regarde toujours le ciel mystérieux.

For Hugo's feeling for the brute creation, see _Dieu: L'Ange._

_Augustules_. The last Emperor of Rome, Romulus, was given by the people the derisive nickname of Augustulus, or 'the little Augustus'. The capture of Ravenna in his reign by Odoacer marks the end of the Western Empire.

_vermeils_. See note on AYMERILLOT, 1. 35.

_miroitait_, glittered with light.

_farouche_, hard, cruel.

_fauve_, wild, shy. See note on ÉVIRADNUS, 1. 529.

1. 103. A difficult expression. Apparently it refers to the harsh grating of the wheel against the side of the rut.

_connivence_: the complicity of the burden upon his back with his master in keeping the ass in a straight course.

I. 134. i.e. the sad and melancholy, such as the ass, are equal to the angels, if they feel pity.

LES PAUVRES GENS. (PAGE 110.)

_musoir_, the head of a pier or jetty.

_vertes couleuvres._ The serpent appealed to Hugo's poetic instinct, and he saw its shape and its glitter in many natural objects. Compare the following passages, for most of which I am indebted to Edmond Huguet's _Métaphores et comparaisons dans l'oeuvre de Victor Hugo_:

La ronce, le serpent, tord sur lui ses anneaux. (_Eviradnus_, 1. 98.)

On voyait sur ses ponts des rouleaux de cordages Monstrueux, qui semblaient des boas endormis. (_Pleine Mer_, ll. 125-6.)

Ce sinistre vaisseau les aidait dans leur oeuvre. Lourd comme le dragon, prompt comme la couleuvre. (_Ibid._ 11. 116-17.)

L'ail voyait sur la plage amie Briller ses eaux, Comme une couleuvre endormie Dans les roseaux. (_Dernière gerbe._)

Par instants, dans cette profondeur vertigineuse, une lueur apparaissait et serpentait vaguement, l'eau ayant cette puissance, dans la nuit la plus complète, de prendre la lumière on ne sait où et de la changer en couleuvre. (_Les Misérables._)

Là, c'est le régiment, ce serpent de batailles Trainant sur mille pieds ses luisantes écailles. (_Les Voix Intérieures._)

J'ai vu au loin comme un long serpent de brume avec des écailles de soleil çà et là posé sur l'horizon... C'était l'Angleterre.-- _France et Belgique._

Dans ses flancs ténébreux, nuit et jour, en rampant Elle (_la terre_) sent se plonger la racine, serpent Qui s'abreuve aux ruisseaux des sèves toujours prêtes. (_Souvenirs d'Enfance._)

_cape_, a cloak with hood, with which women protect their head and shoulders. Used in Modern French only in a few provinces, except in certain phrases such as _sous cape_, 'secretly'. The word is the same as the English 'cape'.

_C'est la marine! Marine_ is often used as a nickname, as we say in English 'Jack'. On the French coast the word is often familiarly used in speaking to a man who is or has been a sailor, e.g. _Dis-donc, la marine! Tiens, voilá la marine!_ In this case it means 'Here am I!'

_bonnet de forçat_, 'woollen cap worn by convicts and also by fishermen.'

_chiffon_: used colloquially for a child, especially for a little girl.

PLEINE MER. (PAGE 118.)

_Analysis._ The vision of a gigantic derelict vessel on a boundless sea. This is the old world, the past of grandeur and horror.

In the nineteenth century a monster warship was built on the Thames, type of the spirit of that age. It carried two thousand guns; its topmast was higher than St. Paul's; now it has become this derelict.

The old world was subject to many plagues and scourges. Its moving spirit was Hatred, its characteristic, Division. Race strove with race; vice, ignorance, superstition, cruelty prevailed.

Now the old world has vanished, the ship is deserted. What has become of man? Look upwards!

_cachalot_. The cachalot or sperm-whale is one of the largest cetaceans, often attaining a length of more than 80 ft.

_le grand mât_, the mainmast.

_déferle_ (of a wave), 'breaks.'

l.38. See the remarks, in the Introduction, on Hugo's treatment of shadows.

_étrave_, the stern of a vessel.

_étambot_, the stern-post.

l.53. The vessel pitches as she meets the waves (_le tangage qui brave_); the rolling throws up most foam (_le roulis qui fume_).

_éclat_, splinter.

_fauve_, savage, barbarous. See note on ÉVIRADNUS.

_Le dernier siècle_. "Pleine Mer" and "Plein Ciel" form a section of the _Légende_, entitled _Vingtiérne Siècle_.

_sur la Tamise_. Hugo was hostile to England. He regarded the British Empire as one of the two great dominions the shadow of which was oppressing the world in the middle of the nineteenth century, the other being Russia. England embodied "l'esprit de commerce, de ruse et d'aventure". He developed this theme with a nervous and forcible eloquence, if not with great political insight, in _Le Rhin: Conclusion_ (published in 1842).

_portemanteaux_, davits, on which the boats are slung.

_grelin_, a hawser or warp.

_palans_, tackle for raising heavy weights; block and pulley.

_amure_, rope by means of which the lower corners of a sail are held, 'tack.'

_se le passaient_, passed it along, i.e. the ship.

_Nemrod_. Nimrod is in Hugo the incarnation of the spirit of war. Cf. especially _La Fin de Satan: Le Glaive_.

_pavois_, as a naval term, 'bulwarks.'

_vrille_, gimlet. The conception is of some immense spiked ram.

_alcoran_, the Koran. _Al_ is the Arabic definite article.

L. 191 refers to the texts in the Koran which order the death of those who do not accept Mahometanism.

_simoun_, simoon, the hot wind of the Sahara.

PLEIN CIEL.

_Analysis_.

The vision of a ship in the sky. What is it? It is man, who has burst the bonds that held him to earth and risen into the clouds. It is matter soaring through the heavens.

First lyrical passage. The passage of the ship through the sky.

Description of the life in the ship; the absence of arms; the feeling of power and joy. Description of the ship's movement.

Second lyrical passage. The voyage amongst the stars.

Whither will man go? He has thrown off his oid nature, his past history is buried, he aspires to immortality.

Third lyrical passage. Is man to reach Heaven without death?

No, man must remain man, but the weight has been taken from his feet. War has vanished; man is good and just.

Fourth lyrical passage. The ship is moving towards Virtue, Knowledge, Right, Reason, Brotherhood, Justice and Love, and is carrying with it man, who will find liberty and unity in the light.

_La Fable_, i.e. the myth of Aeolus.

_Eole_. Aeolus was the god of the Winds, which he kept fastened up in a bag.

_fausse clef_, skeleton key.

_fatal_, 'charged with destiny.'

_pesanteur_. Not 'weight' but 'the force of gravity'.

_Nadir_ is the point in the heavens which would be reached if a line were drawn through the centre of the earth and carried on till it reached the sky. But here it seems to be used loosely for any distant point in the heavens. The meaning is that from a remote distance the round earth, as it came into view beneath the ship, would have the appearance of a dusky comet.

_aéroscaphe_. A word once proposed, but never widely accepted, as a designation for an airship. It is derived from the Greek _aer_ (air) and _skaphe_ (a vessel).

_humaine_, i.e. made by man.

_treuil_, 'windlass.'

_moufle_, 'block.'

_moteur_, 'driving power.'

L. 171. i.e. by mathematics and poetry, that is by reason and imagination combined.

_Euler_ was a Swiss geometrician (1707-83) who made great contributions to mathematics and mechanics.

_Délos_. Tradition says that Delos in the Aegean Sea was once a wandering island, and that Zeus fastened it down that it might be a home for Latona, who was about to give birth to Apollo and Diana.

_Leibniz_ (English Leibnitz), the German mathematician, chemist, and philosopher (1646-1716).

_Fulton_, the American inventor (1765-1815), who was one of the first mechanicians to construct a steamboat.

_Képler_. The German Kepler (1571-1630) was one of the founders of modern astronomy.

These three men are chosen as typical embodiments of the spirit of progress.

_Simoun_. See note on PLEINE MER.

_mistral_. In the South of France the north-east wind is so called.

_Sous le renversement de l'urne_. The urn is the symbol of that 'Fatalité' which to Hugo was the dark shadow over human life. Cf. LA TROMPETTE.

Andromeda, Orion, and the Pleiades are well-known constellations. Arcturus is a star of the first magnitude in Bootes.

The Scorpion and the Archer are next each other in the heavens. The lines express in a somewhat bizarre manner the effect of the outpouring of life on the stars.

_Aldebaran_, a reddish star of the first magnitude in the constellation of Taurus.

_Céphée_. Cepheus is the name of a constellation, as also is Perseus.

_des espaces vermeils_. See note on AYMERILLOT.

L. 232. _Zoroastre_. Zoroaster was the founder of the Persian religion. He was a great observer of the stars.

L. 245. _Fatalité_. In Victor Hugo the word denotes, not so much destiny, as the feeling or the doctrine that man is the helpless victim of an unseen and cruel power. It is a gloom which overhangs human life, from which in the progress of the ages man will be delivered. Compare _La Vision d'où sortit ce livre_, where the spirit of 'Fatalité' is associated with paganism and contrasted with the spirit of religion. In _Dieu_ again 'Fatalité' is one of the three sombre deities of paganism, the other two being Venus, the goddess of pleasure, and Hecate, the goddess of death. Cf. also the following lines from _La Fin de Satan_, put into the mouth of man's evil angel:--

Je suis Lilith-Isis, l'âme noire du monde. Tremble! l'être inconnu, funeste, illimité, Que l'homme en frémissant nomme Fatalité, C'est moi. Tremble! Ananké, c'est moi. Tremble! Le voile C'est moi.

And again in Satan's speech to the Almighty:--

Tu seras Providence et moi Fatalité.

_Notre-Dame de Paris_ is based upon this theme. See especially