LA TROMPETTE DU JUGEMENT
Je vis dans la nuée un clairon monstrueux.
Et ce clairon semblait, au seuil profond des cieux,
Calme, attendre le souffle immense de l'archange.
Ce qui jamais ne meurt, ce qui jamais ne change,
L'entourait. A travers un frisson, on sentait
Que ce buccin fatal, qui rêve et qui se tait,
Quelque part, dans l'endroit où l'on crée, où l'on sème,
Avait été forgé par quelqu'un de suprême
Avec de l'équité condensée en airain.
Il était là, lugubre, effroyable, serein.
Il gisait sur la brume insondable qui tremble,
Hors du monde, au delà de tout ce qui ressemble
A la forme de quoi que ce soit.
Il vivait.
Il semblait un réveil songeant près d'un chevet.
Oh! quelle nuit! là, rien n'a de contour ni d'âge;
Et le nuage est spectre, et le spectre est nuage.
Et c'était le clairon de l'abîme.
Une voix
Un jour en sortira qu'on entendra sept fois.
En attendant, glacé, mais écoutant, il pense;
Couvant le châtiment, couvant la récompense;
Et toute l'épouvante éparse au ciel est soeur
De cet impénétrable et morne avertisseur.
Je le considérais dans les vapeurs funèbres
Comme on verrait se taire un coq dans les ténèbres.
Pas un murmure autour du clairon souverain.
Et la terre sentait le froid de son airain,
Quoique, là, d'aucun monde on ne vît les frontières.
Et l'immobilité de tous les cimetières,
Et le sommeil de tous les tombeaux, et la paix
De tous les morts couchés dans la fosse, étaient faits
Du silence inouï qu'il avait dans la bouche;
Ce lourd silence était pour l'affreux mort farouche
L'impossibilité de faire faire un pli
Au suaire cousu sur son front par l'oubli.
Ce silence tenait en suspens l'anathème.
On comprenait que tant que ce clairon suprême
Se tairait, le sépulcre, obscur, roidi, béant,
Garderait l'attitude horrible du néant,
Que la momie aurait toujours sa bandelette,
Que l'homme irait tombant du cadavre au squelette,
Et que ce fier banquet radieux, ce festin
Que les vivants gloutons appellent le destin,
Toute la joie errante en tourbillons de fêtes,
Toutes les passions de la chair satisfaites,
Gloire, orgueil, les héros ivres, les tyrans soûls,
Continueraient d'avoir pour but, et pour dessous,
La pourriture, orgie offerte aux vers convives;
Mais qu'à l'heure où soudain, dans l'espace sans rives,
Cette trompette vaste et sombre sonnerait,
On verrait, comme un tas d'oiseaux d'une forêt,
Toutes les âmes, cygne, aigle, éperviers, colombes,
Frémissantes, sortir du tremblement des tombes,
Et tous les spectres faire un bruit de grandes eaux,
Et se dresser, et prendre à la hâte leurs os,
Tandis qu'au fond, au fond du gouffre, au fond du rêve
Blanchissant l'absolu, comme un jour qui se lève,
Le front mystérieux du juge apparaîtrait.
Ce clairon avait l'air de savoir le secret.
On sentait que le râle énorme de ce cuivre
Serait tel qu'il ferait bondir, vibrer, revivre
L'ombre, le plomb, le marbre, et qu'à ce fatal glas
Toutes les surdités voleraient en éclats;
Que l'oubli sombre avec sa perte de mémoire
Se lèverait au son de la trompette noire;
Que dans cette clameur étrange, en même temps
Qu'on entendrait frémir tous les cieux palpitants,
On entendrait crier toutes les consciences;
Que le sceptique au fond de ses insouciances,
Que le voluptueux, l'athée et le douteur,
Et le maître tombé de toute sa hauteur,
Sentiraient ce fracas traverser leurs vertèbres;
Que ce déchirement céleste des ténèbres
Ferait dresser quiconque est soumis à l'arrêt;
Que qui n'entendit pas le remords, l'entendrait;
Et qu'il réveillerait, comme un choc à la porte,
L'oreille la plus dure et l'âme la plus morte,
Même ceux qui, livrés au rire, aux vains, combats,
Aux vils plaisirs, n'ont point tenu compte ici-bas
Des avertissements de l'ombre et du mystère,
Même ceux que n'a point réveillés sur la terre
Le tonnerre, ce coup de cloche de la nuit!
Oh! dans l'esprit de l'homme où tout vacille et fuit,
Où le verbe n'a pas un mot qui ne bégaie,
Où l'aurore apparaît, hélas! comme une plaie,
Dans cet esprit, tremblant dès qu'il ose augurer,
Oh! comment concevoir, comment se figurer
Cette vibration communiquée aux tombes,
Cette sommation aux blêmes catacombes
Du ciel ouvrant sa porte et du gouffre ayant faim,
Le prodigieux bruit de Dieu disant: Enfin!
Oui, c'est vrai,—c'est du moins jusque-là que l'oeil plonge,—
C'est l'avenir,—du moins tel qu'on le voit en songe;—
Quand le monde atteindra son but, quand les instants,
Les jours, les mois, les ans, auront rempli le temps,
Quand tombera du ciel l'heure immense et nocturne,
Cette goutte qui doit faire déborder l'urne,
Alors, dans le silence horrible, un rayon blanc,
Long, pâle, glissera, formidable et tremblant,
Sur ces haltes de nuit qu'on nomme cimetières;
Les tentes frémiront, quoiqu'elles soient des pierres,
Dans tous ces sombres camps endormis; et, sortant
Tout à coup de la brume où l'univers l'attend,
Ce clairon, au-dessus des êtres et des choses,
Au-dessus des forfaits et des apothéoses,
Des ombres et des os, des esprits et des corps,
Sonnera la diane effrayante des morts.
O lever en sursaut des larves pêle-mêle!
Oh! la Nuit réveillant la Mort, sa soeur jumelle!
Pensif, je regardais l'incorruptible airain.
Les volontés sans loi, les passions sans frein,
Toutes les actions de tous les êtres, haines,
Amours, vertus, fureurs, hymnes, cris, plaisirs, peines,
Avaient laissé, dans l'ombre où rien ne remuait,
Leur pâle empreinte autour de ce bronze muet;
Une obscure Babel y tordait sa spirale.
Sa dimension vague, ineffable, spectrale,
Sortant de l'éternel, entrait dans l'absolu.
Pour pouvoir mesurer ce tube, il eût fallu
Prendre la toise au fond du rêve, et la coudée
Dans la profondeur trouble et sombre de l'idée;
Un de ses bouts touchait le bien, l'autre le mal;
Et sa longueur allait de l'homme à l'animal,
Quoiqu'on ne vît point là d'animal et point d'homme;
Couché sur terre, il eût joint Ëden à Sodome.
Son embouchure, gouffre où plongeait mon regard,
Cercle de l'inconnu ténébreux et hagard,
Pleine de cette horreur que le mystère exhale,
M'apparaissait ainsi qu'une offre colossale
D'entrer dans l'ombre où Dieu même est évanoui.
Cette gueule, avec l'air d'un redoutable ennui,
Morne, s'élargissait sur l'homme et la nature,
Et cette épouvantable et muette ouverture
Semblait le bâillement noir de l'éternité.
Au fond de l'immanent et de l'illimité,
Parfois, dans les lointains sans nom de l'Invisible,
Quelque chose tremblait de vaguement terrible,
Et brillait et passait, inexprimable éclair.
Toutes les profondeurs des mondes avait l'air
De méditer, dans l'ombre où l'ombre se répète,
L'heure où l'on entendrait de cette âpre trompette
Un appel aussi long que l'infini jaillir.
L'immuable semblait d'avance en tressaillir.
Des porches de l'abîme, antres hideux, cavernes
Que nous nommons enfers, puits, gehennams, avernes,
Bouches d'obscurité qui ne prononcent rien;
Du vide où ne flottait nul souffle aérien;
Du silence où l'haleine osait à peine éclore,
Ceci se dégageait pour l'âme: Pas encore.
Par instants, dans ce lieu triste comme le soir,
Comme on entend le bruit de quelqu'un qui vient voir,
On entendait le pas boiteux de la justice;
Puis cela s'effaçait. Des vermines, le vice,
Le crime, s'approchaient; et, fourmillement noir,
Fuyaient. Le clairon sombre ouvrait son entonnoir.
Un groupe d'ouragans dormait dans ce cratère,
Comme cet organum des gouffres doit se taire
Jusqu'au jour monstrueux où nous écarterons
Les clous de notre bière au-dessus de nos fronts,
Nul bras ne le touchait dans l'invisible sphère;
Chaque race avait fait sa couche de poussière
Dans l'orbe sépulcral de son évasement;
Sur cette poudre l'oeil lisait confusément
Ce mot: RIEZ, écrit par le doigt d'Épicure;
Et l'on voyait, au fond de la rondeur obscure,
La toile d'araignée horrible de Satan.
Des astres qui passaient murmuraient: 'Souviens-t'en!
Prie!' et la nuit portait cette parole à l'ombre.
Et je ne sentais plus ni le temps ni le nombre.
Une sinistre main sortait de l'infini.
Vers la trompette, effroi de tout crime impuni,
Qui doit faire à la mort un jour lever la tête,
Elle pendait énorme, ouverte, et comme prête
A saisir ce clairon qui se tait dans la nuit,
Et qu'emplit le sommeil formidable du bruit.
La main, dans la nuée et hors de l'Invisible,
S'allongeait A quel être était-elle? Impossible
De le dire, en ce morne et brumeux firmament.
L'oeil dans l'obscurité ne voyait clairement
Que les cinq doigts béants de cette main terrible;
Tant l'être, quel qu'il fût, debout dans l'ombre horrible,
—Sans doute, quelque archange ou quelque séraphin
Immobile, attendant le signe de la fin,—
Plongeait profondément, sous les ténébreux voiles,
Du pied dans les enfers, du front dans les étoiles!
FIN
NOTES
LA CONSCIENCE.
It has been thought that the subject of this poem was suggested to Victor Hugo by a passage in Les tragiques, a satirical poem in seven books, depicting the misfortunes and vices of France, written by Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné (1551-1630), whom Sainte-Beuve calls the Juvenal of the sixteenth century. The passage relating to Cain occurs in the sixth book, called Les Vengeances. The following extracts indicate the spirit in which the author dealt with his theme.
Il avoit peur de tout, et il avoit peur de lui
. . . . . . .
La mort ne put avoir de mort pour récompense:
L'Enfer n'eut point de morts à punir cette offense;
Mais autant de jours il sentit de trespas:
Vif, il ne vescut point; mort, il ne mourut pas.
Il fuit d'effroi transi, troublé, tremblant et blesme,
Il fuit de tout le monde, il s'enfuit de soy-mesme
. . . . . . .
Il possedoit le monde et non une asseurance;
Il estoit seul partout, hors mis sa conscience,
Et fut marqué au front affin qu'en s'enfuiant
Aucun n'osast tuer ses maux en le tuant.
It is clear that if the poem suggested the subject to Hugo it suggested nothing else.
With Caïn may be compared Le Parricide, one of the 1859 series, which is also inspired by the theme of the guilty conscience pursuing the murderer. In this case remorse is symbolized by a drop of blood which falls upon the head of the criminal wherever he goes.
Assur, English Asshur; the name occurs in the marginal rendering of Gen. x. II (Revised Version).
The names of persons and their descriptions are taken from the account of Cain's descendants in Gen. iv. 17-23.
Jabel, English Jabal, son of Lamech, a descendant of Cain and Adah. 'He was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle.'
Tsilla, English Zillah, one of Lamech's wives.
Jubal, the brother of Jabal. 'He was the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe.'
Hénoch, English Enoch, Cain's son.
Tubalcaïn, English Tubal-cain, the son of Lamech and his wife Zillah. He was 'the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron.'
Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, and
Énos was the son of Seth.
PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ.
Iblis, one of the names used in the Koran for the Spirit of Evil. He was a spirit who refused to prostrate himself before Adam at the command of the Almighty, and was therefore expelled from Eden. Instead of being immediately destroyed, however, he was given a respite till the Day of Judgement. The word is derived from the Arabic balas, wicked.
Another tradition, not found in the Koran, is that Iblis was a warrior angel whom the Almighty sent to exterminate the Djinns, the beings, half men, half angels, who inhabited the country of the Genii. Instead of performing this command, the spirit rebelled and was cast down into hell. It is hardly necessary to add that Hugo's story is of his own invention.
Bonté (see heading), one of Hugo's favourite words for expressing the moral attributes of the Almighty power. The theme that God is goodness, which is more than justice, is developed in Dieu: La Lumière.
La justice, c'est vous, l'humanité; mais Dieu
Est la bonté.
Compare also the concluding lines of Le Crapaud.
The word has no exact equivalent in English. It comprehends kindness, tenderness, and gentleness.
It may be interesting to note that Hugo was fond of comparing an object composed of a centre and rays to a spider. Edmond Huguet (Les Sens de la Forme dans les Métaphores de Victor Hugo) gives the following examples:
'De la hauteur où je suis, la rade pleine de nacelles (à
quatre rames) figure une mare couverte d'araignées d'eau.'
(Alpes et Pyrénées.)
'Nous estimons une araignée chose hideuse et nous sommes
ravis de retrouver sa toile en rosace sur les façades des
cathédrales, et son corps et ses pattes en clef de voûte dans
les chapelles.' (France et Belgique.)
'Les lanternes de ce temps-là ressemblaient à de grosses
étoiles rouges pendues à des cordes, et jetaient sur le
pavé une ombre qui avait la forme d'une grande araignée.'
(Les Misérables.)
Rostabat prend pour fronde, ayant Roland pour cible,
Un noir grappin qui semble une araignée horrible.
(La Légende des Siècles, Le Petit Roi de Galice.)
'Trois ou quatre larges araignées de pluie s'écrasèrent
Autour de lui sur la roche.' (Les Travailleurs de la Mer.)
Hugo appears to have had a feeling of antipathy for the spider and frequently chose it as the symbol of evil. In Dieu: Le Corbeau, the spirits of good and evil are thus described:—
L'un est l'Esprit de vie, au vol d'aigle, aux yeux d'astre,
Qui rayonne, crée, aime, illumine, construit;
Et l'autre est l'araignée énorme de la nuit.
In La Fin de Satan, of the days before the Flood,
Depuis longtemps l'azur perdait ses purs rayons,
Et par instants semblait plein de hideuses toiles
Où l'araignée humaine avait pris les étoiles.
And of Ignatius Loyola,
Sombre araignée à qui Dieu, pour tisser sa toile,
Donnait des fils d'aurore et des rayons d'étoile.
Compare also:—
La toile d'araignée horrible de Satan.
(La Trompette du Jugement.)
In other passages the spider is a type of the unpleasant.
La nuit, qui sert de fond au guet mystérieux
Du hibou promenant la rondeur de ses yeux,
Ainsi qu'à l'araignée ouvrant ses pâles toiles.
(La Confiance du Marquis Fabrice.)
See also the passage from La Bouche d'Ombre, quoted in the notes to Le Crapaud.
BOOZ ENDORMI.
The subject of this exquisite little idyll is taken from the Book of Ruth, chapter iii, in which Ruth the Moabitess is described as lying at the feet of Boaz, the kinsman of her dead husband, Mahlon the Hebrew, in order that she might claim from him that he should marry her and continue the family of Mahlon, as provided by the law of Moses.
Judith. There was a Judith, daughter of Beer the Hittite, one of the wives of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 34). Hugo may or may not have had this personage in his mind.
asphodèle. Hugo is not always accurate in his local colouring. Asphodels are not found in Palestine.
Galgala, the form found in the Septuagint and Vulgate of the place-name Gilgal.
Les grelots des troupeaux. Here, again, Hugo is inaccurate. Sheep in Palestine do not have bells attached to them.
Jérimadeth. The name seems to be of Hugo's own invention. It was a trick of the poet's to make proper names suit the exigencies of rime, as in this instance, in which 'Jérimadeth rimes with' demandait.
AU LION D'ANDROCLÈS.
It is impossible to name the period to which Hugo is referring in this poem more precisely than by saying that it is the age of Rome under the Empire. As will be seen from the notes, the personages and events alluded to are not all contemporaneous. It was enough for Hugo that they were typical of the Roman decadence.
Trimalcion. The festival of Trimalcion is an episode in the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter, the poem in which are described all the excesses of Roman luxury and debauchery. Petronius Arbiter lived in the time of Claudius.
Lesbie. Hugo is guilty of one of his inaccuracies here. Lesbia was the lady to whom the poems of Catullus (87-47 B.C.?) were addressed, while Delia, who is mentioned below in connexion with Catullus, was in reality the mistress of Tibullus (54 B.C.-19 A.D.).
Crassus. Hugo no doubt refers to M. Licinius Crassus (died 53 B.C.), the Triumvir, who, when praetor, led an army against the revolted gladiators under Spartacus. He twice defeated them and subsequently crucified or hung, along the road from Capua to Rome, six thousand slaves who had been taken prisoners.
Épaphrodite. Epaphroditus, a freedman and favourite of the Emperor Nero, was the master of Epictetus, the lame slave and Stoic philosopher, who was amongst the greatest of pagan moralists. Epaphroditus, who treated his slave with great cruelty, is said to have been one day twisting his leg for amusement. Epictetus said, 'If you continue, you will break my leg.' Epaphroditus went on, the leg was broken, and Epictetus only said, 'Did I not tell you that you would break it?'
Hugo seems to have in mind the short reigns of Galba (r. A.D. 68-9), Otho (r. A.D. 69), and Vitellius (r. A.D. 69), all of whom perished by violence.
Vitellius was famous even among the later Romans for his gluttony and voracious appetite. During the four months of his reign he is said to have spent seven millions sterling on the pleasures of his table. When at last the people rose against him, and the soldiers proclaimed another emperor, Vitellius was found hiding in his palace. He was dragged out into the Forum and killed on the Gemoniae (les Gémonies), a staircase which went up the Capitoline Hill and on which the corpses of criminals were exposed before being thrown into the Tiber. This is the Escalier referred to in the next line.
L. 57. These tortures were not known in Rome. They suggest rather the Middle Ages.
le cirque. The circus where chariot-races took place. Hugo seems to be confusing it with the Colosseum, where the gladiatorial combats were fought.
Le noir gouffre cloaque. The Cloaca Maxima was the great sewer of Rome. It is still in existence and in use. Hugo here first makes it the symbol of the destruction towards which the Roman Empire was tending, and then treats it half as a concrete reality, half as a figure for some underworld in which dethroned but living emperors meet. This blending of the symbol and the thing symbolized is characteristic of the poet.
chiffres du fatal nombre: the figures or digits that stand for the doomed number, i.e. the number with which a doomed man is marked.
Attila, the famous king of the Huns, 'the Scourge of God' as he was called, reigned A.D. 434-53.
LE MARIAGE DE ROLAND.
The poem is founded on the 'Chanson de Girart de Viane,' one of the Carolingian cycles of epic poems, written by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, a poet of Champagne who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century.
The story, as told in the Chanson, is as follows:—
Girard, or Girart, the son of Garin of Montglave, a poor nobleman, goes with his brother Renier to the court of Charlemagne to seek his fortune. After being at court for some time he quarrelled with the Emperor, owing to the latter marrying the widow of Aubery, duc de Bourgogne, who was pledged to Girart. As a compensation for the loss of his bride, he was given the Comté of Vienne, in Dauphiné. When he presented himself before Charlemagne to do homage, the queen, whose affection for her old lover had changed to contempt, forced him by a trick to kiss her foot instead of that of her husband. Some time after, Girart learnt the truth, and, furious at the insult placed upon him, he rebelled against his sovereign. Renier, who had been made duke of Genoa, with his son Olivier and his daughter 'la belle Aude,' came to help him. Charlemagne besieged Vienne with a great army, and amongst his warriors was his nephew Roland, who was his principal champion, just as Olivier was that of Girart. A siege, like that of Troy, ensued, many doughty deeds being done by the two heroes. In the course of the fighting Roland sees Aude and falls in love with her. He takes her prisoner, and almost succeeds in carrying her off to his tent, but Olivier rescues her. Finally, it is agreed that the quarrel between the monarch and his vassal shall be settled by a duel between the two champions. Needless to say, the latter fall in readily with the proposal. Olivier is armed by an aged Jew, Joachim, who with others of his nation had fled to Vienne with Pontius Pilate after the Crucifixion, and had not yet succeeded in dying. The combat takes place in an island in the Rhone, and la Belle Aude, with mingled feelings, watches from a window her brother and her lover contending for victory. The struggle is full of tremendous incident. At the outset each of the champions cuts the horse of the other in two and the fight is continued on foot. Olivier's sword is broken, and Roland invites him to send for another and take a little rest and refreshment. A boatman goes to Vienne and procures from the old Jew a famous sword, called Hauteclere, and some wine. The fight is renewed and lasts till nightfall, when an angel descends from heaven, and orders the two heroes to be reconciled and to fight together against the Saracens. The warriors embrace and Olivier promises Roland the hand of his sister. Such was the beginning of the friendship of the two mighty champions of Christendom.
Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the story, but on a modern prose adaptation by Achille Jubinal which appeared in Le Journal du Dimanche in 1846. Léon Gautier indeed, in Les Épopées françaises, says: `Victor Hugo s'est proposé de traduire notre vieux poème, dont il avait sans doute quelque texte sous les yeux.' But it is clear from the mistake about the word Closamont and other details that Gautier was mistaken and that the source from which Hugo drew was Jubinal's reproduction.
Hugo omitted from his adaptation two incidents of great poetic interest, namely, the picture of Aude watching the fight, and the miraculous intervention of the angel. He has, on the other hand, inserted the barbaric incident of the fight with trees. He has eliminated, that is to say, the tender and the religious elements from the story and made it simply the narrative of a Homeric combat, with more than a touch of the grotesque. Nevertheless, he has retained the characteristic incident of the chivalrous behaviour of Roland in sending for a new sword for his enemy and in giving him time for rest, a trait which finds a parallel in many other Chansons, notably in the story of the battle of Roland with Ferragus, a Saracen giant. When Ferragus is worn out with fighting, Roland watches over him while he sleeps, and on his awakening enters into a theological discussion with him in the hope of converting him to Christianity. When this pious desire fails, the combat is renewed.
Saint Michael is described in Rev. xii. 7-9 as fighting against Satan and casting him out of heaven.
Hugo is mistaken in his description of Olivier, who was not lord of Vienne and a sovereign count, but only the son of Renier, duke of Genoa. The only statement in these two lines which is correct is that his grandfather was Garin.
L. 27. As already noted, in the original story it is an aged Jew who arms Olivier for the fight.
Rollon (English Rollo) was the Norse pirate who invaded France in A.D. 912 and founded the Duchy of Normandy. The reference to him is of course an anachronism.
estoc (c pronounced), a long narrow sword used for thrusting.
cimier (from Latin cyma, the young sprout of a cabbage), the crest on the helmet.
Roland's sword, Durandal, which was given him by Charlemagne, plays the same part in the French Chansons as Siegfried's sword Balmung in the Nibelunglied, or Excalibur in the Arthurian cycle. Other forms of the name are Durendas, Durrenda, Durandarda.
en franc neveu du roi, like a real or genuine nephew of the king.
Tournon, a town situated on the right bank of the Rhone, in the department of Ardèche. It still produces a well-known wine, called Vins de l'Ermitage.
1. 70. Here is a curious mistake, which Jubinal originated and Hugo copied. Closamont was the original possessor of the sword, not another name for the weapon. The lines in the 'Chanson de Girart de Viane' are:—
Une en aporte ke molt fut onoree.
plus de c. anz l'ot li iuis gardee,
Closamont fut, k'iert de grand renommee,
li emperere de Rome la loee.
Sinnagog or Sinnagos was the Saracen king of Alexandria with whose attack on the castle of Garin, Olivier's grandfather, the story of 'Girart de Viane' begins.
1. 144. This is another deviation from tradition, as we have it in the Carolingian cycle. Roland never married Aude. He was still betrothed to her when he fell at Roncesvalles.
AYMERILLOT.
The poem on part of which this is based is an anonymous Chanson written in the thirteenth century and belonging to the cycle known as the cycle of Guillaume.
The story is as follows. Charlemagne is returning from Spain, after the defeat at Roncesvalles, his army discouraged, his knights exhausted, and wishing only to be at home and in comfort. Suddenly he catches sight of a city, surrounded by a crenelated wall, splendid within, with a palace the roofs of which shine in the sun, its feet bathed in the sea, which is covered by the ships of its commerce. Charlemagne wishes to attack it, but the duke of Bavaria advises him to let it alone; it is garrisoned by thousands of pagans and his men are exhausted. The Emperor addresses several of his barons in turn, offering to each the city if he will take it. One and all refuse: Charlemagne upbraids them for their cowardice, bids them go home, and declares he will take the town by himself. Then Hernaut de Beaulande brings forward his son Aimeri, who volunteers to undertake the task. With the aid of one hundred barons he captures the city and is made Count of Narbonne. Hugo has selected the first and the best part of the Chanson for modernization. Léon Gautier (Les Épopeés françaises) says: 'Rien n'égale en majesté le début de ce poème, dont le dénoûment est presque trivial... Rien de plus ennuyeux que le récit de tant de combats contre les Sarrasins; rien de plus attachant que le tableau de ce grand désespoir de Charlemagne à la vue de Narbonne, dont aucun de ses Barons ne veut entreprendre la conquête. Il n'y a peut-être dans aucune poésie aucun épisode comparable à ce discours de l'Empereur, lorsqu'il crie à tous ses chevaliers: "Ralés vos en, Bourguignon et François...je remenrai ici, à Narbonois." C'est ce qu'a bien compris Victor Hugo, qui a si fidèlement traduit et surpassé encore les beautés du texte original.'
Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the Chanson, but on two prose adaptations written by Achille Jubinal, and published respectively in the Musée des Familles (1843) and the Journal du Dimanche (1846). Yet these stories did little more than furnish the framework for the poem, by far the greater part of which is the original work of Hugo.
à la barbe fleurie, white-bearded. Expression taken from the Chanson. In mediaeval poetry Charlemagne is always described as an old man.
Roncevaux, which we call by the Spanish name Roncesvalles, is the valley in the Pyrenees where Charlemagne's rearguard was attacked and cut to pieces by the Moors during his retreat from Spain.
Ganelon, the knight through whose treachery the defeat of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles was brought about.
les douze pairs. The twelve Paladins of tradition, who formed Charlemagne's Round Table.
L. 6-10. These words are taken almost verbatim from Jubinal's adaptation of the story in the Musée des Familles. Jubinal's words are:
'L'etcheco-sauna (le laboureur des montagnes) est rentré chez lui avec son chien; il a embrassé sa femme et ses enfants. Il a nettoyé ses flèches ainsi que sa corne de boeuf, et les ossements des héros qui ne sont plus blanchissent déjà pour l'éternité.'
In a note Jubinal says: 'Ces paroles sont empruntées au chant basque d'Altabicar.'
Son cheval syrien. In the Chanson Charlemagne rides on a mulet de Sulie (Syrie). Jubinal changed the mule into a horse. This is one of the points of detail which show that Hugo followed the modern author.
L. 25. The city, as we learn subsequently, was Narbonne. Narbonne is on the west coast of the Gulf of Lyons, near the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Originally a Roman colony, it was one of the chief seats of the Visigoths, from whom it was taken by the Saracens, when they overran Southern France. Charlemagne took it from the latter in 759. Till the fourteenth century it was a port, but the sand has blocked up the harbour and the town is now some distance from the sea.
mâchicoulis, battlements; or, more exactly, a gallery round the tower with openings in it from which projectiles could be hurled upon an enemy below.
vermeil. The word is one of Hugo's favourite adjectives, and is used to suggest a bright vivid red, and almost invariably in connexion with objects that have pleasurable associations.
The following are a few typical instances of its use:—
'L'aube vermeille.' (Les Feuilles d'Automne: Madame, autour de vous.)
'Les cônes vermeils' (du palais dans les nuages). (Ibid.: Soleils Couchants.)
'Les beaux rosiers vermeils.' (Les Quatre Vents: L'Immense Étre.)
'Les astres vermeils.' (Ibid.: La Nuit.)
'Aux soirs d'été qu'embrase une clarté vermeille.' (Dieu L'Ange.)
'Les plats bordés de fleurs sont en vermeil: (Eviradnus.)
'Et, vermeille,
Mahaud, en même temps que l'aurore, s'éveille.' (Ibid.)
The word seems to be used without any definite suggestion of colour in such phrases as 'des espaces vermeils' (Plein Ciel), 'quand le satyre fut sur la cime vermeille' (Le Satyre), 'des arbres vermeils' (of trees lit up by the setting sun) (Le Crapaud).
The word is used with a bold extension of meaning in Les Voix Intérieures: A Eugène, where the appetite of boyhood is called 'l'appétit vermeil.'
dromon, mediaeval warship, worked by oars and sail, the ancestor of the galley. The word is also used, as apparently here, for merchantmen.
Béarnais, inhabitant of Béarn, the province in the Pyrenees from which Henri IV came.
Turcs. This is of course a mistake for Saracens or Moors. The word occurs in the original poem, Jubinal copied it, and Hugo copied Jubinal. The original, it maybe noted, had 'trente mille Turcs,' Jubinal cut them down to 'vingt mille.' Hugo's 'vingt mille' is another detail which shows that his poem is based on Jubinal's adaptation.
preux. The Old French adjective meant 'valiant.' At the present time the word is only used in the phrase preux chevalier. Preux as a noun is rare, but de Vigny has 'Charlemagne et ses preux.'
je ne farde guère: I speak without affectation. Farder used absolutely in this way is rare.
rendus: knocked up, overdone.
arbalètes, crossbows.
L. 80, For the metaphor compare the Chanson in Les Châtiments, 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, l 34.
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.
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'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.
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:—