Translators Notes
9 Carte du Tendre. The region of the tender sentiments, as mapped out by Mlle de Scudéry and members of her salon in the era of Louis XIV; she introduced it into her novel Clélie.
17 Pont-Aven. A small town southeast of Concarneau on the south Breton coast, where the river Aven opens out into a tidal estuary. Here an innovative school of painting acquired prominence in the last decade of the nineteenth century; its leading light was Paul Gauguin.
22 Médor. Roughly the equivalent of “Rover” for us; apparently comes from Medoro, the faithful Moor lover of Angelica, in Ariosto’s poem Orlando Furioso (1532).
29 Ys. A legendary city buried on the seabed off Finistère. The city had stood by the water’s edge, protected by a dike. Now the dike included floodgates to which none but the king held the key, but one night the king’s daughter stole the key when her father was asleep and opened these gates, leaving the city — and her own lover — engulfed. On certain clear mornings, so the legend tells, the cathedral can be seen breaking the surface of the water. The legend inspired Lalo’s opera Le Roi d’Ys and Debussy’s piano prelude La Cathédrale Engloutie.
32 Procopius. Early sixth-century Byzantine historian. His work includes an account of wars waged by the Emperor Justinian the Great against the Ostrogoths and Vandals.
35 Anne of Brittany. Anne (1477–1514) inherited the dukedom of Brittany at the age of twelve and later defended its independence. In 1491 she married Charles VIII of France. He died in 1498, and in the next year she married Louis XII. This marriage “confirmed the union of Brittany and France,” although the region was only finally incorporated into France in 1532 by François I, Anne’s son-in-law.
38 Jeanne Hachette. Fifteenth-century heroine who was in the forefront of the defense of Beauvais when it was under siege by Charles the Bold. Her weapon was an axe.
38 Sully. Maximilien de Bethune, Due de Sully (15 59-1641), Superin-tendant of Finance under Henri IV, decreased taxation and reformed the corrupt system of collection. He declared that “Plowing and grazing are the two breasts of France.”
38 The Battle of Fontenoy. Fought in 1745 near Tournai in Belgium during the War of the Austrian Succession, by the English and Dutch under the Duke of Cumberland against the Franco-Irish forces commanded by Marshal Saxe. At a crucial moment “the English officers saluted and called out to the French, Tire, gentlemen!’ ‘No, Sir, after you!’ replied Count d’Auteroche (following Marshal Saxe’s orders).” So the English did fire first, but they nevertheless lost the battle.
38 The Bridge of Areola. Located in Italy, province of Verona, on the river Alpone. After a difficult victory over the Austrians, Napoleon, flag in hand, led the assault on the Bridge of Areola on November 15,1796.