Rameau's Nephew and First Satire (Oxford World's Classics) (23 page)

Zara
: Palissot’s play
Zarès
was a failure when it was first performed at the Comédie-Française in 1751.

Le Faux généreux
: Bret’s play
L’Orpheline ou le Faux Généreux (The Orphan, or the False Benefactor
) played for only five perfomances at the Comédie-Française in January 1758. The work is exactly contemporary with Diderot’s play
Le Père de famille (The Father of a Family
), and the two men felt themselves to be in competition, especially since the plots of the two plays were somewhat similar.

Les Philosophes
: Palissot’s comedy
Les Philosophes
was first performed at the Comédie-Française in May 1760; it ran for fourteen consecutive performances, a success for the period. The play satirizes the philosophes, and Diderot in particular.

the lady theologian
: reference to a play by the Jesuit Bougeant satirizing the Jansenists:
La Femme Docteur ou la Théologie janséniste tombée en quenouille
(
The Lady Doctor, or Jansenist Theology Fallen into Female Hands
, 1731).

L’Avare … Tartuffe
: Molière’s comedies
L’Avare (The Miser
, 1668) and
Tartuffe
(1664) were in the repertoire of the Comédie-Française at this time, and already well established as classics.

Opéra-Comique
: the Opéra-Comique was formed by the merger in 1759 of the Théâtre de la Foire and the Théâtre des Boulevards; in 1762 it absorbed the Comédie-Italienne.

L’Avant-Coureur … Le Censeur hebdomadaire
: these are all journals known for being hostile to the philosophes.

qui siedo … due coglioni
: ‘I’m sitting here always like a monstrous dick between two bollocks’; it was common practice to cloak obscenity in Italian.

Messer Gaster
: jokey name for the stomach, taken from Rabelais (
Quart Livre
, ch. 57).

per fas et nefas
: (Lat.) ‘come what may.’

dangerous scoundrels ever
: the play in question is Helvétius’s
L’Homme dangereux
, refused by the Comédie-Française in 1770, and finally performed in 1782.

Bertinhus
: a nickname for Bertin, in which the name of his mistress is conflated with a pseudo-Latin ending
-us
.

equal… in the sky
: Genesis 15: 4–6.

san-benito … in readiness
: the philosophes regarded the Inquisition and its practice of the auto-da-fé, in which ‘heretics’ were burned at the stake, dressed in a penitent’s gown or
san-benito
, as emblematic of religious intolerance. See, for example, the description of an auto-da-fé in chapter 6 of Voltaire’s
Candide
.

Vivat … imperator
: (Lat.) ‘Long live Mascarille, king of the rogues’; a quotation from Molière’s
L’Étourdi
(11. xi).

‘I’m a poor devil … my treasure’
: these two quotations of songs are imprecisely quoted from Duni’s
L’Ile des fous (The Island of Fools
, 1760), scenes 4 and 9 respectively, where they are sung by the miser Sordide.

‘My heart’s forsaking me’
: aria from the opéra-comique
Maréchal-ferrant
, music by Philidor, performed at the Foire Saint-Laurent in 1761.

musices … source of melody
: expression cited in Capella’s
Artes liberales
(1658).

kick in the pants
: the ‘Querelle des Bouffons’, a struggle between ‘traditional’ French music and ‘new’ Italian music, was triggered when the
Bouffons italiens
were invited to perform at the Opéra (1752–4). It was the performance in Paris of these works of Pergolesi which caused a sensation:
his
Stabat Mater
was performed at the
Concert spirituel
in 1753;
La Serva Padrona (The Servant-Mistress
) was seen in Paris in 1746 and 1752, and it was the performance of this work at the Opéra on 1 May 1753 which ignited the Querelle; his
Tracollo medico ignorante
was also given in Paris in 1753. The philosophes, in particular Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, favoured Italian music over French, as being more natural and more melodic, and more able therefore to imitate the passions; they saw French music, embodied by Rameau, as rigid, rule-bound, and inexpressive.

Tancrède … ran forever
: these are the works typical of the ‘old’ French school which have been displaced by the Italians.
Tancrède
(1702) and
L’Europe galante
(1697) have music by Campra;
Issé
(1697) by Destouches;
Les Indes galantes (The Gallant Indies
, 1735),
Castor et Pollux
(1737) and
Les Talents lyriques ou Les Fêtes d Hébé
(1739) are all by Rameau;
Armide
(1686) was set by Lully to a libretto by Quinault.

Rebel and Francœur
: directors of the Opéra from 1757 to 1767, who had to face up to the growing rivalry of the Opéra-Comique.

back alley
: the Opéra was then situated in the Palais-Royal, and was reached from the gardens by a cul-de-sac. The theatre (which had once been Molière’s) burned down in 1763, and did not reopen until 1770.

Peintre … son modèle
: Le Peintre amoureux de son modèle (The Painter in Love with His Model), an opéra-comique by Duni, his first to a French text, enjoyed an enormous success when it was first performed in 1757 at the Foire Saint-Laurent.

‘Go and see… Jean
’: the refrain of a popular song; the insinuation is ‘you can bank on it’.

Ragonde and Platée
: Les Amours de Ragonde (1742) is a comedy by Destouches, with music by Mouret.
Platée
(1745) is a burlesque
comédie-ballet
by Rameau which parodies the Italian style of singing.

their own tongue
: the view that the Italian language was particularly suited to music, unlike French, was defended notably by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Ironically, the (real) Jean-François Rameau maintained the opposite view in his
Raméide
.

La Plaideuse
: La Plaideuse (The Lady Litigant, 1762), a comedy by Favart with music by Duni.

I am a worthless wretch … si sta
: these extracts of arias (in French and Italian in the original) are taken from Duni’s
L’Ile des fous
and Pergolesi’s
La Serva Padrona
.

‘Ah, j’attendrai
’: from Roland’s monologue in Lully’s opera
Roland
(1685).

‘Pale torches … oblivion
’: Télaïre’s aria (inaccurately cited) from Rameau’s opera
Castor et Pollux
(1737). In Diderot’s novel
The Nun
, Suzanne Simonin sings this aria, one of the most famous in French Baroque
opera, when she first arrives at the abbey of Longchamp (see
The Nun
, trans. R. Goulbourne, Oxford World’s Classics, 24).

Maximes … Pensées
: two of the greatest classics of the French seventeenth century, and manifestly unsuitable for musical setting.

Plunge your dagger … reason
: this is a random mixture of extracts from Racine’s tragedy
Phèdre
(1677).

‘Rinaldo’s conqueror (if any such exists)’… Indes galantes
: from Armide’s aria in Lully’s
Armide et Renaud
, and from the chorus in the Inca act, scene 3, of Rameau’s
Les Indes galantes
.

boulevard
: after 1759 the ‘unofficial’ theatres (as opposed to the Comédie-Française and the Opéra) obtained permission to establish themselves along the busy boulevards to the north of Paris.

chimney-sweep
: reference to Mme Favart playing the role of Mme Bontour in Favart’s
Soirée des Boulevards
(1758).

L’Enfant … perdu et retrouvé
: L’Enfant d’Arlequin perdu et retrouvé (Harlequin’s Child Lost and Found), an adaptation from Goldoni given in Paris by the Comédie-Italienne in 1761.

Punchinello
: this traditional figure from
commedia dell’arte
retained his place in the works put on every August at the Foire Saint-Laurent.

Memnon’s statue
: a colossal statue near Thebes (one of a pair) was damaged in an earthquake in the year 27, and thereafter it gave out a musical sound as soon as it was struck by the first rays of the sun (said to be the voice of Memnon greeting his mother, the Dawn).

Danaides
: in Greek mythology the Danaides are condemned in Hades to fill a bottomless barrel. This image of prodigality seems awkward in this context.

Mercury’s epicycle
: the allusion is to a theory in ancient astronomy that was supposed to explain the movements of certain planets; it was made redundant by the heliocentric theory of the universe. The expression, as stated further on, is taken from Montaigne (
Essays
, i. 26 and ii. 27); it mocks an antiquated, speculative, and unempirical view of the world.

Galiani
: the Abbé Galiani (see Glossary of Names) was a friend of Diderot, whom he often met at the Baron d’Holbach’s. As an author, he is now remembered for his
Dialogues sur le commerce des blés (Dialogues on the Trade in Corn
, 1770) and for his correspondence with Mme d’Épinay. The ‘stories’ referred to here are recollections of verbal performances, recounted with relish by Diderot in his letters to Sophie Volland, as here, for example, on 20 October 1760: ‘The Abbé tells good stories, but above all he is an excellent actor. He is quite irresistible. You would really have laughed to see him stretching out his neck and imitating the nightingale’s little voice; puffing himself up and catching the cuckoo’s raucous tone;
and then sticking up his ears and assuming the stupid and ponderous gravity of the donkey—all this naturally and effortlessly. He is a born mimic, every inch of him’ (
Diderot’s Letters to Sophie Volland
, 83).

Pantaloon
: Venetian character in Italian comedy, a lean and foolish old man who is the butt of jokes; he wears spectacles and tight-fitting trousers (pantaloons).

Bishop of Orléans
: the author of the
Lettres critiques ou Analyses et réfutation de divers écrits modernes sur la religion
, in 19 volumes (1753–63) is the Abbé Gabriel Gauchet; he had earlier criticized Diderot’s
Pensées philosophiques
. The Bishop of Orléans referred to here, Louis Sextus de Jarente de la Bruyère, was the Controller of Benefices from 1758 to 1788.

Quisque … manes
: ‘Each endures his own particular fate’ (Virgil,
Aeneid
, iv. 743). The speaker here uses
manes
to refer more particularly to ‘ancestors’ (i.e. Dauvergne is eclipsed by the composers who came before him and whom he imitates). The same quotation occurs in Diderot’s
Salon de 1767
, also in connection with J.-F. Rameau; this is the only other reference in the whole of Diderot’s work to the real-life model of Rameau’s nephew.

bell ringing vespers
: the Opéra rang a bell to announce the beginning of a performance, at six in the evening.

[Epigraph] Quot capitum … milia
: ‘For every thousand living souls, there are as many thousand tastes’ (Horace,
Satires
, 11. i. 27–8; trans. H. R. Fairclough, Loeb edn.).

[Dedication] Sunt quibus … tendere opus
: ‘There are some critics who think I am too savage in my satire and strain the work beyond lawful bounds’ (Horace,
Satires
, 11. i. 1–2; Loeb edn.). Diderot quotes again from the same poem: but this remark is aimed at his friend Naigeon.

God … of his mother
: reference to God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22). The saying comes from Maffei’s commentary on his own
Mérope
.

I’d very much … comes of this
: this passage has not been found in Fontenelle’s works; Diderot may be recording something which he heard.

Who told you so … forever
: from two of Racine’s tragedies, respectively
Andromaque
(1667) and
Phèdre
(1677).

‘Come, drink… done for.’
: these exchanges are lifted almost word for word from Horace (
Satires
, 11. iii. 155–7).

In masticating … signal honour
: from La Fontaine (
Fables
, vii. 1).

Mademoiselle de Thé
: the identities of this person and of the Doctor remain mysterious.

Dialogues … had composed
: Rémond de Saint-Mard published his
Nouveaux dialogues des dieux ou Réflexions sur les passions (New Dialogues of the Gods, or Reflections on the Passions
) in 1711.

by a king
: the king’s words are quoted from Voltaire’s
Histoire de Charles XII
(Book 8). The source of the soldier’s reply remains unidentified.

Faciamus … est mori
…: ‘Let’s try the experiment on this vile [i.e. still living] soul’, to which the reply comes: ‘As if it could be vile, this soul for which Christ did not disdain to die!’

That he should die
: quotation from Corneille’s tragedy
Horace;
Boileau had famously declared this concise reply to be a perfect example of ‘sublime’ discourse.

Since … be God
: from Plutarch’s
Moralia
, best known in France in Amyot’s translation (1572).

astute man
: Naigeon explains that the man in question is Claude de Rulhière.

Mademoiselle D***’s
: according to Naigeon, this refers to Mlle Dornais (or Dornet), a former dancer at the Opéra, who in the late 1760s was the mistress of Prince Galitzin. According to Diderot, in his correspondence with Sophie Volland, Naigeon had been in love with her.

that immense journey … your objections
: this refers to Diderot’s trip to Russia via Holland, the one great journey of his life. He left Paris in June 1773, in the face of the objections of his friend Naigeon.

the Grande Allée
: the central promenade in the Tuileries gardens.

de Richelieu
: in 1758–9 Rulhière had been aide-de-camp to the Duc de Richelieu. Richelieu, grandson of the great cardinal, was a celebrated soldier and an even more celebrated libertine. The comtesse d’Egmont (1740-73) was the daughter of the Duc de Richelieu. She was the friend, and perhaps the mistress of Rulhière, who dedicated several poems to her.