Category Archives: France

La Princesse de Clèves, 4

08 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by in 17th-century France, France, French Literature, Gallantry, Love

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Madame de La Fayette,
gravure de 1840 d’après Desrochers.

We know the immediate historical background of the Princesse de Clèves, and I have suggested intertextuality. Marguerite de Navarre’s L’Heptaméron features intrigues and disloyalty at court. But the discourse on love takes us back to the ancient Roman poet Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, and it may have antecedents such as extremely distant fairytales. These will be refined in seventeenth-century French salons. Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose are “re-told” tales.

However, let us return to our narrative. The Princess of Cleves and the Duc de Nemours have fallen in love. It is the coup de foudre, or love at first sight, à première vue. In Jansenist France, this is l’amour fatal, as fatal as Tristan’s love for Iseult and Iseult’s love for Tristan, but without recourse to a magical potion. They have seen one another and fallen in love. But the Princess of Clèves has married and she has been taught loyalty to one’s husband. A liaison with the Duc de Nemours would be illicit. Therefore, she must suppress and hide her feelings, which is not possible.

The Mareschal de St. André’s Second Ball

The mareschal de St. André’s will host a second ball which the Princess is expected to attend. However, after hearing that the Duc de Nemours would not want his mistress to attend a ball he is not hosting, she feigns illness not to attend the ball. She has betrayed herself.  

Vous voilà si belle, lui dit madame la dauphine, que je ne saurais croire que vous ayez été malade. Je pense que monsieur le prince de Condé, en vous contant l’avis de Nemours sur le bal, vous a persuadée que vous feriez une faveur au maréchal de Saint-André d’aller chez lui que vous feriez une faveur au maréchal de Saint-André d’aller chez lui, et que c’est ce qui vous a empêchée d’y venir. Madame de Clèves rougit de ce que madame la dauphine devinait si juste, et de ce qu’elle disait devant monsieur de Nemours ce qu’elle avait deviné. (ebooks, p. 19)
[You look so pretty, says the Queen-Dauphin to her, that I can’t believe you have been ill; I think the Prince of Conde when he told us the duke de Nemours’s opinion of the ball, persuaded you, that to go there would be doing a favour to the mareschal de St. André, and that that’s the reason which hindered you from going, Madam de Cleves blushed, both because the [Q]ueen-[D]auphin (Marie Stuart), had conjectured right, and because she spoke her conjecture in the presence of the Duke de Nemours.] (Wikisource [31])

Madame de Chartres has accompanied her daughter and vows that the Princess was genuinely ill, but le Duc de Nemours is not convinced. Madame de Clèves has behaved the way he wants his mistress to behave. Besides, Madame de Clèves blushes in the presence of the Duc. As she is dying, Madame de Chartres tells the Princess of Clèves that she is “sur le bord du précipice” (ebooks, p. 21), “on the brink of a precipice.” (Wikisource [35-36])

Mademoiselle de Chartres is so beautiful that when she arrives at court she appears as in the word “apparition.”

Il parut alors une beauté à la cour, qui attira les yeux de tout le monde, et l’on doit croire que c’était un beauté parfaite, puisqu’elle donna de l’admiration dans un lieu où l’on était si accoutumé à voir de belles personnes. Elle était de la même maison que le vidame de Chartres, et une des plus grandes héritières de France.
(ebooksgratuits, p. 7)
[There appeared at this time a lady at Court, who drew the eyes of the whole world; and one may imagine she was a perfect beauty, to gain admiration in a place where there were so many fine women; she was of the same family with the Viscount of Chartres, and one of the greatest heiresses of France, (…)]
(Wikisource [8])

As for the Duc de Nemours, he is described as “perfection” itself. Therefore, a worried Madame de Chartres tells her daughter that he Duke of Nemours is incapable of falling in love.

Elle se mit un jour à parler de lui ; elle lui en dit du bien, et y mêla beaucoup de louanges empoisonnées sur la sagesse qu’il avait d’être incapable de devenir amoureux, et sur ce qu’il ne se faisait qu’un plaisir, et non pas un attachement sérieux du commerce des femmes. (ebooksgratuits, p. 20)
[One day she set herself to talk about him, and a great deal of good she said of him, but mixed with it abundance of sham praises, as the prudence he showed in never falling in love, and how wise he was to make the affair of women and love an amusement instead of a serious business.] (Wikisource [32])

The Death of Madame de Chartres

After her mother dies, the princess of Clèves leaves court. Given that she is mourning her mother, her absence is motivated. The Prince of Clèves returns to “faire sa cour,” but should his wife delay her return to Paris, suspicion would arise. Many of the denizens of Henri II’s court may discover why the Duc de Nemours no longer behaves as he did. The Duke is expected to marry Elizabeth Ist of England, and the time has come for him to meet Elizabeth in person or face her scorn. The Court speculates that he is in love, but no one can tell whom he so loves that he would lose interest in marriage to Elizabeth. Marie Stuart, the Queen-Dauphin, cannot wait to tell her friend, the princesse de Clèves.

No, the Queen-Dauphin cannot wait:

Dès le même soir qu’elle fut arrivée, madame la dauphine la vint voir, et après lui avoir témoigné la part qu’elle avait prise à son affliction, elle lui dit que, pour la détourner de ces tristes pensées, elle voulait l’instruire de tout ce qui s’était passé à la cour en son absence ; elle lui conta ensuite plusieurs choses particulières. — Mais ce que j’ai le plus d’envie de vous apprendre, ajouta−t−elle, c’est qu’il est certain que monsieur de Nemours est passionnément amoureux, et que ses amis les plus intimes, non seulement ne sont point dans sa confidence, mais qu’ils ne peuvent deviner qui est la personne qu’il aime. Cependant cet amour est assez fort pour lui faire négliger ou abandonner, pour mieux dire, les espérances d’une couronne. (ebooks, p. 29)
[The evening of her arrival the queen-dauphin made her a visit, and after having condoled with her, told her that in order to divert her from melancholy thoughts, she would let her know all that had passed at court in her absence; upon which she related to her a great many extraordinary things; but what I have the greatest desire to inform you of, added she, is that it is certain the duke de Nemours is passionately in love; and that his most intimate friends are not only not entrusted in it, but can’t so much as guess who the person is he is in love with; nevertheless this passion of his is so strong as to make him neglect, or to speak more properly, abandon the hopes of a crown.] (Wikisource [48])

L’Amour fatal: Two Moral Compasses

Madame de Clèves is perturbed. Who is this woman who would make the Duke de Nemours abandon his marriage with Elizabeth 1st of England? If she, the Princess of Cleves, is the cause of such changes in the Duc de Nemours, he is “in love,” l’amour fatal. But although she is powerless, she feels guilty. She has been raised by a virtuous mother, but at court liaisons are acceptable. Princes and princesses marry to perpetuate a lineage. Therefore, they may have liaisons. However, Madame de Clèves has been taught virtue. When she hears that the Duc de Nemours is no longer interested in marrying Elizabeth 1st of England, which is a huge sacrifice, the Princess feels extremely distressed. The Duc de Nemours has fallen in love and it is l’amour fatal, Tendre-sur-Inclination. The seventeenth century in France was largely Jansenist. One cannot choose; one is chosen: predestination. The Princess and the Prince are powerless.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

La Princesse de Clèves is a Librivox and Internet Archive Publication FR.
La Princesse de Clèves is an ebooksgratuits.com Publication FR
The Princess of Cleves is a Wikisource publication EN.
La Princesse de Clèves is a Wikisource publication FR.
La Princesse de Clèves is Gutenberg’s [eBook # 18797] FR.
La Princesse de Clèves is Gutenberg’s [eBook # 467] EN.
La Princesse de Clèves is a Librivox and Internet Archive Publication.
Britannica.
Wikipedia.

Love to everyone 💕

Elizabeth I of England (rmg.co.uk)

© Micheline Walker
8 January 2021
revised 12 January 2021
WordPress

Coming soon …

20 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in France, Huguenots, Sharing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Lecture de Molière par Jean-François de Troy (Photo credit: Utpictura)

My computer crashed, so I had to put it together again from scratch. It was a matter of passwords. Microsoft’s employees would not help me retrieve my password.

We are returning to Molière, but not immediately. First, we will read one more post on Confederation. It is almost ready to publish. We will read two short plays by Molière, his La Critique de l’École des femmes (1st June 1663), and L’Impromptu de Versailles (the Fall of 1663). These are often considered Molière’s “theoretical” plays, but they are performed and constitute essential reading. After reading these two plays, we will have read all plays written by Molière, but some are not presented with an English translation.

Our discussion of these two one-act plays will be followed by a reading of Madame de La Fayette‘s Princesse de Clèves (1678). You may remember that Molière depicts the harms of jealousy. Our best example is Dom Garcie de Navarre, but Amphitryon is the model most remember. In La Princesse de Clèves, jealousy precludes reciprocated love. The French wars of religion are its backdrop. Henri II is the King of France. He is married to Catherine de’ Medici, but loves his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. One of Catherine and Henri II’s sons was Henri III. He died in 1589, which is when Henri III de Navarre became Henri IV of France (La Henriade). As King of Navarre, he had been a Huguenot. He converted to Catholicism and proclaimed the Edict of Nantes (1598).

For the last few months, I have been updating my page listing Fables by La Fontaine. France has a new “site officiel” dedicated to La Fontaine, which means that links no longer take a reader to the fable under discussion.

© Micheline Walker 
20 August 2020 
WordPress 

La Henriade

10 Thursday Sep 2020

Posted by in Acadia, Age of Enlightenment, France, French Literature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,


Voltaire (portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1724)

The ostensible subject [of La Henriade] is the siege of Paris in 1589 by Henry III in concert with Henry of Navarre, soon to be Henry IV, but its themes are the twin evils of religious fanaticism and civil discord.

La Henriade, wiki2.org

I think the above captures the spirit of Voltaire’s La Henriade. But it also describes Voltaire who spent a lifetime combating fanaticism, injustice and superstitions. Our subject is New France in its earliest days. We wish to know what happened during the half century separating Cartier’s attempt to found a settlement and Dugua de Mons’ similar endeavour. This period has not been chronicled, but Huguenots had been involved in the fur trade. Our King is no longer François Ier, but Henri IV.

The contents of this post may seem repetitive, but they sum up Cartier’s era and Henri IV’s brief reign. More importantly, although New France has Huguenot roots, I am portraying a good king who was attempting to put away a divided Kingdom. He was assassinated in 1610.

Jacques Cartier

Many Huguenots (French Protestants) or former Huguenots, were the founders of what became Canada. Dugua de Mons converted to Catholicism in 1593, at approximately the same time Henri IV became a Catholic. As King of Navarre, he had been a Huguenot.

Charlesbourg-Royal

Nothing suggests that Jacques Cartier was a Huguenot, but he settled Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, a settlement that ended in 1543. François Ier (Francis Ist), had commissioned Pierre de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval, known as Roberval, a nobleman, to build the first French settlement in North America, but Roberval did not set sail until 1542. Although sources differ, Charlesbourg-Royal was settled, almost undoubtedly, by Jacques Cartier, rather than Roberval.

Jacques Cartier left France in 1541, a year before Roberval sailed for the New World. Jacques Cartier met Roberval, near Newfoundland, but refused to turn around to assist Roberval, as the King had requested. Jacques Cartier was not a nobleman, but he is the explorer who discovered Canada and named it Canada, after Kanata, its Amerindian name.

Francis 1st, King of France, did not ask Jacques Cartier to build a settlement. As we know, the person he commissioned was Pierre de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval, a nobleman. This may have been an affront to Jacques Cartier who had discovered “Canada.” Jacques Cartier lost 35 men during the first winter he spent at Charlesbourg-Royal, pictured above. By 1543, the settlement was abandoned. Then came a seemingly inactive period spanning nearly a half-century, but was it?

Henri IV

The settlements that survive are Dugua de Mons’ Port-Royal and Quebec City. As a noted, Champlain founded Quebec City, as Dugua’s employee. In fact, he and Mathieu da Costa were Dugua’s employees. So, Mathieu da Costa, the first Black in Canada, may have co-founded Quebec City, as an employee of Dugua de Mons. Mathieu de Coste is also Canada’s first linguist and he died in the settlement he co-founded. He was a free Black.

Had he not been a fur-trader, it is very unlikely that Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit could have built a trading-post. The Huguenots had been fleeing the Wars of Religion. Henri IV reigned from 1589 to 14 May 1610, when he was assassinated, and events do not suggest that during his reign Henri IV encouraged the growth of Protestantism. As we know, he signed the Édit de Nantes promoting religions toleration.

at the end of the Wars of Religion, [Henri IV] abjured Protestantism and converted to Roman Catholicism (1593) in order to win Paris and reunify France. With the aid of such ministers as the Duc de Sully, he brought new prosperity to France.

Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-IV-king-of-France

When Henri IV died he had yet to finish unifying France and, given Richelieu’s concept of absolutism, Huguenots would have to convert. Richelieu’s notion of absolutism required that all French citizens practice the same religion. As conceived by Richelieu, absolutism consisted of one religion, one language, and one King. When the Siege of Larochelle began, so did the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629. England was defeated and the Edict of Nantes, revoked in 1685, unleashing a reign of terror a Voltaire could not accept.

Acadie had just begun, when Marc Lescarbot wrote and published his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. He had been in Acadia for one year, 1607-1608. He also produced a play, le Théâtre de Neptune, in Port-Royal. His History of Nouvelle-France is not a bad history. On the contrary. It is a good story. But Nouvelle-France consisted of one settlement, or habitation: Port-Royal that was about to crumble to be reborn again. The picture above features Lescarbot reading his play. The artist is William Jefferys (photo-credit: wiki2.org).

Would there ever be a King of France so loved that a young Voltaire would praise him in long cantos, or “fictions” “drawn from the regions of the marvelous” (Voltaire, 1859)? There wouldn’t, except in “fictions.”

Sources and Resources


Musing on Champlain & New France (9 May 2012)
Wikipedia
The Encyclopædia Britannica
La Henriade is an Internet Archive publication
La Henriade is a Wikisource publication

Love to everyone 💕

© Micheline Walker
9 September 2020
WordPress

The Paris Commune, 1871

24 Sunday May 2020

Posted by in 19th-Century France, France

≈ Comments Off on The Paris Commune, 1871

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Afficher l’image source

A few years ago, I posted an article on the 19th century in Franch. The post did not include a discussion of the Franco-Prussian War and the Third Republic, which was in fact a first Republic. This post is not a discussion of the entire thirty years of the 19th century in France, but it sheds light on the Franco-Prussian War (1870), the Paris Commune in particular and therefore Le Temps des cerises.

Le Temps des cerises is dedicated to The Paris Commune of 1871, and more precisely to one ambulancière. The Communards were eliminated, but it was a golden age one mourned. In À la claire fontaine, a love song, French-speaking Canadians mourn France. It is a metamorphosis. France is a woman.

The Unification of Germany

  • the nineteenth century: monarchs and emperors
  • three Republics: 1792, 1848, 1871

In the earlier part of the 19th century, Germany consisted in several German-language states. These were unified under Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck failed to bring Austria under the fold, but he was otherwise successful. Italy was also unified in the 19th under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

In the above-mentioned post, entitled The Nineteenth-Century in France, I described two Empires and two Monarchies (three kings). The post showed that the Monarchy in France did not end on 21 January 1793, the day Louis XVI was guillotined. His son, Louis XVII, died in captivity in 1795 at the age of 10. He was at best a titular King. After Louis XVI’s execution, the Republic was ruled by the National Convention, a revolutionary government. France was again a republic in 1848, though shortly. Its duly-elected President was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte who proclaimed himself Emperor of the French. (See 1851 French coup d’état, Wiki2.org.)

Napoleon III declared war on Prussia in July 1870, but France was defeated at the Battle of Sedan and Napoleon III was captured. After his release, he went to England where he died on 9 January 1873. It is as though France had finally become a genuine Republic, but it had lost and grieved Alsace-Lorraine and had to pay penalties.

The Third Republic

  • The Paris Commune, a vanishing dream
  • a lingering Monarchy

The Third French Republic would last until 1940, when France fell to Nazi Germany. The first president of the Third Republic was Adolphe Thiers who, to a certain extent, was a figurehead. The French envisioned a monarchy until 1880. So, the monarchy lingered.

Moreover, the Third Republic had its government in Tours, the Communards ruled Paris. They had ruled Paris since 18 March 1971. The Paris commune was a government by radical socialists and revolutionaries. (See The Paris Commune, Wiki2.org.) The new Republic sent the National Guard to Paris to quell the communards. Several members of the National Guard joined the communards. So did a young woman, an ambulancière (a nurse) who was killed. Louise Michel wrote about her in La Commune Histoire et Souvenirs (1898). (See Le Temps des cerises, footnote I, Wiki.org)

Au moment où vont partir leurs derniers coups, une jeune fille venant de la barricade de la rue Saint-Maur arrive, leur offrant ses services : ils voulaient l’éloigner de cet endroit de mort, elle resta malgré eux. Quelques instants après, la barricade jetant en une formidable explosion tout ce qui lui restait de mitraille mourut dans cette décharge énorme, que nous entendîmes de Satory, ceux qui étaient prisonniers ; à l’ambulancière de la dernière barricade et de la dernière heure, J.-B. Clément dédia longtemps après la chanson des cerises. Personne ne la revit.[…] La Commune était morte, ensevelissant avec elle des milliers de héros inconnus.

As they were about to fire their last shots, a young woman [une ambulancière/ a nurse], coming from the barricade of Saint-Maur street, arrived, offering her services: they could not send her away from this place of death, she stayed despite their entreaties. A few moments later, the barricade exploded and all that remained of its ammunition died. From Satory [near Versailles], we heard those who had been taken prisoners [say]; from the nurse of the last barricade and of the last hour (…). No one saw her again. The Commune had died burying thousands of unknown heroes.

Below is the song of the communards, composed by Jean Baptiste Clément.

Literary works are associated with the Franco-Prussian War. Particularly famous are:

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Alphonse Daudet’s Les Contes du lundi is a Wikisource publication FR
See page, The French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕
We now return to the Pandemic in Canada, its epicentre remaining Montreal.

Texte 1871 de Jean-Baptiste Clément
Interprétation 1969 Marc OGERET
La Commune de Paris / La Semaine sanglante

Le Temps des cerises, Hervé David, accompagné au piano par Benjamin Intartaglia.

Afficher l’image source

© Micheline Walker
24 May 2020
WordPress

Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises…

21 Thursday May 2020

Posted by in France, Love, War

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Cherry Time Salvatore Postiglione
 
Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
When we will sing the time of cherries
Le gai rossignol et merle moqueur
The gay nightingale and the mocking blackbird
Seront tous en fête
All will rejoice
 Les belles auront la folie en tête 
Pretty ladies will have crazy heads
 Et les amoureux du soleil au cœur
And lovers (will have) sunny hearts
Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
When we will sing the time of cherries
 Sifflera bien mieux le merle moqueur
The mocking blackbird will whistle better
 

Mais il est bien court le temps des cerises 
But it is so short the time of cherries 
 Où l’on s’en va deux cueillir en rêvant
When two go to cull while dreaming
 Des pendants d’oreilles …
Pendants for the ears
 Cerises d’amour aux robes pareilles
Cherries of love in dresses alike
 Tombant sous la feuille en gouttes de sang
Falling through the leaves like drops of blood
 Mais il est bien court le temps des cerises
But it is so short the time of cherries
 Pendants de corail qu’on cueille en rêvant !
Pendants of coral one culls while dreaming
 
Quand vous en serez au temps des cerises
When you have reached the time of cherries
 Si vous avez peur des chagrins d’amour.
If you fear the pain of love
 Évitez les belles
Avoid (stay away from) pretty ladies
 Moi qui ne crains pas les peines cruelles
I who do not fear cruel pains
 Je ne vivrai point sans souffrir un jour …
I will not live without one day suffering
 Quand vous en serez au temps des cerises
When you have reached the time of cherries
 Vous aurez aussi des peines d’amour !
You too will have (know) the pain of love
 
J’aimerai toujours le temps des cerises
I will always love the time of cherries
 C’est de ce temps-là que je garde au cœur
It is since that time that I keep in my heart
Une plaie ouverte !
An open wound
 Et Dame Fortune, en m’étant offerte
And whatever (luck) Lady Fortune offers
 Ne saura jamais fermer ma douleur
Will never close (soothe) my pain
 J’aimerai toujours le temps des cerises
I will always love the time of cherries
 Et le souvenir que je garde au cœur !
And the memories I keep in my heart
 

 

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Love to everyone 💕

Yves Montand sings Le Temps des cerises (à l’Olympia, 1974)

download

Credit: Google images

© Micheline Walker
21 May 2020
WordPress

 

Vive la France

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in France

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

640px-Eugène_Delacroix_-_La_liberté_guidant_le_peuple

La Liberté guidant le peuple par Eugène Delacroix, 1830 (Wiki2.org)

Eugène Delacroix‘ “Liberty Guiding the People,” is a symbol of France and, perhaps, its main pursuit: liberté. Delacroix, an illegitimate son of Talleyrand, chronicled the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

However, “Liberty Guiding the People” is associated with the July Revolution, when France toppled Charles X. The Revolution lasted three days. The new king would be Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans. The Orléans were the cadet branch of the Bourbon kings. Louis-Philippe was the son of Philippe Égalité who espoused early objectives of the French Revolution: equality. He voted in favour of the execution, by guillotine, of Louis XVI, his cousin. Louis-Philippe II, duc d’Orléans, was guillotined on 6 November 1793.

On 14 July 1789, a crowd stormed the Bastille Prison. But the Revolution had begun on 20 June 1789. Delegates to the Estates General had found the door to the room where they met locked. They took refuge in an interior tennis court and vowed “not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established.” (See Tennis Court Oath, Le Serment du Jeu de Paume, Wiki2.org.)

RELATED ARTICLES 

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Hector Berlioz‘s La Marseillaise

Earliest known picture of Jeu de Paume from a Book of Hours (c. 1300)

Earliest known picture of Jeu de Paume from a Book of Hours (c. 1300) (commons.wikimedia)

© Micheline Walker
14 July 2019
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dom Juan, encore …

07 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by in Comedy, France, Molière

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

molic3a8re-dom-juan

Dom Juan by François Boucher (dessin) & Laurent Cars (gravure) (Google images)

Writing about Dom Juan has been a pleasure. In fact, I received a comment about libertinage in 17th century France.

Le Libertinage

I read René Pintard’s Le Libertinage érudit dans la première moitié du XVIIe  siècle when I was writing my thesis, years ago, but I do not own a copy of this book. Wikipedia FR has an entry on the subject and the book is summarized, by GRIHL FR. But obtaining the material one requires to write a book is truly difficult.

By virtue of his profession, a playwright and an actor, Molière is associated with  libertinage érudit. Actors were excommunicated. But libertinage érudit and libertinage are not synonyms. Molière did not lead a dissolute life.[1] However, his Tartuffe (1664) and his Dom Juan (1665) were attacked by la cabale des dévôts. He had to rewrite Tartuffe twice before the play could be performed (1669). As for his Dom Juan, although it was a great success, it closed after 17 performances and was not published until 1682,  with passages removed. In 1683, Dom Juan was published in Amsterdam,

La Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement

The most important group of dévots, or faux-dévots, was the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, a secret society. Louis XIV himself could not protect Molière fully. Not that impiety went unpunished in Dom Juan, but that devotion is linked to religion and that there were in France genuinely devout persons as well as faux-dévots, persons feigning devotion. Feigned devotion is a powerful mask, and all the more so when it fills the needs of a potentially tyrannical, but frightened pater familias.

It so happens that Orgon needs Tartuffe and is therefore easily blinded by his own needs. He sees what he wishes to see and hears what he wishes to hear. Only Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle, see a dévot in Tartuffe. Other members of Orgon’s family can tell that Tartuffe is a hypocrite and a rogue, but they do not have a strong-box, une cassette, containing potentially incriminating evidence. A friend of Orgon was involved in the Fronde and Orgon has his strong-box. So Orgon gives Tartuffe the cassette to breathe easier. However, Tartuffe takes it to the Prince, “our monarch,” endangering Orgon.

Le fourbe, qui longtemps a pu vous imposer,
Depuis une heure, au Prince a su vous accuser,
Et remettre en ses mains, dans les traits qu’il vous jette,
D’un criminel d’État, l’importante cassette,
Dont au mépris, dit-il, du devoir d’un sujet,
Vous avez conservé le coupable secret.
Valère à Orgon (1835-40, V. vi, p. 104)
[The villain who so long imposed upon you,
Found means, an hour ago, to see the prince,
And to accuse you (among other things)
By putting in his hands the private strong-box
Of a state-criminal, whose guilty secret,
You, failing in your duty as a subject,
(He says) have kept.]
Valère to Orgon (V. 6)

The prince, our monarch, “ennemi de la fraude”  (v. 1906, p. 107) sees that Tartuffe is a criminal. Orgon is forgiven. (V. last scene). L’Exempt (an officer) returns the cassette to Orgon as well as the deed to his property.

“The surprise twist ending, in which everything is set right by the unexpected benevolent intervention of the heretofore unseen King, is considered a notable modern-day example of the classical theatrical plot device Deus ex machina.” (See Tartuffe, Wiki2.org.)

The above could have been taken out of my thesis. I studied the pharmakós in six of Molière’s plays. The thesis was entitled: L’Impossible entreprise: une étude sur le pharmakós dans le théâtre de Molière. (The Impossible endeavour: a study of the pharmakós in Molière’s Theatre). In Molière’s comedies, the society of the play may be powerless, hence the use of a deus ex machina. Doublings, as in L’Avare (The Miser), are another recourse. In L’Avare, a second (real and benevolent) father surfaces. Truth be told, Tartuffe goes to prison, but he took little more than he was given. He was given the cassette by Orgon. The cassette comes back to haunt Orgon (V. i; V. 1), which makes him, to a significant extent, a scapegoat.

Feigned Devotion in Dom Juan

Feigned devotion is a mighty mask. Dom Juan fools Dom Louis, his father, and silences Dom Carlos who is ready to fight a duel that will avenge his sister, Done Elvire. There were real dévots in 17th France, but several members of the cabale des dévôts were faux-dévots. In 17th century France, one could also use casuistry, which could legitimize nearly all sins. Tartuffe reassures Elmire using casuistry. Moreover, there were dévots and faux-dévôts in high places. The Prince de Conti and the Sieur de Rochemont were aristocratic censeurs.

The Alazṓn: the senex iratus and the miles gloriosus

There is recurrence in Molière’s plays and intertextuality, a concept pioneered by Julia Kristeva. I should note that the alazṓn can be a senex iratus or a miles gloriosus. Plautus wrote a Miles gloriosus based on Aristophanes‘ Alazṓn, now lost. Under the heading Alazṓn, two types of blocking character are mentioned: both the senex iratus and the miles gloriosus, the braggart soldier, can be the alazṓn, or blocking character. Dom Juan is a miles gloriosus. I updated a post. We do not see young lovers opposing a heavy father, but Dom Juan is a miles gloriosus and, therefore, an alazṓn.

Varia

  • the Baroque
  • sources
  • “pièce assez mal construite ”

I did not mention Baroque aesthetics in Dom Juan, but he has been called an homme de vent, windy. Nor did I mention sexuality, except briefly, in another post. Dom Juan would like to be an Alexandre, Alexander the Great. The word to conquer puts an emphasis on numbers. Sganarelle tells the peasant-girls that his master is an “épouseur du genre humain,” (II. iv); “the groom of the entire human race” (II.4, p. 27), but there is no eroticism in Dom Juan.

As for sources, most scholars mention Tirso de Molina’s (24 March 1579 – 12 March 1648) Burlador de Sevilla. He is considered the source in what could be described as the “Don Juan cycle,” but Molière’s source may have been Italian. Two of Molière’s contemporaries wrote a Don Juan: Dorimond (1659) and Villiers (1660).[2] Whether they influenced Molière cannot be ascertained. But if Don Juan is a legendary figure, when Molière wrote his Dom Juan, the story had circulated for several years.

Finally, Dom Juan has been considered a poorly-constructed play, une pièce “assez mal construite.”[3] It takes us from grands seigneurs to Pierrot, a peasant who does not want to lose his fiancée to Dom Juan. The play does seem poorly constructed. For instance, I have mentioned the picaresque nature of Molière’s Dom Juan. Picaresque suggests a horizontal line broken, with each encounter, by a vertical line (see Paradigms and Syntagms). It seems Dom Juan and Sganarelle are walking along, meeting artistocrats and peasants, all the way to the supernatural Statue. The trompeur trompé (deceiver deceived) plot formula is circular.

We must stop here. This is our last post on Dom Juan. I should note that Louis XIV banned secret societies in 1666. I doubt he did so to eliminate the Société du Saint-Sacrement. I suspect absolutism precluded secret societies.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

____________________

[1] Earlier literary criticism used biography to explain a literary masterpiece. Biography is not irrelevant, but it is one of many referents.

[2] Maurice Rat, ed., Molière, Œuvres complètes (Paris: La Pléiade, 1956), p. 895.

[3] Maurice Rat, loc. cit.

Love to everyone 💕

Don Giovanni’s “La ci darem la mano,” encore
Samuel Ramey and Kathleen Battle with Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan

im244-321px-Le_Festin_de_Pierre

The title page of Le festin de pierre, also known as Dom Juan, the play by Molière, published in Amsterdam in 1683. This is the first publication of the uncensored edition. (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
7 March 2019
WordPress

… au reste, après nous, le Déluge

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by in Art, Enlightenment, France, French songs

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Marquise de Pompadour by François Boucher, 1756, Neue Pinakothek (Wiki2.org.)

After France lost the Battle of Rossbach (1757), during the Seven Years’ War, and would lose New France, Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV, said: “au reste, après nous, le Déluge” (“Besides, after us, the Deluge”).

For France, it was the beginning of the Deluge. After the Seven Years’ War, it was on the brink of bankruptcy, which, as we have seen, led to the meeting of the Estates General. It opened on 5 May 1789, but the French Revolution began two months later, on 14 July 1789, the day the Bastille was stormed.

For the people of New France, it was also the Deluge. New France (see map) was very large, but it had few inhabitants, about 70,000. These were the descendants of 26,000 colonists, but its population would grow.

The current population of Quebec is 8,455,402, 81% of whom are French-speaking. Many immigrants to Quebec are French-speaking North Africans: Blacks and Whites. Several are Algerians and, a large number, Muslims. (See The Population of Quebec, World Population Review.com.)

Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour was born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764) and she was the royal mistress from 1745 to 1751, or from the age of 24 to the age of 30. She had to retire from her role as chief mistress because of health problems. However, she remained Louis XV’s friend and mistress of his heart. She was very influential at court. On 8 February 1756, she was named lady-in-waiting to Marie Leszczyńska, Louis XVI‘s mother.

The marquise was a patroness of the arts and a student of François Boucher. He taught her how to make engravings. She also learned to engrave semi-precious stones, such as onyx. The images shown below are by François Boucher and Pompadour, after gemstone engraver Jacques Guay. (Wiki2.org.) In 1759, our marquise bought a porcelain factory, at Sèvres. (See Madame de Pompadour, Wiki2.org.)

Génie de la Musique by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay (Wiki2.org.)
L’Amour by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay 1755 (Wiki2.org)


Les Lumières

Not only was the Marquise a patroness of the arts, but she was also a friend of the physiocrates and philosophes of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, no less, as well as its encyclopédistes: Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d’Alembert …

When Madame de Pompadour died of tuberculosis at the age of 42, Voltaire wrote:

“I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty-two.”
(See Madame de Pompadour, Wiki2.org.)

“… après nous, le Déluge.”

Love to everyone 💕

 Les Tendres Souhaits — Le Poème harmonique
Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano
Vincent Dumestre, lutenist and founder of the ensemble Le Poème harmonique

Head of a Woman from Behind by François Boucher (WikiArt.org)

© Micheline Walker
26 February 2019
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

A Last Opportunity

16 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by in Comedy, France, Molière, Sharing

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Lysandre by Edmond Geffroy (my collection)

A Short Book

There are indications I will not live eternally, but I have an unfinished project: publishing a book on Molière.

This goal may be unrealistic. However, I will not be given another chance. It will be a short book and I may not have reviewed recent literature on the subject as thoroughly as I would like to. Yet, I wrote a PhD thesis on Molière, and a PhD thesis is a scholarly venture. Moreover, I was expected to “dust it off,” a thesis is a thesis, and publish it.

Dusting it off is what I plan to do. In other words, it will not sound too scholarly. I will quote fellow moliéristes, but will focus on my findings.

L’Avare (www.gettyimages.fr)

Problematic Plays

  • Tartuffe, 1664 – 1669
  • Dom Juan, 1665
  • Le Misanthrope, 1666
  • L’Avare, 1668

Were it not for the intervention of a second father, the young couples in L’Avare (The Miser), 1668, could not marry. They would be at the mercy of Harpagon’s greed.

Matters are worse in Tartuffe, 1664 -1669. Were it not for the intervention of the king, not only would the young lovers not marry, but Orgon’s family would be ruined. In The Misanthrope,1666, Alceste is his own worst enemy. In Dom Juan, 1665, Dom Juan is removed by a deus ex machina and he has left Elvira, his wife.

Presentation

Chapters may resemble Molière’s “L’Avare:” Doublings, a post. This post is informative, but not too scholarly. It also illustrates my main finding. In Molière’s plays, the young lovers cannot marry without an intervention, or putting on a play (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme). In L’Avare, they are saved by a second father: doublings. Molière uses stage devices, such as a deus ex machina, to save the society of the play.

Therefore, if a blocking character is removed, he is a pharmakos (a scapegoat).

L’Avare, 1668, (The Miser) is rooted in Roman playwright Plautus‘ Aulularia. Plautus died in 184 BCE. Molière’s miserly father is a Shylock (The Merchant of Venice, c. 1600, by Shakespeare). There are misers in the commedia dell’arte, and Molière knew the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. Comedy has a tradition. Greek playwright Aristophanes is considered its father. Molière also wrote farces. These date back not only to medieval France, but to the Atellane farces, which featured stock characters, as does the commedia dell’arte.

Conclusion & remerciements

I feel very young, but time goes by so quickly. It would please me to tell more about Molière, but it has to be now. It’s my last chance and there you are, supporting me.

I wish to thank a very kind gentleman who sent me images of Colette‘s La Chatte by Raoul Dufy.

Pierre-Loïc,

Je vous remercie bien sincèrement d’avoir pensé à moi. Ces dessins de Dufy me font plaisir. Votre générosité m’a beaucoup touchée.

Colette a eu une « dernière chatte », et j’ai, pour ma part, une dernière occasion.

Love to everyone  💕

—ooo—

Marc-Antoine Charpentier — Te  Deum

Elmire (Tartuffe) by Tammy  Grimes (my collection)

© Micheline Walker
16 February 2019
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nineteenth Century in France

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by in 19th-Century France, France, French Literature, History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Louis Stanilas Xavier de France, Comte de Provence, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, 1762

Louis-Stanislas-Xavier de France, Louis XVIII, Comte de Provence, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, 1762 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The French Revolution

I would like to provide you with an overview of the history of 19th-century France. It has several insurrections and coups d’état. The first coup d’état took place on 18 Brumaire Year VIII, or 9 November 1799. It therefore precedes the nineteenth century by about six weeks. On 19 Brumaire, Napoleon I became First Consul and his government was the French Consulate. However, in April 1804, the French Sénat named him Emperor of the French, and he was crowned Napoleon I, on 2 December 1804. Joséphine was crowned impératrice (Empress), by the new Emperor, her husband. 

Events Preceding the First Republic

At the beginning of the 19th century, France was an unofficial Empire. As First Consul, Napoleon was the de facto ruler of France. He started rising to power during the National Convention (1792 – 1795) and continued empowering himself throughout the French Directory (1795 – 1799) as General Napoleon Bonaparte. The French Directory is identified as the third stage of the French Revolution.

Everything started with the meeting of the Estates-General of 1789. Significant events are:

The Revolution was radicalized (i.e. the King became an enemy) by the Flight to Varennes (June 1791). The Flight to Varennes was followed by the Declaration of Pillnitz (August 1791) and the Brunswick Manifesto (25 July 1792) in which support for Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette was expressed by Marie-Antoinette’s brother, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Duke of Brunswick. The Duke of Brunswick attacked France, but was defeated at the Battle of Valmy (20 September 1792). The levée en masse (conscription of 23 August 1793) gave France and Napoleon a huge army.  

The French counterrevolution, can be divided in following stages. 

  1. The First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly-established National Convention.
  2. The National Convention: 21 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (4 Brumaire Year IV). The Thermidorian Reaction (27 July 1794) put an end to the Reign of Terror.
  3. The Directory: 2 November 1795 to 10 November 1799. There were five Directors and the Directory doubled up as a style (neoclassicism). Neoclassicism became a style. On 4 September 1797, Coup of 18 Fructidor Year V (4 September 1797) suppressed Royalists and nonjuring members of the clergy.  The Coup of 18 Fructidor was a genuine coup d’état, involving the military.
  4. The Coup of 18 Brumaire Year VIII (9 November 1799), created The Consulate, Napoleon I ruled unopposed as First Consul and would proclaim himself Emperor in 1804.

The First Empire

Although the French Sénat named Napoleon Emperor of the French, on 18 May 1804, Napoleon was a mostly self-proclaimed Emperor. He was crowned on 2 December 1804 and, as noted above, he then crowned his Créole wife Joséphine impératrice. She kept that title when Napoleon married Marie-Louise of Austria.

Napoleon suffered severe losses during the French invasion of Russia (1812) and at the Battle of Leipzig, fought in October 1813. France was invaded and the First Empire, dissolved. In fact, the First Empire ended twice. It ended first on 4 April 1814,[i] when Napoleon I abdicated and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, off the coast of Tuscany. Napoleon escaped and he returned to power. This period of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815) is called the Hundred Days (111 to be precise).

The First Empire ended a second time, when Napoleon I was defeated at Waterloo, on 18 June 1815. After Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to a distant island, Saint Helena, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821.

The Congress of Vienna (1815)

The First Empire was followed by the Congress of Vienna, the foremost social and political event of the nineteenth century, conducted before and after Napoleon I’s Hundred Days.

The main players were:

The decisions made in Vienna laid the groundwork for various insurrections and, ultimately, World War I. However, the Congress of Vienna was the first meeting of a united Europe or European nations seeking peaceful coexistence. (See Concert of Europe, Wikipedia.)

The Two Monarchies and Three Monarchs

Napoleon’s Hundred Days, his return from Elba, complicated the installation of Louis XVIII, portrayed above. What a lovely child!

Our Monarchs are:

Comments on Charles X

Charles X undermined his reputation and popularity because of the Anti-Sacrilege Act (1825 – 1830) and because he proposed financial indemnities for properties confiscated during the 1789 Revolution (the French Revolution). His actions led to the July Revolution of 1830, when Louis-Philippe (House of Orleans) was elected King of the French.

Louis XVII Louis-Charles de France

Louis XVII, Titular, Louis-Charles de France Alexandre Kucharski
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Exclusions

  • Louis XVII became titular (having the title of) King of France on 21 January 1893, the day his father was executed. He died of a form of tuberculosis on 8 June 1895. He never reigned.
  • Louis-Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans or Philippe Égalité (13 April 1747 – 6 November 1793; by guillotine). Louis-Philippe II did not reign.

The 1848 Revolutions

King Louis-Philippe III was deposed during the 1848 Revolution. In 1848, there were revolutions in many European countries, including France. In France, certain matters had to be settled: suffrage (who votes?); the right to employment, etc.

The Second Republic & Second Empire

In 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was the elected President of France, now a Republic. However, on 2 December 1851, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d’état that transformed him into Napoleon III. He was the nephew of Emperor Napoleon I. Napoleon III and l’impératrice Eugénie, his wife, fled France after a Prussian victory at the Battle of Sedan, fought on 1 September 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871).

Famed French author Victor Hugo fled to Guernsey when Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte transformed himself into an Emperor. (See Sources, below.) Karl Marx wrote an analysis of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte’s 18 Brumaire. It can be read online. (See Sources, below.)

Napoleon II, Titular

Napoleon II, Titular (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Exclusion

Napoleon II (b. Tuileries, 1811 – d. Vienna, 1832) was named Emperor by his father Emperor Napoleon I, on 4 September 1814, the day his father abdicated. He is titular (has the title of) Emperor, but never ruled France. He died at the age of 21, of tuberculosis.

Napoleon II in Literature

Napoleon II (the Duke of Reichstadt) was born in Paris, in 1811, and died in Vienna, in 1832. His mother was Marie-Louise of Austria. French playwright Edmond Rostand wrote a 6-act play entitled L’Aiglon (the eaglet), a Project Gutenberg Publication [EBook #30012], based on Napoleon II’s life. The very famous Sarah Bernhardt was l’aiglon (produced on 30 March 1900) and the play was a success, but not as great a success as Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). The real Napoleon II was:

King of Rome (1811 – 1814)
Prince of Parma (1814 – 1817)
Duke of Reichstadt (1818 – 1832)

Comments on Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte:

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte is the same person as Napoleon III. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte organized the coup d’état of 2 December 1851, staged on the forty-eighth anniversary of his uncle’s, Napoleon I, coronation: 11 Frimaire XIII (2 December 1804).

Hubert Robert

Le Tapis vert (The Green Rug, detail), Hubert Robert (Photo credit: Google)

The Children of France

Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793; by guillotine) and Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793; by guillotine) were married in 1870. They had four children:

  1. Marie-Thérèse de France, Duchesse d’Angoulème (b. 1778 –  d. 1851);
  2. Louis-Joseph Dauphin de France (heir apparent (b. Versailles, 22 October 1781 – d. Paris, 4 June 1789);
  3. Louis-Charles, fils de France and, in 1789, Dauphin (Louis XVII) (b. Versailles, 27 March 1785 – d. Paris, 8 June 1795);
  4. Princesse Sophie (b. Versailles, 9 July 1786 – d. Versailles, 19 June 1787).

Louis XVII was titular King of France from 21 January 1793 to 8 June 1795. He never reigned.

The Third Republic (1871 – 1940)

Conclusion

The above adds up to:

two Monarchies (three monarchs):

two Empires:

Two Republics: Second & Third Republics

The Nineteenth century in France was an experiment in democracy. It was also a period of drastic changes. Feudalism survived until the French Revolution, so the 19th century was France’s Industrial Revolution. Previous forms of government were revisited, revealing tentativeness on the part of the French nation.

Some idealized the Monarchy (Gustave Flaubert‘s Madame Bovary [EBook #2413]). However, in the 19th century, only Emperors resembled Absolute Monarchs; King Louis-Philippe I was elected King of the French. The Church of France had to rebuild. It’s wealth had been confiscated in the early days of the French Revolution, at the suggestion, on 10 October 1789, of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord,[ii] an ordained priest and a bishop.

Terms:

un fils de France: son of a reigning king (France)
Madame Royale: title sometimes given the eldest living unmarried daughter of a reigning monarch (France)
le Dauphin: the heir apparent (France)
un coup d’état: the overthrow of a government usually planned within a previous government (an “inside job,” close to treason)
 

The Congress of Vienna (Photo credit: David King)

The Congress of Vienna, (Photo credit: David King)

Napoleon I's Hundred Days (Photo credit: David King)

Napoleon I’s Hundred Days (Photo credit: David King) 

  1. Louis XVI: guillotined (21 January 1793)
  2. Napoleon I: (9 November 1799 – 1815) Emperor from the coup d’état of 19 Brumaire, Year III until 1815 (defeated at Waterloo)
  3. Louis Joseph, Dauphin de France (22 October 1781 – 4 June 1789) (born to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI)
  4. Louis XVII (Versailles, 27 March 1785 – Paris, 8 June 1795; died in prison) (born to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI)
  5. Louis XVIII: reigned from 1815 until 1824 (grandson of Louis XV)
  6. Charles X: reigned from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830 (grandson of Louis XV)
  7. Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, Duke of Chartres (Philippe Égalité): guillotined on 6 November 1793 as Louis-Philippe II
  8. Louis-Philippe I: reigned as elected King of the French from 1830 to 1848 (son of Philippe Égalité or Louis-Philippe II)
  9. Napoleon II, titular, the Duke of Reichstag: (20 March 1811 – 22 July 1832) (born to Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria)
  10. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) in power as President of the Second Republic (1848 – 1851) (nephew and heir to Napoleon I)
  11. Napoleon III: (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) Emperor from the coup d’état of 2 December 1851 until – c. 1870 (Franco-Prussian War)
  12. The Third Republic (1871 – 1940) (not covered in this post)

SOURCES:

Victor Hugo: Little Napoleon: Project Gutenberg [EBook #20580]EN
Victor Hugo: Napoleon Le Petit: Project Gutenberg[ EBook # 22045)FR
Karl Marx: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (online)EN
Congress of Vienna (online account)EN[iii]
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #2413]EN
Edmond Rostand’s L’Aiglon is a Project Gutenberg Publication [EBook #30012]EN
David King‘s Vienna 1814 is an account of the Congress of Vienna
____________________
[i] See Treaty of Paris (1814), Wikipedia. 
[ii] André Castelot, Talleyrand ou le cynisme (Paris: Librairie académique Perrin, 1980), p. 64.
[iii] In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx writes that the coup d’état occurred between December 1851 and March 1852.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm
 

Napoleon I: “La Marseillaise” arr. Hector Berlioz

Louis_Charles_of_France2

Louis-Charles de France,
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
5 March 2014
updated 18 July 2018
WordPress