amelancholycharm

[amelancholycharm]

@pilferingapples oh wow - that does make a lot of sense (and makes this, if possible, even cooler. I love the idea of him going “hey, I’ll draw the architectural stuff if you draw the Huge Forehead!” 

Must have been a real Art party :)

1833 caricature of Victor Hugo.

[amelancholycharm]

… This poem from his 1st collection, is explicitly political and calls out the current “Liberal Monarchy” that took over after the July Revolution of 1830, the year of publication, and its suppression of multiple democratic uprisings in its wake. Four years later, in the Maupin Preface, he echoed the poem’s point: “What matters it whether ‘tis a sword, a holy-water sprinkler, or an [bourgeois-republican] umbrella that rules you? It’s a stick all the same… it would be far more progressive… to break it and throw away the pieces.” In experimental fashion, even his syntax fractures here, along with his faith in positivist revolution.

A new translation of Gautier’s Sonnet VII ! Rather than copy Olchar Lindsann’s work here, I’ll add the original French, for those who’d like to make the comparison:

Liberté de juillet ! femme au buste divin, Et dont le corps finit en queue, GÉRARD. E la lor cieca vita è tanto bassa Ch’ invidiosi son d’ogn’ altra sorte. Infemo, canto III.

Avec ce siècle infâme il est temps que l’on rompe ; Car à son front damné le doigt fatal a mis Comme aux portes d’enfer : Plus d’espérance ! – Amis, Ennemis, peuples, rois, tout nous joue et nous trompe. Un budget éléphant boit notre or par sa trompe. Dans leurs trônes d’hier encor mal affermis, De leurs aînés déchus ils gardent tout, – hormis La main prompte à s’ouvrir et la royale pompe. Cependant en juillet, sous le ciel indigo, Sur les pavés mouvants ils ont fait des promesses Autant que Charles dix avait ouï de messes ! –

Seule, la poésie incarnée en Hugo Ne nous a pas déçus, et de palmes divines, Vers l’avenir tournée, ombrage nos ruines.

#it's BACK #Gautier #sonnet VII #Olchar's little blurb is so great too

[amelancholycharm]

Les Doctrinaires

A poem Nerval wrote a few months after the installation of Louis Philippe .  The dedication to Hugo was both in correspondence and in the published version. (translation under the cut).  

A couple shoelace-specifc notes:  I’ve had a hard tgime hunting down exactly when Gerard switched to “de Nerval”  instead of “Labrunie”; evidently he was using the name for his published work at least by late 1830. Also: am I wrong, or is he using tu  with Hugo here?    

A Victor Hugo.

Les Doctrinaires.

I

Oh ! le vingt-huit juillet, Quand les couleurs chéries, Joyeuses voltigeaient sur les toits endormis, Après que dans le Louvre et dans les Tuileries On eut traqué les ennemis ! Le plus fort était fait : que cette nuit fut belle ! Près du retranchement par nos mains élevé, Combien nous étions fiers de faire sentinelle En foulant le sol dépavé !

Oh ! nuit d'indépendance, et de gloire, et de fête ! Rien au-dessus de nous ! pas un gouvernement N'osait encor montrer la tête ! Comme on se sentait fort dans un pareil moment !… Que de gloire ! que d'espérance ! On était d'une taille immense, Et l'on respirait largement !

II

Ce n'est point la licence, hélas ! que je demande : Mais si quelqu'un alors nous eût dit que bientôt Cette liberté-là, qui naissait toute grande, On la remettrait au maillot ! Que des ministres rétrogrades, Habitant de palais encore mal lavés Du pur sang de nos camarades, Ne verraient dans les barricades Qu'un dérangement de pavés !

Ils n'étaient donc point là, ces hommes qui, peut-être Apôtres en secret d'un pouvoir détesté, Ont en vain renié leur maître Depuis que le coq a chanté !… Ils n'ont point vu sous la mitraille Marcher les rangs vengeurs d'un peuple désarmé… Au feu de l'ardente bataille Leur oeil ne s'est point allumé !

III

Quoi ! l'étranger, riant de tant de gloire vaine, De tant d'espoir anéanti, Quand nous lui parlerons de la grande semaine, Dirait : “Vous en avez menti !” Le tout à cause d'eux ! au point où nous en sommes, Du despotisme encore…oh non A bas ! à bas les petits hommes ! Nous avons vu Napoléon.

Petits ! - tu l'as bien dit, Victor, lorsque du Corse Ta voix leur évoquait le spectre redouté, Montrant qu'il n'est donné qu'aux hommes de sa force De violer la liberté : C'est le dernier ! on peut prédire Que jamais nul pouvoir humain Ne saura remuer ce globe de l'empire Qu'il emprisonnait dans sa main !

IV

Et quand tout sera fait, que la France indignée Aura bien secoué les toiles d'araignée Que des fous veulent tendre encor ; - Ne nous le chante plus, Victor, Lui, que nous aimons tant, hélas ! malgré ses crimes, Qui sont, par une vaine et froide majesté, D'avoir répudié deux épouses sublimes, Joséphine et la liberté !

Mais chante-nous un hymne universel, immense, Qui par France, Belgique et Castille commence… Hymne national pour toute nation ! Que seule à celui-là la liberté t'inspire !… Que chaque révolution Tende une corde de ta lyre !

 Gerard de Nerval,6 octobre 1830.

Keep reading

#I guess today we're crying about 1830 #Poetry of Revolution #Nerval

[amelancholycharm]

Il est donc vrai, Francais!  ô Paris, quel scandale!   Quoi! déjà subir un affront! Laisseras-tu voiler par une main vandale Les cicatrices de ton front? Juillet, il est donc vrai qu'on en veut á tes fastes Au sang épanché de ton coeur! Badigeonneurs maudits! Nouveaux iconoclastes! Respect au stigmate vainqueur!

-Petrus Borel, 1830 

Rough translation, no attempt made to keep rhyme or meter here: (with assist from @kingedmundsroyalmurder, but all mistakes are mine)

So it’s true, France! O Paris, what scandal!  What! An affront already! Will you let a vandal hand veil  the scars of your brow?  July, so it’s true we begrudge you the luxury  of the blood flowing from your heart! Rotten painters! New iconoclasts! Respect the stigmata of the victor! 

(the poem is from shortly after the July Revolution; it’s a protest of the hurried covering of the bullet holes from the fighting, and more symbolically of the general July Monarchy attempts to erase the signs and memory of the actual fighting.) 

#July Revolution #Borel #poetry reference

[amelancholycharm]

Authorial Depictions of Robespierre's Execution

Read More

Read More

Read More

Read More

Read More

Keep reading

#robespierre #I've actually read the Trollope and it's pretty terrible

[amelancholycharm]

150 troops i cannot stop thinking about that number this weekend is going to be. terrifying

#signal boost #my city

[amelancholycharm]

Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and shag a nun.

(via Feminism)

#yes to all of this #this was exactly the background I needed #Mlle de Maupin #julie d'aubigny

[amelancholycharm]

Commission for @aflamethatneverdies for the Bishop Myriel Emergency Fundraiser @bishopmyrielfundraiser : a Petrus Borel-inspired Bahorel (which is how aflamethatneverdies imagines him) being an intense Romantic nerd. No, I have no idea how one manages to maintain seated like that without tipping over, but I figured that’s his problem, not mine. ;) Also, no, it’s probably not likely that you would need a fire going at a season when you can get fresh flowers for your vases, but I’m going to (irresponsibly) put that down to Romantics doing Ridiculous Things. (It could also be that there were Highly Compromising documents that needed destroying. Y’know). [Also, there may or may not be alcohol in that skull. Because again, Romantics.]

#YES #Borel #or Bahorel #what IS it with Romantics and furniture

[amelancholycharm]

let’s bring back the term “cats” when referring to a group of people (i.e. “see you cats later”)

pros:

it’s gender neutral

you get the chance to look like a cool jazz musician

you can compare all your friends to cats (always good)

cons:

????

#mon pauvre chat

[amelancholycharm]

The War of the Vendee (2012)

Bonus Round, given that Robespierre was a theist irl:

#reblogging for hilarious additions #but also #why are all fictional depictions of the Frev involving the Vendée kind of terrible?

[amelancholycharm]

Inspector Javert:

#those darn Romantics #always coming round and demanding to be executed #don't even leave a person time for a cup of tea

[amelancholycharm]

ok but now my question is:

Of what does a properly Romantic dish consist? Like if there were a Cookbook of French Romantic recipes, what would be in there?!?

@stalinistqueens replied to your post “I feel like French people are allowed to duel you if you tell them…”

the lack of romanticism or meaningful symbolism in this recipe is apalling. this toast is not capturing the sublime and they should feel bad about it. :/

WHERE is the Antithesis to all that sugar?? terrible symbolism, 0/10 

[amelancholycharm]

I, personally, would duel you if you told me this represents Les Miserables.

Good grief.

I am aware that one can only expect so much from recipe adverts on Facebook. But even so, I am slightly confused as to why the world needs a dessert inspired by the BBC Les Mis adaptation. And very confused as to why that dessert should be S'mores French toast.

#also #why would you do that to perfectly good French toast

[amelancholycharm]

@ghostplantss

mentioned you on a post

“smol fashionable courf!”

@pilferingapples​ aaa i’m sorry i told myself i wouldn’t bother you but??? i’m so curious?? what did the romantics have against high collars??

Well mostly I suspect that it was just really really not comfortable! Sharp-edged stiff collars cinched tight cutting right into the underside of the jaw are not everyone’s idea of a Fun Time:P   It was the very HEIGHT of Respectable Presentation to have a Proper High Collar and tightly-wound cravat, so, you know. CLEARLY just the Worst Thing XD. There are random attacks on the tall collar scattered all over Romantic lit.

Gautier’s History of Romanticism pretty well sums it up, with some self-awareness: 

The men of fifty of to-day, and even some who arc older, may remember the jokes directed against the shirt-collar as symbolical of the grocer, the bourgeois, the Philistine, who, with their ears scraped by the triangle of starched linen, seemed to be themselves bringing their decapitated heads like bouquets done up in paper.

It took all Victor Hugo’s Olympic majesty and the shudders of terror he inspired to carry off his small turned-down collar a concession to Mrs. Grundy and when the doors were closed, and no profane ones were present, this weakness of the great genius, which connected him with humanity and even with the bourgeoisie, was commented on sadly, and deep sighs welled up from our artistic breasts.

#high collars #so obviously Square #might as well go ahead and carry an umbrella while you're at it #if you're determined to be uncool #Romantic Fashion Criticism

[amelancholycharm]

“ Nerval n’a pas donné le quart de ce qu’il avait en lui, Nanteuil a dissipé son talent en se chargeant de tâches généreusesmais peu réjouissantes, Borel a cédé à la lycanthropie, “

what an absolutely amazing description of Ultimate Fates this article lists

“Nerval never managed to do everything he wanted, Nanteuil used up all his energy on commercial work, Borel yielded to lycanthropy” 

Petrus Borel never died, he just turned into a wolf and got lazy about coming back 

#YES #we are still waiting #kinda hard to do any writing in wolf form #you know how it is

[amelancholycharm]

re: the review - I’ll allow it b/c of its author, but:

“Ever since his own day he (O’Neddy) has been not only a footnote in literary history, but a footnote to other footnotes such as Petrus Borel or Gérard de Nerval...”

*cries*

omg omg omg omg 

New O’Neddy translation!! by Brian Stableford, who did the Actually Good translation of Champavert!  @amelancholycharm @kingedmundsroyalmurder !!

#I don't care if they are footnotes #they're MY footnotes

[amelancholycharm]

WHAAAAT

omg omg omg omg 

New O’Neddy translation!! by Brian Stableford, who did the Actually Good translation of Champavert!  @amelancholycharm @kingedmundsroyalmurder !!

#OMG #this is VERY exciting! #looks like I'm going to be teaching some O'Neddy maybe???? #@pilferingapples #let's discuss after we read!