Bartholomew's Night (Mérimée)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prosper Mérimée, after 1850

The Bartholomäusnacht ( French Chronique du règne de Charles IX ) is a historical novel by the French writer Prosper Mérimée , which was first published on March 5, 1829. The novel offers a panorama from the France of Charles IX. about the night of St. Bartholomew and the siege of La Rochelle . As early as 1832, the Braunschweig-based Vieweg publishing house published a translation into German by Carl von Lützow (1794–1868).

The historical background and Mérimées sources

In his foreword, Mérimée differentiates between three contending parties during the Huguenot Wars - the Protestants ( Huguenots ), the King and the Guisen ( Papists ). At the end of the novel, the Catholic army lifts the siege of La Rochelle. The fourth peace during the Huguenot Wars is concluded. The Protestants are led by the Admiral de Coligny after the death of the Prince of Condé . The heads of the papists are the dukes of Guise, Franz von Lothringen and his eldest son Heinrich . Of the contemporary authors who wrote on his subject, Mérimée recommends Montluc , Brantôme , d'Aubigné , Tavannes and La Noue . Among these sources he preferred d'Aubigné's works.

action

1572, before August 24th

When the young country nobleman Bernard de Mergy first approached the capital Paris on horseback in 1572, he had no experience of dueling. The noble greenhorn has not yet been in any battlefield either. In the inn "To the golden lion" near Étampes, the gypsy Mila prophesied that he would shed his own blood. The next morning after a drinking binge , Bernard's purse, including ducats, and the beautiful fox are gone.

Bernard, from a Protestant family, is to join Admiral Coligny's next campaign to Flanders , according to his father's wishes . In Paris, after seven years, he meets his older brother again, Captain George de Mergy. George laughs at his brother, replaces the stolen goods and tries to talk him out of the Flanders adventure. George says he changed his religion because of a love affair. At the “Gasthaus zum Mohren”, Bernard meets two young Catholic nobles. The Baron de Vaudreuil and the Viscount de Béville tell him about life and goings-on at court. The dreaded Raffiné Count von Comminges has recently fallen in love with the capricious lady-in-waiting, Countess Diane de Turgis. The Catholic George takes his brother to the Saint-Jacques church . The Protestant Bernard agrees because the eloquent Father Lubin's mass is attended by beautiful ladies-in-waiting. Indeed, the young man gets to see the Countess von Turgis at the side of the notorious Comminges.

Pierre-Denis Martin : The Château de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne , around 1722

Bernard is haunted by luck. Admiral Coligny takes the son of his old comrade into his ranks. Charles IX sends the young man a cornet certificate. After the new cornet has personally thanked his king in the Château de Madrid , the Countess de Turgis rushes past him. Bernard, clearly struck by the beauty of this young woman, is violently pushed aside by Comminges. The young nobleman has no choice and so he challenges the famous fencer to a duel. The Countess gives Bernard a small flat gold medallion as an amulet . The duel takes place on the Seine meadow Pré-aux-Clercs . In his first duel with cutting and stabbing weapons, Bernard stabs the best raffiné in the court and must fear the king's punishment. His brother hides the wounded winner. The old Marthe Micheli alias Camille - in league with the Countess - cares for and heals the sick according to the "rules of magical sympathy ". Bernard de Mergy and Diane de Turgis become lovers to whom Béville can bring good news. Thanks to the intercession of the Queen Mother , the duelist was pardoned by the King. Bernard speculates that he owes the royal grace to his beloved. From then on, the sword fencer Bernard is as respected at court as Comminges was once.

Charles IX quotes George to himself and tells him that he would like to see the captain shoot the admiral. The king is extremely skilful, knowing almost everything that goes on in Paris. Coligny had insulted the captain for his change of faith. Because George does not want to become a murderer, he is assigned to his company in Meaux by return mail. Two days before Bartholomew's Night, Coligny was fatally hit by a shot from the rifle of a certain Maurevel.

As a Protestant, Bernard is harassed on the street by a group of Parisian Catholics and only escapes certain death through the courageous intervention of the eloquent Father Lubin, who happens to be passing by. Bernard had recognized Baron Vaudreuil among the Catholics and had talked to him in a relaxed tone before the argument. Vaudreuil had warned the friend.

August 24, 1572, Paris: The Bartholomew Night

At the beginning of this section, Mérimée quotes from Thomas Otway's tragedy Venice Preserv'd (1682): " Those of us who spare our father, brother or friend perish ."

François Dubois : The Bartholomew Night, around 1578

Coligny's killer Maurevel comes straight from the king to George with a list. All the Protestants from Rue Saint-Antoine to be killed stand on it. George does not participate, transfers the command to his cornet, leaves the troop, is later arrested for refusing to order and released again. Diane knows about the bloodbath in Paris and begs Bernard to convert at the last minute and thus save his skin. Bernard remains a Protestant.

On the way to his brother, George has to watch the atrocities. Chains stretched across the streets prevent him from moving forward. Charles IX shoots Huguenots from his window. Béville runs into the captain who is not on duty. Béville watches with unmoved interest as living and dead Huguenots are thrown from a bridge into the Seine. He points out to George a woman who is hanging with her skirt on a pillar and wants to see it up close. George had now taken this gawker to be one of the most honorable nobles in Paris. Béville says he hid the Huguenot usurer Michael Cornabon in his cellar and in return had all his promissory notes receipted.

Bernard survived the Paris massacre in the house of Countess Diane, who is considered to be devout. Catholic preachers demand increased cruelty from believers. After two days, 60,000 Huguenots were murdered. The king tries in vain to end the slaughter.

1573

Bernard flees to La Rochelle, the stronghold of the Protestants, where La Noue serves as an adjutant , protects the seriously wounded Catholic captain Béville from an early burial and commands a division of riflemen who, on his command, shoot his brother George from his horse. The Catholic captains Béville and George de Mergy die in the hospital. Bernard mourns his brother. The prophecy of the gypsy Mila in Étampes has come true. As he died, George had told his brother Bernard about the wife of Turgis that she still loved him. The first-person narrator leaves the possible construction of a happy ending to the reader.

Commentary and reception

Mérimées novel contains an extensive panopticon of historical and fictional actors and thus shows a basic characteristic of historical novellistics. He fluctuates between two modes of presentation: Some characteristics are only accentuated by the author as he passes by and, as it were, belatedly. So Béville only declares himself young on the death bed in the last chapter. However, the reader can already see his age from the title of the third chapter - "The young courtiers". Sometimes the narrator also characterizes his characters in a direct commentary - for example, when he reveals in the ninth chapter that the Countess de Turgis will still play a major role in his novel.

Occasionally the voice of the anonymous first-person narrator is individualized by further comments. This is how he explains the French drinking of wine: "Tea and coffee were not common yet." Perhaps in that chapter he has a structural weakness in his sights in his sights, the sequential episodes of which make the narrative flow appear discontinuous and abrupt. Mérimée picks out some of the wealth of historical events, but to the disappointment of the reader does not always finish with the same attention to detail. For example, at the end of the eighth chapter Charles de Téligny , Coligny's son-in-law, is introduced and towards the end of the tenth chapter - titled "The Hunt" - an episode is reproduced in which Téligny falls out of favor with the king by making a loud statement. However, the narrator does not describe the murder of the Huguenot Téligny on Bartholomew's Night. He only indicates that the king has not forgotten the Protestant's cheeky utterance - conveyed to him by a courtier. The same applies to Baron Vaudreuil. The baron is very familiar with the Parisian manners and customs of the dueling nobles. He advises and admonishes Bernard, the inexperienced newcomer from the provinces. But Vaudreuil is simply not mentioned again during and after Bartholomew's Night.

Mérimée's final chapter seems to be shaped by the atheism of the 19th century, in which dying warriors refuse spiritual assistance.

Testimonials

In two letters to his friend Albert Stapfer, Mérimée expressed a strange distance from one of his most powerful works:

  • December 16, 1828: "I'm making a bad novel that bores me."
  • March 17th, 1829: "I'm angry that you bought my bad novel."

To the reception of the novel in Germany

In 1833 the work was perceived as too bloodthirsty and also as "too torn and sketchy" (cf. the criticism from the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung under web links). In his foreword to the new edition of the novel from 1957, Herbert Kühn praised Mérimée's narrative technique for the virtuoso insertion of historical figures like Charles IX. and Colignys in supporting roles.

See also

German editions

  • Bernard Mergy or The Bartholomew Night. Historical-romantic painting from the sixteenth century. Freely translated from the French by Karl von Lützow, Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin Chamberlain , Knight of the Royal Prussian Order of Saint John . Friedrich Vieweg, Braunschweig 1832. First part: 208 pages, second part: 150 pages.
  • The Bartholomew Night, historical novel . Translated by Heinrich Elsner. Verlag Becher & Müller, Stuttgart & Cannstatt 1845.
  • The Bartholomew Night. Novel from 1572. Translated from the French by Carola Freiin von Crailsheim and Gertrud Vogel. Paul Franke, Berlin 1920. 292 pages.
  • The Bartholomew Night. Transferred from Gertrud Ouckama Knoop. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1925. 289 pages.
  • The Bartholomew Night. Translated from the French by Alfred Semerau . Afterword by Maurice Rat . Manesse, Zurich 1942, 375 pages.

Used edition

Web links

The text in the French original
German editions
review

Remarks

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 3.
  2. ↑ In the text, a Raffiné is a dude (edition used, pp. 48, 144.), who moreover duels each other because of every bagatelle.
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 114.
  4. ↑ Mérimée uses the different spelling Maurevel.
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 156.
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 53.
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. Xxi.
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. Xx.
  9. ^ In the foreword of the edition used, pp. Xiv – xx.