The Princess of Montpensier (novella)

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La princesse de Montpensier, 1662

The Princess of Montpensier is a short story by Madame de Lafayette that was published anonymously in 1662 .

content

The novella takes place in France towards the end of the wars of religion and ends after the bloody Bartholomew Night .

Champigny Castle

Marie de Mézières, one of the richest heiresses in France, loves the young Duke of Guise , but is promised by her parents to his younger brother, the Duke of Maine. Marie believes that Henri Guise loves her too. Her father, who wants to rise in the aristocratic hierarchy , forces her to marry the Duke of Montpensier , whom she does not know . Shortly after the marriage is consummated, Montpensier is from Charles IX. called to arms. A bloody civil war is raging in the country between the king's Catholic supporters and the rebellious Huguenots . On the way, Montpensier meets his old friend and teacher, the Count of Chabanes , who, tired of the slaughter, has deserted from the royal troops and who, as a famous fighter against the Huguenots, is now persecuted by both warring parties and threatened with death. Montpensier takes his old friend in and sends him back to his castle in Champigny to protect his young wife. He tells him to teach them and to prepare them to appear at court . Chabanes falls in love with the young woman, but when he reveals his love to her after long internal struggles, he is coolly rejected by pointing out the differences in age and status. However, she continues to treat him as a friend, whom she gives her full trust. After a two-year absence, Montpensier returned to his castle, but had to return to Paris when the war broke out again. In his entourage is the Count of Chabanes, who has meanwhile been able to rehabilitate himself with the Queen, Catherine de Medici .

In the ensuing acts of war, the king's brother, Henry III, Duke of Anjou and Guise were particularly brave and successful. During a temporary flattening of the fighting, during which Anjou inspected his fortresses, he happened upon the Princess of Montpensier, possibly helped by his companion, the Duke of Guise. They are accompanied home and, to the displeasure of the husband, who cannot turn away the high-ranking guest, quartered in Montpensier's castle. Anjou also succumbs to the charm and beauty of the young princess and begins to court her openly in the presence of the husband.

The result is this tense constellation: the princess, jealously guarded by her husband, the Duke of Anjou, who openly woos her, the Duke of Guise, who still likes the princess, who tries to seduce her and who is loved again, and finally the Count von Chabanes, who devotedly loves and adores the princess and who is the only one who recognizes the explosiveness of the situation, as he is taken into the confidence of everyone involved. His loyalty to the princess goes so far that he helps her to meet Guise. When Montpensier suddenly appears in the princess' apartment, he enables the duke to escape, who gets away scot-free. It appears that Chabanes is the lover who invaded his wife's room. He tries to defend himself without denouncing the princess, and only her sudden impotence saves him from the bloody revenge of his husband. Chabanes escapes, wanders through war-torn France, fights for his survival and is killed during the fighting near Paris. By chance, Montpensier finds the body of his former friend on the battlefield, and after a fleeting feeling of sadness he is filled with joy that fate has avenged Chabanes' “betrayal”.

Meanwhile, the princess waits in vain for letters or messages from her lover, who has won a new, less difficult lover. She falls into sadness, in a short time she has "lost the respect of her husband, the heart of her lover and the most loyal friend" (p. 349), she becomes seriously ill and dies a little later. The author draws her résumé from the story of the princess: “She died [...] in the prime of her years, one of the most beautiful princesses who have ever lived and who would certainly have been the happiest if virtue and prudence had unshakable her walk would have steered. "(p. 349.)

Historical background

The background to the novella is the turmoil of the Huguenot Wars in France, the marriage policy of the French nobility and the tensions and open or covert power struggles between the actors at the French court, especially between the ruling Valois and the ambitious and still influential Guise , who came from Lorraine .

people

  • Renée d'Anjou , born on October 21, 1550, is the historical model for the main character of Marie de Montpensier . She was the only daughter of the Marquis de Mezieres and was engaged to the Duke of Maine of the House of Guise . Because of her political marriage to François de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, she became Princesse de Montpensier in 1566.
He owes his nickname Le Balafré (the scarred) to a facial injury that was inflicted on him in the battle of Dormens in 1575. On St. Bartholomew's Night he commanded the royal troops who were tasked with murdering the leaders of the Protestants whom the king had summoned to court with the intention of making peace.
  • The Count of Chabanes , friend of the Prince de Montpensier, is not a historical person.

  • Prince de Montpensier

  • Henri de Guise

  • François, Duke of Anjou

The author herself was friends with Henrietta Stuart , known as Madame , wife of the Duke of Orléans , the brother of Louis XIV , and she therefore always enjoyed the goodwill of the king. Her first work is only beginning to reflect the atmosphere and the world of thought of the society in which the author moved in Paris. This society had developed entertainment and conversation into a fine art. Contenance , attitude had to be maintained in every situation, exaggerations, everything loud was to be avoided, the listener was expected to know how to interpret a hint, a gesture, the wavering in the voice. "Passions are sensual impulses which, like everything natural, must be ruled by the mind". (P. 363) The great themes of French classical music , the conflict between reason and passion, between duty and inclination, which also become central themes in her most famous novel The Princess of Clèves, are only hinted at in this novella. The novella is running at a fast pace and is headed straight for disaster. The concentration on the inner happenings of the actors, who only have the possibilities of a psychological analysis, as they represent Racine and Corneille in their dramas , and which she herself perfected in the "Princess of Clèves", is shown here only in the figure of the Count from Chabanes.

filming

In 2010, Bertrand Tavernier filmed the novella under the same title with Mélanie Thierry , Lambert Wilson , Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet and Raphaël Personnaz in the leading roles. The film was awarded a César for best costumes.

expenditure

  • La princesse de Clèves suivi de la princesse de Montpensier . Paris, Flammarion 2010. ISBN 2-08-124820-4
  • The Princess of Cleve. The princess of Montpensier. Translated by Hans Broemser u. Gerda von Uslar. With e. Essay and a bibliography by Jürgen v. Stackelberg. Reinbek b. Hamburg, Rowohlt 1958. (Rowohlt's classic. 28.)
  • The Princess of Clèves and The Princess of Montpensier. Translated by Ferdinand Hardekopf . Nachw. By E. Merian-Genast. Zurich, Manesse-Verl. 1957.

literature

  • Janine Anseaume Kreiter: Le Problème du paraître dans l'œuvre de Mme de Lafayette . Nizet 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cédric Leclerc: à la recherche de la demeure des Bourbons-Montpensier.
  2. ^ All verbatim quotations from: The Princess of Clèves and The Princess of Montpensier. Zurich 1957.
  3. ^ Pierre de Guibours: Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France. Ed. Chatelain. 1713. p. 118; Genealogy online , accessed March 24, 2019