The Etruscan vase
The Etruscan vase (French: Le Vase étrusque ) is a novella by the French writer Prosper Mérimée , which was published in January 1830 in the literary magazine " Revue de Paris ". The first translation into German - provided by Adolf Laun - came out in 1872.
A young man from the best of Parisian society must recognize that doubts about the loyalty of his beloved were incorrect. He punishes himself for his fickleness .
action
The Parisian dandy Auguste Saint-Clair falls in love with the pretty Countess Mathilde de Coursy, is in seventh heaven and is convinced that he is the first and only man to whom the young widow returns his hot kisses. For Saint-Clair, it was agreed that after Mathilde had passed the year of mourning, they were immediately married.
The young Saint-Clair lost his confidence in Parisian society by careless replies in many a salon. The beautiful captain Alphonse de Thémines not only talks disparagingly about Saint-Clair behind his back, but also claims in front of friends and acquaintances that the late Italian traveler Massigny turned the head of Countess de Coursy during the lifetime of the Countess.
When he hears this, the horrified Saint-Clair realizes that he was not the first and only lover of his newly widowed Mathilde. Deeply shocked, he remembers that Etruscan vase on Mathilde's fireplace. This vessel was a gift from Massigny after one of his trips to Italy.
On the one hand, Saint-Clair cannot part with his lover and, on the other hand, he does not want to be considered Massigny's successor. After months of hesitation, he insulted Rittmeister de Thémines on a horseback ride. Even before the inevitable duel, Saint-Clair can't help it - he speaks to Mathilde about the talk about Massigny. Mathilde admits that Massigny did indeed fall in love with her after one of his trips to Italy. Together with her cousin Julie, she then exposed poor Massigny at an evening party. Julie read a declaration of love from Massigny to Mathilde and addressed the letter to herself.
Saint-Clair has never loved his Mathilde as much as after this clarifying conversation, especially since the countess had smashed the Etruscan vase, the rare piece that showed the fight of a Lapith against a centaur , into a thousand pieces on the floor.
In the duel, the lot should decide on the first shot. Saint-Clair insists - de Thémines should shoot first. The Rittmeister shoots his opponent. The countess withers and dies a few months later from a breast disease.
reception
- Mérimée took his friend Stendhal as a model for the figure of Auguste Saint-Clair.
German editions
- Otto Görner (Ed.): The Etruscan Vase , pp. 245-272 (Translator: MM) in Prosper Mérimée: Carmen and other short stories . H. Fikentscher Verlag, Leipzig 1932 in the Hafis reading library. 317 pages
Used edition
- The Etruscan vase . P. 44–72 in Prosper Mérimée: Auserlesene Novellen (also contains: Tamango . Federigo . Colomba . Carmen . The Venus of Ille . The alley of Madama Lucrezia . The Blue Room ). Translator: Helmut Bartuschek (1951). With an introduction by Herbert Kühn. Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung zu Leipzig 1965 (5th edition, license Rudolf Marx). 398 pages
Web links
- The text translated into German at Gutenberg.de
- Le Vase Étrusque Online text in the French WikiSource
Individual evidence
Partly in French
- ^ French Revue de Paris
- ↑ Görner, p. 246
- ↑ Görner, p. 246