The Guermantes Way III p 722-30

p 722 |General Louis Botha (S. African statesman, 1862-1919).
p 723 | Edward VII (1841–1910) was King of the United Kingdom & Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death. Before ascending the throne, he had been the Prince of Wales. Alexandra of Denmark (1844–1925) was his Queen consort.
p 724 | ... "Prince of Bulgaria..." Ferdinand I (1861–1948),born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, was the ruler of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1918, first as knyaz (prince regnant, 1887–1908) and later as tsar (1908–1918). He was also an author, botanist, entomologist & philatelist
p 725 | Saint Louis: Louis IX (1214–70), known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. An 8th-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, he was a member of the House of Capet, son of Louis VIII & Blanche of Castile. He is the only canonized king of France. 

"Louis' wisdom and fairness in administering justice was well-known in Europe. In summer, he would often go from church to a nearby park where he sat beneath an oak tree with several courtiers. "Is there anyone here who has a case to settle?" he would ask, and whoever did could come and speak with him freely. When faced with a problem between a rich person & a poor person, Louis always listened a little more carefully to the poor person. The rich, he said, had plenty of people ready to listen to them."

p 725 | Boaz: a major figure in The Book of Ruth in the Bible.

p 726 | Widow's weeds: Black clothes worn by a widow in mourning. Early 18th cent. (earlier as mourning weeds): weeds (obsolete in the general sense garments) is from Old English, waed(e), of Germanic origin.

p 727 | Republican: Republicanism is the ideology of governing a society or state as a republic, where the head of state is a representative of the people who hold popular sovereignty rather than the people being subjects of the head of state. The head of state is typically appointed by means other than heredity, often through elections.
p 727 | Prosody: the rhythm and pattern of sounds of poetry & language.
p 727 | Ducs de La Rochefoucauld and Ducs de Doudeauville.
p 728 | Duc de Montmorency
p 728 | Santrailles (Xaintrailles), Jean Poton de (French Marshal, 1390?–1461), was one of the chief lieutenants of Joan of Arc. He served as master of the royal stables, as royal bailiff in Berry & as seneschal of Limousin. In 1454 he was appointed a Marshal of France and was a leading figure on the French side in the Hundred Years War

p 730 | Catherine de Clèves (1548-1633) was, by marriage, Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588. She was Countess of Eu in her own right from 1564, and the widow of Antoine de Croy, Prince de Porcien. 
.

The Guermantes Way III p 716-21

p 716-17 | Philip III (1245–1285), called the Bold (French: le Hardi), was a Capetian King of France who reigned from 1270 to 1285.
Louis VI (1081-1137), called the Fat (French: le Gros), was King of the Franks from 1108 until his death.

p 717 | Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) is a French learned society, one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The académie was founded in 1795, suppressed in 1803, and reestablished in 1832 through the appeal of Guizot to King Louis Philippe. Its annual meeting is held in December.

p 717 | Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm II or William II (1859–1941) was the last German Emperor & King of Prussia from 1888 to 1918. Eldest grandson of Queen Victoria, related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, notably first cousins King George V of the U.K., founder of the House of Windsor, Marie of Romania, Queen consort of Romania and the Czarina Alix of Hesse, consort of his second cousin Tsar Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, the last ruler of the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deposed the monarchy.

Women Regents...

p 717 | Franz Hals the Elder (c. 1582–1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium)

p 718 | View of Delft by Vermeer: "Despite the unusualness of this exterior scene within Vermeer's production, it has, for many modern viewers, come to stand for Vermeer himself. When Marcel Proust needed an image for artistic perfection he chose the patch of yellow that, in Vermeer's curious vision, wedges a splendid sun-drenched roof between shaded walls. How could the View of Delft become an epitome of artistry in western culture? Some answers to this question tell us more about the novel and self-aware character of Vermeer's art, which is so central to the continuing appeal of his interior painting."

p 719 | Pinchbeck is a form of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, mixed in proportions so that it closely resembles gold in appearance.... over the years it came to mean a cheap and tawdry imitation of gold.

p 719 | Don John of Austria (1547–78) was an illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He became a military leader in the service of his half-brother, Philip of Spain and is best known for his naval victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottoman Empire.

by Titian, c 1534

p 719 | Isabella d'Este (1474–1539) was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts & a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court. Author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women", while diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went further, hailing her as "The First Lady of the world." She served as the regent of Mantua during the absence of her husband, Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and during the minority of her son, Federico, Duke of Mantua. In 1500 she met King Louis XII of France in Milan on a diplomatic mission to persuade him not to send his troops against Mantua. She was a prolific letter-writer, with a lifelong correspondence with her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga. Lucrezia Borgia was another sister-in-law; she later became the mistress of Isabella's husband.

p 720 | Andrea Mantegna (Italian painter, c. 1430–1506).
p 720 | Georges Lafenestre (1837–1919): Curator at the Louvre; professor of art history; art critic; poet.
p 720 | Aloes: a genus containing over 500 species of flowering succulent plants.  Manchineel is a tree reaching up to 15 meters high with a grayish bark, shiny green leaves and spikes of small greenish flowers. Its fruits, similar in appearance to an apple, are greenish when ripe. The current name manzanilla de la muerte means "little apple of death," since manchineel is one of the most poisonous trees in the world.
p 720 | Voltaire: (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778), French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, with works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters & more than 2,000 books & pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

The Mérope, a work of his ripest years, was intended as a perfect revival of Greek tragedy. The passionate love of a mother, who, in dread of losing her only treasure, and threatened with cruel oppression, still supports her trials with heroic constancy, and at last triumphs over them. How much he has borrowed from Maffei, and changed has been already pointed out.

Alzire appeared on the stage in 1736 to great acclaim. Alzire is set in Lima, Peru, at the time of the Spanish conquest. Don Gusman, a Spanish grandee, has just succeeded his father, Don Alvarez, in the Governorship of Peru. The rule of Don Alvarez had been beneficent and just; he had tried to soften the cruelty of his countrymen, and his last wish was to see his son carry on his work. Unfortunately, the son's temperament was the opposite of his father's; he was tyrannical and  harsh. In vain, Don Alvarez reminds his son that the true Christian returns good for evil, and as a result tragedy ensues.

p 720 |  enfeoff - put in possession of land in exchange for a pledge of service, in feudal society; "He enfeoffed his son-in-law with a large estate in Scotland."  1. (Law) property law to invest (a person) with possession of a freehold estate in land.  2. (in feudal society) to take (someone) into vassalage by giving a fee or fief in return for certain services.
p 721 | Grand Duke of Hesse: could be Louis IV? His brother would have been Aynard de Marsantes, father of Robert de Saint-Loup.
p 721 | Princesse de Sagan ? Proust was friends with Radziwill & Castellane, so using their names here may have been an in joke.

The Guermantes Way III p 710-

p 711 | Joseph Fouché, 1st Duke of Otranto,  (French statesman & Minister of Police under Napoleon & Louis XVIII, 1759-1820).
p 711 | Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier, 1755-1824), known as "the Desired" (le Désiré), monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France & Navarre 1814-24, except for 100 days in 1815.  His brother was Louis XVI (1754-93), King of France & Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after which he was King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition & execution during the French Revolution. 

p 711 | >> Princess Caroline Murat (1782-1839) was Caroline Bonaparte (sister of Napoleon I), who also was a Queen of Naples. But not the same Queen of Naples as Maria Carolina (1752-1815), sister of Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI.

The Guermantes Way III p 703-10

p 704 | King of Spain:  Alfonso XIII, who reigned from 1886-1931.
p 705 | pabululm: bland, simplistic food or intellectual sustenance; sapid=flavorful.
p 705 | The Supreme War Council, founded 1917 in Versailles, was a central command created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to coordinate Allied military strategy during WWI. 
p 705 | French in Morocco

p 706 | a purple flower that smells bad.... maybe  Amorphophallus titanum known as the Titan Arum or Datura stramonium, known as Jimson weed or Devil's snare.
p 708 | Edmond Albius (Albins), and vanilla propagation
p 709 | Empire-style furniture 
p 709 | Montesquiou family
p 710 | furniture with a Wedgwood medallion
p 710 | Duc de Guastalla & the Princesse de Parme
p 710 | How Proust knows about Princesse Mathilde & the Duc d'Aumale; interesting write-up about her here on page 464 and following. Here is a painting of her salon. Here's the duke.

The Guermantes Way III p 685-703

p 685 | Attic salt: Refined, delicate wit.

p 686 | Maecenas - a generous patron especially of literature or art. Latin, from Gaius Maecenas 8 b.c. Roman statesman & patron of literature.


p 687 | Jehan George Vibert, Academic painter, 1840-1902.

p 688 | Pampille... was Marthe Daudet (1878–1960).

p 690 | Antoinette Élisabeth, Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre (née de Gramont; 1875-1954), French writer, close friend, sometimes critic, of Proust, whom she met in 1903. 

p 690 | Ortolan's eggs.

p 692 | Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet(1627–1704), French bishop & theologian, known for his sermons & other addresses, is sometimes considered one of the most brilliant orators of all time & a masterful French stylist.

p 692 | François Coppée (1842–1908): French poet and novelist.

p 693 | Mme Alphonse de Rothschild=Leonora "Laure" de Rothschild (1837-1911)

p 697 | La Dame aux camélias: 1848 novel by Dumas fils, made into Camille and La Traviata.

Apostle

p 698 | Sic transit gloria mundi is a Latin phrase that means "Thus passes the glory of the world."
p 698 | Le malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid, 1673), a 3-act comedy/ballet by Molière & Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

p 699 | Queen of Naples=Maria Sophie of Bavaria, sister of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria.

p 700 | Queen of Sweden=Sophia of Nassau.

p 702 | Apostles in the Sainte-Chapelle.
p 702 | Yquem: Sauterne wine.

p 703 | Orangeade (recipe); stewed cherries (recipe), stewed pears (recipe)

The Guermantes Way III p 638-644

p 638 | Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho, French opera singer, 1827-95)

p 641 | Bussy d'Amboise, Louis de (1549–79) was a gentleman dandy at the court of Henri III.







p 642 | Duc d'Aumale (Prince Henri d'Orleans, 1822-97, son of King Louis-Philippe).

p 644 | caviller=quibbler; one who raises annoying petty objections.

The Guermantes Way III p 626-629

p 627 | squaring the circle: which was proven impossible in 1882; the expression is often used as a metaphor for trying to do the impossible
p 627 | minced pork of Tours: perhaps referring to these rillettes; biscuits of Rheims, which are pink. <<==


p 628 | conical mitre of the Jews: the Jewish hat <<==

p 628 | Academic robe ==>>

p 628 | pharisaical = marked by hypocritical censorious self-righteousness
p 628 | aroma of carbolic acid: Phenol — also known as carbolic acid - is an aromatic organic compound, once was widely used as an antiseptic, especially as carbolic soap, from the early 1900s to the 1970s.
p 628 | <<==  gown of scarlet satin faced with ermine, like that of a Doge...
p 629 | The Council of Ten (1310-1797), one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice.
p 629 | Veto: from the Latin vetare, I forbid.
p 629 | Juro: While playing the hypochondriac Argan in his last play Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), Molière, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was seized by a coughing fit & spat blood just before he was to speak the word Juro (I swear). He finished the performance and died a few hours later.
p 629 | Bar Council: Bar Association.
p 629 | Chargé d'affaires = diplomatic official who temporarily takes the place of an ambassador.
p 629 | Salon=The Salon or Salon de Paris, beginning in 1725, was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1748-1890, it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world. In 1849, medals were introduced.

The Guermantes Way III p 607-626

p 607 | This castle, Château de Villebon, was the model for the Château de Guermantes.  It's located at #3 on this map. More photos here.  Proust used it as an early draft name for the Guermantes, but then re-edited (and camouflaged) the family & castle, referring now just to the Villebon - Gallardon - Courvoisier side of the family. Châteaudun is also a community in the  Eure-et-Loir department in northern France (probably not as grand).  The Rue de Grenelle is in Paris.
p 610 | Pliny the Younger (Roman writer). Mme Pauline de Simiane (1674-1737) was the granddaughter of Mme de Sévigné.
p 612 | fuliginous = sooty, murky, dark. Sui generis is a Latin phrase, meaning "of its own kind/genus" and hence "unique in its characteristics."
p 613 | Princess Bedr-el-Budur: Aladdin fell in love with this character from the Arabian Nights.
p 615 | Daniel Auber (French composer, 1782-1871) of operas such as Les diamants de la couronne, Le domino noir and Fra Diavolo.
p 616-17 | Prince / Princesse des Laumes: titles for Basin & Oriane before his father died & they became the Duc & Duchesse de Guermantes.
p 616 | "cutting the painter" :: an expression meaning, in terms of ships, making a clandestine departure, but also, in terms of an individual, gaining one's freedome, or departing this life. Ships' boats are secured alongside by means of their painters, and a silent or clandestine departure can only be made by cutting the painter and allowing the boat to drift silently away from the ship until it is out of earshot of those on board. cf. answers.com
p 617 | Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny (1753–1814), French poet, known for love poems & prose poems. Some of his work was banned.
p 619 | Charles Grandmougin (French playwright & librettist, 1850-1930); Gaston Lemaire (French composer, 1854-1928). Marquise de Souvré (friend of the Princesse de Parme).
p 626 | cupidity = inordinate desire for wealth; greed, avarice, lust.

The Guermantes Way III p 598-607

p 598 | Though there were several Princesses de Parme, the one in the book is a created composite character. One of the sources Proust used for her, according to George Painter's Marcel Proust: A Biography (v.2, p 97-98) was Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, who also appears in the book as herself.
p 599 | ... Dresden figures....

p 600 | ... the wit of the Mortemarts...: a French family known for the esprit Mortemart, a particular type of wit which allowed impossible things to be said.
p 600 | "... supple undulation of those tresses of light whose loosened hairs run like flexible rays along the sides of a moss-agate..."
.

Moss-agate

p 602 | ...gave as its source the mythological impregnation of a nymph by a divine Bird... Yeah, I'll just go with Leda and the Swan here...
p 602 | Prince Gilbert de Guermantes (Basin's cousin; nephew of Mme de Villeparisis)
p 604 | Hannibal Barca, who threw snakes onto ships to win battles. Also the Barca family emblem in Flaubert's novel Salammbô.
p 605-7 | Marquise de Gallardon (née Courvoisier, the other side of the Guermantes family.)
p 606 | The Ligne and de La Trémoille families still exist.
p 606 | Perche, former province of northern France. (Percherons!)
p 606 | "And if but one is left, then that one will be me." (Et s'il n'en reste qu'un, je serai celui-là !) Last line of Ultima Verba (ca. 1853) by Victor Hugo, in exile because he would not accept the reimposition of a Bonapartist monarchy under Napoleon III, the emperor's nephew, whom Hugo dubbed "Napoléon le petit."
p 607 | "Thanks to the gods..." From Andromaque by Racine, V v.

The Guermantes Way III p 569-575

p 571 | Hannibal and the battle of Cannae

p 572 | Ossian (legendary 3rd century Gaelic bard)

p 574 | Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), 18th-century French painter, considered a master of still life.




p 574 | Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, French painter who specialized in portraits executed in pastels.

p 575 | "We lack the wisdom to work backwards from the particular to the general..."

Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814

Manet, Olympia, 1863