Chapter 13

Oui, c'est vrai,--c'est du moins jusque-là que l'oeil plonge,-- C'est l'avenir,--du moins tel qu'on le voit en songe;-- Quand le monde atteindra son but, quand les instants, Les jours, les mois, les ans, auront rempli le temps, Quand tombera du ciel l'heure immense et nocturne, Cette goutte qui doit faire déborder l'urne, Alors, dans le silence horrible, un rayon blanc, Long, pâle, glissera, formidable et tremblant, Sur ces haltes de nuit qu'on nomme cimetières; Les tentes frémiront, quoiqu'elles soient des pierres, Dans tous ces sombres camps endormis; et, sortant Tout à coup de la brume où l'univers l'attend, Ce clairon, au-dessus des êtres et des choses, Au-dessus des forfaits et des apothéoses, Des ombres et des os, des esprits et des corps, Sonnera la diane effrayante des morts.

O lever en sursaut des larves pêle-mêle! Oh! la Nuit réveillant la Mort, sa soeur jumelle!

Pensif, je regardais l'incorruptible airain.

Les volontés sans loi, les passions sans frein, Toutes les actions de tous les êtres, haines, Amours, vertus, fureurs, hymnes, cris, plaisirs, peines, Avaient laissé, dans l'ombre où rien ne remuait, Leur pâle empreinte autour de ce bronze muet; Une obscure Babel y tordait sa spirale.

Sa dimension vague, ineffable, spectrale, Sortant de l'éternel, entrait dans l'absolu. Pour pouvoir mesurer ce tube, il eût fallu Prendre la toise au fond du rêve, et la coudée Dans la profondeur trouble et sombre de l'idée; Un de ses bouts touchait le bien, l'autre le mal; Et sa longueur allait de l'homme à l'animal, Quoiqu'on ne vît point là d'animal et point d'homme; Couché sur terre, il eût joint Ëden à Sodome.

Son embouchure, gouffre où plongeait mon regard, Cercle de l'inconnu ténébreux et hagard, Pleine de cette horreur que le mystère exhale, M'apparaissait ainsi qu'une offre colossale D'entrer dans l'ombre où Dieu même est évanoui. Cette gueule, avec l'air d'un redoutable ennui, Morne, s'élargissait sur l'homme et la nature, Et cette épouvantable et muette ouverture Semblait le bâillement noir de l'éternité.

Au fond de l'immanent et de l'illimité, Parfois, dans les lointains sans nom de l'Invisible, Quelque chose tremblait de vaguement terrible, Et brillait et passait, inexprimable éclair. Toutes les profondeurs des mondes avait l'air De méditer, dans l'ombre où l'ombre se répète, L'heure où l'on entendrait de cette âpre trompette Un appel aussi long que l'infini jaillir. L'immuable semblait d'avance en tressaillir.

Des porches de l'abîme, antres hideux, cavernes Que nous nommons enfers, puits, gehennams, avernes, Bouches d'obscurité qui ne prononcent rien; Du vide où ne flottait nul souffle aérien; Du silence où l'haleine osait à peine éclore, Ceci se dégageait pour l'âme: Pas encore.

Par instants, dans ce lieu triste comme le soir, Comme on entend le bruit de quelqu'un qui vient voir, On entendait le pas boiteux de la justice; Puis cela s'effaçait. Des vermines, le vice, Le crime, s'approchaient; et, fourmillement noir, Fuyaient. Le clairon sombre ouvrait son entonnoir. Un groupe d'ouragans dormait dans ce cratère, Comme cet organum des gouffres doit se taire Jusqu'au jour monstrueux où nous écarterons Les clous de notre bière au-dessus de nos fronts, Nul bras ne le touchait dans l'invisible sphère; Chaque race avait fait sa couche de poussière Dans l'orbe sépulcral de son évasement; Sur cette poudre l'oeil lisait confusément Ce mot: RIEZ, écrit par le doigt d'Épicure; Et l'on voyait, au fond de la rondeur obscure, La toile d'araignée horrible de Satan.

Des astres qui passaient murmuraient: 'Souviens-t'en! Prie!' et la nuit portait cette parole à l'ombre.

Et je ne sentais plus ni le temps ni le nombre.

Une sinistre main sortait de l'infini. Vers la trompette, effroi de tout crime impuni, Qui doit faire à la mort un jour lever la tête, Elle pendait énorme, ouverte, et comme prête A saisir ce clairon qui se tait dans la nuit, Et qu'emplit le sommeil formidable du bruit. La main, dans la nuée et hors de l'Invisible, S'allongeait A quel être était-elle? Impossible De le dire, en ce morne et brumeux firmament. L'oeil dans l'obscurité ne voyait clairement Que les cinq doigts béants de cette main terrible; Tant l'être, quel qu'il fût, debout dans l'ombre horrible, --Sans doute, quelque archange ou quelque séraphin Immobile, attendant le signe de la fin,-- Plongeait profondément, sous les ténébreux voiles, Du pied dans les enfers, du front dans les étoiles!

FIN

NOTES

LA CONSCIENCE.

It has been thought that the subject of this poem was suggested to Victor Hugo by a passage in _Les tragiques_, a satirical poem in seven books, depicting the misfortunes and vices of France, written by Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné (1551-1630), whom Sainte-Beuve calls the Juvenal of the sixteenth century. The passage relating to Cain occurs in the sixth book, called _Les Vengeances_. The following extracts indicate the spirit in which the author dealt with his theme.

Il avoit peur de tout, et il avoit peur de lui . . . . . . . La mort ne put avoir de mort pour récompense: L'Enfer n'eut point de morts à punir cette offense; Mais autant de jours il sentit de trespas: Vif, il ne vescut point; mort, il ne mourut pas. Il fuit d'effroi transi, troublé, tremblant et blesme, Il fuit de tout le monde, il s'enfuit de soy-mesme . . . . . . . Il possedoit le monde et non une asseurance; Il estoit seul partout, hors mis sa conscience, Et fut marqué au front affin qu'en s'enfuiant Aucun n'osast tuer ses maux en le tuant.

It is clear that if the poem suggested the subject to Hugo it suggested nothing else.

With _Caïn_ may be compared _Le Parricide_, one of the 1859 series, which is also inspired by the theme of the guilty conscience pursuing the murderer. In this case remorse is symbolized by a drop of blood which falls upon the head of the criminal wherever he goes.

_Assur_, English Asshur; the name occurs in the marginal rendering of Gen. x. II (Revised Version).

The names of persons and their descriptions are taken from the account of Cain's descendants in Gen. iv. 17-23.

_Jabel_, English Jabal, son of Lamech, a descendant of Cain and Adah. 'He was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle.'

_Tsilla_, English Zillah, one of Lamech's wives.

_Jubal_, the brother of Jabal. 'He was the father of all such a handle the harp and pipe.'

_Hénoch_, English Enoch, Cain's son.

_Tubalcaïn_, English Tubal-cain, the son of Lamech and his wife Zillah. He was 'the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron.'

_Seth_ was the third son of Adam and Eve, and

_Énos_ was the son of Seth.

PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ.

_Iblis_, one of the names used in the Koran for the Spirit of Evil. He was a spirit who refused to prostrate himself before Adam at the command of the Almighty, and was therefore expelled from Eden. Instead of being immediately destroyed, however, he was given a respite till the Day of Judgement. The word is derived from the Arabic _balas_, wicked.

Another tradition, not found in the Koran, is that Iblis was a warrior angel whom the Almighty sent to exterminate the Djinns, the beings, half men, half angels, who inhabited the country of the Genii. Instead of performing this command, the spirit rebelled and was cast down into hell. It is hardly necessary to add that Hugo's story is of his own invention.

_Bonté_ (see heading), one of Hugo's favourite words for expressing the moral attributes of the Almighty power. The theme that God is goodness, which is more than justice, is developed in _Dieu: La Lumière_.

La justice, c'est vous, l'humanité; mais Dieu Est la bonté.

Compare also the concluding lines of _Le Crapaud_.

The word has no exact equivalent in English. It comprehends kindness, tenderness, and gentleness.

It may be interesting to note that Hugo was fond of comparing an object composed of a centre and rays to a spider. Edmond Huguet (_Les Sens de la Forme dans les Métaphores de Victor Hugo_) gives the following examples:

'De la hauteur où je suis, la rade pleine de nacelles (à quatre rames) figure une mare couverte d'araignées d'eau.' (_Alpes et Pyrénées_.)

'Nous estimons une araignée chose hideuse et nous sommes ravis de retrouver sa toile en rosace sur les façades des cathédrales, et son corps et ses pattes en clef de voûte dans les chapelles.' (_France et Belgique_.)

'Les lanternes de ce temps-là ressemblaient à de grosses étoiles rouges pendues à des cordes, et jetaient sur le pavé une ombre qui avait la forme d'une grande araignée.' (_Les Misérables_.)

Rostabat prend pour fronde, ayant Roland pour cible, Un noir grappin qui semble une araignée horrible. (_La Légende des Siècles, Le Petit Roi de Galice._)

'Trois ou quatre larges araignées de pluie s'écrasèrent autour de lui sur la roche.' (_Les Travailleurs de la Mer._)

Hugo appears to have had a feeling of antipathy for the spider and frequently chose it as the symbol of evil. In __Dieu: Le Corbeau_,_ the spirits of good and evil are thus described:--

L'un est l'Esprit de vie, au vol d'aigle, aux yeux d'astre, Qui rayonne, crée, aime, illumine, construit; Et l'autre est l'araignée énorme de la nuit.

In _La Fin de Satan_, of the days before the Flood,

Depuis longtemps l'azur perdait ses purs rayons, Et par instants semblait plein de hideuses toiles Où l'araignée humaine avait pris les étoiles.

And of Ignatius Loyola,

Sombre araignée à qui Dieu, pour tisser sa toile, Donnait des fils d'aurore et des rayons d'étoile.

Compare also:--

La toile d'araignée horrible de Satan. (_La Trompette du Jugement._)

In other passages the spider is a type of the unpleasant.

La nuit, qui sert de fond au guet mystérieux Du hibou promenant la rondeur de ses yeux, Ainsi qu'à l'araignée ouvrant ses pâles toiles. (_La Confiance du Marquis Fabrice._)

See also the passage from _La Bouche d'Ombre_, quoted in the notes to _Le Crapaud._

BOOZ ENDORMI.

The subject of this exquisite little idyll is taken from the Book of Ruth, chapter iii, in which Ruth the Moabitess is described as lying at the feet of Boaz, the kinsman of her dead husband, Mahlon the Hebrew, in order that she might claim from him that he should marry her and continue the family of Mahlon, as provided by the law of Moses.

_Judith._ There was a Judith, daughter of Beer the Hittite, one of the wives of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 34). Hugo may or may not have had this personage in his mind.

_asphodèle_. Hugo is not always accurate in his local colouring. Asphodels are not found in Palestine.

_Galgala_, the form found in the Septuagint and Vulgate of the place-name Gilgal.

_Les grelots des troupeaux._ Here, again, Hugo is inaccurate. Sheep in Palestine do not have bells attached to them.

_Jérimadeth_. The name seems to be of Hugo's own invention. It was a trick of the poet's to make proper names suit the exigencies of rime, as in this instance, in which 'Jérimadeth rimes with' demandait.

AU LION D'ANDROCLÈS.

It is impossible to name the period to which Hugo is referring in this poem more precisely than by saying that it is the age of Rome under the Empire. As will be seen from the notes, the personages and events alluded to are not all contemporaneous. It was enough for Hugo that they were typical of the Roman decadence.

_Trimalcion_. The festival of Trimalcion is an episode in the _Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter, the poem in which are described all the excesses of Roman luxury and debauchery. Petronius Arbiter lived in the time of Claudius.

_Lesbie_. Hugo is guilty of one of his inaccuracies here. Lesbia was the lady to whom the poems of Catullus (87-47 B.C.?) were addressed, while Delia, who is mentioned below in connexion with Catullus, was in reality the mistress of Tibullus (54 B.C.-19 A.D.).

_Crassus_. Hugo no doubt refers to M. Licinius Crassus (died 53 B.C.), the Triumvir, who, when praetor, led an army against the revolted gladiators under Spartacus. He twice defeated them and subsequently crucified or hung, along the road from Capua to Rome, six thousand slaves who had been taken prisoners.

_Épaphrodite_. Epaphroditus, a freedman and favourite of the Emperor Nero, was the master of Epictetus, the lame slave and Stoic philosopher, who was amongst the greatest of pagan moralists. Epaphroditus, who treated his slave with great cruelty, is said to have been one day twisting his leg for amusement. Epictetus said, 'If you continue, you will break my leg.' Epaphroditus went on, the leg was broken, and Epictetus only said, 'Did I not tell you that you would break it?'

Hugo seems to have in mind the short reigns of Galba (r. A.D. 68-9), Otho (r. A.D. 69), and Vitellius (r. A.D. 69), all of whom perished by violence.

_Vitellius_ was famous even among the later Romans for his gluttony and voracious appetite. During the four months of his reign he is said to have spent seven millions sterling on the pleasures of his table. When at last the people rose against him, and the soldiers proclaimed another emperor, Vitellius was found hiding in his palace. He was dragged out into the Forum and killed on the Gemoniae _(les Gémonies)_, a staircase which went up the Capitoline Hill and on which the corpses of criminals were exposed before being thrown into the Tiber. This is the _Escalier_ referred to in the next line.

l. 57. These tortures were not known in Rome. They suggest rather the Middle Ages.

_le cirque_. The circus where chariot-races took place. Hugo seems to be confusing it with the Colosseum, where the gladiatorial combats were fought.

_Le noir gouffre cloaque_. The Cloaca Maxima was the great sewer of Rome. It is still in existence and in use. Hugo here first makes it the symbol of the destruction towards which the Roman Empire was tending, and then treats it half as a concrete reality, half as a figure for some underworld in which dethroned but living emperors meet. This blending of the symbol and the thing symbolized is characteristic of the poet.

_chiffres du fatal nombre_: the figures or digits that stand for the doomed number, i.e. the number with which a doomed man is marked.

_Attila_, the famous king of the Huns, 'the Scourge of God' as he was called, reigned A.D. 434-53.

LE MARIAGE DE ROLAND.

The poem is founded on the 'Chanson de Girart de Viane,' one of the Carolingian cycles of epic poems, written by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, a poet of Champagne who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century.

The story, as told in the _Chanson_, is as follows:--

Girard, or Girart, the son of Garin of Montglave, a poor nobleman, goes with his brother Renier to the court of Charlemagne to seek his fortune. After being at court for some time he quarrelled with the Emperor, owing to the latter marrying the widow of Aubery, duc de Bourgogne, who was pledged to Girart. As a compensation for the loss of his bride, he was given the Comté of Vienne, in Dauphiné. When he presented himself before Charlemagne to do homage, the queen, whose affection for her old lover had changed to contempt, forced him by a trick to kiss her foot instead of that of her husband. Some time after, Girart learnt the truth, and, furious at the insult placed upon him, he rebelled against his sovereign. Renier, who had been made duke of Genoa, with his son Olivier and his daughter 'la belle Aude,' came to help him. Charlemagne besieged Vienne with a great army, and amongst his warriors was his nephew Roland, who was his principal champion, just as Olivier was that of Girart. A siege, like that of Troy, ensued, many doughty deeds being done by the two heroes. In the course of the fighting Roland sees Aude and falls in love with her. He takes her prisoner, and almost succeeds in carrying her off to his tent, but Olivier rescues her. Finally, it is agreed that the quarrel between the monarch and his vassal shall be settled by a duel between the two champions. Needless to say, the latter fall in readily with the proposal. Olivier is armed by an aged Jew, Joachim, who with others of his nation had fled to Vienne with Pontius Pilate after the Crucifixion, and had not yet succeeded in dying. The combat takes place in an island in the Rhone, and la Belle Aude, with mingled feelings, watches from a window her brother and her lover contending for victory. The struggle is full of tremendous incident. At the outset each of the champions cuts the horse of the other in two and the fight is continued on foot. Olivier's sword is broken, and Roland invites him to send for another and take a little rest and refreshment. A boatman goes to Vienne and procures from the old Jew a famous sword, called Hauteclere, and some wine. The fight is renewed and lasts till nightfall, when an angel descends from heaven, and orders the two heroes to be reconciled and to fight together against the Saracens. The warriors embrace and Olivier promises Roland the hand of his sister. Such was the beginning of the friendship of the two mighty champions ofChristendom.

Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the story, but on a modern prose adaptation by Achille Jubinal which appeared in _Le Journal du Dimanche_ in 1846. Léon Gautier indeed, in _Les Épopées françaises, says: `Victor Hugo s'est proposé de traduire notre vieux poème, dont il avait sans doute quelque texte sous les yeux.' But it is clear from the mistake about the word Closamont and other details that Gautier was mistaken and that the source from which Hugo drew was Jubinal's reproduction.

Hugo omitted from his adaptation two incidents of great poetic interest, namely, the picture of Aude watching the fight, and the miraculous intervention of the angel. He has, on the other hand, inserted the barbaric incident of the fight with trees. He has eliminated, that is to say, the tender and the religious elements from the story and made it simply the narrative of a Homeric combat, with more than a touch of the grotesque. Nevertheless, he has retained the characteristic incident of the chivalrous behaviour of Roland in sending for a new sword for his enemy and in giving him time for rest, a trait which finds a parallel in many other _Chansons_, notably in the story of the battle of Roland with Ferragus, a Saracen giant. When Ferragus is worn out with fighting, Roland watches over him while he sleeps, and on his awakening enters into a theological discussion with him in the hope of converting him to Christianity. When this pious desire fails, the combat is renewed.

_Saint Michael_ is described in Rev. xii. 7-9 as fighting against Satan and casting him out of heaven.

Hugo is mistaken in his description of _Olivier_, who was not lord of Vienne and a sovereign count, but only the son of Renier, duke of Genoa. The only statement in these two lines which is correct is that his grandfather was Garin.

L. 27. As already noted, in the original story it is an aged Jew who arms Olivier for the fight.

_Rollon_ (English _Rollo_) was the Norse pirate who invaded France in A.D. 912 and founded the Duchy of Normandy. The reference to him is of course an anachronism.

_estoc_ (_c_ pronounced), a long narrow sword used for thrusting.

_cimier_ (from Latin _cyma_, the young sprout of a cabbage), the crest on the helmet.

Roland's sword, _Durandal_, which was given him by Charlemagne, plays the same part in the French _Chansons_ as Siegfried's sword Balmung in the _Nibelunglied_, or Excalibur in the Arthurian cycle. Other forms of the name are _Durendas, Durrenda, Durandarda_.

_en franc neveu du roi_, like a real or genuine nephew of the king.

_Tournon_, a town situated on the right bank of the Rhone, in the department of Ardèche. It still produces a well-known wine, called _Vins de l'Ermitage_.

1. 70. Here is a curious mistake, which Jubinal originated and Hugo copied. Closamont was the original possessor of the sword, not another name for the weapon. The lines in the 'Chanson de Girart de Viane' are:--

Une en aporte ke molt fut onoree. plus de c. anz l'ot li iuis gardee, Closamont fut, k'iert de grand renommee, li emperere de Rome la loee.

_Sinnagog or Sinnagos_ was the Saracen king of Alexandria with whose attack on the castle of Garin, Olivier's grandfather, the story of 'Girart de Viane' begins.

1. 144. This is another deviation from tradition, as we have it in the Carolingian cycle. Roland never married Aude. He was still betrothed to her when he fell at Roncesvalles.

AYMERILLOT.

The poem on part of which this is based is an anonymous _Chanson_ written in the thirteenth century and belonging to the cycle known as the cycle of _Guillaume_.

The story is as follows. Charlemagne is returning from Spain, after the defeat at Roncesvalles, his army discouraged, his knights exhausted, and wishing only to be at home and in comfort. Suddenly he catches sight of a city, surrounded by a crenelated wall, splendid within, with a palace the roofs of which shine in the sun, its feet bathed in the sea, which is covered by the ships of its commerce. Charlemagne wishes to attack it, but the duke of Bavaria advises him to let it alone; it is garrisoned by thousands of pagans and his men are exhausted. The Emperor addresses several of his barons in turn, offering to each the city if he will take it. One and all refuse: Charlemagne upbraids them for their cowardice, bids them go home, and declares he will take the town by himself. Then Hernaut de Beaulande brings forward his son Aimeri, who volunteers to undertake the task. With the aid of one hundred barons he captures the city and is made Count of Narbonne. Hugo has selected the first and the best part of the _Chanson_ for modernization. Léon Gautier (_Les Épopeés françaises_) says: 'Rien n'égale en majesté le début de ce poème, dont le dénoûment est presque trivial... Rien de plus ennuyeux que le récit de tant de combats contre les Sarrasins; rien de plus attachant que le tableau de ce grand désespoir de Charlemagne à la vue de Narbonne, dont aucun de ses Barons ne veut entreprendre la conquête. Il n'y a peut-être dans aucune poésie aucun épisode comparable à ce discours de l'Empereur, lorsqu'il crie à tous ses chevaliers: "Ralés vos en, Bourguignon et François...je remenrai ici, à Narbonois." C'est ce qu'a bien compris Victor Hugo, qui a si fidèlement traduit et surpassé encore les beautés du texte original.'

Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the _Chanson_, but on two prose adaptations written by Achille Jubinal, and published respectively in the _Musée des Familles_ (1843) and the _Journal du Dimanche _(1846). Yet these stories did little more than furnish the framework for the poem, by far the greater part of which is the original work of Hugo.

_à la barbe fleurie_, white-bearded. Expression taken from the _Chanson_. In mediaeval poetry Charlemagne is always described as an old man.

_Roncevaux_, which we call by the Spanish name Roncesvalles, is the valley in the Pyrenees where Charlemagne's rearguard was attacked and cut to pieces by the Moors during his retreat from Spain.

_Ganelon_, the knight through whose treachery the defeat of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles was brought about.

_les douze pairs_. The twelve Paladins of tradition, who formed Charlemagne's Round Table.

L. 6-10. These words are taken almost verbatim from Jubinal's adaptation of the story in the _Musée des Familles_. Jubinal's words are: