Vous verrai-je toujours renonçant à la vie,8 Artémire. Dieux! Que ne suis-je encore enfermée à Sully!9 A l'Hôtel de Bourgogne aller trouver Thalie!10 Céphise. Quoi! Madame. Artémire. Insensée! Où suis-je? Qu'ai-je dit? Où laissai-je égarer mes voeux et mon esprit? Je te laisse trop voir mes honteuses douleurs, Céphise. Ah! S'il vous faut rougir, rougissez de la honte Artémire. Ah! Dieux! Céphise. Ce reproche vous touche? Artémire. Malheureuse! Quel nom a sorti de ta bouche? 8 Refers to the withdrawal of Artémire, after the first performance of February 14, 1720. • The Château de Sully where Voltaire wrote Artémire. 10 Refers to the parody Artémire by Dominique, played at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, on March 10, 1720. The author of the Prologue could easily know by February 23, that the Théâtre Italien was going to stage this mock imitation. 11 Hylus is the hero of the tragedy Les Héraclides by A. Danchet. The play was known, at first, under the name of Hylus. It was staged for the first time on December 29, 1719, and, until January 15, 1720, was represented eight times. Cf. Frères Parfaict, Histoire du Th. Franç., Vol. XV, p. 358. 12 Polidore, a tragédie lyrique, in five acts, by Laserre (pseud. of the Abbé Pellegrin), music of Batistin Stuck, played on February 15, 1720. The play was a transformation of a tragedy by the Abbé Pellegrin, also called Polidore (played 1705). Je croyais que Ribou.. .13 Dieux! J'en frémis encore, Du pauvre Pellegrin il avait tous les traits.15 Marquait qu'il dînait peu, (si toutesfois il dîne); Il n'avait point quitté ses vêtement crasseux; Sa perruque était rousse, et son manteau poudreux; Sa culotte attachée avec une ficelle, Laissait voir par cent trous, une cuisse plus noire qu'elle, A peine, ma Céphise, avait-il des souliers. Il ne t'appartient pas de m'approcher ainsi. Va, cours trouver Danchet.17 D'une arrogance extrême Je suis sur mon fumier comme toi sur le tien. Céphise. La nuit, comme le jour, Madame, a ses mensognes, 18 Pierre Ribou, Parisian bookseller, published several plays by Pellegrin; among which the one this Prologue refers to, Polidore, trag. lyrique. 14 This expression aims at the name Laserre, who was supposed to be the author of Polidore, the tragédie lyrique, although the play was based on the tragedy of that name by Pellegrin. The two authors mentioned may also be Pellegrin and Batistin Stuck, the composer of the music. 15 Simon Joseph Pellegrin, 1663-1745. 16 This part of the Prologue is a parody of a poem by Pierre Patris, written on October 5, 1671, a day before his death. I quote it according to a seventeenth century manuscript, Receuil de plusieurs Pièces tant en vers héroiques, burlesques et satyriques, qu' en proses (sic), belonging to the Library of the University of Minnesota (Z 840.1-R24). Tous sont égaux à la Mort. Je songeois cette nuit que du mal consumé, Icy tous sont égaux, je ne te dois plus rien, Je suis sur mon fumier comme toy sur le tien. (fol. 201) 17 Antoine Danchet, dramatist. 1671-1748. Qu'est un songe, en effet, qu'une erreur de l'esprit Artémire. Lui-même, il est en butte aux sifflets ennemis. Céphise. C'est trop tarder. Collin qui vient de s'avancer,19 A fait signe du doigt que l'on va commencer. 18 Louis Mannory (1696-1777), lawyer and author. For many years he was a friend of Voltaire, with whom he studied under Father Porée. In 1719 he published Apologie de la nouvelle tragédie d' Edipe (by Voltaire). For this reason he is supposed here to be preparing another Apology, for Artémire. Later Mannory became an enemy of Voltaire, took the side of Travenol against the poet, and is said to be one of the compilers of the Voltairiana ou Eloges amphigouriques de Fr. Marie Arouet (1748). He published also his Observations judicieuses sur la Sémiramis (1749). See Nisard, Les Ennemis de Voltaire.-Voltaire, Correspondence. 19 François Collin de Blamont (1690-1760), composer and superintendent of the King's music. He gave a sign to the orchestra to begin the music played before a performance. Cf. Fétis, "Biographie des Musiciens', La Porte, Dict. Dramatique, etc. ST. AMBROSE AND CICERO By Roy J. DEFERRARI Catholic University of America Among the great admirers of Cicero was St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. In the beginning of his De officiis ministrorum, he indicates openly his indebtedness to Cicero's work, De officiis, describing the purpose of his book thus, sicut Tullius ad erudiendum filium, ita ego quoque ad vos informandos filios; and the many parallels in ideas and phraseology which exist between the two have already been noticed many times. Points of contact are also evident between St. Ambrose's sermon preached at the funeral of Satyrus, his beloved brother and intimate companion, and a letter of Cicero while in exile to his brother Quintus (Q. Fr. I, 3). St. Ambrose seems, probably unconsciously, to lament his brother's death in much the same manner that Cicero bewailed his plight of exile. A general similarity of style is evident all the way through, and besides many passages contain similar ideas and a slight similarity of vocabulary. For example, Also, Ambrose 15: Ego te superstitem optabam, tu me superstitem dimisti. Ambrose 8: qui pio semper sollicitus affectu latus meum tuo latere sapiebas caritate, ut frater: cura, ut pater: sollicitudine, ut senior: reverentia, ut iunior. Cicero 3: Cum enim te desidero, fratrem solum desidero? Ego vero suavitate aequalem, obsequio filium, consilio parentem. The following parallel passages are almost identical. Ambrose 21: Quid enim mihi umquam iucundum, quod non esset ex te profectum? . . . An ego possum aut non cogitare de te, aut umquam sine lacrymis cogitare? Cicero 3: An ego possum aut non cogitare aliquando de te aut umquam sine lacrimis cogitare? Quid mihi sine te umquam aut tibi sine me iucundum fuit? "MUMMY" IN SHAKESPEARE By A. H. R. FAIRCHILD University of Missouri "Mummy" is mentioned three times by Shakespeare: Othello, III, iv, 75-76; Macbeth, IV, i, 23; and Merry Wives, III, v, 19.1 Variorum and other notes on these passages are somewhat inconclusive and unsatisfactory. The first passage is from the lines in which Othello tells Desdemona how the fatal handkerchief was made: And it was dy'd in mummy which the skilful The Variorum quotes Steevens: "The balsamic liquor running from mummies was formerly celebrated for its anti-epileptic virtues. This fanciful medicine still holds a place in the principal shops where drugs are sold." Dyce calls mummy "a preparation for magical purposes, made from dead bodies," and properly remarks on the irrelevancy of Steevens' note. Furness doubts any reference to Egyptian mummies. He refers, also, to the passage from Hill's Materia Medica, quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary, and to Sir T. Herbert's Travels, etc., 1677. According to Herbert, mummy is "a moist, redolent gum .... sovereign against poisons." The second passage, Macbeth, IV, i, 23, "Witches' mummy,' is from the cauldron scene. In the (revised) Variorum note on this passage the excerpt from Hill's Materia Medica is given: "We have two substances for medicinal use under the name of mummy: one is the dried flesh of human bodies embalmed with myrrh and spice; the other is the liquor running from such mummies when newly prepared, or when affected by great heat. Professor Manly says: "Mummy is properly a sort of semi-fluid gum that oozes from an embalmed body when heat is applied; it was much used as a medicine in Shakspere's time, though often spoken of as disgusting." Mr. Verity quotes Schmidt; Schmidt appears simply to have adopted the language 1 Oxford edn. 2 In scholarly editions such as those by Herford, Verity, Manly, and others. |