9 Government censorship in Vienna: Over the course of the winter of 1839-40, Nerval published a number of articles in the Viennese journal Die Allgemeine Theaterzeitung. Censorship in Metternich’s Austria (known as the China of Europe) was the most draconian on the continent, with a list of some five thousand forbidden books.
9 French newspapers: Le National and Le Charivari were journals of the opposition and Le Journal des débats and La Quotidienne semi-official government organs.
10 Camisard uprising: None of these events — all related to the various Protestant and regional uprisings following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 — is mentioned in the book.
11 M. Thiers and M. Capefigue: No doubt intended ironically. Neither of these nineteenth-century French historians was especially noted for his humor.
11 Hypatia: Neo-Platonic philosopher murdered by a Coptic mob in 415 — another instance, as Nerval notes in Les Illuminés, of Christianity’s attempt to suppress the gnostic and mystery religions of antiquity.
12 The resultant de and du: A point not lost on Gérard Labrunie, who had reinvented himself under the aristocratic pen name Gérard de Nerval.
13 various police reports of the year 1709: This collection of documents in fact exists at the Bibliothèque Nationale, though the liberties Nerval takes with it are extreme.
13 M. de Pontchartrain: Jérôme Phélypeaux, count of Pontchartrain, served as High Commissioner to the King from 1699 to 1715; the marquis d’Argenson was Lieutenant General of the police from 1697 to 1718.
14 This is not a novel: Echoes Diderot’s 1773 Short story “Ceci n’est pas un conte.”
16 in the fashion of Froissart and Monstrelet: Jean Froissart (1333?-1404?) and Enguerrand de Monstrelet (1390?- 1453?) were both authors of Chronicles.
17 that charming opera you wrote: Nerval’s opera Piquillo, coauthored with Alexandre Dumas, was performed in 1837 and starred Jenny Colon, object of his unrequited love. His “second” opera, Les Monténégrins, was produced in 1849.
18 one of my literary mentors: Charles Nodier (1780-1844), polymath, bibliophile, and author of fantastic tales.
18 an edition of Faust: Most likely the novel Faust’s Life, Deeds, and Journey into Hell (1791) by the German dramatist Klinger, which inspired Nerval’s own play on the Faust theme and the invention of printing, L’Imagier de Harlem (1851).
22 Sabory champagne: This installment of The Salt Smugglers , published on October 27, 1850, alludes to President Louis Napoléon’s review of the troops at the military camp of Sabory two weeks earlier — where he plied them with cigars, champagne, and garlic sausage, eliciting the cry “Long Live the Emperor” from a number of the regiments. General Changarnier, who vigorously protested this violation of military regulations, was subsequently relieved of his command, thus opening the way to Louis Napoléon’s coup d’état the following year.
23 as much as a representative to the National Assembly: During the Second Republic, representatives were paid twenty-five francs a day — a sum considered far too princely by many of the working-class opponents of the regime.
23 Renewed Reveries of the Greeks: A parody of Iphigenia in Tauris published in 1779.
24 Dumas’ God Disposes: Dumas’ serial novel of this title began publication in L’Événement in July 1850, costing the newspaper some twenty-one thousand francs in fines.
25 changing my political colors: The left-wing newspaper Le Corsaire published an article in its October 30, 1850, number entitled “Encore un fantaisiste qui tourne au rouge,” which accused Nerval of political opportunism. Nerval is being a bit disingenuous in his self-defense, for it would appear that he did indeed have close contacts with Jean-Louis Lingay, the minister of the interior under Louis-Philippe — who rewarded him with a secret mission to Vienna in early 1840 to indemnify him for the delays caused by the censorship of his play Léo Burckart.
25 I wrote a play: The play in question, Léo Burckart, grew out of Nerval’s travels in Germany with Alexandre Dumas in 1838-39 (an account of which he included in his 1852 travelogue Lorely, Souvenirs d’Allemagne). Loosely based on events that took place in the Rhineland in 1819 — notably the assassination in Mannheim of the reactionary political journalist and dramatist Kotzebue by the Bavarian theology student Karl Sand, and the failed assassination in Frankfurt of the prime minister Ibell by a young man named Loening — the play evokes the nationalist ferment among the secret student fraternities (or Burschenschaften) of the Young Germany movement, which led that same year to the passage of the Carlsbad Decrees imposing strict censorship on the press and instituting repressive measures against universities — measures which were revoked only during the revolutionary turmoil that swept through the German states in 1848 during the “springtime of the people.” Given the various attempts on the life of Louis-Philippe in 1835-36 — the most spectacular of which involved Giuseppe Marco Fieschi’s discharge of an “infernal machine” (composed of twenty gun barrels fired simultaneously) on the boulevard du Temple, which killed eighteen and wounded innumerable others — the censors may well have been justifiably nervous about the student conspirators represented in Léo Burckart. In late 1850, with the dictatorial star of the Prince President Louis Napoléon on the rise, the play would have lost none of its political relevance.
26 The Italian carbonari: The carbonari (or charcoal burners) were secret revolutionary societies, organized along the lines of Freemasonry, who opposed French and Austrian rule and sought the creation of a unified and independent Italy. After a series of revolutionary skirmishes in 1820-21 and 1831, they were replaced by the “Young Italy” movement led by Mazzini. France had most recently invaded Italian territory during the controversial Rome Expedition of the spring of 1849.
27 the reactionary politics of a small German court: Léo Burckart, the play’s eponymous hero, is torn between the loyalty that he owes his ruler as prime minister and the sympathies he feels toward the nationalist ideals of the young student radicals — the leader of whom, Frantz Lewald, is in love with Burckart’s neglected wife, Marguerite. Chosen by his fellow students (during the convening of the secret Saint Wehme tribunal in Act Four) to assassinate the prime minister, Frantz Lewald falters and, unable to follow through on this Oedipal scenario (which involves killing father figure Léo Burckart in order to possess his wife, Marguerite), commits suicide by turning his pistol onto himself.
27 Bocage: Pierre-François Bocage (1797-1863), one of the best-known of the boulevard actors, celebrated for his performances in Dumas’ smash hits Antony (1831) and La Tour de Nesle (1832). There is no record, however, of his ever being associated with this production of Léo Burckart. Indeed, Nerval’s entire account of his dealings with Harel’s Porte-Saint-Martin theater is a tissue of half-truths and outright fabrication — no doubt devised to heighten this comedy of errors.
28 Thiers and Guizot: Louis-Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) and François Guizot (1787-1874) both served as prime ministers during the July Monarchy.
28 Koerner: Carl Theodor Körner (1791-1813), German poet and soldier. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), German composer.
29 Vatel’s fish course: At the extravagant banquet he had prepared at the Château de Chantilly in honor of Louis XIV, the French chef François Vatel (1631-1671), distraught that the fish for the main course had not been delivered, committed suicide — at least as reported by Mme de Sévigné.
29 the theater license: In an attempt to control and monitor the space of public representation, Napoléon had in 1807 reduced the number of licensed theaters in Paris from thirty-three to eight. By 1850, the number had grown back to twenty-three, but the theater licensing requirement was not entirely abolished until 1864.
30 the scene of the Saint Wehme: Saint Wehme was a secret society founded by the Teutonic knights in Westphalia in the thirteenth century. Its original purpose had been the creation of secret tribunals in order to dispatch summary justice (usually by hanging) for crimes committed against the Church.
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br /> 30 sicaires and trabans: Paid assassins and honor guards.
31 La Parisienne: Patriotic song composed by Casimir Delavigne celebrating the popular uprisings during the July Revolution of 1830.
32 the Archives contain a charming love story: Nerval apparently did consult this manuscript at the National Archives, although he relied more heavily on Jules Taschereau’s published version of it in the Revue Rétrospective (1834). The materials he later cites as existing in Compiègne, by contrast, are pure invention.
34 the Hôtel de la Cloche celebrated by Alexandre Dumas: Mentioned in his Count of Monte-Cristo (1845).
37 their caresses remained pure: Nerval here censors the straightforwardness of the original, which speaks of an easy sexuality that is far from the chaste, Platonic love he describes in the following paragraph. Angélique writes: “It would be impossible to describe all the caresses we exchanged; he did everything to me except actually take my virginity — this I managed to protect from his assaults, for he would often say to me: ‘I am sure that when I finally possess you entirely, you will immediately get with child.’”
38 the invention of printing: Nerval had published an article on the early inventors of printing (Faust, Gutenberg, Schoeffer, and Laurent Coster) in La Presse on August 26, 1850. A letter critical of the historical accuracy of this piece was written to the newspaper by a certain Auguste Bernard, a copy editor at the National Printing House. Nerval was himself an inventor of a linotype-like printing device named a “Stereograph,” for which he submitted a patent in 1844.
39 Laurent Coster: Laurens Janszoon Coster (1370-c.1440), native of Haarlem and thought by the Dutch to have invented block printing around 1430, having gotten the idea by cutting letters upon the bark of a tree and then impressing them on paper. He is the Faustian hero of Nerval’s 1851 play L’Imagier de Harlem. Nerval’s mother’s maiden name was also Laurens, which, spelled backwards — in printing everything is reversed — turns into Nerval.
39 Agis: Agesilas, according to Plutarch. The reference at the end of this parable to “a republic governed by kings” is another transparent swipe at the monarchical — or, indeed, imperial — ambitions of Louis Bonaparte.
39 La Fontaine’s “Power of Fables”: Here given in the Elizur Wright translation, Boston, 1841.
41 swindled by dead or stuffed birds: During his farcical landing at Boulogne in August 1840 — his second attempt at a coup after his failure in Strasbourg in 1836 — Louis Bonaparte had arranged for an eagle (some said a vulture) to accompany him to victory, in memory of the imperial symbol of his uncle.
41 our Parisian beards: Beards singled one out as an “artist” or political “radical.”
42 I even own some property around here: The “clos de Nerval” — the source of his pseudonym — was a small parcel of land situated in nearby Loisy, which he had inherited from his mother’s side of the family.
47 Here is one of the songs I have collected: Inspired by such German writers as Herder, Nerval began collecting old folk songs and ballads from the Valois region in 1842. His “Chansons et légendes du Valois” were published as an appendix to “Sylvie” in 1854.
55 back in the days of the League: Religious wars tore France apart during the reigns of the last Valois kings, Charles IX and Henri III (1560-89). The Catholics, led by the Guise family, formed the League and obtained Spanish support against the Protestant Henry of Navarre — who, when he became Henri IV, eventually defeated the League but was nonetheless forced to convert to Catholicism before being allowed to enter Paris in 1594 and become the first Bourbon king of France.
55 Saint Bartholomew: The traditional patron saint of many localities in the Valois. The massacre of the Huguenots occurred on Saint Bartholomew’s Day in 1572.
56 the battle of Senlis: Nerval borrows the theory of the fundamental racial conflict between the Franks and Gallo-Romans from the work of French historian Augustin Thierry (1795-1856). The battle of Senlis was fought in 1589.
57 she had sullied herself with child: Nerval seems to have read the expression “elle s’est gâtée d’un enfant” as meaning that she gave birth to a child. Instead, a miscarriage or abortion is probably here intended.
58 Jeanne Hachette: Distinguished herself by her heroic resistance to the Burgundians during the siege of Beauvais in 1472. This entire passage on warrior women implicitly alludes to Nerval’s own mother — who died in Silesia in 1810 while accompanying her husband’s military regiment in its retreat from Russia.
58 Salic law: Rule of succession in certain royal and noble families of Europe forbidding females and those descended in the female line to succeed to the titles or offices in the family.
62 the author of Waverley: Scott’s Waverley, initially published anonymously in 1811 and often considered the first historical novel, was so popular that he henceforth published under the heteronym “the author of Waverley.”
62 Théophile de Viau: This baroque poet (1590-1626), a frequent visitor to the castle of Chantilly, was the author of Le Bosquet de Sylvie. Nerval’s most celebrated novella — Proust’s favorite among his works — is entitled “Sylvie.”
65 the new metric system: The metric system became the law of the land on January 1, 1840.
65 the Tinguy amendment: The Tinguy amendment, added as a rider to the press laws of July 16, 1850, stipulated that “any newspaper article containing political, philosophical, or religious discussions must be signed by its author.” Prior to this law, Nerval often published his newspaper pieces anonymously or under a variety of different initials. Now journalists would be obliged to speak — and, more crucially, be legally answerable — under their own names.
65 Vitam impendere vero: In his “Letter to d’Alembert” (1758), Rousseau announces that he will henceforth take as his motto this phrase from Juvenal, variously translated as “I shall risk my life on the truth” or “I shall consecrate my life to truth.”
66 Palais-National: The Palais-Royal, rebaptized the Palais-National after the 1848 Revolution, was plundered on February 24, 1848.
66 Horace Vernet: Derided as a hack by Baudelaire in his art criticism, Horace Vernet (1789-1863) was a specialist in military scenes.
67 M. Arago: The physicist and astronomer François Arago (1786-1853) was a member of the Provisional Government of 1848.
71 the prefect of the Seine: In 1850, this position was held by Jean-Jacques Berger — who had replaced Rambuteau and who would later be succeeded by Haussmann, in 1853. Nerval would appear to have moved to this address at 4 rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre around 1848. He evokes this same neighborhood near the Louvre when chronicling his “bohemian” youth on the impasse du Doyenné in his book of reminiscences, Petits châteaux de Bohême (1853). The demolition of the Louvre district also provides the subject for Baudelaire’s poem “Le Cygne” (first published in 1860). As his various lifts from the latter’s Voyage en Orient attest, Baudelaire was one of Nerval’s most astute readers. Could his great allegory of modernity contain unconscious reminiscences of this particular section of Les Faux Saulniers — which in the course of a few pages moves from the urban renewal of Paris to a brief glimpse of a disoriented swan?
72 This king whom I cordially detest: Nerval’s negative view of the much-beloved Henri IV reflects the animus of various liberal historians of the period who considered him to be the founder of France’s absolute and centralized monarchy — hostile to regional independence and, more importantly for Nerval, responsible for the expulsion of the Medici from the Valois. Voltaire’s epic poem La Henriade evokes Henri IV’s romantic idylls with Gabrielle d’Estrées, modeled after Canto VII of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
73 the Desert: Name given to a large sandy expanse near Ermenonville — now the Mer de Sable amusement park.
74 René de Girardin: Proprietor of the domain of Ermenonville, where he hosted Rousseau during the philosopher’s final days in 1778, the Marquis René de Girardin (1755-1808) was also the author of an influential treatise on landsc
ape gardening, De la composition des paysages (1777), whose principles he applied to the various parks on his estate. When Rousseau died, he was buried on the Isle of Poplars in the Elysium that Girardin had created on his property: his grave quickly became a pilgrimage site for literary tourists.
74 the Illuminati: In his Les Illuminés: The Precursors of Socialism (1852), Nerval gathered a series of biographical essays intended to illustrate that broad spectrum of esoteric or occult thought which he believed had provided the counter-Enlightenment illumination for the French Revolution. Among those mentioned here: the Count of Saint-Germain (1698?-1780), a colorful alchemist and spiritist well-known to the various courts of Europe, was said to have initiated the Italian magus and necromancer Alessandro Cagliostro (1743-1795) into the mysteries of Egyptian Masonry. Cagliostro would exercise an extraordinary fascination over the court of Louis XVI, where he was implicated in the celebrated Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The theories of animal magnetism and hypnotic trance therapy popularized by the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) similarly enjoyed a considerable vogue in Paris just prior to the Revolution. The “School of Geneva” alludes to the first Swiss Masonic Lodge, founded in 1737.
74 all came to this castle: Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792), author of the fantastic tale Le Diable amoureux and of a famous prophecy predicting the execution of Louis XVI. Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803), mystical illuminist and theosophist. Dupont de Nemours (1739-1817), French economist associated with the Physiocrats. Étienne de Senancour (1770-1846), author of Obermann, admired by Nerval for his pantheistic philosophy.
75 Nostradamus: French astrologer and physician (1503- 1566), author of a collection of rhymed prophecies, The Centuries (1555). In this anecdote, Nerval confuses Marie with Catherine de Médicis.
75 the doctrines of Weisshaupt and Boehme: Adam Weisshaupt (1748-1830), German founder of the sect of the Illuminati. Jakob Boehme (1575-1624), German mystic and student of Paracelsian philosophy.
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