Magic in the Ardennes. §11 Proust Du coté chez swann/Swan's Way

by Corry Shores
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[The following is summary. My own notes are given in brackets. Original texts given near the end. I give my deepest thanks to the sources of the images:
wga.hu
commons.wikimedia.org
goethezeitportal.de
de.wikipedia.org
americanart.si.edu
www.heiligen.net
goethezeitportal.de
www.eifel.de
gesounded.wordpress.com
encyclopedie-universelle.com
Image credits given below.]

Magic in the Ardennes


(Adrian Ludwig Richter: Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit / Genoveva in the Forest Seclusion. Thanks source: wga.hu)

Marcel Proust

Du coté chez swann. A la recherche du temps perdu. Tome I
Swan's Way. Vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past

Première partie
Combray

Overature
I.

§11

Previously the narrator began recalling the magic lantern shows that he would see in his bedroom.

He now recalls a specific show, the tale of Geneviève of Brabant. [She was the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, and she married Sigfried, the Count of Triers. He must run-off to war, leaving Geneviève behind.

(Joseph Ritter von Führich. Graf Siegfried nimmt Abschied von seiner Gemahlin Genoveva. Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)

Sigfried leaves Geneviève in the care of the castle manager, Golo.

(Joseph Ritter von Führich. Golo bei den Hirten. Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)

Golo is desperately in love with Geneviève. He comes at night to sing at her window. His songs are melencholy expressions of his suffering for her.

(Joseph Ritter von Führich. Genoveva, von der alten Gertrud auf den Altan geführt, hört Golos schwermütigen Gesang. Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)

Geneviève rejects Golo. To get revenge, he accuses her of infidelity, which is an especially troubling charge, because she is pregnant at the time. Geneviève is sentenced to death. But the executioner pitied her and let her go. She and her son then stayed in a cave in the Ardennes, where a doe fed them.

Genovevahöhle in the Eifel region


(Genovevahöhle. Thanks source: de.wikipedia.org)


(Genovevahöhle. Thanks source: www.eifel.de)


(Genovevahöhle. Thanks source: geocaching.com)


(Genovevahöhle. Thanks source: geocaching.com)


(Genovevahöhle. Thanks source: gesounded.wordpress.com)

Adrian Ludwig Richter
Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit / Genoveva in the Forest Seclusion

(Adrian Ludwig Richter: Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit / Genoveva in the Forest Seclusion, thanks source: commons.wikimedia.org)

(Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)

Fraukirch Altar

(Fraukirch Altar. Genevieve, Genoveva, Genovefa Brabant. Thanks source: de.wikipedia.org)


Hübner Bürkner: Genoveva

(Hübner Bürkner Genevieve Genoveva Genovefa Brabant. Thanks source: wikimedia.org)


Genoveva von Brabant in einer Höhle mit Früchten des Waldes

( Genevieve Genoveva Genovefa Brabant. Genoveva von Brabant in einer Höhle mit Früchten des Waldes Thanks source: commons.wikimedia.org)


George Frederick Bensell: St. Genevieve of Brabant in the Forest

(George Frederick Bensell: St. Genevieve of Brabant in the Forest. Thanks source: americanart.si.edu)



(Genevieve Genoveva Genovefa Brabant. Thanks source: www.heiligen.net)



(Genevieve Genoveva Genovefa Brabant. Thanks source: www.heiligen.net)

Later she was found to be innocent. Her husband discovered them in the cave and restored her honor.

(Joseph Ritter von Führich. Graf Siegfried findet seine als tot beweinte Gemahlin Genoveva wieder. Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)


Le retour de Genoveva von Brabant (Geneviève de Brabant) 1869

(Le retour de Genoveva von Brabant (Geneviève de Brabant) 1869. Thanks source: encyclopedie-universelle.com)




(Joseph Ritter von Führich. Graf Siegfried führt seine Gemahlin Genoveva und seinen Sohn Schmerzenreich in die Burg heim. Thanks source: goethezeitportal.de)

]

In the narrator's account of the magic lantern show, he describes seeing Golo galloping on horseback toward Geneviève's castle. She stands outside waiting for him. The person telling this story to the narrator, his great-aunt, apparently reads what seems to be Geneviève's speech to Golo, where perhaps she explains she will not indulge his love for her.

Golo stopped for a moment and listened sadly to the little speech read aloud by my great-aunt, which he seemed perfectly to understand, for he modified his attitude with a docility not devoid of a degree of majesty, so as to conform to the indications given in the text; then he rode away at the same jerky trot.

Golo s’arrêtait un instant pour écouter avec tristesse le boniment lu à haute voix par ma grand’tante et qu’il avait l’air de comprendre parfaitement, conformant son attitude avec une docilité qui n’excluait pas une certaine majesté, aux indications du texte; puis il s’éloignant du même pas saccadé.

The images of the story are projected on the wall, which mixes the real world surrounding the narrator with the fantasy projected into it. So Golo and his horse seem to ride over obstacles such as the doorknob, or become distorted in the folds of the window curtains.


From the C.K. Scott Moncrieff English translation:

Riding at a jerky trot, Golo, his mind filled with an infamous design, issued from the little three-cornered forest which dyed dark-green the slope of a convenient hill, and advanced by leaps and bounds towards the castle of poor Geneviève de Brabant. This castle was cut off short by a curved line which was in fact the circumference of one of the transparent ovals in the slides which were pushed into position through a slot in the lantern. It was only the wing of a castle, and in front of it stretched a moor on which Geneviève stood, lost in contemplation, wearing a blue girdle. The castle and the moor were yellow, but I could tell their colour without waiting to see them, for before the slides made their appearance the old-gold sonorous name of Brabant had given me an unmistakable clue. Golo stopped for a moment and listened sadly to the little speech read aloud by my great-aunt, which he seemed perfectly to understand, for he modified his attitude with a docility not devoid of a degree of majesty, so as to conform to the indications given in the text; then he rode away at the same jerky trot. And nothing could arrest his slow progress. If the lantern were moved I could still distinguish Golo’s horse advancing across the window-curtains, swelling out with their curves and diving into their folds. The body of Golo himself, being of the same supernatural substance as his steed’s, overcame all material obstacles — everything that seemed to bar his way — by taking each as it might be a skeleton and embodying it in himself: the door-handle, for instance, over which, adapting itself at once, would float invincibly his red cloak or his pale face, never losing its nobility or its melancholy, never shewing any sign of trouble at such a transubstantiation.


From the Original French:

Au pas saccadé de son cheval, Golo, plein d’un affreux dessein, sortait de la petite forêt triangulaire qui veloutait d’un vert sombre la pente d’une colline, et s’avançait en tressautant vers le château de la pauvre Geneviève de Brabant. Ce château était coupé selon une ligne courbe qui n’était autre que la limite d’un des ovales de verre ménagés dans le châssis qu’on glissait entre les coulisses de la lanterne. Ce n’était qu’un pan de château et il avait devant lui une lande où rêvait Geneviève qui portait une ceinture bleue. Le château et la lande étaient jaunes et je n’avais pas attendu de les voir pour connaître leur couleur car, avant les verres du châssis, la sonorité mordorée du nom de Brabant me l’avait montrée avec évidence. Golo s’arrêtait un instant pour écouter avec tristesse le boniment lu à haute voix par ma grand’tante et qu’il avait l’air de comprendre parfaitement, conformant son attitude avec une docilité qui n’excluait pas une certaine majesté, aux indications du texte; puis il s’éloignant du même pas saccadé. Et rien ne pouvait arrêter sa lente chevauchée. Si on bougeait la lanterne, je distinguais le cheval de Golo qui continuait à s’avancer sur les rideaux de la fenêtre, se bombant de leurs plis, descendant dans leurs fentes. Le corps de Golo lui-même, d’une essence aussi surnaturelle que celui de sa monture, s’arrangeait de tout obstacle matériel, de tout objet gênant qu’il rencontrait en le prenant comme ossature et en se le rendant intérieur, fût-ce le bouton de la porte sur lequel s’adaptait aussitôt et surnageait invinciblement sa robe rouge ou sa figure pâle toujours aussi noble et aussi mélancolique, mais qui ne laissait paraître aucun trouble de cette transvertébration.



From:
Proust, Marcel. Du coté chez swann. A la recherche du temps perdu. Tome I.
Available online at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/proust/marcel/p96d/index.html

Proust, Marcel. Swan's Way. Vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past.Transl. C.K. Scott Moncrieff
Available online at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/proust/marcel/p96s/index.html


Images from:

Adrian Ludwig Richter: Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit / Genoveva in the Forest Seclusion
1st instance
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/richtera/seclusio.html
2nd instance
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adrian_Ludwig_Richter_013.jpg

Cover image:
http://www.goethezeitportal.de/index.php?id=3465

Fraukirch Altar
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Fraukirch_Altar.jpg&filetimestamp=20050508220946

Hübner Bürkner: Genoveva
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/H%C3%BCbner_B%C3%BCrkner_Genoveva.jpg


Genoveva von Brabant in einer Höhle mit Früchten des Waldes
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genoveva_von_Brabant_in_einer_H%C3%B6hle.jpg

George Frederick Bensell: St. Genevieve of Brabant in the Forest
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=1801

Halo image:
http://www.heiligen.net/heiligen/04/02/04-02-0760-genovefa_0.php

Black and white head and doe:
http://www.heiligen.net/heiligen/04/02/04-02-0760-genovefa_0.php?JPG=2

Joseph Ritter von Führich Images:
http://www.goethezeitportal.de/index.php?id=3465

Genovevahöhle
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Genovevah%C3%B6hle.jpg
http://www.eifel.de/go/sehenswertes-detail/genovevahoehle.html
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/22b9555c-3392-4271-afca-cb64992a05d4.jpg
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/92766_300.jpg
http://gesounded.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/eifelsteig-pwned/




Le retour de Genoveva von Brabant (Geneviève de Brabant) 1869
http://www.encyclopedie-universelle.com/abeille1/abeille-histoire-hommes-civilisations-ruchers1b.html