This is the third section of a poem called _L'Italie: Ratbert_. The
story is of Hugo's own invention, and is intended to delineate on the
one hand the savagery, and on the other the knight-errantry, of the
Middle Ages.
_Pharamond_, a somewhat legendary Frankish chieftain of the fifth
century A.D.
_Final_. The name, alone or in composition, is borne by three small
towns or villages on or near the Genoese coast. There was a marquisate
of Final in the Middle Ages.
_Witikind_. Hugo possibly had in mind the Saxon chief of this name
(A.D. 750-807) who for five years successfully resisted the power of
Charlemagne, and finally made an honourable peace with him. It does not
appear that he ever bore the title of king. His country was the ancient
Saxony, that is the country between the lower Rhine and the lower Elbe.
He had no connexion with Genoa, whither Hugo has dragged the Saxons
without justification.
_Albenga_: the name is taken from a small town on the Genoese coast, not
far from Final.
_abbé du peuple_, a name of a popularly elected magistrate at Genoa. The
office was in existence from 1270 to 1339.
_tribun militaire de Rome_: Latin, _tribunus militaris_; the officers of
the legion, six in number, who in republican times commanded in turn,
six months at a time.
_architrave_, the lower part of the entablature, that which rests
immediately on the column. To understand the line, it must be remembered
that the tower is conceived as a ruin.
_alleux_, a feudal term, signifying hereditary property. The word is
misused here in the sense of feudal dues.
_censive_. Another feudal term, meaning the dues owed by an estate to
the lord of whom it was held.
_balistes_ (from Latin _ballista_), mediaeval machines for hurling
stones and darts.
_le puits d'une sachette_, a hole in which a recluse lived. _Sachette_
(masc. _sachet_) was the name given to certain nuns of the Augustinian
order who wore a loose woollen garment (_sac_), whence the name was
derived. It afterwards became used of any recluse. In _Notre-Dame de
Paris_ Hugo applies it to the half-crazy inhabitant of the Tour-Roland.
_cruzade_, an old Portuguese coin, so called because it was marked
with a cross. There was an old cruzade worth about 3 fr. 30, and a new
cruzade worth not quite 3 fr.
_Narse_, or Narses, was king of Persia A.D. 294-303.
_Tigrane_, the name of an Armenian, not a Persian dynasty. There were
seven kings of this name, and they occupied the Armenian throne from 565
to 161 B.C.
_nonce_. This word is in strictness used only of the emissaries of the
Pope. Its use in any sense is an anachronism, as it was not introduced
till the sixteenth century.
_Ratbert_ is thus described at the beginning of the poem:--
Ratbert, fils de Rodolphe et petit-fils de Charles,
Qui se dit empereur et qui n'est que roi d'Arles.
Arles, which Hugo spells with or without the _s_ according to the
exigencies of the metre, was the capital of the kingdom of Provence, one
of the kingdoms formed out of the fragments of Charlemagne's empire. It
embraced most of S.E. France, and lasted from A.D. 855 to 1032. This
kingdom was frequently called _le royaume d'Arle_. _Roy d'Arle_ is
therefore a historical title, but the names Ratbert and Rodolphe, as
grandson and son respectively of Charlemagne, are imaginary.
_Macchabée_. Judas Maccabaeus, the Jewish hero, who freed his country
from the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes.
_Amadis_ See note on EVIRADNUS.
_Aétius_, a Roman general who lived in the fifth century A.D. One of
the last heroes and defenders of ancient Rome, he fought Franks,
Burgundians, Huns, and succeeded in uniting the German kings of Gaul
against Attila, and inflicting a crushing defeat upon him (A. D. 451).
_latobrige_. The Latobriges were an ancient German tribe who lived in
what is now Wurtemberg and Baden.
_Platon_: the Athenian philosopher Plato, justly placed amongst the
poets.
_Plaute_: Plautus, the Roman writer of comedies, who lived in the second
century B.C.
_Scaeva Memor_, a Roman poet and tragedian of the first century A.D.,
rescued from oblivion by this line. The three make a bizarre trio; see
note on BOOZ ENDORMI.
_Sicambre_. The Sicambres were the German tribe who in Roman times lived
on the Rhine.
_incrusté d'érable_, i. e. inlaid with maple.
_bailli_, i. e. governor.
_reître_, an old word, derived from the German _Reiter_, used of the
German knights.
_buccin_, properly a whelk, is a name given to a musical instrument very
similar to a trombone.
_brassière_, a little jacket or vest worn close round the body. The word
is usually used in the plural. Likely enough Hugo intends simply the
corset.
_au penchant des mers_, i. e. where the land slopes to the sea. A
peculiar expression; _au penchant de la terre_ would be more usual.
_les chouettes félines_. The epithet refers to their nocturnal habits.
L. 353. The antecedent of _que_ is _vautours_. The reference is to
gladiatorial combats in the Roman Circus, and the _louve d'airain_ is
the famous bronze wolf of the Capitol, a statue representing a wolf
suckling two children.
_fauve_, here `savage'. See note on ÉVIRADNUS.
_cru_, i. e. unashamed.
_faîte vermeil_. See note on AYMERILLOT, where the same phrase
occurs.
L. 391. figurant, 'suggesting the form of'. A highly characteritic
touch. Hugo possessed a faculty of poetic vision which changed the
shapes of things so as to bring them into harmony with the dominant
ideas of the moment. Cf. LA ROSE DE L'INFANTE, and LA CONFIANCE.
_Héliogabales_. Heliogabalus was a Roman Emperor (r. 217-222) noted for
his sensuality and his caprices.
_cistre_, cittern or cithern, a musical instrument resembling the
guitar.
_un Louvre_: the Louvre is the well-known palace in Paris where many
kings of France resided. Note the antithesis in the same line, _antre de
rois, Louvre de voleurs_.
_les ors_, various kinds of gold. _Sixte Malaspina_, introduced as one
of the counsellors of Ratbert in a poem entitled 'Ratbert' not given
here.
_chape_ is the Picard form of 'cape' (see note on LES PAUVRES GENS, l.
97). It is the name for a long cloak, fastened in front, and worn by
clergy and choristers when performing Divine Service. Formerly any long
loose cloak was called a _charpe_. As is still the custom in the Greek
Church, images of the Virgin or saints are largely used, and they are
found as ornaments on pieces of furniture and sacerdotal vestments.
L. 455. A peacock roasted whole and served up ornamented with its
feathers was a favourite dish at the banquets of the fifteenth century.
_hypocras_, an infusion of cinnamon, sweet almonds, amber, and musk in
sweetened wine.
_Le roi d'Arle_. See note to l. 179.
_l'araignée_. See note under PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ.
_jacque_ (also written jaque), a short close-fitting coat or tunic.
_vair_ (English _vair_), the fur of the squirrel, a highly esteemed and
costly material for dress in the later Middle Ages.
_chevalier haubert_, i. e. a knight who has the right to wear the
haubert or cuirass.
_Urbain quatre_, Pope (1261-. 1264). He is rightly described as the son
of a cobbler.
_Afranus_, introduced as the bishop of Fréjus, and one of Ratbert's evil
counsellors, in the poem of 'Ratbert'. See note on l. 435 _supra_.
L. 721. For the element of supernatural vengeance on cruelty compare
_L'Aigle du casque_, published in the 1877 series.