1. 839. The allusions are to the quarrels between the Greek and
Roman Churches.
_galoubet_. A little wind instrument in shape like a flageolet, with
three holes. It was played with the left hand, while the right beat
a tambourine. It was peculiar to Languedoc and Provence.
_marche_, German _Mark_, military frontier.
_L'idée._ In the original edition of 1859 the word was L'épée.
_Josaphat._ The valley of Josaphat or Jehosaphat is between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and according to both Jewish and
Moslem
tradition is to be the place of the Last Judgment. This tradition
may be based on Joel iii. 12, or on the meaning of the word Josaphat,
which is, 'Jehovah will judge,' or on both.
_goules_, from Arabic _ghul_. English _ghoul_. The creatures who,
according to Eastern superstition, devour dead bodies.
_lamies_, from Lat. _lamia_, a fabulous being possessing the head of
a woman and the body of a sea-serpent, which was supposed to devour
children.
_en rupture de ban_. _Rompre le ban_ is to set at defiance a decree
of banishment, the punishment for which was death.
_un dogue en arrêt_. The name _dogue_ is given to a kind of large
dog, akin to a bloodhound, but the term is not correctly used here,
as _en arrêt_ means _pointing_.
_vermeille_. See note on AYMERILLOT.
SULTAN MOURAD.
In his preface to the volume of 1859 Hugo appeals to the history of the
Turks by Cantemir as a justification for his picture of Sultan Mourad.
This was Demetrius Cantemir (1673-1723), who had a remarkable history,
and wrote a valuable book. Though not a Turk, he attached himself to
the Turks, and fought under the banner of the Crescent during his early
life. In 1710 he was made Waiwode, or Governor, of Moldavia, Then,
deserting the setting for the rising sun, he allied himself with
Czar Peter the Great, then at war with Turkey. But the campaign was
unsuccessful, and Cantemir, flying from Moldavia, took refuge in the
Ukraine. For the rest of his life he divided his time between study and
instructing the Moldavians who had accompanied him. He is said to have
spoken Persian, Turkish, Arabic, modern Greek, Russian, Moldavian,
and Italian. The work to which Hugo refers was a history of the
aggrandizement and decadence of the Ottoman Empire. Written in Latin,
and translated subsequently into English, French, and German, it was
long the standard work on the subject.
It does not seem probable that Hugo had any particular Sultan in mind
when he delineated Sultan Mourad. Indeed the geography of the poem
suggests that he is depicting an idealized Oriental tyrant.
The nearest approximation to the monster to be found in the pages
of Cantemir is Ammath IV (r. 1623-40), of whose cruelty and
bloodthirstiness the historian gives a vivid account. His principal
exploit was the taking of Bagdad from the Persians, on which occasion he
slaughtered 1,000 of the citizens in cold blood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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