3 A success for Rossini, it debuted in 1828.
Chapter Seven: An Attack of Gout
Chapter Seven: An Attack of Gout And so I was promoted, not because I deserved it, but because my master had the gout. —Bertolotti1 The reader may well be startled by this free and almost friendly tone, but we've forgotten to mention that, for six weeks, the marquis had been confined to his home by an attack of gout. Mademoiselle de La Mole and her mother were at Hyères, visiting the marquise's mother. Count Norbert saw his father only at intervals: they were on excellent terms, but had nothing to say, one to the other. Monsieur de La Mole, thus reduced to Julien, was amazed to find that his secretary really had ideas. He had Julien read the newspapers; the young secretary was soon able to pick out the interesting passages. There was a new paper, which the marquis loathed; he had sworn never to read it, but talked about it every day. Julien laughed. Annoyed at the contemporary world, the marquis had him read Livy; Julien's improvised translation from the Latin pleased him. One day the marquis said, his voice taking on the overpoliteness that often simply irritated Julien: "My dear Sorel, allow me to present you with a blue suit. When you've had a chance to fetch it, come back here. You'll have become, in my eyes, the younger brother of Count de Chaulnes—that is, the son of my old friend, the duke." Julien did not particularly understand what this was all about, but that same night he paid a visit, wearing the blue suit. The marquis treated him like an equal. Julien was quite sensitive enough to appreciate true politeness, but he did not understand its subtler aspects. He would have sworn, before this new whim, that the marquis could not possibly have received him with greater respect. "What a gifted man!" Julien said to himself. When he rose to leave, the marquis apologized, since his gout prevented him from showing Julien to the door. The whole strange business was troubling. "Is he making fun of me?" Julien wondered. He sought Father Pirard's advice; less polite than the marquis, the good priest responded only by whistling and changing the subject. Next morning, Julien wore his black suit when he went to the marquis, carrying a letter case full of letters to be signed. He was received just as, before this new development, he had always been received. That evening, wearing the blue suit, the marquis once again behaved differently, exactly as polite as he'd been the first time Julien wore blue. "Seeing that you're not too profoundly bored, making these kind visits to a poor old man," the marquis told him, "why don't you tell him all the trifling episodes of your life, but straightforwardly and without thinking about anything except telling them clearly and in such a fashion that they'll be entertaining? Entertainment is essential," the marquis continued. "That's life's only reality. A man can hardly save my life each and every day, or be perpetually giving me gifts of a million francs. But if I had old Rivarol2 here, every day, right here next to my couch, he'd take away an hour of boredom and pain. I knew him well, in Hamburg, when we were in exile." And the marquis told Julien tales of Antoine Rivarol among the locals of Hamburg: it took four of them to understand one witty remark.