Misplaced Pages

#585414

40-581: Little is known about Chavis's biography, and what is known mainly comes from the preface to his Continuation des Mille et Une Nuits , a colophon to his manuscript of the Nights , and occasional details in surviving correspondence; no Eastern sources for his life have been identified. He was from Syria, and described himself as "a former student at the Greek School named after Saint Athanasius in Constantinople". He

80-460: A manuscript which he intended to present as a copy of a more complete Galland Manuscript than really existed—one that would provide Arabic-language 'sources' for tales whose only written form was Galland's French. He began copying the Galland Manuscript, and as he did so, he adapted his exemplar, adding in some contemporary Syrianisms and more vulgar language for dramatic effect. At the point in

120-408: A number of fantastic oriental tales, such as his children's fairy tale La patte du chat ( The Cat's Paw , 1741) and the humorous Mille et une fadaises, Contes a dormir debout ( The Thousand and One Follies, Tales to Sleep Upright 1742). His first success was with a "poem" in twelve cantos, and in prose intermixed with verse, entitled Ollivier (2 vols, 1762), followed in 1771 by another romance,

160-585: A revival of interest in Oriental literature that was going on in the 1780s. At that time, the Nights were known in France only through the seminal French rendering published by Antoine Galland in 1704–17, Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français . Galland had based his French text on the three-volume and infamously incomplete Galland Manuscript , which he had supplemented with extra stories from sources both written and oral. Chavis set about producing

200-685: Is named after the baron. Jacques Cazotte Jacques Cazotte ( French: [kazɔt] ; 17 October 1719 – 25 September 1792) was a French author and a monarchist. He predicted the Reign of Terror and was guillotined shortly after. Born in Dijon , he was educated by the Jesuits . Cazotte then worked for the French Ministry of the Marine and at the age of 27 he obtained a public office at Martinique . It

240-589: The Cabinet des Fées , as Suites des Mille et Une Nuits . The Continuation was well received and was translated three times into English. Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Louis Charles Auguste Le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, Baron de Preuilly (7 March 1730 – 2 November 1807) was a French aristocrat , diplomat and statesman. He was the last chief minister of the Bourbon Monarchy , appointed by King Louis XVI only one hundred hours before

280-639: The Lord Impromptu . But the most popular of his works was Le Diable amoureux ( The Devil in Love , 1772), a fantastic tale in which the hero raises the Devil . The value of the story lies in the picturesque setting, and the skill with which its details are carried out. Cazotte copy-edited, adapted, and expanded French translations of tales actually and supposedly belonging to the Thousand and One Nights provided to him by

320-596: The Nights (as nos 409-17). The Switzerland-based publisher Paul Barde , who was printing a massive, multi-volume anthology of fairy-tales entitled Cabinet des Fées , seems to have contacted Chavis to see if he had access for further Nights material. Chavis said he did, and Barde put Chavis into collaboration with the celebrated fairy-tale writer Jacques Cazotte . Surviving correspondence suggests an awkward collaboration, in which Chavis promised to deliver material and sought money but did not entirely satisfy Cazotte and Barde. It seems that Chavis made French translations of

360-627: The storming of the Bastille . Breteuil was born in 1730 at the Château d'Azay-le-Ferron ( Indre ) into a well-connected aristocratic family: one of his relations was confessor to the king's cousin and another was the famed mathematician and linguist Émilie, marquise du Châtelet-Laumont . He received an excellent education in Paris and later joined the army, where he fought in the Seven Years' War . In 1758 he left

400-498: The " fool " behind closed doors. During the riots of 1783, when the nobility protested against arbitrary imprisonments, the minister Bréteuil decided to abolish incarceration at the Chateau de Vincennes , which was transformed into a granary, and Bréteuil even permitted visitors to examine the oubliettes . But this may have backfired, as, according to Joseph Droz , people were horrified at what they saw, and that even given this, "that in

440-487: The Bastille there were even worse things to be seen." After he returned to France, Breteuil was appointed Minister of the King's Household . In this capacity he introduced considerable reforms in prison administration. He was a liberal and humanitarian minister, and succeeded in moderating the censorship laws. He believed passionately that the monarchy should encourage intellectuals , and not view them as enemies. In 1784 he

SECTION 10

#1733084801586

480-549: The Bibliothèque Nationale. Having copied most of the real Galland Manuscript, Chavis proceeded to produce a further manuscript, purportedly a copy of newly identified fourth and fifth volumes of the Galland Manuscript (now Bibliothèque Nationale, MSS arabes 3616). He began by picking up where the real Galland Manuscript leaves off—partway through the Tale of Qamar al-Zamān and Budūr (a.k.a. Qamarazzman ), its ending lost because

520-544: The Duchess de Polignac. They then proposed burning Marie Antoinette in effigy, but the troops were deployed and they dispersed the crowds with great bloodshed in the Place de la Grèe . On 24 July 1788, Breteuil resigned, exhausted by the struggle for power in the King's Council . He then asked to be allowed to say farewell to the queen. Marie-Antoinette did not resent him for his handling of

560-487: The French Republic. After the failure of the flight to Varennes , Breteuil received instructions from Louis XVI, designed to restore amicable relations with the princes. His distrust of the king's brothers and his defense of Louis XVI's prerogative were to some extent justified, but his intransigent attitude towards these princes emphasized the dissensions of the royal family in the eyes of foreign sovereigns, who looked on

600-459: The Galland Manuscript is incomplete. Chavis completed this by translating the fuller French version constructed by Galland. Chavis then proceeded to include some other tales translated from Galland's French into Arabic, and some which he copied from a manuscript of stories in Arabic that he seems to have brought with him from Syria. Now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, this Arabic manuscript had been made by

640-510: The Queen open to public humiliation. He presently came into collision with Charles Alexandre de Calonne , who demanded his dismissal in 1787. On 14 September 1788, anti-monarchy protests renewed, and in October 1788, protestors demanded money for fireworks, they demanded that anyone in a carriage dismount and salute to Henry IV , and they also burned effigies representing Breteuil, as well as Calonne and

680-558: The Royal Family's chief diplomat abroad. At Soleure , in November 1790, he received from Louis XVI exclusive powers to negotiate with the European courts, and in his efforts to check the ill-advised diplomacy of the émigré princes, he soon brought himself into opposition with his old rival Calonne, who held a chief place in their councils. In coordination with Marie Antoinette's favourite,

720-626: The Swedish count Axel von Fersen , Breteuil organised the royal family's escape from Paris in 1791, garnering support from King Gustav III of Sweden. The attempt almost succeeded, but was foiled at the last minute by Jean-Baptiste Drouet , the Republican son of a local postmaster . It was also Breteuil who negotiated with the monarchies of Europe to persuade them to fight the French Revolution and, later, attempted to organize economic warfare against

760-514: The Syrian priest Dom Denis Chavis . These stories were published in Geneva in 1788–89, independently as Continuation des Mille et Une Nuits and, in the Cabinet des Fées anthology, as Suites des Mille et Une Nuits (1788–1789). Cazotte possessed extreme facility that he is said to have dashed off a seventh canto of Voltaire 's Guerre civile de Genève in a single night. Circa 1775 Cazotte, embraced

800-563: The affair, and even promised to help him in future if she could. As France became increasingly unstable, Breteuil retired to his château in Dangu . Though Breteuil was disgusted with French politics at the time, he remained absolutely loyal to the Monarchy, despite his liberal views on social culture. He complained that "anybody who dares to stand up for the old ways is despised" and claimed that "we are rushing like madmen to our destruction". Breteuil

840-576: The army and joined the French Foreign Ministry . He was quickly appointed French ambassador to the Archbishop-elector of Cologne , where he proved to have valuable diplomatic skills. Two years later in 1760 he was sent to St Petersburg as the French ambassador to Imperial Russia , where he arranged to be temporarily absent from his post at the time of the palace revolution by which Catherine II

SECTION 20

#1733084801586

880-554: The comte d'Artois abroad to save him from assassination. Breteuil went first to Spa (in present-day Belgium) before journeying to Switzerland with the first party of émigrés . The French royal family were placed under house arrest in October. The hatred and violence surrounding them gave the Queen reason to fear for her family's life. To Marie Antoinete's horror and disgust, Artois (living in Turin ) then appointed Calonne to his council. Marie Antoinette despised Calonne, and his appointment

920-458: The comte d'Artois rushed ahead with the plan too early. Necker was dismissed weeks before Breteuil believed he should be. Breteuil was appointed Chief minister on 12 July 1789. Partly as a result of Necker's dismissal, the Bastille was stormed on 14 July. In such dangerous times, many prominent Royalists were forced to flee France. The duchesse de Polignac escaped to Switzerland , and Louis XVI sent

960-543: The comte d'Artois. Breteuil was allowed to return to France in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, having made his peace with the First French Empire . He tried to urge other Royalists to join him, but he was largely unsuccessful. Most preferred to stay loyal to the exiled Bourbons. Breteuil died in France in 1807. A Bourbon Restoration occurred in 1814, but was deposed again by the 1830 July Revolution . Breteuil's secret correspondence with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

1000-528: The comte de Provence as the natural representative of his brother and found a pretext for non-interference on Louis's behalf in the contradictory statements of the negotiators. His attempts were ultimately in vain. The Bourbon monarchy in France was overthrown in 1792, followed by massacres of many Royalists in Paris. In January 1793, Louis XVI was executed. In October, Marie Antoinette met a similar fate. In 1795, their son, Louis XVII died in prison. Breteuil himself

1040-528: The creed of the Illuminati and declared himself possessed of the power of prophecy. It was upon this event that Jean-François de la Harpe based his famous jeu d'esprit , in which he represents Cazotte as prophesying the most minute events of the French Revolution . Near the end of his life, Cazotte became a follower of the Martinist mysticism of Martinez de Pasqually , and became a "mystical monarchist ". Upon

1080-521: The discovery of some of his counter-revolutionary letters in August 1792, Cazotte was arrested. He escaped for a time through the efforts of his daughter but was guillotined in September. A complete edition of his work was published as the Œuvres badines et morales, historiques et philosophiques de Jacques Cazotte (4 vols, 1816–1817), though more than one collection appeared during his lifetime. Cazotte's work

1120-399: The manuscript he had produced, along with other stories (whether in note form or complete), sent this material to Cazotte, and Cazotte variously edited or rewrote it, adding further tales of his own invention (most notably one called Maugraby ). The resulting text was then edited further by Barde, and published in Geneva in 1788–89, independently as Continuation des Mille et Une Nuits and, in

1160-562: The manuscript's sequence of stories where Galland had inserted the tale of Sindbad the Sailor in his Mille et une nuits , Chavis added (as Nights 70-76) Harun al-Rashid and the Daughter of Kisra from another Arabic manuscript. Chavis copied almost all of the three volumes of the Galland Manuscript, breaking off in the story Jullanar of the Sea . Chavis's two-volume copy of the Galland Manuscript remains in

1200-412: The scribe 'Abīd Rabbih in 1772. It does not style itself as a Nights manuscript but merely a collection of tales (though some do also occur in manuscripts of the Nights ). The following table lists the contents of Chavis's third volume. Chavis's translation of Aladdin is particularly noteworthy. Galland's source for this story was Hanna Diyab , who had apparently composed Aladdin himself and passed

1240-503: The tale to Galland in written form (whether in Arabic or French is not known). Since Diyab's manuscript of the story has never been found, Chavis's translation stands as the first known version of Aladdin in Arabic, and for many years scholars mistakenly thought it might represent a pre-Galland manuscript tradition of this story. The Chavis Manuscript, deposited in the Bibliothèque du Roi along with some other manuscripts copied by Chavis,

Denis Chavis - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-545: Was brought to Paris under the auspices of Baron de Breteuil , where he taught Arabic at the Bibliothèque du Roi , presumably, in the assessment of Daniel L. Newman, to 'the so-called Jeunes de langue , young boys destined for a career as a dragoman (interpreter) in French consulates in the Ottoman Empire'. He is thought to have arrived in Paris in 1783. While in Paris, Chavis was short of money, and sought to capitalise on

1320-464: Was contacted by conservative members of the queen's circle in 1789. He agreed to become Chief minister once they had ousted Jacques Necker from the post. Necker was popular, but royalists saw him as a dangerous publicity-seeker and a radical. A carefully orchestrated plan was drawn-up by Breteuil, the duchesse de Polignac , the King's brother the comte d'Artois and with the support of Marie-Antoinette. However, unable to restrain his hatred for Necker,

1360-737: Was discovered in an Austrian castle by historian Munro Price . His findings were presented in The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil , (sometimes titled The Road from Versailles ). To date, it is the most comprehensive book on Breteuil's career and his fight to save the French Monarchy. The Pavillon de Breteuil , in Sèvres , France, home of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures ,

1400-415: Was later translated into French by Caussin de Perceval and published as volumes 8 and 9 of his new edition of Galland's Les Mille et une nuits in 1806. Some of Chavis's material continued to circulate in later translations of the Nights , including Edouard Gauttier's of 1822–23. Most of its extra stories were also translated into English in the sixth supplemental volume to Richard Burton 's translation of

1440-638: Was named to a position in the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . Breteuil's time as Household Minister corresponded with the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace , which pitted him against his enemy, the Cardinal de Rohan . Breteuil's loyalty to Queen Marie Antoinette earned him her gratitude and trust at this difficult time. Unfortunately, Breteuil underestimated the strength of public sympathy for those responsible, and his direct attack on Rohan left

1480-459: Was not until his return to Paris in 1760 with the rank of commissioner-general that he made his public debut as an author. His first attempts, a mock romance and a coarse song, gained so much popularity, both in the Court and among the people, that he was encouraged to try something more ambitious. He accordingly produced his romance, Les Prouesses inimitables d'Ollivier, marquis d'Edesse . Cazotte wrote

1520-522: Was placed on the throne. In 1769 he was sent to Stockholm ( Sweden ), and subsequently represented his government at Vienna in 1770 ( Habsburg monarchy ), in 1773 Naples ( Kingdom of Naples ), and again at Vienna until 1783. In Sweden, he became a favourite friend of the young King Gustav III , but Catherine the Great of Russia disliked him. Others saw Breteuil as a loud and impulsive fool, Joseph II and several high-ranking Austrian politicians sneered at

1560-402: Was the end of her friendship with her brother-in-law. She was convinced that he could no longer be trusted to preserve the monarchy's best interests. It was Marie Antoinette's decision, therefore, that Breteuil be appointed Prime Minister-in-exile . Louis XVI supported her in this move, but it was Marie Antoinette who took the initiative and formalised Breteuil's appointment. In effect, he was now

1600-489: Was the object of violent attacks from the party of the princes, who asserted that he persisted in exercising powers which had been revoked by Louis XVI. After the execution of Marie Antoinette he retired into private life near Hamburg . Breteuil spent the next decade in exile. His loyalty to the House of Bourbon had ended with the death of the little boy-king in 1795. He was hated by Louis XVI's two surviving brothers, particularly by

#585414