Editing Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 1

Les Misérables, Volume 1: Fantine, Book First: A Just Man, Chapter 1: M. Myriel<br />
(Tome 1: Fantine, Livre premier: Un Juste, Chapitre 1: Monsieur Myriel)

==General notes on this chapter==

==French text==


En 1815, M. Charles-Fran&ccedil;ois-Bienvenu Myriel &eacute;tait &eacute;v&ecirc;que de Digne.
C'&eacute;tait un vieillard d'environ soixante-quinze ans; il occupait le si&egrave;ge
de Digne depuis 1806.
 
Quoique ce d&eacute;tail ne touche en aucune mani&egrave;re au fond m&ecirc;me de ce que
nous avons &agrave; raconter, il n'est peut-&ecirc;tre pas inutile, ne f&ucirc;t-ce que
pour &ecirc;tre exact en tout, d'indiquer ici les bruits et les propos qui
avaient couru sur son compte au moment o&ugrave; il &eacute;tait arriv&eacute; dans le
dioc&egrave;se. Vrai ou faux, ce qu'on dit des hommes tient souvent autant de
place dans leur vie et surtout dans leur destin&eacute;e que ce qu'ils font. M.
Myriel &eacute;tait fils d'un conseiller au parlement d'Aix; noblesse de robe.
On contait de lui que son p&egrave;re, le r&eacute;servant pour h&eacute;riter de sa charge,
l'avait mari&eacute; de fort bonne heure, &agrave; dix-huit ou vingt ans, suivant un
usage assez r&eacute;pandu dans les familles parlementaires. Charles Myriel,
nonobstant ce mariage, avait, disait-on, beaucoup fait parler de lui. Il
&eacute;tait bien fait de sa personne, quoique d'assez petite taille, &eacute;l&eacute;gant,
gracieux, spirituel; toute la premi&egrave;re partie de sa vie avait &eacute;t&eacute; donn&eacute;e
au monde et aux galanteries. La r&eacute;volution survint, les &eacute;v&eacute;nements se
pr&eacute;cipit&egrave;rent, les familles parlementaires d&eacute;cim&eacute;es, chass&eacute;es, traqu&eacute;es,
se dispers&egrave;rent. M. Charles Myriel, d&egrave;s les premiers jours de la
r&eacute;volution, &eacute;migra en Italie. Sa femme y mourut d'une maladie de
poitrine dont elle &eacute;tait atteinte depuis longtemps. Ils n'avaient point
d'enfants. Que se passa-t-il ensuite dans la destin&eacute;e de M. Myriel?
L'&eacute;croulement de l'ancienne soci&eacute;t&eacute; fran&ccedil;aise, la chute de sa propre
famille, les tragiques spectacles de 93, plus effrayants encore
peut-&ecirc;tre pour les &eacute;migr&eacute;s qui les voyaient de loin avec le
grossissement de l'&eacute;pouvante, firent-ils germer en lui des id&eacute;es de
renoncement et de solitude? Fut-il, au milieu d'une de ces distractions
et de ces affections qui occupaient sa vie, subitement atteint d'un de
ces coups myst&eacute;rieux et terribles qui viennent quelquefois renverser, en
le frappant au c&oelig;ur, l'homme que les catastrophes publiques
n'&eacute;branleraient pas en le frappant dans son existence et dans sa
fortune? Nul n'aurait pu le dire; tout ce qu'on savait, c'est que,
lorsqu'il revint d'Italie, il &eacute;tait pr&ecirc;tre.
 
En 1804, M. Myriel &eacute;tait cur&eacute; de Brignolles. Il &eacute;tait d&eacute;j&agrave; vieux, et
vivait dans une retraite profonde.
 
Vers l'&eacute;poque du couronnement, une petite affaire de sa cure, on ne sait
plus trop quoi, l'amena &agrave; Paris. Entre autres personnes puissantes, il
alla solliciter pour ses paroissiens M. le cardinal Fesch. Un jour que
l'empereur &eacute;tait venu faire visite &agrave; son oncle, le digne cur&eacute;, qui
attendait dans l'antichambre, se trouva sur le passage de sa majest&eacute;.
Napol&eacute;on, se voyant regard&eacute; avec une certaine curiosit&eacute; par ce
vieillard, se retourna, et dit brusquement:
 
&mdash;Quel est ce bonhomme qui me regarde?
 
&mdash;Sire, dit M. Myriel, vous regardez un bonhomme, et moi je regarde un
grand homme. Chacun de nous peut profiter.
 
L'empereur, le soir m&ecirc;me, demanda au cardinal le nom de ce cur&eacute;, et
quelque temps apr&egrave;s M. Myriel fut tout surpris d'apprendre qu'il &eacute;tait
nomm&eacute; &eacute;v&ecirc;que de Digne.
 
Qu'y avait-il de vrai, du reste, dans les r&eacute;cits qu'on faisait sur la
premi&egrave;re partie de la vie de M. Myriel? Personne ne le savait. Peu de
familles avaient connu la famille Myriel avant la r&eacute;volution.
 
M. Myriel devait subir le sort de tout nouveau venu dans une petite
ville o&ugrave; il y a beaucoup de bouches qui parlent et fort peu de t&ecirc;tes qui
pensent. Il devait le subir, quoiqu'il f&ucirc;t &eacute;v&ecirc;que et parce qu'il &eacute;tait
&eacute;v&ecirc;que. Mais, apr&egrave;s tout, les propos auxquels on m&ecirc;lait son nom
n'&eacute;taient peut-&ecirc;tre que des propos; du bruit, des mots, des paroles;
moins que des paroles, des ''palabres'', comme dit l'&eacute;nergique langue du
midi.
 
Quoi qu'il en f&ucirc;t, apr&egrave;s neuf ans d'&eacute;piscopat et de r&eacute;sidence &agrave; Digne,
tous ces racontages, sujets de conversation qui occupent dans le premier
moment les petites villes et les petites gens, &eacute;taient tomb&eacute;s dans un
oubli profond. Personne n'e&ucirc;t os&eacute; en parler, personne n'e&ucirc;t m&ecirc;me os&eacute;
s'en souvenir.
 
M. Myriel &eacute;tait arriv&eacute; &agrave; Digne accompagn&eacute; d'une vieille fille,
mademoiselle Baptistine, qui &eacute;tait sa s&oelig;ur et qui avait dix ans de
moins que lui.
 
Ils avaient pour tout domestique une servante du m&ecirc;me &acirc;ge que
mademoiselle Baptistine, et appel&eacute;e madame Magloire, laquelle, apr&egrave;s
avoir &eacute;t&eacute; ''la servante de M. le Cur&eacute;'', prenait maintenant le double
titre de femme de chambre de mademoiselle et femme de charge de
monseigneur.
 
Mademoiselle Baptistine &eacute;tait une personne longue, p&acirc;le, mince, douce;
elle r&eacute;alisait l'id&eacute;al de ce qu'exprime le mot &laquo;respectable&raquo;; car il
semble qu'il soit n&eacute;cessaire qu'une femme soit m&egrave;re pour &ecirc;tre v&eacute;n&eacute;rable.
Elle n'avait jamais &eacute;t&eacute; jolie; toute sa vie, qui n'avait &eacute;t&eacute; qu'une
suite de saintes &oelig;uvres, avait fini par mettre sur elle une sorte de
blancheur et de clart&eacute;; et, en vieillissant, elle avait gagn&eacute; ce qu'on
pourrait appeler la beaut&eacute; de la bont&eacute;. Ce qui avait &eacute;t&eacute; de la maigreur
dans sa jeunesse &eacute;tait devenu, dans sa maturit&eacute;, de la transparence; et
cette diaphan&eacute;it&eacute; laissait voir l'ange. C'&eacute;tait une &acirc;me plus encore que
ce n'&eacute;tait une vierge. Sa personne semblait faite d'ombre; &agrave; peine assez
de corps pour qu'il y e&ucirc;t l&agrave; un sexe; un peu de mati&egrave;re contenant une
lueur; de grands yeux toujours baiss&eacute;s; un pr&eacute;texte pour qu'une &acirc;me
reste sur la terre.
 
Madame Magloire &eacute;tait une petite vieille, blanche, grasse, repl&egrave;te,
affair&eacute;e, toujours haletante, &agrave; cause de son activit&eacute; d'abord, ensuite &agrave;
cause d'un asthme.
 
&Agrave; son arriv&eacute;e, on installa M. Myriel en son palais &eacute;piscopal avec les
honneurs voulus par les d&eacute;crets imp&eacute;riaux qui classent l'&eacute;v&ecirc;que
imm&eacute;diatement apr&egrave;s le mar&eacute;chal de camp. Le maire et le pr&eacute;sident lui
firent la premi&egrave;re visite, et lui de son c&ocirc;t&eacute; fit la premi&egrave;re visite au
g&eacute;n&eacute;ral et au pr&eacute;fet.
 
L'installation termin&eacute;e, la ville attendit son &eacute;v&ecirc;que &agrave; l'&oelig;uvre.

 

==English text==

In 1815, M. Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne.  He was an old man of about seventy-five years of age; he had occupied the see of Digne since 1806.

Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real substance of what we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely for the sake of exactness in all points, to mention here the various rumors and remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very moment when he arrived in the diocese. True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.  M. Myriel was the son of a councilor of the Parliament of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility of the bar.  It was said that his father, destining him to be the heir of his own post, had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, in accordance with a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary families.  In spite of this marriage, however, it was said that Charles Myriel created a great deal of talk.  He was well formed, though rather short in stature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the whole of the first portion of his life had been devoted to the world and to gallantry.

The Revolution came; events succeeded each other with precipitation; the parliamentary families, decimated, pursued, hunted down, were dispersed.  M. Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy at the very beginning of the Revolution.  There his wife died of a malady of the chest, from which she had long suffered.  He had no children.  What took place next in the fate of M. Myriel?  The ruin of the French society of the olden days, the fall of his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, even more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance, with the magnifying powers of terror,--did these cause the ideas of renunciation and solitude to germinate in him?  Was he, in the midst of these distractions, these affections which absorbed his life, suddenly smitten with one of those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm, by striking to his heart, a man whom public catastrophes would not shake, by striking at his existence and his fortune?  No one could have told:  all that was known was, that when he returned from Italy he was a priest.

In 1804, M. Myriel was the Cure of Brignolles. He was already advanced in years, and lived in a very retired manner.

About the epoch of the coronation, some petty affair connected with his curacy--just what, is not precisely known--took him to Paris.  Among other powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for his parishioners was M. le Cardinal Fesch.  One day, when the Emperor had come to visit his uncle, the worthy Cure, who was waiting in the anteroom, found himself present when His Majesty passed.  Napoleon, on finding himself observed with a certain curiosity by this old man, turned round and said abruptly:--

"Who is this good man who is staring at me?"

"Sire," said M. Myriel, "you are looking at a good man, and I at a great man.  Each of us can profit by it."

That very evening, the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the Cure, and some time afterwards M. Myriel was utterly astonished to learn that he had been appointed Bishop of Digne.

What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as to the early portion of M. Myriel's life?  No one knew.  Very few families had been acquainted with the Myriel family before the Revolution.

M. Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town, where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.  He was obliged to undergo it although he was a bishop, and because he was a bishop.  But after all, the rumors with which his name was connected were rumors only,--noise, sayings, words; less than words--palabres, as the energetic language of the South expresses it.

However that may be, after nine years of episcopal power and of residence in Digne, all the stories and subjects of conversation which engross petty towns and petty people at the outset had fallen into profound oblivion.  No one would have dared to mention them; no one would have dared to recall them.

M. Myriel had arrived at Digne accompanied by an elderly spinster, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was his sister, and ten years his junior.

Their only domestic was a female servant of the same age as Mademoiselle Baptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been the servant of M. le Cure, now assumed the double title of maid to Mademoiselle and housekeeper to Monseigneur.

Mademoiselle Baptistine was a long, pale, thin, gentle creature; she realized the ideal expressed by the word "respectable"; for it seems that a woman must needs be a mother in order to be venerable.  She had never been pretty; her whole life, which had been nothing but a succession of holy deeds, had finally conferred upon her a sort of pallor and transparency; and as she advanced in years she had acquired what may be called the beauty of goodness.  What had been leanness in her youth had become transparency in her maturity; and this diaphaneity allowed the angel to be seen.  She was a soul rather than a virgin.  Her person seemed made of a shadow; there was hardly sufficient body to provide for sex; a little matter enclosing a light; large eyes forever drooping;--a mere pretext for a soul's remaining on the earth.

Madame Magloire was a little, fat, white old woman, corpulent and bustling; always out of breath,--in the first place, because of her activity, and in the next, because of her asthma.

On his arrival, M. Myriel was installed in the episcopal palace with the honors required by the Imperial decrees, which class a bishop immediately after a major-general. The mayor and the president paid the first call on him, and he, in turn, paid the first call on the general and the prefect.

The installation over, the town waited to see its bishop at work.

==Translation notes==

===maid to Mademoiselle and housekeeper to Monseigneur===
As a simple parish priest Monsieur Myriel would have been addressed as ''monsieur le cur&eacute;''; as bishop he is now ''Monseigneur''.<ref name="donougher" />

==Textual notes==

===Digne===
Hugo based his bishop on Charles-François-Melchior-Bienvenu de Miollis (1753–1838), bishop of Digne from 1805 to 1831. <ref name="rose"> Hugo, Victor. 'Les Miserables.''Trans. Julie Rose. Intro. Adam Gopnik. New York: Modern Library Classics, 2009.</ref>

===The parliament of Aix===
The Provence parliament, dating from 1501 and based in Aix-en-Provence, was the chief judiciary authority and highest court in Provence. Bastions of privilege associated with the ancien r&eacute;gime, all the provincial parliaments and the Paris parliament were abolished in the early days of the Revolution.<ref name="donougher">Hugo, Victor. ''The Wretched: A new translation of Les Mis&eacute;rables.'' Trans. Christine Donougher. London: Penguin Classics, 2013.</ref>

===Judicial aristocracy===
Before the French Revolution the French aristocracy who owed their rank to their military service were known as the noblesse d'&eacute;p&eacute;e, 'the nobility of the sword', while those who were ennobled because of their judicial or administrative position were the noblesse de robe, 'nobility of the robe', or 'gown'.<ref name="donougher"/>

===The tragic spectacles of '93===
Louis XVI was executed on 21 January, Marie-Antoinette on 16 October. The Terror implemented by the Revolutionary government's Committee of Public Safety began in September and continued until the fall of Robespierre in July 1794.<ref name="donougher"/>

===The coronation===
Napoleon's coronation as emperor took place on 2 December 1804 at the church of Notre-Dame in Paris, in a ceremony at which Pope Pius VII officiated.<ref name="donougher"/>

===Cardinal Fesch===
Joseph Fesch (1763–1839), an uncle of Napoleon, was named archbishop of Lyon in 1802 and created cardinal in 1803; Napoleon appointed him ambassador to Rome that same year.<ref name="donougher"/>

===palabres===
Now commonly used in modern French to mean 'interminable discussions', etymologically and historically the word derives from the Spanish palabra ('word'), which entered French usage as a result of contacts with Africans who had previously traded with the Spanish. The word came to be associated with notoriously lengthy ritual gift-presentation ceremonies. Hence its southern connotations.<ref name="donougher"/>

==Citations==
<references/>