Chapter 1.3.III: The Notables
Notes
Aaron’s Rod Refers to the mythically-powerful walking stick carried by Moses’ brother
de par le roi “On behalf of the King”
Men of the sword, men of the robe; Peers Nobles of the sword: nobles whose rank comes from family’s function as knightly class. Men of the robe: nobles whose rank comes from judicial/administrative offices (usually hereditary). Peers: the most prestigious rank of nobility, reserved for a few.
Seven Princes of the Blood A “prince du sang” is a person legitimately descended in male line from a sovereign
Controller Calonne is dreadfully behindhand with his speeches Both Calonne and Vergennes were quite sick in the run-up to the assembly, Vergennes will not make it
Orpheus, with eloquence grown rhythmic, musical (what we call Poetry), drew iron tears from the cheek of Pluto Orpheus, renowned poet-musician who drew tears from Pluto when he went to the underworld to retrieve Eurydice
Plutus The god and personification of wealth
Peculation itself is hinted at Peculation = embezzlement. Calonne was accused of shady deals, but none of the accusations seem to have held up
(where Mirabeau is now, with stentor-lungs, “denouncing Agio”) Referring to agiotage, stock-trading, which Mirabeau has written denouncing
sent out some scientific Lapérouse See above Chapter 1.2.V. Lapérouse was sent on a voyage of discovery but was lost at sea
Dimmer then, far-borne over utmost European lands When the criticism towards Calonne reachest its hottest (which it won’t until months after his dismissal when he becomes a scapegoat), he will flee to England, making him arguably the first political émigré of the French Revolution
shall hardly return thither to find a grave Calonne will return to Napoleon’s France a month before his death
gleaning even a good word from Philosophedom and your Voltaires and D’Alemberts Despite his position it does not seem that Brienne believed in God, a fact which made Louis XVI distrust him implicitly