War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [808]
6. to overthrow the head of the Catholic religion: On 17 May 1809 Napoleon proclaimed the annexation of Rome and the Papal States to the French empire. On 10 June French troops entered Rome, and Pope Pius VII was arrested and taken to Savona on the Gulf of Genoa and later to Fontainebleau. He remained Napoleon’s hostage until 1814.
7. Peter the Great’s old cudgel…Kunstkamera: The Kunstkamera on the University Embankment in Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1714 as a museum to house natural and human curiosities and rarities. Among the collections are various mementos of its founder—some clothes, a copy of his death mask, a cast of his right hand, and his cudgel, suggestive of his forceful way of ruling Russia.
8. her album: Russian girls used to keep personal albums in which their friends and acquaintances would draw or write things for them.
9. Poor Liza: A novel by the Russian writer and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766–1826), published in 1792. It marked the shift in Russian literature from classicism to “sensibility.”
10. Over-Shameless: Marya Dmitrievna plays on the name of the French dressmaker Mme Aubert-Chalmet. The Russian reads Ober-Shelma, which means something like “Super-Rogue.” Napoleon put the dressmaker in charge of his table when he was in Moscow, and she set up a kitchen in the cathedral of the Archangel in the Kremlin. When the French left Moscow, she went with them.
11. Everything will be forgiven her…much fun: A common distortion of the sense of Christ’s words in Luke 7:47: “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.” The woman in question is sometimes taken to be Mary Magdalene.
12. the Dormition on Mogiltsy: A modest neoclassical church which still stands on Chisty Lane in the Arbatskaya section of Moscow, dedicated to the Dormition (Assumption) of the Mother of God, built in 1799 on the site of an older church. While digging the foundation, the builders came upon deep pits filled with many human bones; hence the name of the church, which means “Dormition on the Graves.”
13. her criminal love for her son: Mlle George is obviously reciting from the title role of the tragedy Phèdre, by Jean Racine (1639–99), for which she was famous. The actress, whose real name was Marguerite-Josephine Weymer (1787–1867), performed in Moscow and Petersburg in 1808–12.
14. towards the front corner: Icons are traditionally hung in the right corner opposite the entrance to a room. Balaga, being a good peasant, crosses himself towards the icon(s) on coming in.
15. We have to sit down: It is a Russian custom for people to sit down together for a few moments of silence and prayer before leaving on a journey or moving out.
16. Styoshka: The Gypsy singer Stepanida Soldatova (Styosha or Styoshka) was famous in Moscow in the early nineteenth century and greatly admired by the musical (and nonmusical) elite.
17. Speransky…Moscow: After a period of almost unlimited authority following the treaty of Tilsit, Speransky was abruptly dismissed by Alexander I in 1812 and exiled to Perm. In foreign policy, he had been a strong advocate of alliance with France, and as a new war with France became inevitable, he was suspected of collusion with Napoleon and even of treason.
VOLUME III
Part One
1. the Continental System: The blockade imposed by Napoleon on trade between the European continent and England (see note 20 to Volume II, Part Three).
2. as he said…St. Helena: See note 19 to Volume I, Part Two.
3. the legitimists of that time: Those who upheld the rights of the legitimate ruling dynasty, in this case the Bourbons.
4. The hearts of kings…: See Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”
5. the movement of troops into Prussia…an armed peace: In 1811, as Napoleon was preparing for war with Russia, he asked Prussia to support him with troops, but Prussia hesitated. Napoleon then told Marshal Davout to enter and occupy Prussia at the first sign from him. In 1812 a treaty