Mirèio/Notes to Canto VI
NOTES TO CANTO VI.
1 Maussano and Saint Martin are villages in Crau.
2 Nostradamus. Michel de Nostradame, or Nostradamus, was born at Saint Rémy, in 1508, and died at Salon, in 1565. He practised medicine very successfully under the latter Valois, applied himself to mathematics and astrology, and published in 1557, under the title of "The Centuries," the prophesies which have rendered his name popular. Charles IX. appointed him physician in ordinary, and loaded him with honor.
3 "This cordial," Agrioulas, a liquor, composed of brandy and sugar, with which is mixed a certain quantity of short-stalked cherry, well bruised.
4 "The Fairies' Cavern." The following is Jules Canonge's description of this locality:—
"From the bottom of the gorge, aptly named Enfer, I descended into the Fairies' Grotto. But, instead of the graceful phantoms with which my imagination had peopled it, I saw nothing but low vaults under which I was forced to crawl, blocks of stone heaped up, and gloomy depths. I have just observed that this gorge is aptly called Enfer. Nowhere else have I ever seen rocks so tormented. They stand erect, with cavities in their sides; and their gigantic entabisments, covered with aerial gardens, in which a dishevelled sort of vegetation obtains, defile out like the Pyrenean rock cleft by the sword of Roland."
On comparing the description of Dante's "Inferno" with this tortured Cyclopean, fantastic vista, one is persuaded that the great Florentine poet, who travelled in our parts and even sojourned in Arles, must have visited the town of Baux, sat on the escarpments of the Valoun d'Infer, and, being struck with the grandeur of its desolation, conceived in its midst the outline of his "Inferno." Every thing leads to this idea, even the name of the gorge itself, its amphitheatrical form, the same given by Dante to Hell, and the large detached rocks forming its escarpments.
"In su l'estremita d'un alta ripa
Che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio."
And the Provençal name of these same baus, Italianized by the poet into balzo, was given by him to the escarpments of his own lugubrious funnel.
5 "Sabatori." Beside its etymological meaning, this word is used to designate a meeting held by sorcerers at night to worship the devil. (The Witches' Sabbath of our own witchcraft delusion.—Am. Tr.) -
6 "Saint Trophimus'," the cathedral of Arles, built in the seventh century, by Archbishop St. Virgile, in which Frederic Barbarossa was consecrated emperor in 1178.
7 Peasants in Southern France have remarked that the last three days of February and the first three of March are almost always visited by a renewal of cold; and this is how their poetic imagination accounts for the fact:—
An old woman was once tending her sheep. It was toward the end of February, which that year had not been severe. The old woman, believing herself clear of winter, began jeering February as follows:—
"Adieu, Febriè. Mè la feberado
M'as fa ni peu ni pelado."
("Farewell, February. With your frost
Harmed me you have not, and nothing cost.")
This jeer enraged February, who went in search of March, and said, "March, do me a favor!"—"Two, if you like," answered March."—"Lend me three days; and, with the three I have left, I will both harm her and cost her plenty." The weather immediately afterward became intolerably bad, all the sheep of the old woman were killed by the frost, and she, the peasants say, kicked against it. This inclement period has ever since been known as the reguignado de la Vièio, or kicking of the old woman.
8 The farandoulo is a Provençal dance.
9 10 Garamaude is the imp of flirtation; Gripet, the demon of influenza, from gripa, to grip.
11 Sambuco's Path, in the mountains of Sambuco, to the east of Aix, is much dreaded by travellers.
12 The Cordovan Hollow, or Trau de Cordo. To the east of Arles arise two hills, which must originally have formed but one, but are now separated by a morass. Upon the flat, rocky summit of the lower, the Celts had once made an excavation. It is believed that the Saracens once encamped upon this hill, and gave it its name of "Cordo," in memory of Cordova. Wonderful traditions cluster around this spot. It is the haunt of the Fairy Serpent, or Melusine Provençale; of the golden goat, that enables people to discover hidden treasure. The larger hill bears the almost Roman name of Mount Majour. Upon this hill are the gigantic ruins of the Abbey of Mont Majour. Both the Grotte de Corde and the Grotte des Baus bear the name of "Trau di Fado," or "Furies' Cave," and the popular belief is that the excavations communicate.