Usable according to the Creative Commons License Attribution Non-commercial Share-alike.
Our editorial method is informed by social-text editing principles. By “text” we mean verbal and visual printed material, including non-referential physical elements such as bindings, page layouts, and ornaments. We view any text as the outcome of collaborative processes that have specific manifestations at precise historical moments. The Yellow Nineties Online publishes facsimile editions of a select collection of fin-de- siècle aesthetic periodicals, together with paratexts of production and reception such as cover designs, advertising materials, and reviews. This historical material is enhanced by two kinds of peer-reviewed scholarly commentary: biographies of the periodicals’ contributors and associates; and critical introductions to each title and volume by experts in the field. All scholarly material on the site is vetted by the editor(s) and peer- reviewed by them and/or an international board of advisors. The site as a whole is peer- reviewed by NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship). Contributors to the site retain personal copyright in their material. The site is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Both primary and secondary materials, including all visual images, are marked up in TEI- (Textual-Encoding Initiative) compliant XML (Extensible Markup Language). To ensure maximum flexibility for users, magazines are available on the site as virtual objects (facsimiles) in FlipBook form; in HTML for online reading; in PDF for downloading and collecting; and in XML for those who wish to review and/or adapt our tag sets. In order to make ornamental devices, such as initial letters, head- and tail- pieces, searchable, we have developed a Database of Ornament in OMEKA, and linked it to the relevant pages of each magazine edition. As a dynamic structure, a scholarly website is always in process; Phase One of The Yellow Nineties Online (2010-2015) is completed and Phase Two (2016-2021) is underway.
The Keeper of the Palace of Books said: ‘Queen Nitocris, the Fair One with
the
Rosy Cheeks, widow of Papi I. of the Tenth Dynasty, to avenge the
murder of
her brother, invited the conspirators to sup with her in an
underground hall of her
Palace of Aznac. Then, leaving the hall, she
suddenly caused it to be flooded with
the waters of the Nile.’—MANTHON.
IN or about the year 1404—I go back so
far
lest I should distress my contemporaries—
Ysabeau, wife to King
Charles VI. and Regent
of France, abode in Paris at the old Hôtel
Montagu, a royal residence better known as
the Hotel Barbette.
jousting-parties on the Seine—gala nights,
concerts, banquets, made
marvellous by the
beauty of the women and the young nobles, and by the
unequalled
luxury displayed by the Court.
bosom glanced through a network of
ribands enriched with precious
stones, and those tall head-dresses which
required that the centre-pieces
of the feudal gates should be raised by
several cubits. In the daytime
the meeting-place of the courtiers was near
the Louvre, in the great
hall and upon the terrace of orange-trees of
Messire Escabala, the
King’s steward. Play ran high there, and at times the
dice were cast
for stakes large enough to starve a province. They
dissipated the
wealth of treasure which the thrifty Charles v. had been at
such pains
to amass. As the coffers diminished, the tithes, tolls,
statute-tasks, aids,
subsidies, seizures, exactions, and gabels were
increased at will. Joy
reigned in every heart.
making ready to abolish all those hateful taxes
in his own States—John
of Nevers, Knight, Lord of Salines, Count of
Flanders and Artois,
Count of Nevers, Baron of Réthel, Palatine of Mechlin,
twice Peer of
France and Premier Peer, cousin to the King, a soldier
destined to be
named by the Council of Constance the sole leader of armies
who might
be obeyed blindly without fear of excommunication, Premier
Grand
Feudatory of the Realm, first subject of the King (who himself is
but
the first subject of the nation), Hereditary Duke of Burgundy, the
future hero of Nicopolis and of the victory of Hesbaie, in which,
deserted by the Flemings, he gained
the heroic title of
presence of
the whole army by delivering France from her principal
enemy—it was in
those days, I was saying, that the son of Philip the
Bold and Margaret II.,
that John the Fearless, in a word, first began to
think of saving the
country and of defying with fire and sword Henry
of Derby, Earl of Hereford
and Lancaster, fifth of the name, King of
England—he who, when a price was
put upon his head by that King,
was declared a traitor by France, by way of
all thanks.
which had since a few days been imported by Odette de
Champ-
d’Hiver. Wagers of all kinds were made. They drank wines that
came from the finest slopes of the Duchy of Burgundy. The ring was
heard of
the Tenzons, the Virelays of the Duke of Orleans, one of the
Knights of the
Fleurs-de-Lys who doted most upon beautiful rhymes.
They discussed fashions
and armour; often sang dissolute couplets.
charming child, and exceeding fair to look upon. Her virgin
smile
attracted the most brilliant of the swarm of noblemen. It was
notori-
ous that she extended to all indifferently the same gracious
reception.
was then Queen Ysabeau’s favourite, rashly pledged his word
(after
drinking, assuredly!) that he would triumph over the inflexible
inno-
cence of this daughter of Master Escabala; in short, that she should
be
his within an approximate time.
Around them stirred the laughter and the refrains of
the time; but the
hubbub did not drown the young man’s reckless phrase. The
wager
was accepted to the clinking of wine-cups, and came to the ears
of
Louis of Orleans.
guished by her, in the early days of the Regency, with a
passionate
affection. He was a brilliant and frivolous prince, but of most
evil
omen. Between him and Ysabeau of Bavaria were certain parities of
nature which likened their adultery to incest. Beside the capricious
aftermath of a withered love, he was still able to command in the
Queen’s
heart a sort of bastard attachment more of the nature of a
compact than of
sympathy.
When the lovers’ intimacy seemed to threaten the
influence which
he was determined to retain over the Queen, he showed
little scruple in
the means he employed to produce
between them a rupture which
was nearly always tragic. He would even stoop
to play the informer.
the Vidame of Maulle’s royal paramour.
further thought.
potent to feed the flame of the desires she inspired. A
new Cleopatra,
she was a tall, listless woman, fashioned to preside over
courts of love
in some remote manor, or to set the mode to a province,
rather than to
plan how to free the soil of the country from the English.
On this
occasion, however, she consulted none of her seers—not even
Arnaut
Guilhem, her alchemist.
at the Hôtel Barbette. The hour was late; the fatigue of
their pleasure
was lulling the two lovers to sleep.
sound of bells tolled with infrequent and solemn
strokes.
out opening her eyes.
it. I saw you fling a torch into the oil and fodder
cellars, sweet heart.’
burning the house of Messire Escabala, my steward, you
know, to win
your wager of the other day.’
little Berenice, who has such beautiful eyes! . . .
Oh! what a sweet
and pretty child, is she not?’
you had set fire to my steward’s
house to carry off his daughter during
the conflagration, and make her your
mistress, and win your wager.’
The Vidame looked about him in silence.
the chamber; purple reflections tinged with
blood the ermine of the
royal bed; the lilies on the escutcheons and those
breathing their
last in vases of enamel blushed red! And red, also, were
the two
goblets, upon a credence-table laden with wines and fruits.
wished to draw the attention of the courtiers towards that
little one in
order to divert them from our happiness! . . . But see,
Ysabeau; it
is really a great fire . . . and the flames rise from the
direction of the
Louvre!’
and very fixedly contemplated the Vidame of Maulle,
shook her head;
then, lazily smiling, pressed a long kiss upon the young
man’s lips.
breaks you upon the wheel on the Place de Grève! .
. . You are a
wicked incendiary, my love!’
and scorched the senses till the power to think had
fled, she nestled up
against him.
crowd.
try to count the butterflies that flit on a summer’s
night!’
just lavished upon him delights and raptures of most
marvellous
voluptuousness.
was it to profit by a fire in order to carry off the
daughter of Messire
Escabala? Yours alone. Your word is pledged in the
wager!
broke out! . . . You see, that is
quite sufficient, at the Chatelet, to put
you upon your trial. The inquiry
comes first, and then . . . (she
gently yawned) the torture does the
rest.’
Maulle.’
lay in the arms of the Queen of France, child that you
are!’
the gentle gaze of his love.
enfolded in her lukewarm hair, red as burnt gold.
cushion ; a cord snapped all alone.
drawing the young man’s forehead upon her bosom.
are superstitious.
a dungeon of the Grand Châtelet. The trial commenced on the
charge
foretold. All happened exactly as predicted by the august
enchantress,
‘ whose beauty was so great that it was destined to outlive
her passions.’
call an
was cross-examined and sentenced to be broken
on the wheel.
nothing was omitted.
his client had confessed everything to him.
guilty of an act of heroism.
dungeon and helped him to escape beneath the shelter of
his gown.
In short, he put himself in his place.
playing a terrible part? Who shall ever tell?
frontier and died in exile.
young man’s escape, experienced only a feeling of exceeding
vexation.
list of the living, she ordered the execution of the
sentence even so.
Place de Greve, in the place and instead of the Lord of
Maulle.