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diff --git a/old/10666-8.txt b/old/10666-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92137cf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10666-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3819 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 10, 2004 [EBook #10666] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PUBLIC VS. M. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Rosanna Yuen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +THE PUBLIC _vs_. M. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT + + +The folios referred to in the trial are the folios either of the _Revue +de Paris_ or of the first edition of the book.--EDITOR. + + + +_Speech of the Prosecuting Attorney_, + + +M. ERNEST PINARD + + +Gentlemen, in entering upon this debate, the Public Attorney is in the +presence of a difficulty which he cannot ignore. It cannot be put even +in the nature of a condemnation, since offenses to public morals and to +religion are somewhat vague and elastic expressions which it would be +necessary to define precisely. Nevertheless, when we speak to +right-minded, practical men we are sure of being sufficiently understood +to distinguish whether a certain page of a book carries an attack +against religion and morals or not. The difficulty is not in arousing a +prejudice, it is far more in explaining the work of which you are to +judge. It deals entirely with romance. If it were a newspaper article +which we were bringing before you, it could be seen at once where the +fault began and where it ended; it would simply be read by the ministry +and submitted to you for judgment. Here we are not concerned with a +newspaper article, but entirely with a romance, which begins the first +of October, finishes the fifteenth of December, and is composed of six +numbers, in the _Revue de Paris_, 1856. What is to be done in such a +case? What is the duty of the Public Ministry? To read the whole +romance? That is impossible. On the other hand, to read only the +incriminating texts would expose us to deep reproach. They could say to +us: If you do not show the case in all its parts, if you pass over that +which precedes and that which follows the incriminating passages, it is +evident that you wish to suppress the debate by restricting the ground +of discussion. In order to avoid this twofold difficulty, there is but +one course to follow, and that is, to relate to you the whole story of +the romance without reading any of it, or pointing out any incriminating +passage; then to cite incriminating texts, and finally to answer the +objections that may arise against the general method of indictment. + +What is the title of the romance? _Madame Bovary_. This title in itself +explains nothing. There is a second in parentheses: _Provincial Morals +and Customs_. This is also a title which does not explain the thought of +the author but which gives some intimation of it. The author does not +endeavour to follow such or such a system of philosophy, true or false; +he endeavours to produce certain pictures, and you shall see what kind +of pictures! Without doubt, it is the husband who begins and who +terminates the book; but the most serious portrait of the work, the one +that illumines the other paintings, is that of Madame Bovary. + +Here I relate, I do not cite. It takes the husband first at college, and +it must be stated that the boy already gave evidence of the kind of +husband he would make. He is excessively heavy and timid, so timid that +when he arrives at the college and is asked his name, he responds: +"_Charbovari_" He is so dull that he works continually without +advancing. He is never the first, nor is he the last in his class; he +is the type, if not of the cipher at least of the laughing-stock of the +college. After finishing his studies here, he goes to study medicine at +Rouen, in a fourth-story room overlooking the Seine, which his mother +rented for him, in the house of a dyer of her acquaintance. Here he +studies his medical books, and arrives little by little, not at the +degree of doctor of medicine, but that of health officer. He frequented +the inns, failed in his studies, but as for the rest, he had no other +passion than that of playing dominoes. This is M. Bovary. + +The time comes for him to marry. His mother finds him a wife in the +widow of a sheriff's officer of Dieppe; she is virtuous and plain, is +forty-five years old, and has six thousand a year income. Only, the +lawyer who had her capital to invest set out one fine morning for +America, and the younger Madame Bovary was so much affected, so struck +down by this unexpected blow that she died of it. Here we have the first +marriage and the first scene. + +M. Bovary, now being a widower, begins to think of marrying again. He +questions his memory; there is no need of going far; there immediately +comes to his mind the daughter of a neighboring farmer, Mile. Emma +Rouault, who had strangely aroused Madame Bovary's suspicions. Farmer +Rouault had but one daughter, and she had been brought up by the +Ursuline sisters at Rouen. She was little interested in matters of the +farm; her father was anxious for her to marry. The health officer +presented himself, there was no difficulty about the _dot_, and you +understand that with such a disposition on both sides, these things are +quickly settled. The marriage takes place. M. Bovary is at his wife's +knees, is the happiest of men and the blindest of husbands. His sole +occupation is anticipating his wife's wishes. + +Here the rôle of M. Bovary ends; that of Madame Bovary becomes the +serious work of the book. + +Gentlemen, does Madame Bovary love her husband, or try to love him? No; +and from the beginning there has been what we might call the scene of +initiation. From the moment of her marriage, another horizon stretched +itself out before her, a new life appeared to her. The proprietor of +Vaubyessard Castle gave a grand entertainment. He invited the health +officer and his wife, and this was for her an initiation into all the +ardour of voluptuousness! There she discovered the Duke of Laverdière +who had had some success at Court; she waltzed with a viscount and +experienced an unusual disturbance of mind. From this moment she lived +a new life; her husband and all her surroundings became insupportable to +her. One day, in looking over some furniture, she hit a piece of wire +which tore her finger; it was the wire from her wedding bouquet. + +To try to dispel the _ennui_ that was consuming her, M. Bovary +sacrificed his office and established himself at Yonville. Here was the +scene of the first fall. We are now in the second number. Madame +arrived at Yonville, and there, the first person she met upon whom she +could fix her attention was--not the notary of the place, but the only +clerk of that notary, Léon Dupuis. This is a young man who is making +his own way and is about to set out for the capital. Any other than +M. Bovary would have been disquieted by the visits of the young clerk, +but M. Bovary is so ingenuous that he believes in his wife's +virtue. Léon, wholly inexperienced, has the same idea. He goes away, and +the occasion is lost; but occasions are easily found again. + +There was in the neighborhood of Yonville one Rodolphe Boulanger (you +understand that I am narrating). He was a man of thirty-four years old +and of a brutal temperament; he had had much success and many easy +conquests; he then had an actress for a mistress. He saw Madame Bovary; +she was young and charming; he resolved to make her his mistress. The +thing was easy; three meetings were sufficient to bring it about. The +first time he came to an agricultural meeting, the second time he paid +her a visit, the third time he accompanied her on a horseback ride which +her husband judged necessary to her health; it was then, in a first +visit to the forest, that the fall took place. Their meetings +multiplied after this, at Rodolphe's chateau and in the health officer's +garden. The lovers reached the extreme limits of voluptuousness! Madame +Bovary wished to elope with Rodolphe, but while Rodolphe dared not say +no, he wrote a letter in which he tried to show her that for many +reasons, he could not elope. Stricken down by the reception of this +letter, Madame Bovary had a brain fever, following which typhoid fever +declared itself. The fever killed the love, but the malady +remained. This is the second scene. + +We come now to the third scene. The fall with Rodolphe was followed by a +religious reaction, but it was short; Madame Bovary was about to fall +anew. The husband thought the theatre useful in the convalescence of his +wife and took her to Rouen. In a box opposite that occupied by M. and +Madame Bovary, was Léon Dupuis, the notary's young clerk, who had made +his way to Paris, and who had now become strangely experienced and +knowing. He went to see Madame Bovary and proposed a _rendezvous_. +Madame Bovary suggested the cathedral. On coming out of the cathedral, +Léon proposed that they take a cab. She resisted at first, but Léon told +her that this was done in Paris, and there was no further obstacle. The +fall takes place in the cab! Meetings follow for Léon, as for Rodolphe, +at the health officer's house, and then at a room which they rented in +Rouen. Finally, she became weary of the second love, and here begins the +scene of distress; it is the last of the romance. + +Madame Bovary was prodigal, having lavished gifts upon Rodolphe and +Léon; she had led a life of luxury and, in order to meet such expense +had put her name to a number of promissory notes. She had obtained a +power of attorney from her husband in the management of their common +patrimony, fell in with a usurer who discounted the notes which, not +being paid at the expiration of the time, were renewed under the name of +a boon companion. Then came the stamped paper, the protests, judgments +and executions, and, finally, the posting for sale of the furniture of +Monsieur Bovary, who knew nothing of all this. Reduced to the most +cruel extremities, Madame Bovary asked money from everybody, but got +none. Léon had nothing, and recoiled frightened at the idea of a crime +that was suggested to him for procuring funds. Having gone through every +degree of humiliation, Madame Bovary turned to Rodolphe; she was not +successful; Rodolphe did not have 3000 francs. There remained to her but +one course: to beg her husband's pardon? No. To explain the matter to +him? No, for this husband would be generous enough to pardon her, and +that was a humiliation which she could not accept: she must poison +herself. + +We come now to grievous scenes. The husband is there beside his wife's +icy body. He has her night robe brought, orders her wrapped in it and +her remains placed in a triple coffin. + +One day he opens a secretary and there finds Rodolphe's picture, his +letters and Léon's. Do you think his love is then shattered? No, no! on +the contrary, he is excited and extols this woman whom others have +possessed, as proved by these souvenirs of voluptuousness which she had +left to him; and from that moment he neglects his office, his family, +lets go to the winds the last vestige of his patrimony, and is found +dead one day in the arbor in his garden, holding in his hand a long lock +of black hair. This is the romance. I have related it to you, +suppressing no scene in it. It is called _Madame Bovary_. You could +with justice give it another title and call it. _Story of the Adulteries +of a Provincial Woman_. + +Gentlemen, the first part of my task is fulfilled. I have related, I +shall now cite, and after the citations come the indictments which are +brought upon two counts: offense against public morals and offense +against religious morals. The offense against public morals lies in the +lascivious pictures which I have brought before your eyes; the offense +against religious morals consists in mingling voluptuous images with +sacred things. I now come to the citations. I will be brief, for you +will read the entire romance. I shall limit myself to citing four +scenes, or rather four tableaux. The first will be that of the fall with +Rodolphe; the second, the religious reaction between the two adulteries; +the third, the fall with Léon, which is the second adultery, and finally +the fourth, the death of Madame Bovary. + +Before raising the curtain on these four pictures, permit me to inquire +what colour, what stroke of the brush M. Flaubert employs--for this +romance is a picture, and it is necessary to know to what school he +belongs--what colour he uses and what sort of portrait he makes of his +heroine. + +The general colour of the author, allow me to tell you, is a lascivious +colour, before, during, and after the falls! When she is a child ten or +twelve years of age, she is at the Ursuline convent. At this age, when +the young girl is not formed, when the woman cannot feel those emotions +which reveal to her a new world, she goes to confession: + +"When she went to confession, she invented little sins in order that she +might stay there longer, kneeling in the shadow, her hands joined, her +face against the grating beneath the whispering of the priest. The +comparisons of betrothed, husband, celestial lover, and eternal +marriage, that recur in sermons, stirred within her soul depths of +unexpected sweetness." + +Is it natural for a little girl to invent small sins, since we know that +for a child the smallest sins are confessed with the greatest +difficulty? And again, at this age, when a little girl is not formed, +does it not make what I have called a lascivious picture to show her +inventing little sins in the shadow, under the whisperings of the +priest, recalling comparisons she has heard about the affianced, the +celestial lover and eternal marriage which gave her a shiver of +voluptuousness? + +Would you see Madame Bovary in her lesser acts, in a free state, without +a lover and without sin? I pass over those words, "the next day," and +that bride who left nothing to be discovered which could be divined or +found out, as the phrase in itself is more than equivocal; but we shall +see how it was with the husband: + +The husband of the next day, "whom one would have taken for an old +maid," the bridegroom of this bride who "left nothing to be discovered +that could be divined," arose and went out, "his heart full of the +felicities of the night, with mind tranquil and flesh content," going +about "ruminating upon his happiness like one who is still enjoying +after dinner the taste of the truffles he is digesting." + +It now remains, gentlemen, to determine upon the literary stamp of M. +Flaubert and upon the strokes of his brush. Now, at the Castle +Vaubyessard do you know what most attracted this young woman, what +struck her most forcibly? It is always the same thing--the Duke of +Laverdiere, as a lover--"as they say, of Marie-Antoinette, between the +Messrs. de Coigny and de Lauzun." "Emma's eyes turned upon him of their +own accord, as upon something extraordinary and august; he had lived at +Court and slept in the bed of queens!" Can it be said that this is only +an historic parenthesis? Sad and useless parenthesis! History can +authorise suspicions, but has not the right to establish them as +fact. History has spoken of the necklace in all romances; history has +spoken of a thousand things; but these are only suspicions and, I +repeat, I know not by what authority these suspicions should be +established as facts. And, since Marie-Antoinette died with the dignity +of a sovereign and the calmness of a Christian, her life-blood should +efface faults of which there are the strongest suspicions. M. Flaubert +was in need of a striking example in the painting of his heroine, but +Heaven knows why he has taken this one to express, all at once, the +perverse instincts and the ambition of Madame Bovary! + +Madame Bovary dances very well, and here she is waltzing: + +"They began slowly, then went more rapidly. They turned; all around them +was turning--the lamps, the furniture, the wainscoting, the floor, like +a disc on a pivot. On passing near the doors the bottom of Emma's dress +caught against his trousers. Their legs commingled; he looked down at +her; she raised her eyes to his. A torpor seized her; she stopped. They +started again, and with a more rapid movement; the Viscount, dragging +her along, disappeared with her to the end of the gallery, where, +panting, she almost fell, and for a moment rested her head upon his +breast. And then, still turning, but more slowly, he guided her back to +her seat. She leant back against the wall and covered her eyes with her +hands." + +I know well that the waltz is more or less like this, but that makes it +no more moral! + +Take Madame Bovary in her most simple acts, and we have always the same +stroke of the brush, on every page. Even Justin, the neighbouring +chemist's boy, undergoes some astonishment when he is initiated into the +secrets of this woman's toilette. He carries his voluptuous admiration +as far as the kitchen. + +"With his elbows on the long board on which she was ironing, he greedily +watched all these women's clothes spread out about him, the dimity +petticoats, the fichus, the collars, and the drawers with +running-strings, wide at the hips and growing narrower below. + +"What is that for?" asked the young fellow, passing his hand over the +crinoline or the hooks and eyes. + +"'Why, haven't you ever seen anything?' Félicité answered laughing. 'As +if your mistress, Madame Homais, didn't wear the same.'" + +The husband also asks, in the presence of this fresh-smelling woman, +whether the odour comes from the skin or from the chemise. + +"Every evening he found a blazing fire, his dinner ready, easy-chairs, +and a well-dressed woman, charming with an odour of freshness, though no +one could say whence the perfume came, or if it were not her skin that +made odourous her chemise." + +Enough of quotations in detail! You know now the physiognomy of Madame +Bovary in repose, when she is inciting no one, when she does not sin, +when she is still completely innocent, and when, on her return from a +rendezvous, she is by the side of her husband, whom she detests; you +know now the general colour of the picture, the general physiognomy of +Madame Bovary. The author has taken the greatest care, employed all the +prestige of his style in painting the portrait of this woman. Has he +tried to show her on the side of intelligence? Never. From the side of +the heart? Not at all. On the part of mind? No. From the side of +physical beauty? Not even that. Oh! I know very well that the portrait +of Madame Bovary after the adultery is most brilliant; but the picture +is above all lascivious, the post is voluptuous, the beauty a beauty of +provocation. + +I come now to the four important quotations; I shall make but four; I +hold to my outline: I have said that the first would be the love for +Rodolphe, the second the religious reaction, the third the love for +Léon, the fourth her death. + +Here is the first. Madame Bovary is near her fall, nearly ready to +succumb. + +"Domestic mediocrity drove her to lewd fancies, marriage tendernesses to +adulterous desires. She would have liked Charles to beat her, that she +might have a better right to hate him, to revenge herself upon him." + +What was it that seduced Rodolphe and prepared him? The opening of +Madame Bovary's dress which had burst in places along the seams of the +corsage. Rodolphe took his servant to Bovary's house, to bleed him. The +servant was very ill, and Madame Bovary held the basin. + +"Madame Bovary took the basin to put it under the table. With the +movement she made in bending down, her skirt (it was a summer frock with +four flounces, yellow, long in the waist and wide in the skirt) spread +out around her on the flags of the room; and as Emma, stooping, +staggered a little as she stretched out her arms, the stuff here and +there gave with the inflections of her bust." + +Here is Rodolphe's reflection: "He again saw Emma in her room, dressed +as he had seen her, and he undressed her." + +It is the first day they had spoken to each other. "They looked at one +another. A supreme desire made their dry lips tremble, and softly, +without an effort, their fingers intertwined." + +These are the preliminaries of the fall. It is necessary to read the +fall itself. + +"When the habit was ready, Charles wrote to Monsieur Boulanger that his +wife was at his command, and that they counted on his good-nature. + +"The next day at noon, Rodolphe appeared at Charles's door with two +saddle-horses. One had pink rosettes at his ears and a deerskin +side-saddle. + +"Rodolphe had put on high soft boots, saying to himself that no doubt +she had never seen anything like them. In fact, Emma was charmed with +his appearance as he stood on the landing in his great velvet coat and +white corduroy breeches." + +"As soon as he felt the ground, Emma's horse set off at a +gallop. Rodolphe galloped by her side." + +Here they are in the forest. + +"He drew her farther on to a small pool where duckweeds made a greenness +on the water. Faded waterlilies lay motionless between the reeds. At the +noise of their steps in the grass, frogs jumped away to hide themselves. + +"'I am wrong! I am wrong!' she said. 'I am mad to listen to you!'" + +"'Why? Emma! Emma!'" + +"'Oh, Rodolphe!' said the young woman slowly, leaning on his shoulder." + +"The cloth of her habit caught against the velvet of his coat. She threw +back her white neck, swelling with a sigh, and faltering, in tears, with +a long shudder and hiding her face, she gave herself up to him." + +Then she arose and, after shaking off the fatigue of voluptuousness, +returned to the domestic hearth, to that hearth where she would find a +husband who adored her. After this first fall, after this first +adultery, this first fault, is it a sentiment of remorse that she feels, +in the presence of this deceived husband who adores her? No! with a bold +front, she enters, glorifying adultery. + +"But when she saw herself in the glass she wondered at her face. Never +had her eyes been so large, so black, of so profound a depth. Something +subtle about her being transfigured her. She repeated, 'I have a lover! +a lover!' delighting at the idea as if a second puberty had come to +her. So at last she was to know those joys of love, that fever of +happiness of which she had despaired! She was entering upon marvels +where all would be passion, ecstasy, delirium." + +Thus, from this first fault, this first fall, she glorified adultery, +she sang the song of adultery, its poesy and its delights. This, +gentlemen, to me is much more dangerous and immoral than the fall +itself! Gentlemen, all pales before this glorification of adultery, even +the rendezvous at night some time after: + +"To call her, Rodolphe threw a sprinkle of sand at the shutters. She +jumped up with a start; but sometimes he had to wait, for Charles had a +mania for chatting by the fireside, and he would not stop. She was wild +with impatience; if her eyes could have done it, she would have hurled +him out at the window. At last she would begin to undress, then take up +a book, and go on reading very quietly as if the book amused her. But +Charles, who was in bed, called to her to come too. + +"'Come, now, Emma,' he said, 'it is time.' + +"'Yes, I am coming,' she answered. + +"Then, as the candles dazzled him, he turned to the wall and fell +asleep. She escaped, smiling, palpitating, undressed. + +"Rodolphe had a large cloak; he wrapped her in it, and putting his arm +around her waist, he drew her without a word to the end of the garden." + +"It was in the arbour, on the same seat of old sticks where formerly +Léon had looked at her so amorously on the summer evenings. She never +thought of him now. + +"The cold of the nights made them clasp closer; the sighs of their lips +seemed to them deeper; their eyes, that they could hardly see, larger; +and in the midst of the silence low words were spoken that fell on their +souls sonorous crystalline, and reverberating in multiplied vibrations." + +Gentlemen, do you know of language anywhere in the world more +expressive? Have you ever seen a more lascivious picture? Listen +further: + +"Never had Madame Bovary been so beautiful as at this period; she had +that indefinable beauty that results from joy, from enthusiasm, from +success, and that is only the harmony of temperament with +circumstances. Her desires, her sorrows, the experience of pleasure and +her ever-young illusions had, as soil and rain and winds and the sun +make flowers grow, gradually developed her, and she at length blossomed +forth in all the plentitude of her nature. Her eyelids seemed chiselled +expressly for her long amorous looks in which the pupil disappeared, +while a strong inspiration expanded her delicate nostrils and raised the +fleshy corner of her lips, shaded in the light by a little black +down. One would have thought that an artist apt in conception had +arranged the curls of hair upon her neck; they fell in a thick mass, +negligently and with the changing chances of their adultery that unbound +them every day. Her voice now took more mellow inflections, her figure +also; something subtle and penetrating escaped even from the folds of +her gown and from the line of her foot. Charles, as when they were first +married, thought her delicious and quite irresistible." + +Up to this time this woman's beauty had consisted of her grace, her +elegance, and her clothes; finally she is shown to you without a veil +and you can say whether adultery has embellished her or not. + +"'Take me away,' she cried, 'carry me off! Oh, I entreat you!' + +"And she threw herself upon his mouth, as if to seize there the +unexpected consent it breathed forth in a kiss." + +Here is a portrait, gentlemen, which M. Flaubert knows well how to draw. +How the eyes of this woman enlarge! Something ravishing expands around +her, and then her fall! Her beauty has never been so brilliant as the +next day after her fall and the days following. What the author shows +you is the poetry of adultery, and I ask you again whether these +lascivious pages do not express a profound immorality! + +I come now to the second situation, which is the religious +reaction. Madame Bovary is very ill, is at death's door. She is brought +back to life, and her convalescence is made remarkable by a little +religious awakening. + +"It was at this hour that Monsieur Bournisien came to see her. He +inquired after her health, gave her news, exhorted her to religion in a +coaxing little gossip that was not without its charm. The mere thought +of his cassock comforted her." + +Finally, she goes to communion. I do not like much to meet these holy +things in a romance; but at least, when one speaks of them, he need not +travesty them by his language. Is there in this adulterous woman going +to communion anything of the repentant faith of a Magdalene? No, no; she +is always the same passionate woman, seeking illusions and seeking them +even among the most august and holy things. + +"One day, when at the height of her illness, she had thought herself +dying, and had asked for the communion; and, while they were making the +preparations in her room for the sacrament, while they were turning the +night-table covered with sirups into an altar, and while Félicité was +strewing dahlia flowers on the floor, Emma felt some power passing over +her that freed her from her pains, from all perception, from all +feeling. Her body, relieved, no longer thought; another life was +beginning; it seemed to her that her being, mounting toward God, would +be annihilated in that love like a burning incense that melts into +vapour." + +In what tongue does one pray to God in language addressed to a lover in +the outpourings of adultery? Without doubt they will tell us it is local +colour, and excuse it on the ground that a vapourous, romantic woman +does nothing, even in religion, like anybody else. There is no local +colour which can excuse this mixture! Voluptuous one day, religious the +next, there is no woman, even in other countries, under the sky of Spain +or Italy, who murmurs to God the adulterous caresses which she gives her +lover. You can appreciate this language, gentlemen, and you will not +excuse adulterous words being introduced in any way into the sanctuary +of the Divinity! + +This is the second situation. I now come to the third, which is a series +of adulteries. + +After the religious transition, Madame Bovary is again ready to +fall. She goes to the theatre at Rouen. The play is _Lucia di +Lammermoor_. Emma returns to her old self. + +"Ah! if in the freshness of her beauty, before the pollution of marriage +and the disillusions of adultery, she could have anchored her life upon +some great, strong heart, then virtue, tenderness, voluptuousness, and +duty blending, she would never have fallen from so high a happiness." + +Seeing Lagardy upon the stage, she had a desire to run into his arms, to +take refuge in his strength, even as in the incarnation of love, and of +saying to him: "Take me, take me away, let us go! thine, thine, with +thee are all my ardour and all my dreams!" + +Léon was with the Bovarys. + +"He was standing behind her, leaning with his shoulder against the wall +of the box; now and again she felt herself shuddering beneath the hot +breath from his nostrils falling upon her hair." + +You were spoken to just now of the pollution of marriage; then you are +shown adultery in all its poesy, in its ineffable seductions. I have +said that the expression should be modified to read: the disillusions of +marriage and the pollution of adultery. Very often when one is married, +in the place of happiness without clouds which one promises himself, he +finds but sacrifice and bitterness. The word disillusion can then be +used justifiably, that of pollution, never. + +Léon and Emma have a rendezvous at the cathedral. They look around or +they do not, it makes no difference. They go out. + +"A lad was playing about the close. + +"'Go and get me a cab!' + +"The child bounded off like a ball by the Rue Quartre-Vents; then they +were alone a few minutes, face to face, and a little embarrassed. + +"'Ah! Léon! Really--I don't know--if I ought,' she whispered. Then with +a more serious air, 'Do you know, it is very improper?' + +"'How so?' replied the clerk. 'It is done at Paris.' + +"And that, as an irresistible argument, decided her." + +We know now, gentlemen, that the fall did not take place in the cab. +Through a scruple which honors him, the editor of the _Revue de Paris_ +has suppressed the passage of the fall in the cab. But if the _Revue_ +lowered the blinds of the cab, it does allow us to penetrate into the +room where they found a rendezvous. + +Emma wished to leave it, because she had given her word that she would +return that evening. + +"Moreover, Charles expected her, and in her heart she felt already that +cowardly docility that is for some women at once the chastisement and +atonement of adultery." + +Once upon the sidewalk, Léon continued to walk; she followed him as far +as the hotel; he mounted the stairs, opened the door and entered. What +an embrace! Words followed each other quickly after the kisses. They +told the disappointments of the week, their presentiments, their fears +about the letters; but now all was forgotten, and they were face to +face, with their laugh of voluptuousness and terms of endearment. + +"The bed was large, of mahogany, in the shape of a boat. The curtains +were in red levantine, that hung from the ceiling and bulged out too +much towards the bell-shaped bed-side; and nothing in the world was so +lovely as her brown head and white skin standing out against this purple +colour, when, with a movement of shame, she crossed her bare arms, +hiding her face in her hands. + +"The warm room, with its discreet carpet, its gay ornaments, and its +calm light, seemed made for the intimacies of passion." + +We are told what happened in that room. Here is still a passage, very +important as a piece of lascivious painting: + +"How they loved that dear room, so full of gaiety, despite of its rather +faded splendour! They always found the furniture in the same place, and +sometimes hairpins that she had forgotten the Thursday before under the +pedestal of the clock. They lunched by the fireside on a little round +table, inlaid with rosewood. Emma carved, put bits on his plate with +all sorts of coquettish ways, and she laughed with a sonorous and +libertine laugh when the froth of the champagne ran over from the glass +to the rings on her fingers. They were so completely lost in the +possession of each other that they thought themselves in their own +house, and that they would live there till death, like two spouses +eternally young. They said 'our room,' 'our carpet,' she even said 'my +slippers,' a gift of Léon's, a whim she had had. They were pink satin, +bordered with swansdown. When she sat on his knees, her leg, then too +short, hung in the air, and the dainty shoe, that had no back to it, was +held on only by the toes to her bare foot. + +"He for the first time enjoyed the inexpressible delicacy of feminine +refinements. He had never met this grace of language, this reserve of +clothing, these poses of the weary dove. He admired the exaltation of +her soul and the lace on her petticoat. Besides, was she not 'a lady' +and a married woman--a real mistress, in fine?" + +This, gentlemen, is a description which leaves nothing to be desired, I +hope, from the point of view of conviction. Here is another, or rather +here is the continuation of the same scene: + +"She used some words which inflamed him, with some kisses which drew +forth his soul. Where had she learned these caresses almost immaterial, +so profound and evasive were they?" + +Oh! I well understand, gentlemen, the disgust inspired in her by that +husband who wished to embrace her upon her return; I comprehend +admirably that after a rendezvous of this kind, she felt with horror at +night, "that man against her flesh stretched out asleep." + +That is not all, for according to the last tableau that I cannot omit, +she came to be weary of her voluptuousness. + +"She was constantly promising herself a profound felicity on her next +journey. Then she confessed to herself that she felt nothing +extraordinary. This disappointment quickly gave way to a new hope, and +Emma returned to him more inflamed, more eager than ever. She undressed +hastily, tearing off the thin laces of her corset that nestled around +her hips like a gliding snake. She went on tip-toe, barefooted, to see +once more that the door was closed; then, pale, serious, and without +speaking, with one movement she threw herself upon his breast with a +long shudder." + +I notice here two things, gentlemen, an admirable picture, the product +of a talented hand, but an execrable picture from a moral point of +view. Yes, M. Flaubert knows how to embellish his paintings with all +the resources of art, but without the discretion of art. With him there +is no gauze, no veils, it is nature in all her nudity, in all her +crudity! + +Still another quotation: + +"They knew one another too well for any of those surprises of possession +that increase its joys a hundred-fold. She was as sick of him as he was +weary of her. Emma found again in adultery all the platitudes of +marriage." + +The platitudes of marriage and the poetry of adultery! Sometimes it is +the pollution of marriage, sometimes the platitudes, but always the +poetry of adultery. These, gentlemen, are the situations which +M. Flaubert loves to paint, and which, unfortunately, he paints only too +well. + +I have related three scenes: the scene with Rodolphe, and you have seen +the fall in the forest, the glorification of adultery, and this woman +whose beauty became greater with this poesy. I have spoken of the +religious transition, and you saw there a prayer imprinted with +adulterous language. I have spoken of the second fall, I have unrolled +before you the scenes which took place with Léon. I have shown you the +scene of the cab--suppressed--and I have shown you the picture of the +room and the bed. Now that we believe your convictions are formed, we +come to the last scene,--that of the punishment. + +Numerous excisions have been made, it would appear, by the _Revue de +Paris_. Here are the terms in which M. Flaubert complains of it: + +"Some consideration which I do not appreciate has led the _Revue de +Paris_ to suppress the number of December 1st. Its scruples being +revived on the occasion of the present number, it has seen fit to cut +out still more passages. In consequence, I wish to deny all +responsibility in the lines which follow; the reader is informed that he +sees only fragments and not the complete work." + +Let us pass, then, over these fragments and come to the death. She +poisons herself. She poisons herself, why? Ah! it is a very little +thing, is death, she thinks; I am going to fall asleep and all will be +finished. Then, without remorse, without an avowal, without a tear of +repentance over this suicide which is brought about by adulteries in the +night watches, she goes to receive the sacrament for the dying. Why the +sacrament, since in her last thought she is going to annihilation? Why, +when there is not a tear, not a sigh of the Magdalene over her crime of +infidelity, her suicide, or her adulteries? + +After this scene comes that of extreme unction. These are holy and +sacred words for all. It is with these words that our ancestors have +fallen asleep, our fathers and our relatives, and it is with them that +one day our children will see us sleep. When one wishes to make use of +them, it should be done with exactness; it is not necessary, at least to +accompany them with the voluptuous image of a past life. + +You know how the priest makes the holy unctions upon the forehead, the +ears, upon the mouth, the feet, pronouncing at the same time the +liturgical phrases: _quidquam per pedes, per auras, per pectus_, etc., +always following with the words _misericordia_ ... sin on one side and +pity on the other. These holy, sacred words should be reproduced +exactly; and if they cannot be reproduced exactly, at least nothing +voluptuous should be put with them. + +"She turned her face slowly and seemed filled with joy on seeing +suddenly the violet stole, no doubt finding again, in the midst of a +temporary lull in her pain, the lost voluptuousness of her first +mystical transports, with the visions of eternal beatitude that were +beginning. + +"The priest rose to take the crucifix; then she stretched forward her +neck as one who is athirst, and gluing her lips to the body of the +Man-God, she pressed upon it with all her expiring strength the fullest +kiss of love that she had ever given. Then he recited the _Misereatur_ +and the _Indulgentiam_, dipped his right thumb in the oil and began to +give extreme unction. First, upon the eyes, that had so coveted all +worldly pomp; then upon the nostrils, that had been greedy of the warm +breeze and amorous odours; then upon the mouth that had uttered lies, +that had been curled with pride and cried out in lewdness; then upon the +hands, that had delighted in sensual touches; and finally upon the soles +of the feet, so swift of yore, when she was running to satisfy her +desires, and that would now walk no more." + +Now, in the prayers for the dying which the priest recites, at the end +or at the close of each verse occur these words: "Christian soul, go out +to a higher region." They are murmured at the moment when the last +breath of the dying escapes from his lips. The priest recites, etc. + +"As the death-rattle became stronger the priest prayed faster; his +prayers mingled with the stifled sobs of Bovary, and sometimes all +seemed lost in the muffled murmur of the Latin syllables that tolled +like a passing-bell." + +After the fashion of alternating these words, the author has tried to +make for them a sort of reply. He puts upon the sidewalk a blind man who +intones a song of which the profane words are a kind of response to the +prayers for the dying. + +"Suddenly on the pavement was heard a loud noise of clogs and the +clattering of a stick; and a voice rose--a raucous voice--that sang-- + +"'Maids in the warmth of a summer day +Dream of love and of love alway. +The wind is strong this summer day, +Her petticoat has flown away.'" + +This is the moment when Madame Bovary dies. + +Thus we have here the picture: on one side the priest reciting the +prayers for the dying; on the other the hand-organ player who excites +from the dying woman + +"an atrocious, frantic, despairing laugh, thinking she saw the hideous +face of the poor wretch that stood out against the eternal night like a +menace.... She fell back upon the mattress in a convulsion. They all +drew near. She was dead." + +And then later, when the body is cold, above all should the cadaver, +which the soul has just left, be respected. When the husband is there +on his knees, weeping for his wife, when he extends the shroud over her, +any other would have stopped, but M. Flaubert makes a final stroke with +his brush: + +"The sheet sank in from her breast to her knees, and then rose at the +tips of her toes." + +This the scene of death. I have abridged it and have grouped it after a +fashion. It is now for you to judge and determine whether there is a +mixture of the sacred and the profane in it, or rather, a mixture of the +sacred and the voluptuous. + +I have related the romance, I have brought a charge against it and, +permit me to say, against the kind of art that M. Flaubert cultivates, +the kind that is realistic but not discreet. You shall see to what +limits he has gone. A copy of the _Artiste_ lately came to my hand; it +is not for us to make accusations against the _Artiste_, but to learn to +what school M. Flaubert belongs, and I ask your permission to read you +some lines, which have nothing to do with M. Flaubert's prosecuted book, +only to show to what a degree he excels in this kind of painting. He +loves to paint temptations, especially the temptations to which Madame +Bovary succumbed. Well, I find a model of its kind in the lines to +follow, from the _Artiste_, for the month of January, signed _Gustave +Flaubert_, upon the temptation of Saint Anthony. Heaven knows it is a +subject upon which many things might be said, but I do not believe it +possible to give more vivacity to the image, stronger lines to the +picture. Apollonius says to Saint Anthony:-- + +"What is knowledge? What is glory? Wouldst thou refresh thine eyes +under the humid jasmines? Wouldst thou feel thy body sink itself, as in +a wave, in the sweet flesh of swooning women?" + +Ah! well! here is the same colour, the same strength of the brush, the +same vivacity of expression! + +To resume. I have analyzed the book, I have related the story without +forgetting a page, I have then made the charge, which was the second +part of my task. I have exhibited some of the portraits, I have shown +Madame Bovary in repose, by the side of her husband, in contact with +those whom she could not tempt, and I have pointed out to you the +lascivious colour of that portrait! Then I have analyzed some of the +great scenes: the fall with Rodolphe, the religious transition, the +meetings with Léon, the death scene, and in all this I find the double +count of offense against public morals and against religion. + +I had need of but two scenes: Do you not see the moral outrage in the +fall with Rodolphe? Do you not see the glorification of adultery in it? +And then, the religious outrage, which I find in the drawing of the +confession, in the religious transition, and finally, the scene of +death. + +You have before you, gentlemen, three guilty ones: M. Flaubert, the +author of the book, M. Pichat who accepted it, and M. Pillet, who +printed it. In this matter, there is no misdemeanor without publicity, +and all those concerned in the publicity should be equally blamed. But +we hasten to say that the manager of the _Revue_ and the printer are +only in the second rank. The principal offender is the author, +M. Flaubert; M. Flaubert who admonished by a note from the editor, +protested against the suppression which had been made in his work. After +him comes M. Laurent Pichat, from whom you will demand a reason, not +for the suppression which he has made, but of that which he should have +made; and finally comes the printer, who is a sentinel at the door of +scandal. M. Pillet, besides, is an honourable man against whom I have +nothing to say. We ask but one thing of you, which is to apply the law +to him. Printers should read; when they do not read or have read what +they print, it is at their own risk and peril. Printers are not +machines; they have a privilege, they take an oath, they are in a +special situation and they are responsible. Again, they are, if you +will permit the expression, like an advanced guard; if they allow a +misdemeanor to pass, it is like allowing the enemy to pass. Make the +penalty as mild as you will for Pillet, be as indulgent as you like with +the manager of the _Revue_; but as for Flaubert, the principal culprit, +it is for him you should reserve your severities! + +My task is accomplished; we await the objections on the part of the +defense. The general objection will be: But after all the romance is +moral on the whole, for is not adultery punished? + +To this objection there are two replies: I believe that in a +hypothetically moral work, a moral conclusion cannot be reached by the +presentation of the lascivious details we find here. And again I say: +that the work is not moral at the foundation. + +I say, gentlemen, that lascivious details cannot be covered by a moral +conclusion, otherwise one could relate all the orgies imaginable, +describe all the turpitude of a public woman, making her die in a +charity bed of a hospital. It would be allowable to study and depict +all the poses of lasciviousness. It would be going against all the +rules of good sense. It would place the poison at the door of all, the +remedy at the doors of few, if there were any remedy. Who are the ones +to read M. Flaubert's romance? Are they men who are interested in +political or social economy? No! The light pages of Madame Bovary fall +into hands still lighter, into the hands of young girls, sometimes of +married women. Well, when the imagination has been seduced, when this +seduction has fallen upon the heart, when the heart shall have told it +to the senses, do you believe that cold reason would have much power +against this seduction of sense and sentiment? And then, man should not +clothe himself too much in his power and his virtue; man has low +instincts and high ideas, and, with all, virtue is only the consequence +of an effort ofttimes laborious. Lascivious pictures have generally more +influence than cold reason. This is what I respond to that theory, that +is, as a first response; but I have a second. + +I hold that the romance of _Madame Bovary_, from a philosophic point of +view, is not moral. Without doubt Madame Bovary died of poison; she +suffered much, it is true; but she died at her own time and in her own +way, not because she had committed adultery but because she wished to; +she died in all the prestige of her youth and beauty; she died after +having two lovers, leaving a husband who loved her, who adored her, who +found Rodolphe's portrait, his letters and Léon's, who read the letters +of a woman twice an adulteress, and who, after that, loved her still +more, even on the other side of the tomb. Who would condemn this woman +in the book? No one. Such is the conclusion. There is not in the book a +person who condemns her. If you can find one wise person, if you can +find one single principal virtue by which the adulteress is condemned, I +am wrong. But if in all the book there is not a person who makes her +bow her head, there is not an idea, a line, by virtue of which the +adulteress is scourged, it is I who am right, and the book is immoral! + +Should it be in the name of conjugal honor that the book be condemned? +No, for conjugal honor is represented here by a devoted husband who, +after the death of his wife, meets Rodolphe and seeks to find upon the +face of the lover the features of the woman he loved. I ask you whether +you could stigmatize this woman in the name of conjugal honor when there +is not in the book a single word where the husband does not bow before +the adulteress? + +Should it be in the name of public opinion? No, for public opinion is +personified in a grotesque being, in the Homais apothecary surrounded by +ridiculous persons whom this woman dominated. + +Will you condemn it in the name of religious sentiment? No, for this +sentiment you see personified in the curate Bournisien, a priest as +grotesque as the apothecary, believing only in physical suffering, never +in moral, and little more than a materialist. + +Will you condemn it in the name of the author's conscience? I know not +what the author thinks, but in chapter 10, the only philosophical one of +his book, I read the following: + +"There is always after the death of any one a kind of stupefaction; so +difficult is it to grasp this advent of nothingness and to resign +ourselves to believe in it." + +This is not a cry of unbelief, but it is at least a cry of +scepticism. Without doubt it is difficult to comprehend and believe it, +but why this stupefaction which manifest's itself at death? Why? +Because this surprise is something that is a mystery, because it is +difficult to comprehend and judge, although one must resign himself to +it. And as for me, I say that if death is the beginning of annihilation, +that if the devoted husband feels his love increase on learning of the +adulteries of his wife, that if opinion is represented by a grotesque +being, that if religious sentiment is represented by a ridiculous +priest, one person alone is right, and that is Emma Bovary,--Messalina +was right against Juvenal. + +This is the conclusion of the book, drawn not by the author, but by a +man who reflects and goes to the depths of things, by a man who has +sought in this book for a person who could rule this woman. There is +none there. The only person who ruled was Madame Bovary. It is +necessary to seek elsewhere than in the book; we must look to Christian +morals, which are the foundation of modern civilization. By this +standard all explains itself, all becomes clear. + +In its name the adulteress is stigmatized, condemned, not because her +act is an imprudence, exposing her to disillusions and regrets, but +because it is a crime against the family. You stigmatize and condemn +suicide, not because it is a foolish thing (the fool is not +responsible), not because it is a cowardly act (for it sometimes +requires a certain physical courage), but because it is a scorn of duty +in the life we are living, and the cry of unbelief in the life to come. + +This code of morals stigmatizes realistic literature, not because it +paints the passions: hatred, vengeance, love--the world sees but the +surface and art should paint them--but not paint them without bridle, +without limits. Art without rules is not art. It is like a woman who +discards all clothing. To impose upon art the one rule of public decency +is not to subject it, not to dishonor it. One grows great only by rule. +These, gentlemen, are the principles which we profess, this the doctrine +which we defend with conscience. + + * * * * * + +_Plea for the Defense, by_ + + +M. SENARD + + +Gentlemen, M. Gustave Flaubert has been accused before you of making a +bad book; of having, in this book, outraged public morals and religion. +M. Gustave Flaubert is beside me and affirms before you that he has made +an honest book; he affirms before you that the thought in his book, from +the first line to the last, is a moral thought; and that, if it were not +perverted (and you have seen during the last hour how great a talent one +may have for perverting a thought) it would be (and will become again +presently) for you, as it has been already for the readers of the book, +an eminently moral and religious thought capable of being translated +into these words: the excitation of virtue through the horror of vice. + +I bring M. Gustave Flaubert's affirmation here to you, and I put it +fearlessly in the light of the prosecuting attorney's speech, for this +affirmation is grave; and it is through the personality of its maker, +through the circumstances which have led to the writing of the book, +that I am going to make it understood to you. + +The affirmation is grave on account of the personality that makes it: +and, permit me to say to you that M. Gustave Flaubert is not to me an +unknown man who has instructions to give me, and who has need of +recommendations from me--I speak not only of his morality but of his +position. I come here, into this precinct, fulfilling a duty of +conscience after reading the book, after feeling myself exalted, by this +reading, in all that is honest and profoundly religious. But, at the +same time that I come fulfilling a duty of conscience, I come to fulfill +a duty of friendship. I remember, and I can never forget, that his +father was an old friend of mine. His father, by whose friendship I was +long honoured, to the last day of his life, his father,--permit me to +say his illustrious father,--was for thirty years surgeon-in-chief at +the hospital at Rouen. He was in charge of the Dupuytren dissecting +room, and in giving to science great instruction, he has endowed it with +some great names; I will mention but one, that of Cloquet. He has not +only left for himself a good name in science, he has left a grand +memento in his immense service to humanity. And at the same time I am +recalling my bond of friendship with him, I wish to tell you that his +son, who has been dragged into Court for an outrage against morals and +religion, this son is the friend of my children, as I was the friend of +his father. I know his thought, I know his intentions, and the +counsellor has the right here of placing himself as a personal guaranty +of his client. + +Gentlemen, a great name and great memories have obligations. Children +were not wanting to M. Flaubert. There were three of them, two sons, and +a daughter who died at twenty-one. The eldest has been judged worthy to +succeed his father; and he is to-day, as he has been for many years, +carrying on the mission which his father conducted for thirty years. The +younger son is here; he is at your bar. In leaving them a considerable +fortune and a great name, their father has left upon them the obligation +of being men of intelligence and of heart; that is to say, useful men. +The brother of my client has been thrown into a career where each day +brings its own service. This one has devoted his life to study and to +letters, the work before you being his first work. This first work, +gentlemen, which provokes the passions, as the Government Attorney has +said, is the result of long study and much thought. M. Gustave Flaubert +is a man of serious character, turning his attention, through his very +nature, to serious subjects, to sad subjects. He is not the man whom the +prosecuting attorney, in fifteen or twenty lines bitten out here and +there, has presented to you as a maker of lascivious pictures. No; there +is in his nature, I repeat, all that is gravest, most serious, and even +the saddest that one could imagine. His book, by restoring a single +phrase, by putting beside the quoted lines the lines which precede and +follow, will take on its veritable colour, as soon as you understand the +intentions of the author. And, of the too clever words to which you have +listened, there will remain to you only the memory of a sentiment of +profound admiration for a talent which can thus transform things. + +I have told you that M. Gustave Flaubert was a serious and grave man. +His studies, conforming to his nature, have been serious and broad. They +have embraced not only all branches of literature, but the right +branches. M. Flaubert is not the man to be content with observations of +even the best where he lived; he has sought out the best in other +places; _Qui mores multorum vidit et urbes_. + +After his father's death and the completion of his studies at college, +he visited Italy, and from 1848 to 1852 traveled through the countries +of the Orient,--Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor--in which countries, +doubtless, a man traveling through and bringing to his travels a fine +intelligence, could acquire something exalted, something poetic, as well +as the colour and prestige of style which the public minister has just +pointed out, to make good the misdemeanor that he imputes. That prestige +of style, those literary qualities pointed to with _éclat_ in this +debate, are there, but after no fashion can they be brought up for +indictment. + +Since his return, in 1852, M. Gustave Flaubert has written and sought to +produce in a grand outline the result of his close and serious studies, +the result of what he had gathered in his journeys. + +What is the outline he has chosen, the subject he has taken, and how has +he treated it? My client belongs to any of the schools, whose names I +have just learned in the Attorney's speech. Heaven knows he belongs to +the realistic school, in that he occupies himself with the reality of +things. He belongs to the psychological school, in the sense that it is +not material things which engage him, but human sentiment and the +development of the passions wherever the human being is placed. He +belongs to the romantic school less perhaps than to any other, because, +if romanticism appears in his book, as does realism, it appears only in +some ironical expressions here and there, which the public attorney has +taken seriously. What M. Flaubert especially wished was to take a +subject of study from real life, creating from it some true types of the +middle class, arriving finally at some useful result. Yes, what has most +occupied my client in the studies to which he has devoted himself, is +precisely this useful aim, followed out in putting upon the scene three +or four personages from actual society, living in the conditions of real +life, and presenting them to the eyes of the reader in a true picture of +what is met with very often in the world. + +The Prosecuting Attorney, summing up his opinion of _Madame Bovary_, has +said: + +"The second title of this work might be: _The Story of the Adulteries of +a Provincial Woman_." + +I protest vigorously against this title. This alone, had I not listened +to your speech from beginning to end, would prove to me the prejudice in +which you are firmly bound. No! the second title of this work is not: +_The Story of the Adulteries of a Provincial Woman_; it is, if it is +absolutely necessary to have a second title: the story of the education +too often met with in the provinces; the story of the perils to which +such an education leads; the story of degradation, of dishonesty, of +suicide, considered as a consequence of a first fault, and a fault led +up to through wrong-doing, by which a young woman is often carried +away. It is the story of an education, and the deplorable life of which +such an education is often the preface. This is what M. Flaubert +desired to paint, and not the adulteries of a woman of the provinces. +You will see this at once on reading the incriminated book. + +Now, the prosecuting attorney perceives in all this, and through it all, +a lascivious colour. If it were possible to take the number of lines of +the book which he has cut out, and put parallel to them other lines that +he has left, we should have a total proportion of about one to five +hundred; and you would see that this proportion of one to five hundred +was in no way of a lascivious colour; it exists only under the +conditions of being cut out and commented upon. + +Now, what has M. Flaubert desired to paint? First, education given to a +woman which is above the conditions to which she was born--something +that too often happens among us, it must be confessed. Then, the mixture +of discordant elements that are thus produced in the intelligence of the +woman; and then when marriage comes, especially if the marriage is not +in accordance with the education, but rather with the conditions under +which the woman was born, the author explains all these facts which +occur in the situation that he depicts. + +What has he shown? He shows a woman entering upon vice because of a +disappointing match; then vice in its last degree, degradation and +wretchedness. Presently, when through the reading of several passages, +I shall have made you acquainted with the book as a whole, I shall +demand of this tribunal the privilege of their accepting the question on +these terms: Would this book, put into the hands of a young woman, have +the effect of leading her towards easy pleasures, towards adultery, or, +on the contrary, would it show her the danger of the first step, and +bring upon her a shiver of horror? The question thus put, your +conscience would soon decide. + +I have here stated that M. Flaubert wished to paint a woman who, instead +of trying to adapt herself to the conditions in which she was placed, to +her position and her birth, instead of seeking to make herself a part of +the life to which she belonged, was occupied with a thousand foreign +aspirations drawn from an education too far above her; instead of +accommodating herself to the duties of her position, of being the +tranquil wife of a country doctor with whom she should pass her days, in +place of seeking her happiness in her house and in her marriage, sought +it in interminable fancies; and then, meeting a young man upon the way +who coquetted with her, she played the same game with him (Heaven knows +they were both inexperienced enough!) urging herself on by degrees, and +frightened when she turned to the religion of her early years and found +it insufficient. We shall see presently why this was so. At first, the +young man's ignorance and her own preserves her from danger. But she +soon meets a man, of the kind of which there are too many in the world, +who takes possession of her--this poor woman, already perverted and +ready to stray. Here is the main point; now it is necessary to see what +the book makes of it. + +The Public Minister becomes incensed, and I believe wrongly so from the +standard of conscience and the human heart, over that first scene, where +Madame Bovary finds a sort of pleasure, of joy, in having broken her +prison, and returns to her home saying: "I have a lover." Do you believe +that this is not the first cry of the human heart! The proof is between +you and me. But we must look a little further, and then we shall see +that, if the first moment, the first instant of the fall, excites in +this woman a sort of transport of joy, of delirium, in some lines +farther on the deception makes itself manifest and, following the +expression of the author, she seems humiliated in her own eyes. + +Yes, deception, grief, and remorse come to her at the same time. The man +in whom she has confided, to whom she has given herself up, has only +made use of her for the moment, as he would a plaything; remorse and +regret now rend her heart. It has shocked you to hear this called the +disillusion of adultery; you would have preferred _pollution_ at the +hand of a writer who placed before you a woman who, not having +comprehended marriage, felt herself _polluted_ by contact with her +husband, and who, having sought her ideal elsewhere, found the +_disillusions_ of adultery. This word has shocked you; in the place of +_disillusions_, you would have wished _pollution_ of adultery. This +tribunal shall be the judge. As for me, if I had depicted the same +personage I would have said to her: Poor woman! if you believe that your +husband's kisses are monotonous and wearisome, if you have found only +platitudes--this word has been especially brought to our notice--the +platitudes of marriage--if you seem to see pollution in a union where +love does not preside, take care, for your dreams are an illusion, and +you will one day be cruelly deceived. But this man, gentlemen, who knows +how to speak strongly, makes use of the word pollution to express what +we would have called disillusion, and he has used the true word, +although vague to him who can bring to it no intelligence. I would have +liked better his not speaking so strongly, his not pronouncing the word +_pollution_, but rather averting the woman from deception, from +disillusion, and saying to her: Where you believe you will find love, +you will find only libertinism; where you think you will find happiness, +there is only bitterness. A husband who goes tranquilly about his +affairs, who kisses you, puts on his house cap and eats his soup with +you, is a prosaic husband revolting to you; you aspire to a man who will +love you, idolize you; poor child! that man will be a libertine who will +have taken you for a minute for the sake of playing with you. There will +be some illusion about it the first time, perhaps the second; you may +come back home joyous, singing the song of adultery. "I have a lover!" +but the third time you will not wish to go to him, for the disillusion +will have come. The man you have dreamed of will have lost all his +prestige; you will have found again in love the platitudes of marriage, +and this time with scorn, disdain, disgust and poignant remorse. + +This, gentlemen, is what M. Flaubert has said, what he has painted, what +is in each line of his book; and this is what distinguishes his work +from all other works of the kind. Under his hand, the great +irregularities of society figure on each page, and adultery walks abroad +full of disgust and shame. He has brought into the common relations of +life the most powerful teaching that can be given to a young woman. And +Heaven knows that to those of our young women who do not find in lofty, +honest principle and stern religion enough to keep them steady in the +accomplishment of their duties as mothers, or who do not find it in that +resignation and practical science of life which bids us accommodate +ourselves to what we have, but who carry their dreams to the outside +(and the most honest, the most pure of our young women, in the prosaic +life of their households, are sometimes tormented by that which is going +on outside), a book like this would bring but one reflection. Of that +you may be sure. And this is what M. Flaubert has intended. + +And notice carefully one thing: M. Flaubert is not the man who has +painted a charming adultery for you, in order to arrive later with the +_Deus ex machina_; no, you are carried too quickly on to the last +page. Adultery with him is only a series of torments, remorse and +regret; and then he arrives at the final, frightful expiation. It is +excessive. If M. Flaubert sins, it is through excess; and I will show +you presently what is meant by this. The expiation is not allowed to +wait, and it is that which makes the book eminently moral and useful. It +does not promise the young woman some beautiful years at the end of +which she can say: after this, one is willing to die. No! from the +second day there is bitterness and disillusion. The conclusion for +morality is found in each line of the book. + +This book is written with a power of observation to which the Government +Attorney has rendered justice. And it is here that I would call your +attention to it, because if the accusation is without foundation, it +must fall. This book is written with a power truly remarkable for +observing the smallest details. An article in the _Artiste_, signed +Flaubert, has served as yet another text for the accusation. Let the +Government Attorney note, first that this article is foreign to the +indictment; then, that we will hold him innocent and moral in the eyes +of this tribunal on one condition, which is, that he will have the +goodness to read the entire article from the place of the cutting. + +The most noticeable thing in M. Flaubert's book is what some accounts +have called a fidelity wholly Daguerreian in the reproduction of the +type of things, and in the intimate nature of the thought of the human +heart;--and this reproduction becomes more powerful still by the magic +of his style. Now notice, that if he had applied this fidelity only to +the scenes of degradation, you could say with reason: the author has +been pleased to paint the scenes of degradation with that power of +description which is peculiarly his own. From the first to the last page +of his book, he keeps close to all the facts in Emma's life, without any +kind of reserve, from her infancy in her father's house, to her +education in the convent, sparing nothing. And those of us who have read +the book from beginning to end can say--and this is a notable point +which should put him in a favorable light with you, not only bringing +him acquittal, but removing from him every kind of misunderstanding--that +when he comes to the difficult parts, precisely at the time of +degradation, in place of doing as some classic authors have done, (as +the Public Attorney knows full well, but whom he forgot when he wrote +his address) a few pages of whose writings I have with me here, (not to +read to you but for you to run through in Court--and I might quote a few +lines here presently), in place of doing as our great classic authors, +our great masters have done, who never hesitate at description when they +have come to the scene of a union of the senses between man and woman, +M. Flaubert contents himself with a word. All his descriptive power +disappears, because his thought is chaste; because where he might write +in his own manner and with the magic of his style, he feels that there +are some things that should not be described or even touched upon. The +Public Attorney finds that he has still said too much. When I have shown +him some men who, in great philosophical works, have delighted in +descriptions of these things, and when in the light of this fact I have +shown that this man, who possesses the descriptive faculty to so high a +degree and who, far from using it, desists and abstains from it, I shall +indeed have the right to ask why this accusation has been brought? + +Nevertheless, gentlemen, just as he has described to us the pleasant +cradle of Emma's infancy, with its foliage, its rose-colored and white +flowers which gladdened her with their blossoms and their perfume, so he +has described her when she went out from there into other paths, into +paths where she found mire, where her feet became soiled from its +contact, when the mire rose higher than herself and--he need not have +told it! But that would be to suppress the book completely, and I am +going far enough to say would suppress its moral element under a pretext +of defending it; for if a fault cannot be shown, if it cannot be pointed +out, if in a picture of real life which aims to show, through thought, +peril, fall and punishment, you would debar painting such as this, it is +evident you would cut out of the book its whole purpose. + +This book was not a matter of a few hours' amusement for my client. It +represents two or three years of incessant study. And now I am going to +tell you something more: M. Flaubert who, after so many years of labor, +so many of study, so many journeys, so many notes culled from authors he +had read,--and Heaven grant you may see the fountain-head from which he +has drawn, for this strange fact will take upon itself his +justification--M. Flaubert (and his lascivious colour)--you will find +impregnated wholly with Bossuet and Massillon. It is in the study of +these authors that we shall presently find him seeking, not to +plagiarize, but to reproduce in his descriptions the thoughts and +colours employed by them. And can you believe, after all that, having +done this work with so much love for it, and with a decided purpose, +that, full of confidence in himself, and after so much study and +meditation, he would wish to throw himself immediately into the arena? +He would have done it, no doubt, had he been an unknown man, if his name +had belonged to himself in sole ownership, had he believed himself able +to dispose of it and use it as it seemed good to him; but, I repeat, he +is one of those upon whom rests the obligation of rank. His name is +Flaubert, he is the second son of M. Flaubert, and he has desired to +make a place for himself in literature, profoundly respecting the moral +and religious phases of it,--not through the notoriety of a lawsuit, for +such a purpose could not enter his thoughts--but through personal +dignity, not wishing his name to be at the head of a publication that +did not seem to some persons and to those in whom he had faith, worthy +of being published. M. Flaubert read in fragments, and even in +totality, to friends holding high places in the world of letters, the +pages which he hoped some day to print, and I assure you that not one of +them has been offended by what has just now excited such lively severity +on the part of the Government Attorney. No one even thought of it. They +simply examined and studied the literary value of the book. As to the +moral purpose, it is so evident, so written in every line in terms so +unequivocal that there was no need of raising the question. + +Reassured upon the value of the book, encouraged, furthermore, by the +most eminent men of the press, M. Flaubert thought only of printing it +and giving it to the public. I repeat: everyone was unanimous in +rendering homage to its literary merit, to its style, and at the same +time to the excellent thought that pervaded it, from the first line to +the last. And when this action was brought it was not he alone who was +surprised and profoundly troubled, but, permit me to say, we, who cannot +understand the action, and I myself most of all, who had read the book +with a very lively interest as soon as it was published. But we are his +intimate friends. Heaven knows that there are some shades of meaning +that might escape us in our easy-going habits which never could escape +women of great intelligence, of great purity and unquestioned +chastity. These are not names which can be pronounced in this audience, +but if I could tell you what has been said to Flaubert, what has been +said to me, even, by mothers of families who have read this book, if I +could tell you their astonishment, after receiving from that reading an +impression so good that they believed they should thank the author for +it, if I could tell you their astonishment, their grief, when they +learned that this book was thought to oppose public morals and religious +faith, the faith of their whole life, God knows there would be in the +sum of this appreciation sufficient to fortify me, had I need of being +fortified for this combat with the Public Attorney. + +However, in the midst of all the appreciative voices of contemporaneous +literature there is one which I wish to mention to you. There is one who +is not only respected by reason of a grand and beautiful character, who, +in the midst of adversity, of suffering even, has struggled courageously +each day; who is not only great by virtue of many deeds useless to +recall here, but great through his literary works which must be recalled +because here he is an authority; great especially through the purity +which exists in all his works, through the chastity of all his writings: +Lamartine. + +Lamartine did not know my client; he did not know that he +existed. Lamartine, at his home in the country, read _Madame Bovary_ in +each number of the _Revue de Paris_, and Lamartine found there such +power that it recurred to him again and again, as I am going to tell +you. + +After some days, Lamartine returned to Paris, and the next day informed +himself where M. Gustave Flaubert lived. He sent to the _Revue_ to learn +where M. Gustave Flaubert lived, who had published in the magazine some +articles under the title of _Madame Bovary_. He then directed his +secretary to go and present his compliments to M. Flaubert, to express +for him the satisfaction he had found in reading his book, and also his +desire to see the new author who revealed himself in an essay of that +order. + +My client went to Lamartine's house; and he found in him not only a man +who encouraged him, but who said to him: + +"You have made the best book I have read in twenty years." + +In a word, his praise was such that, in his modesty, my client scarcely +liked to repeat it to me. Lamartine proved to him that he had read each +number, proving it most graciously by repeating entire pages from +them. Lamartine only added: + +"While I have read even to the last page without reserve, I did blame +the last pages. You have hurt me, you have literally made me suffer! The +punishment is beyond all proportion to the crime; you have created a +pitiably frightful death! Assuredly the woman who defiles the marriage +bed should expect punishment, but this is horrible; it is a punishment +such as I have never seen. You have gone too far; you have done mischief +to my nerves. That power of description which you have applied to the +last moment of death has left upon me an indelible suffering!" + +And when Gustave Flaubert said to him: + +"But, Monsieur de Lamartine, do you know that I have been indicted and +summoned to a court of correction for an offense against public morals +and religion for having made a book like that?" + +Lamartine answered: + +"I believe that I have been all my life a man who, in literary works as +well as others, comprehends fully what makes for public and religious +morals; my dear child, it is not possible to find in France a tribunal +that will convict you." + +This is what passed between Lamartine and Flaubert yesterday, and I have +the right to say to you that this approval is among those which are +worthy to be well weighed. + +This well understood, let us see how my conscience could tell me that +_Madame Bovary_ was a good book, a good deed. And I ask your permission +to add that I do not take to these things easily, this facility is not +my habit. Some literary works I take up which, although emanating from +our great writers, do not remain two minutes before my eyes. I will pass +to you in the council chamber some lines that I took no delight in +reading, and I will ask your permission to say to you that when I came +to the end of M. Flaubert's work, I was convinced that a cutting made by +the _Revue de Paris_ was the cause of all this. I shall ask you further +to add my appreciation to this highest and most distinguished +appreciation which I am about to mention. + +Here, gentlemen, is a portfolio filled with the opinions of all the +literary men of our time upon the work with which we are engaged, among +whom are some of the most distinguished, expressing their astonishment +upon reading this new work, at once so moral and so useful! + +Now, how has it come about that a work like this can incur a process of +law? If you will permit me, I will tell you. The _Revue de Paris_, whose +reading committee had read the work in its entirety, for the manuscript +was sent long before it was published, evidently found nothing to +criticise. When it came time to print the copy of December 1st, 1856, +one of the directors of the _Revue_ became affrighted at the scene in +the cab. He said: "This is not conventional, we must suppress it." +Flaubert was offended by the suppression. He was not willing that it +should be made unless a note to that effect were placed at the bottom of +the page. It was he who exacted the note. It is he who, on account of +his self-respect as an author, neither wishing to have his work +mutilated nor, on the other hand wishing to make trouble for the +_Revue_, said: "You may suppress it if it seems best to you, but you +will state that you have suppressed something." And they agreed upon +the following note: + +"The directors have seen the necessity of suppressing a passage here +which did not seem fitting to the _Revue de Paris_; we give notice of it +to the author." + +Here is the suppressed passage which I am going to read to you. We have +only a proof, which we had great difficulty in procuring. The first part +has not a single correction; one word is corrected in the second part. + +"'Where to, sir?' asked the coachman. + +"'Where you like,' said Léon, forcing Emma into the cab. + +"And the lumbering machine set out. It went down the Rue Grand-Pont, +crossed the Place des Arts, the Quai Napoléon, the Pont Neuf, and +stopped short before the statue of Pierre Corneille. + +"'Go on,' cried a voice that came from within. + +"The cab went on again, and as soon as it reached the Carrefour +Lafayette, set off down-hill, and entered the station at a gallop. + +"'No, straight on!' cried the same voice. + +"The cab came out by the gate, and soon having reached the Cours, +trotted quietly beneath the elm-trees. The coachman wiped his brow, put +his leather hat between his knees, and drove his carriage beyond the +side alley by the meadow to the margin of the waters. + +"It went along by the river, along the towing-path paved with sharp +pebbles, and for a long while in the direction of Oyssel, beyond the +isles. + +"But suddenly it turned with a dash across Quatre-mares, Sotteville, La +Grande-Chaussée, the Rue d'Elbeuf, and made its third halt in front of +the Jardin des Plantes. + +"'Get on, will you?' cried the voice more furiously. + +"And at once resuming its course, it passed by Saint-Sever, by the Quai +des Curandiers, the Quai aux Meules, once more over the bridge, by the +Place du Champ de Mars, and behind the hospital gardens, where old men +in black coats were walking in the sun along the terrace all green with +ivy. It went up the Boulevard Bouvreuil, along the Boulevard Cauchoise, +then the whole of Mont-Riboudet to the Deville hills. + +"It came back; and then, without any fixed plan or direction, wandered +about at hazard. The cab was seen at Saint-Pol, at Lescure, at Mont +Gargan, at La Rouge-Marc and Place du Gaillardbois; in the Rue +Maladrerie, Rue Dinanderie, before Saint-Romain, Saint-Vivien, +Saint-Maclou, Saint-Nicaise--in front of the Customs, at the 'Vieille +Tour,' the 'Trois Pipes,' and the Monumental Cemetery. From time to +time, the coachman on his box cast despairing eyes at the +public-houses. He could not understand what furious desire for +locomotion urged these individuals never to wish to stop. He tried to +now and then, and at once exclamations of anger burst forth behind +him. Then he lashed his perspiring jades afresh, but indifferent to +their jolting, running up against things here and there, not caring if +he did, demoralised, and almost weeping with thirst, fatigue, and +depression. + +"And on the harbour in the midst of the drays and casks and in the +streets at the corners, the good folk opened large wonder-stricken eyes +at this sight, so extraordinary in the provinces, a cab with blinds +drawn, and which appeared thus constantly shut more closely than a tomb, +and tossing about like a vessel. + +"Once, in the middle of the day, in the open country, just as the sun +beat most fiercely against the old plated lanterns, a bared hand passed +beneath the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of +paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off alighted like white +butterflies on a field of red clover all in bloom. + +"At about six o'clock, the carriage stopped in a back street of the +Beauvoisine Quarter, and a woman got out, who walked with her veil down, +and without turning her head. + +"On reaching the inn, Madame Bovary was surprised not to see the +diligence. Hivert, who had waited for her fifty-three minutes, had at +last started. + +"Nothing, however, could prevent her setting out; she had promised to +return that evening. Moreover, Charles expected her, and in her heart +she felt already that cowardly docility that is for some women at once +the chastisement and atonement of adultery." + +M. Flaubert calls my attention to the fact that the Public Attorney +condemned this last clause. + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +No, I have pointed it out. + + + +M. SENARD: + +It is certain that if he had made a reproach it would have fallen before +these words: "at once the chastisement and atonement of adultery." +Furthermore, that could be made a matter of reproach with as much +foundation as the other quotations, for in all that you have condemned +there is no point that can be seriously held. + +Now, gentlemen, this kind of fantastic journey having displeased the +editors of the _Revue_, it was suppressed. This was certainly excess of +reserve on the part of the _Revue_; and it is very certain that it is +not an excess of reserve which could furnish material for a lawsuit. You +shall see now what has furnished the material. What is not seen, what +has been suppressed, comes thus to appear a very strange thing. People +imagine many things, and often those which do not exist, as you have +seen from the reading of the original passage. Heavens! Do you know what +they imagined? Probably that there was in the suppressed passage +something analogous to that which you will have the goodness to read in +one of the most marvellous romances from the pen of an honorable member +of the French Academy, M. Mérimée. + +M. Mérimée, in a romance entitled _The Double Mistake_, describes a +scene which took place in a postchaise. It is not the locality where the +carriage is that is of importance, it is, as here, in the detail of what +is done in the interior. I do not wish to abuse the audience, and will +pass the book to the Public Attorney and to the court. If we had +written a half, or a quarter part of what M. Mérimée wrote, I should +find some embarrassment in the task that has been given me, or rather I +should have to modify it; in place of saying what I have said, and what +I affirm, that M. Flaubert has written a good book, an honest book, +useful and moral, I should say: literature has its rights; M. Mérimée +has made a very remarkable literary work, and it is not necessary to +show ourselves too particular about details when the whole is +irreproachable. I take my stand there; I should acquit, and you will +acquit. Great Heavens! It is not by omission that an author can sin in +a matter of this kind. And besides, you will have the detail of that +which took place in the cab. But as my client himself was content to +make a journey, revealing what passed in the interior of the carriage +only by a bare hand which appeared under the yellow silk curtains and +threw out bits of torn paper which were scattered by the wind and +settled down afar off like white butterflies upon a field of red clover +all in flower, as my client was content with that, no one knew anything +about it and everyone supposed--from the suppression itself--that he had +at least said as much as the member of the French Academy. You have +seen that there was nothing in it. + +Ah, well! this unfortunate suppression has caused the lawsuit! That is +to say, when, in the offices where they have charge, and with infinite +reason, of inspecting all writings which could offend public morals, +they saw this cut, they took warning. I am obliged to declare, and, +gentlemen of the _Revue_, allow me to state that they started the work +of their scissors two words too far off; they should have begun before +they got into the cab. To cut after that was more difficult. This +cutting was indeed most unfortunate; but if you have committed the +error, gentlemen of the _Revue_, assuredly you will atone for it to-day. + +They said in the inspecting office: Take heed of what is to follow, and +when the following number appeared, they made war on it to the syllable. +The people in the office are not obliged to read all; and when they saw +that some one had written about a woman removing all her clothing, they +were startled enough without going further. It is true that, differing +from our great masters, Flaubert has not taken the trouble to describe +the alabaster of her bare arms, throat, etc. He has not said, as did a +poet whom we love: + +I see her alabaster limbs ardent and pure, +Smooth as ebony, like the lily, coral, roses, veins of azure, +Such indeed, as in former times thou showedst to me +Of nudity embellished and adorned; +When nights slipped by, and pillows soft +Saw thee from my kisses waking and sleeping oft. + +He has said nothing like this of André Chénier's. But he finally said: + +"She abandoned herself.... Her clothing fell from her." + +She abandoned herself! Why not? Is all description to be prohibited? +But when one makes an incriminating charge, he should read the whole, +and the Government Attorney has not read the whole. The passage he makes +the charge against does not stop where he stopped; it has a corrective, +and here it is: + +"Nevertheless, there was upon this brow covered with cold drops, upon +these stammering lips, in these bewildered eyes, in the clasp of these +arms something extreme, something vague and lugubrious which seemed to +Léon to glide between them in some subtle fashion, as if to separate +them." + +In the office they did not read that. The Government Attorney just now +did not notice it. He only saw this: + +"Then, with a single gesture, she allowed all her clothes to fall from +her." + +And then he cries out: An outrage to public morals! Surely, it is too +easy to accuse with a system like this. God forbid that the authors of +dictionaries fall under the Government Attorney's hand! Who could escape +condemnation if, by means of cutting, not of phrases, but of words, one +is to be informed of a list he has made that might offend morals or +religion? + +My client's first thought, which unfortunately met with resistance, was +this: "There is only one thing to do: print the book immediately, not +with parts cut out, but the work entire as it left my hands, restoring +to it the scene in the cab." I was of his opinion, believing that the +best defense of my client would be a complete imprint of the work with +special indication of some points to which we would beg to draw the +Court's attention. I myself gave the title to this publication: _Memoir +of Gustave Flaubert for the prevention of outrage to religious morals +brought against him_. I had written on it with my hand: Civil Court, +Sixth Chamber, with the signature of the President and the Public +Minister. There was a preface in which was written: + +"They have indicted me with phrases taken here and there from my book; I +can only defend myself with the whole book." + +To ask the judges to read an entire romance would be asking much; but we +are before judges who love truth, who desire the truth, and who to learn +it would not shrink from any fatigue. We are before judges who desire +justice and desire it energetically, and who will read, without any kind +of hesitation, what we beg them to read. I said to M. Flaubert: "Send +this immediately to the printers, and put my name at the bottom beside +yours: SENARD, _Counsel_." They had begun the printing; arrangements +were made for a hundred copies for our own use; the work went on with +extreme rapidity, they were working day and night on it, when the order +came to us to discontinue the printing, not of a book, but of a pamphlet +in which was the incriminated work together with explanatory notes. We +appealed to the office of the Attorney-General--who informed us that the +prohibition was absolute and could not be removed. + +Well, so be it! We should have published the book with our notes and +observation's; but now I ask you, gentlemen, if your first reading has +left you in doubt, to give it a second reading. You will willingly do +this, as you desire the truth; and you could not be among those who, +when two lines of a man's writing is brought to them, are sure to make +it fit any condition that may be. You do not wish a man to be judged +upon a few cuttings more or less skilfully made. You would not allow +that; you would not deprive him of the ordinary means of defense. Well, +you have the book, and although it may be less easy than you might wish, +you will make your own divisions, observations, and meanings, because +you desire the truth, because truth is necessary for the basis of your +judgment, and truth will come from a serious examination of the book. + +However, I cannot stop here. The Public Minister has attacked the book, +and it is necessary for me to defend it, to complete the quotations he +has made, and show the nothingness of the accusation against each +incriminated passage; that will be all my defense. + +I shall not attempt, assuredly, to place myself in opposition to the +exalted, animated, pathetic appreciation with which the Public Attorney +has surrounded all that he said, by striving for appreciation of the +same kind; the defense would have no right to make use of such a manner +of procedure; it must content itself with citing the text, such as it +is. + +And in the first place, I declare that nothing is more false than what +has just been said about lascivious colour. Lascivious colour! Where can +you find it? My client has depicted in _Madame Bovary_ what sort of +woman? My God! it is sad to say, and yet it is true, a young girl, +born, as they nearly all are, honest; at least the greater number are +honest, but very fragile, when education, instead of fortifying them, +softens them and turns them into bad paths. He has depicted a young +girl. Is she of perverse nature? No, but of an impressionable nature, +susceptible of exaltation. + +The Government Attorney has said: "This young girl has constantly been +presented in a lascivious light." No! she is represented as born in the +country, born on a farm, where she is occupied with all her father's +labor, and where no kind of lasciviousness can find a way to her mind or +heart. Then she is represented, in the place of following the destiny +which would be hers naturally, instead of being brought up for the farm +or in some analogous place in which she ought to live, she is +represented as under the short-sighted authority of a father who thinks +he must have his daughter educated in a convent, this girl born on a +farm, who should marry a farmer, or a man of the country. She is then +taken to a convent, outside her sphere. As there is nothing that does +not have weight in the Public Attorney's speech, we must leave nothing +without a response. Ah! you spoke of her little sins, and in quoting +from the first number, you said: + +"When she went to confession, she invented little sins, in order that +she might stay there longer, kneeling in the shadow ... beneath the +whisperings of the priest." You have gravely deceived yourself in regard +to my client's meaning. He has not committed the fault with which you +reproach him; the error is wholly on your side, in the first place upon +the age of the girl. As she entered the convent at thirteen, it is +evident that she must have been fourteen when she went to +confession. She was not then a child of ten years, as it has pleased you +to say, and you were materially deceived on that point. But I am not so +sure of the unlikelihood of a child of ten years liking to remain at the +confessional "under the whisperings of the priest." + +All that I desire is that you read the lines which precede, and that is +not easy, I agree. And here appears the inconvenience of not having a +pamphlet memoir at hand; with such an aid, we should not have to search +through six volumes! + +I have called your attention to this passage in order to recall it to +_Madame Bovary_ and her true character. Will you permit me to say, what +seems to me very important, that M. Flaubert has fully comprehended this +point and put it in bold relief. There is a kind of religion which is +generally spoken of to young girls, which is the worst of all +religion. There may be in this regard a difference of opinion. As for +me, I declare clearly that I know nothing more beautiful, or useful, or +necessary to sustain, not only women in the ways of life but men +themselves, who sometimes have the most difficult trials to overcome, I +know nothing so useful, so necessary, as the religious sentiment, but a +serious religious sentiment, and permit me to add, severe. + +I wish my children to believe in one God, not a God in the abstractness +of pantheism, but in a Supreme Being with whom they have relationship, +to whom they are accustomed to pray, and who at once awes and fortifies +them. This thought, you see, it is your belief as well as mine, is our +strength in evil days, is our strength against what we call the world; +the refuge; or better still, the strength of the weak. It is this +thought which gives women that stability which makes them resigned to a +thousand little things in life, which makes them carry all their +suffering to God, and ask of Him grace to fulfill their duty. That +religion, gentlemen, is the Christian religion, and it is that which +establishes a relationship between God and man. Christianity, in placing +a sort of intermediary power between God and ourselves, renders God more +accessible, and communication with Him easier. That the Mother of Him +who has made Himself the Saviour should receive the prayers of women, +cannot affect, so far as I can see, purity, religious sanctity, or +religious sentiment itself. But here is where the change begins. In +order to accommodate a religion to all natures, all sorts of petty, +miserable, paltry things are introduced. The pomp of the ceremonies, +instead of being a true pomp which lays hold on the soul, often +degenerates into a commerce in relics, medals, of little saints and +Virgins. To what, gentlemen, do the minds of children, curious, ardent, +and tender, lend themselves, especially the minds of young girls? To all +these enfeebled, attenuated, miserable images of the religious +spirit. They then take upon themselves little religious duties to put in +practice, little devotions of tenderness, of love, and in the place of +having in their soul the sentiment of God, the sentiment of duty, they +abandon themselves to reveries, to little devices, to little +devotions. And then comes the poesy, and then comes, it is very +necessary to say it, a thousand thoughts of charity, of tenderness, of +mystic love, a thousand forms which deceive young girls and sensualize +religion. These poor children, naturally credulous and weak, take to all +this poesy and reverie instead of attaching themselves to something more +reasonable and severe. Whence it happens that you have very many strong +devotees among women who are not religious at all. And when the wind +blows them from the path where they ought to walk, in place of finding +strength to combat it, they find only a kind of sensuality which +bewilders them. + +Ah! you have accused me of having confounded the religious element with +sensualism, in the picture of modern society! Accuse rather the society +in the midst of which we live, but do not accuse the man who cries with +Bossuet: "Awake and be on thy guard against peril!" And say to the +fathers of families: Take care! These are not good customs for your +daughters; there is in all these mixtures of mysticism something which +sensualises religion; say that, and you will speak the truth. It is for +this that you accuse Flaubert; it is for this that I exalt his conduct. +Yes, he has given very good warning of the whole family of dangers +arising from exaltation among young persons, who take upon themselves +petty devotions instead of attaching themselves to a strong and severe +religion which would sustain them in a day of weakness. And now you +shall see whence comes the invention of the little sins "under the +whisperings of the priest." Read page 30: + +"She had read 'Paul and Virginia,' and she had dreamed of the little +bamboo-house, the nigger Domingo, the dog Fidèle, but above all the +sweet friendship of some dear little brother, who seeks red fruit for +you on trees taller than steeples, or who runs barefoot over the sand, +bringing you a bird's nest." + +Is this lascivious, gentlemen? Let us continue. + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +I did not say that passage was lascivious. + + + +M. SENARD: + +I ask your pardon, but it is precisely in this passage that you found a +lascivious phrase, and it was only by isolating it from what preceded +and what followed that you could make it seem lascivious. + +"Instead of attending to mass, she looked at the pious vignettes with +their azure borders in her book, and she loved the sick lamb, the sacred +heart pierced with sharp arrows, or the poor Jesus sinking beneath the +cross he carries. She tried, by way of mortification, to eat nothing a +whole day. She puzzled her head to find some vow to fulfill." + +Do not forget this; when one invents little sins to confess and seeks +some vow to fulfill, as you will find in the preceding line, evidently +one has got ideas that are a little false from somewhere. And now I ask +you if I have to discuss your passage! I continue: + +"In the evening, before prayers, there was some religious reading in the +study. On week-nights it was some abstract of sacred history or the +Lectures of the Abbé Frayssinous, and on Sundays passages from the +'Génie du Christianism,' as a recreation. How she listened at first to +the sonorous lamentations of its romantic melancholies re-echoing +through the world and eternity! If her childhood had been spent in the +shop-parlor of some business quarter, she might perhaps have opened her +heart to those lyrical invasions of Nature, which usually come to us +only through translation in books. But she knew the country too well; +she knew the lowing of cattle, the milking, the plow. Accustomed to calm +aspects of life, she turned, on the contrary, to those of +excitement. She loved the sea only for the sake of its storms, and the +green fields only when broken up by ruins. She wished to get some +personal profit out of things, and she rejected as useless all that did +not contribute to the immediate desire of her heart, being of a +temperament, more sentimental than artistic, looking for emotions not +landscapes." + +You shall see with what delicate precaution the author has introduced a +saintly old maid, and how, with a purport of teaching religion, there is +allowed to slip into the convent a new element, through the introduction +of romance brought in by a stranger. Do not forget this when the subject +of religious morals is under consideration. + +"At the convent there was an old maid who came for a week each month to +mend the linen. Patronized by the clergy, because she belonged to an +ancient family of noblemen ruined by the Revolution, she dined in the +refectory at the table of the good sisters, and after the meal had a bit +of chat with them before going back to her work. The girls often slipped +out from the study to go and see her. She knew by heart the love-songs +of the last century, and sang them in a low voice as she stitched +away. She told stories, gave them news, went errands in the town, and on +the sly lent the big girls some novel, that she always carried in the +pockets of her apron, and of which the good lady herself swallowed long +chapters in the intervals of her work." + +This is nothing but marvellous, speaking from a literary point of view, +and absolution can but be granted a man who has written these admirable +passages as a warning against all perils of education of this kind, as +an indication to young women of the stumbling-blocks in the life in +which they will be placed. Let us continue: + +"They were all love, lovers, sweet-hearts, persecuted ladies fainting in +lonely pavilions, postilions killed at every stage, horses ridden to +death on every page, sombre forests, heartaches, vows, sobs, tears and +kisses, little skiffs by moonlight, nightingales in shady groves, +'gentlemen' brave as lions, gentle as lambs, virtuous as no one ever +was, always well dressed, and weeping like fountains. For six months, +then, Emma, at fifteen years of age, made her hands dirty with books +from old lending libraries. With Walter Scott, later, she fell in love +with historical events, dreamed of old chests, guardrooms and +minstrels. She would have liked to live in some old manor-house, like +those long-waisted châtelaines who, in the shade of pointed arches, +spent their days leaning on the stone, chin in hand, watching a cavalier +with white plume galloping on his black horse from the distant +fields. At this time, she had a cult for Mary Stuart and enthusiastic +veneration for illustrious or unhappy women. Joan of Arc, Héloïse, Agnès +Sorel, the beautiful Ferronnière, and Clémence Isaure stood out to her +like comets in the dark immensity of heaven, where also were seen, lost +in shadow, and all unconnected, St. Louis with his oak, the dying +Bayard, some cruelties of Louis XI., a little of St. Bartholomew's, the +plume of the Béarnais, and always the remembrance of the plates painted +in honor of Louis XIV. + +"In the music-class, in the ballads she sang, there was nothing but +little angels with golden wings, madonnas, lagunes, gondoliers;--mild +compositions that allowed her to catch a glimpse athwart the obscurity +of style and the weakness of the music of the attractive phantasmagoria +of sentimental realities." + +Now, you have not remembered this, when that poor country girl, having +returned to the farm and married a village physician, is invited to an +evening party at the Castle, to which you have sought to call the +attention of the judges to show that there was something lascivious in a +waltz she took part in. You have not called to mind this education when +this poor woman is charmed that an invitation comes to take her from her +husband's common fireside and lead her to the Castle, where she sees +fine gentlemen, beautiful ladies, and the old duke, who, they said, had +had great fortune at Court! The Government Attorney has shown some fine +emotions _à propos_ of Queen Marie-Antoinette! Assuredly there is not +one of us who would not share his thought; like him, we have trembled at +the name of this victim of the Revolution, but it is not with +Marie-Antoinette that we are concerned here, it is with the Castle +Vaubyessard. + +There was an old duke there who had had, they said, relations with the +queen, and towards whom all eyes were turned. And when this young woman +found herself thus transported into the midst of the world, thus +realizing all the fantastic dreams of her youth, can you wonder at the +intoxication of it? And you accuse her of being lascivious! Better +accuse the waltz itself; that dance of our great modern balls where, +said a late author writing about it, the woman "leans her head upon the +shoulder of her partner whose limbs embrace her." You find Madame Bovary +lascivious in Flaubert's description, but there is not a man, and I will +not except you, who, having taken part in a ball like that and seen that +sort of waltz, has not had in mind the wish that his wife or his +daughter refrain from this pleasure which has in it so much of the +untamed. If, counting upon the chastity which enveloped this young +woman, we allow her sometimes to give herself up to this pleasure which +the world sanctions, it is necessary to count very much upon that +envelope of chastity and, however much one may count upon it, it is not +unheard of to express the impressions which M. Flaubert has expressed in +the name of morals and chastity. + +Here she is at the Castle Vaubyessard, observed by the old duke, noticed +favorably by all, and you cry out: What details! What does it mean? +Details are everywhere, although we cite but a single passage. + +"Madame Bovary noticed that many ladies had not put their gloves in +their glasses. + +"But at the upper end of the table, alone among all those women, bent +over his full plate, with his napkin tied round his neck like a child, +an old man sat eating, letting drops of gravy drip from his mouth. His +eyes were bloodshot, and he wore a little queue tied with a black +ribbon. He was the Marquis's father-in-law, the old Duke de Laverdiére, +once on a time favorite of the Count d'Artois, in the days of the +Vaudreuil hunting-parties at the Marquis de Conflans', and had been, it +was said, the lover of Queen Mari-Antoinette between Monsieur de Coigny +and Monsieur de Lauzun." + +Defend the queen, defend her especially before the scaffold, say that +because of her title she had the right of respect, but suppress your +accusations when one contents himself with saying that he had been, it +was said, the lover of the queen. Can that be so serious that you +reproach us with having insulted the memory of that unfortunate woman? + +"He had lived a life of noisy debauch, full of duels, bets, elopements; +he had squandered his fortune and frightened all his family. A servant +behind his chair named aloud to him in his ear the dishes that he +pointed to, stammering, and constantly Emma's eyes turned involuntarily +to this old man with hanging lips, as to something extraordinary. He had +lived at court and slept in the bed of queens! + +"Iced champagne was poured out. Emma shivered all over as she felt it +cold in her mouth. She had never seen pomegranates nor tasted +pine-apples." + +You see that these descriptions are charming, incontestably, and that it +is not difficult to take a line here and there for the purpose of +creating a kind of colour, against which my conscience protests. It is +not a lascivious colour, it is only lifelike; it is the literary element +and at the same time the moral element. + +Here we have a young girl, whose education you are acquainted with, +become a woman. The Government Attorney has asked: Did she even try to +love her husband? He has not read the book; if he had read it, he would +not have made the objection. + +We have, gentlemen, this poor woman dreaming at first. On page 34 you +will find her dreams. And there is something more here, something of +which the Government Attorney did not speak, and which I must tell you, +and these are her impressions when her mother died; you will see if they +are lascivious soon enough! Have the goodness to turn to page 33 and +follow me: + +"When her mother died she cried much the first few days. She had a +funeral picture made with the hair of the deceased, and, in a letter +sent to the Bertaux full of sad reflections on life, she asked to be +buried some day in the same grave. The good man thought she must be ill, +and came to see her. Emma was secretly pleased that she had reached at a +first attempt the rare ideal of pale lives, never attained by mediocre +hearts. She let herself glide along with Lamartine meanderings, listened +to harps on lakes, to all the songs of dying swans, to the falling of +the leaves, the pure virgins ascending to heaven, and the voice of the +Eternal discoursing down the valleys. She wearied of it, would not +confess it, continued from habit, and at last was surprised to feel +herself soothed, and with no more sadness at heart than wrinkles on her +brow." + +I wish to make answer to the Government Attorney's reproach that she +made no effort to love her husband. + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +I did not reproach her for that, I said that she did not succeed in +loving him. + + + +M. SENARD: + +If I have been mistaken, if you made no reproach, that is the best +response that could be given. I believed that I understood you to make +one; let us see how I may be deceived. Moreover, here is what I read at +the end of page 36: + +"And yet, in accord with theories she believed right, she desired to +make herself in love with him. By moonlight in the garden she recited +all the passionate rhymes she knew by heart, and, sighing, sang to him +many melancholy adagios; but she found herself as calm after this as +before, and Charles seemed no more amorous and no more moved. + +"When she had thus for a while struck the flint on her heart without +getting a spark, incapable, moreover, of understanding what she did not +experience as of believing anything that did not present itself in +conventional forms, she persuaded herself without difficulty that +Charles's passion was nothing very exorbitant. His outbursts became +regular; he embraced her at certain fixed times. It was one habit among +other habits, and, like a dessert, looked forward to after the monotony +of dinner." + +On page 37 we find a group of similar things. Now, here is where the +peril begins. You know how she has been brought up; and I beg you not to +forget this for an instant. + +There is not a man who, having read this, would not say that M. Flaubert +is not only a great artist but a man of heart, for having in the last +six pages turned all the horror and scorn upon the woman and all the +interest towards the husband. He is a great artist, as has been said, +because he has left the husband as he was, he has not transformed him, +and to the end he is the same good man, commonplace, mediocre, full of +the duties of his profession, loving his wife well, but destitute of +education or elevation of thought. He is the same at the death-bed of +his wife. And nevertheless, there is not an individual to whom the +memory returns with more interest. + +Why? Because he has kept to the end his simplicity and uprightness of +heart; because to the end he has fulfilled his duty while his wife was +led astray. His death is as beautiful and as touching as the death of +his wife is hideous. On the dead body of the woman the author has shown +the spots made by the vomiting of poison; they soil the white shroud in +which she goes to her burial, and he has made her, as he desired, an +object of disgust; but there is a man there who is sublime--the husband +standing beside the grave. There is a man who is grand, sublime, whose +death is admirable--the husband, who, finding himself broken-hearted by +the death of his wife, sees afterwards all the illusions of the heart +that remained to him embraced in the thought of his wife in the tomb. +Keep that, I beg you, in your remembrance. The author has gone beyond +what was necessary--as Lamartine has said--in rendering the death of the +woman hideous and her punishment most terrible. The author has +concentrated all the interest upon the man who did not deviate from the +line of duty, who preserved his mediocre character, to be sure (for the +author could not change his character) but who preserved also all his +generosity of heart, while upon the wife who deceived him, ruined him, +gave him into the hands of usurers, put into circulation forged notes +and finally arrived at suicide, was heaped all the accumulated +horrors. We shall see that it is natural--the death of this woman who, +if she had not come to her end by poison, would have been broken by the +excess of misfortune with which she was surrounded. The author has seen +this. His book would not be read if he had done otherwise, if, in order +to show where an education as perilous as that of Madame Bovary can +lead, he had not been prodigal with the fascinating images and the +powerful tableaux for which he is reproached. + +M. Flaubert constantly sets forth the superiority of the husband over +the wife, and what superiority, if you please? that of simple duty +fulfilled, while the wife was straying from hers. Here she is, fixed by +the bent of this bad education; here she is, gone out after the scene of +the ball, with the young boy, Léon, as inexperienced as herself. She +coquets with him but does not dare to go further; nothing happens. Then +comes Rodolphe who takes the woman to himself. After looking at her for +a moment, he said: This woman is all right. She will be easy prey, +because she is light-minded and inexperienced. As to the fall, will you +re-read pages 42, 43 and 44. I have only a word to say about this scene +and that is: there are no details, no descriptions, no image that can +trouble the senses; a single word indicates the fall: "She abandoned +herself." I pray you to have the goodness to read again the details of +the fall of Clarissa Harlowe, which I have not heard decried as a bad +book. M. Flaubert has substituted Rodolphe for Lovelace, and Emma for +Clarissa. If you will compare the two authors and the two books you will +appreciate the situation. + +But I will return here to the indignation of the Government Attorney. +He is shocked that remorse does not immediately follow the fall, and +that in the place of expressing bitterness, she said with satisfaction: +"I have a lover!" But the author would not be true, if he made the +enchanting draught seem bitter while it still touched the lips. He who +wrote as the Attorney understands might be moral, but he would be saying +what is not in nature. No, it is not at the first moment of a fault +that the sentiment of fault is awakened; otherwise, it would not be +committed. No, it is not at the moment when she is under a delusion that +intoxicates her that a woman can be averted from this intoxication even +by the immensity of the fault she has committed. She feels only the +intoxication; she goes back to her home happy, sparkling, and singing in +her heart: "I have a lover!" But can this last long? You have read pages +424 and 425. On both pages, and if you please, to page 428, the +sentiment of disgust with her lover is not yet manifest; but she is +already under the impression of fear and uneasiness. She thinks, weighs +the question, and believes that she does not wish to abandon Rodolphe: + +"Something stronger than herself forced her to him; so much so, that one +day, seeing her come unexpectedly he frowned as one put out. + +"'What is the matter with you?' she said, 'Are you ill? Tell me!' + +"At last he declared with a serious air that her visits were becoming +imprudent--that she was compromising herself. + +"Gradually Rodolphe's fears took possession of her. At first, love had +intoxicated her, and she had thought of nothing beyond. But now that he +was indispensable to her life, she feared to lose anything of this, or +even that it should be disturbed. When she came back from his house, she +looked all about her, anxiously watching every form that passed in the +horizon, and every village window from which she could be seen. She +listened for steps, cries, the noise of the ploughs, and she stopped +short, white, and trembling more than the aspen leaves swaying +overhead." + +You see unmistakably that she was not deceived; she felt clearly that +there was something about it of which she had not dreamed. Let us take +pages 433 and 434 and you will be still further convinced: + +"When the night was rainy, they took refuge in the consulting-room, +between the cart-shed and the stable. She lighted one of the kitchen +candles that she had hidden behind the books. Rodolphe settled down +there as if at home. The sight of the library, of the bureau, of the +whole apartment, in fine, excited his merriment, and he could not +refrain from making jokes about Charles which rather embarrassed Emma. +She would have liked to see him more serious and even on occasions more +dramatic; as, for example, when she thought she heard a noise of +approaching steps in the alley. + +"'Some one is coming!' she said + +"He blew out the light. + +"'Have you your pistols?' + +"'Why?' + +"'Why, to defend yourself,' replied Emma. + +"'From your husband? Oh, poor devil!'" + +And Rodolphe finished his phrase with a gesture which signified: I could +crush him with a fillip. + +She was amazed at his bravery, although she felt that there was a sort +of indelicacy and naïve grossness about it that was scandalizing. + +"Rodolphe reflected a good deal on the affair of the pistols. If she had +spoken seriously, it was very ridiculous, he thought, even odious; for +he had no reason to hate the good Charles, not being what is called +devoured by jealousy; and on this subject Emma had treated him to a +lecture, which he did not think in the best taste. + +"Besides, she was growing very sentimental. She had insisted on +exchanging miniatures; they had cut handfuls of hair, and now she was +asking for a ring--a real wedding-ring, in sign of an eternal union. She +often spoke to him of the evening chimes, of the voices of nature. Then +she talked to him of her mother--hers! and of his mother--his! + +"Finally she wearied him." + +Then, on page 453: + +"He had no longer, as formerly, words so gentle that they made her cry, +nor passionate caresses that made her mad; so that their great love, +which engrossed her life, seemed to lessen beneath her like the water of +a stream absorbed into its channel, and she could see the bed of it. She +would not believe it; she redoubled in tenderness, and Rodolphe +concealed his indifference less and less. + +"She did not know whether she regretted yielding to him, or whether, she +did not wish, on the contrary, to enjoy him the more. The humiliation of +feeling herself weak was turning to rancour, tempered by their +voluptuous pleasures. It was not affection; it was like a continual +seduction. He subjugated her; she almost feared him." + +And you are afraid, Mr. Government Attorney, that young women might read +this! I am less frightened, less timid than you. On my own personal +account, I can admirably understand a father of a family saying to his +daughter: Young lady, if your heart, your conscience, if religious +sentiment and the voice of duty are not sufficient to make you walk in +the right path, look, my child, look well at the weariness, the +suffering, the grief and desolation attending the woman who seeks +happiness outside her home! This language would not wound you in the +mouth of a father, would it? M. Flaubert has said nothing but this; he +has made a painting most true, and most powerful, of what the woman who +dreams of finding happiness outside her house immediately discovers. + +But let us go on and we shall come to all the adventures of the +disillusion. You show me the caresses of Léon on page 60. Alas! she +will soon pay the ransom of adultery, and that ransom you will find +terrible, in some pages farther on in the book you condemn. She sought +happiness in adultery, poor unfortunate one! And she found, besides the +disgust and fatigue that the monotony of marriage can bring to the woman +who does not walk in the path of duty, the disillusion and the scorn of +the man to whom she has given herself. Was any of this scorn lacking in +the book? Oh, no! and you cannot deny it, for the book is under your +eyes. Rodolphe, who has shown himself so vile, gives to her a last proof +of egoism and cowardice. She has said to him: "Take me! Carry me away! +I am stifling; I can no longer breathe in my husband's house, to which I +have brought shame and misfortune." He hesitates; she insists. Finally, +he promises, and the next day she receives a terrible letter under which +she falls crushed and annihilated. She is taken ill and is dying. The +number you are consulting shows you all the convulsions of a soul at war +with itself, which perhaps could be led back to duty by an excess of +suffering, but unfortunately she meets a boy with whom she had played +when she was inexperienced. This is the movement of the romance, and +then comes the expiation. + +But the Government Attorney stops me and asks: Although it may be true +that the purpose of the book is good from one end to the other, could +you allow such obscene details as those that have been brought forward? + +Very certainly I could not allow such details, but where have I allowed +them? Where are they? I now arrive at the passages most condemned. I +will say no more of the adventure in the cab. This Court has heard +enough with regard to that; I come to the passages that you have pointed +out as contrary to public morals and which form a certain number of +pages in the December number. And, in order to pull away all the +scaffolding of your accusation, there is only one thing to be done: to +restore what precedes and what follows your quotations, in a word, to +substitute the text complete as opposed to your cutting. + +At the bottom of page 72, Léon, after making an agreement with Homais, +the chemist, goes to the Hôtel de Boulogne; the chemist goes there to +find him. + +"Emma was no longer there. She had just gone in a fit of anger. She +detested him now. This failing to keep their rendezvous seemed to her an +insult. + +"Then, growing calmer, she at length discovered that she had no doubt +calumniated him. But the disparaging of those we love always alienates +us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt +sticks to our fingers." + +Great heavens! And it is for such lines as I have been reading to you +that we are dragged before you. Listen now: + +"They gradually came to talking more frequently of matters outside their +love, and in the letters that Emma wrote him she spoke of flowers, +verses, the moon and the stars, naïve resources of a waning passion +striving to keep itself alive by all external aids. She was constantly +promising herself a profound felicity on her next journey. Then she +confessed to herself that she felt nothing extraordinary. This +disappointment quickly gave way to a new hope, and Emma returned to him +more inflamed, more eager than ever. She undressed brutally, tearing off +the thin laces of her corset that nestled around her hips like a gliding +snake. She went on tip-toe, barefooted, to see once more that the door +was closed; then, pale, serious, and without speaking, with one movement +she threw herself upon his breast with a long shudder." You have +stopped here, Mr. Attorney; permit me to continue: + +"Yet there was upon that brow covered with cold drops, on those +quivering lips, in those wild eyes, in the strain of those arms, +something vague and dreary that seemed to Léon to glide between them +subtly as if to separate them." + +You call this lascivious colour, you say that this gives a taste for +adultery, you say that these pages excite and arouse the senses,--that +they are lascivious pages! But death is in these pages! You did not +think of that, Mr. Attorney, and were simply frightened to find such +words as _corset, clothing which falls off_, etc.; and you attach +yourself to these three or four words, such as corset and falling +clothing. Do you wish me to show you that corsets can appear in a +classic book, a very classic book? I shall give myself the pleasure of +so doing, presently. + +"She undressed herself ..." [ah! Mr. Government Attorney, how badly you +have understood this passage!] "she undressed hastily [poor thing], +tearing off the thin laces of her corset that nestled around her hips +like a gliding snake; then pale, serious, and without speaking, with one +movement she threw herself upon his breast with a long shudder.... There +was upon that brow covered with cold drops ... in the strain of those +arms something vague and dreary...." + +We must ask here where the lascivious colour is? and where is the severe +colour? and ask if the senses of the young girl into whose hands this +book might fall, could be aroused, excited--as she might by reading a +classic of classics, which I shall cite presently, and which has been +reprinted a thousand times without any prosecution, public or royal, +following it. Is there anything analogous in what I am going to read +you? Is there not, on the contrary, a horror of vice that this +"something dreary glides in between them to separate them?" Let us +continue, I pray: + +"He did not dare to question her; but, seeing her so skilled, she must +have passed, he thought, through every experience of suffering and of +pleasure. What had once charmed now frightened him a little. Besides, +he rebelled against his absorption, daily more marked by her +personality. He begrudged Emma this constant victory. He even strove +not to love her; then, when he heard the creaking of her boots, he +turned coward, like drunkards at the sight of strong drinks." + +What is lascivious there? + +And then, take the last paragraph: + +"One day, when they had parted early and she was returning alone along +the boulevard, she saw the walls of her convent; then she sat down on a +form in the shade of the elm-trees. How calm that time had been! How she +longed for the ineffable sentiments of love that she had tried to figure +to herself out of books! The first month of her marriage, her rides in +the wood, the viscount that waltzed, and Lagardy singing, all repassed +before her eyes. And Léon suddenly appeared to her as far off as the +others. + +"'Yet I love him,' she said to herself." + +Do not forget this, Mr. Attorney, when you judge the thought of the +author, when you wish to find absolutely lascivious colour where I can +only find an excellent book. + +"She was not happy--she never had been. Whence came this insufficiency +of life--this instantaneous turning to decay of everything on which she +leant?" + +Is that lascivious? + +"But if there were somewhere a being strong and beautiful, a valiant +nature, full at once of exaltation and refinement, a poet's heart in +angel's form, a lyre with sounding chords ringing out elegiac +epithalamia to heaven, why, perchance, should she not find him? Ah! how +impossible! Besides, nothing was worth the trouble of seeking it; +everything was a lie. Every smile hid a yawn of boredom, every joy a +curse, all pleasure satiety, and the sweetest kisses left upon your lips +only the unattainable desire for a greater delight. + +"A metallic clang droned through the air, and four strokes were heard +from the convent-clock. Four o'clock! And it seemed to her that she had +been there on that form an eternity. But an infinity of passions may be +contained in a minute, like a crowd in a small space." + +It is not necessary to look at the end of the book to find what is in it +from one end to the other. I have read the incriminated passage without +adding a word, to defend a work which defends itself through itself. Let +us continue leading from this same incriminated passage, looking at it +from a moral point of view: + +"Madame was in her room, which no one entered. She stayed there all day +long, torpid, half dressed, and from time to time burning Turkish +pastilles which she had bought at Rouen in an Algerian's shop. In order +not to have at night this sleeping man stretched at her side, by dint of +manoeuvering, she at least succeeded in banishing him to the second +floor, while she read till morning extravagant books, full of pictures +of orgies and thrilling situations. Often, seized with fear, she cried +out, and Charles hurried to her. + +"'Oh, go away!' she would say. + +"Or at other times, consumed more ardently than ever by that inner flame +to which adultery added fuel, panting, tremulous, all desire, she threw +open her window, breathed in the cold air, shook loose in the wind her +masses of hair, too heavy, and gazing upon the stars, longed for some +princely love. She thought of him, of Léon. She would then have given +anything for a single one of those meetings that surfeited her. + +"Those were her gala days. She wished them to be sumptuous, and when he +alone could not pay the expenses, she made up the deficit liberally, +which happened almost every time. He tried to make her understand that +they would be quite as comfortable somewhere else, in a smaller hotel, +but she always found some objection." + +You see all this is very simple when one reads the whole; but in +cuttings like those of the Government Attorney, the smallest word +becomes a mountain. + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +I did not quote any of those phrases last mentioned; but since you wish +to quote what I have not incriminated, it would be well not to pass over +the foot of the page adjoining page 50. + + + +M. SENARD: + +I pass over nothing, but I insist upon citing the incriminated passages +in the quotations. We are quoting from pages 77 and 78. + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +I refer to the quotations made to the audience, and thought you imputed +me with having cited the lines you are about to read. + + + +M. SENARD: + +Mr. Attorney, I have quoted all the passages by whose aid you have +attempted to constitute a misdemeanor--which accusation is now +shattered. You developed before the audience what seemed to you +convincing, and have had a fair opportunity. Happily we had the book and +the defense knew the book; if he had not known it, his position, allow +me to tell you, would have been very awkward. I am called upon to +explain such and such passages to myself and to add others for the +benefit of the audience. If I had not possessed the book, as I do, the +defense had been difficult. Now, I can show you, through a faithful +analysis of the romance, that far from being considered a lascivious +work, it should be considered, on the contrary, eminently moral. After +doing this, I took the passages that have been the motive for police +correction, and after I followed the cuttings with what preceded and +what succeeded, the accusation became so weak that you are in revolt the +moment I have finished reading them! These same passages that you +stamped as recriminating, I have used an equal right to quote myself, +for the purpose of showing you the folly of the accusation. + +I continue my quotation where I stopped at the bottom of page 78. + +"He was bored now when Emma suddenly began to sob on his breast, and his +heart, like the people who can only stand a certain amount of music, +dozed to the sound of a love whose delicacies he no longer noted. + +"They knew one another too well for any of those surprises of +possession, that increase its joys a hundredfold. She was as sick of +him as he was weary of her. Emma found again in adultery all the +platitudes of marriage." + +_Platitudes of marriage_! He who did the cutting here has said: Now, +here is a man who says that in marriage there are only platitudes! It is +an attack on marriage, it is an outrage to morals! You will agree, +Mr. Attorney, that with cuttings artistically made, one can go far in +the way of incriminating. What is it that the author called the +platitudes of marriage? That monotony which Emma had dreaded, which she +had wished to escape from but had found continually in adultery, which +was precisely the disillusion. You now see clearly that when, in the +place of cutting off the members of certain phrases and cutting out some +words, we read what precedes and what follows, nothing remains for +incrimination; and you can well comprehend that my client, who knew what +he wished to say, must be a little in revolt at seeing it thus +travestied. Let us continue: + +"She was as sick of him as he was weary of her. Emma found again in +adultery all the platitudes of marriage. + +"But how to get rid of him? Then, though she might feel humiliated at +the baseness of such enjoyment, she clung to it from habit or from +corruption, and each day she hungered after them the more, exhausting +all felicity in wishing for too much of it. She accused Léon of her +baffled hopes, as if he had betrayed her; and she even longed for some +catastrophe that would bring about their separation, since she had not +the courage to make up her mind to it herself. + +"She none the less went on writing him love letters, in virtue of the +notion that a woman must write to her lover. + +"But whilst she wrote it was another man she saw, a phantom fashioned +out of her most ardent memories. [This is certainly not incriminating.] + +"Then she fell back exhausted, for these transports of vague love +wearied her more than great debauchery. + +"She now felt constant ache all over her. Often she even received a +summons, stamped paper that she barely looked at. She would have liked +not to be alive, or to be always asleep." + +I call that an excitation of virtue through a horror of vice, as the +author himself calls it, and which the reader, no longer perplexed, +cannot fail to see, unless influenced by ill-will. + +And now, something more to make you perceive what kind of man you are +about to judge. And in order to show you, not what kind of justification +I may expect, but whether M. Flaubert has made use of lascivious colour, +and whence he got his inspiration, let me put upon your desk this book +used by him, in whose passages he found himself inspired to paint this +concupiscence, the entanglements of this woman who sought happiness in +illicit pleasures, but could not find it there, who sought again and +again and never found it. Whence has Flaubert derived his inspiration, +gentlemen? It was from this book; listen: + +ILLUSION OF THE SENSES. + +"Whoever, then, attaches himself to the senses, must necessarily wander +from object to object and deceive himself, so to speak, by a change of +place, as concupiscence,--that is to say, love of pleasure,--is always +changing, because its ardour languishes and dies in continuity, and it +is only change that makes it revive. Again, what is that other +characteristic of a life of the senses, that alternate movement of +appetite and disgust, of disgust and appetite, the soul floating ever +uncertain between ardour which abates and ardour which is renewed? +_Inconstantia concupiscentia_. That is what a life of the senses +is. However, in this perpetual movement, one must not allow himself to +be deceived by the image of wandering liberty." + +This is what a life of the senses is. Who has said that? Who has +written these words which you are about to hear upon these excitements +and excessive ardor? What is the book which M. Flaubert perused day and +night, and which has inspired the passages that the Government Attorney +condemns? It is by Bossuet! What I shall read to you is a fragment of +Bossuet's discourse upon _Illicit Pleasures_. I shall bring you to see +that all these incriminated passages are--not plagiarized; the man who +appropriates an idea is not a plagiarist--but imitations of Bossuet. Do +you wish for another example? Here it is: + +UPON SIN. + +"And do not ask me, Christians, in what way this great change of +pleasure into punishment will come about. The thing is proved by the +Scriptures. It is Truth who has said it, it is the All-Powerful who has +made it so. And sometimes, if you will look at the nature of the +passions to which you abandon your heart, you will easily comprehend +that they may become an intolerable punishment. They all have in +themselves cruel pain, disgust and bitterness. They all have an infinity +which is angered by not being able to be satisfied. There are transports +of rage mingled in all of them which degenerates into a kind of fury not +less painful than unreasonable. Love, if I may be permitted so to name +it in this guise, has its uncertainties, its violent agitations, its +irresolute resolutions and an abyss of jealousies." + +And further: + +"Ah! What, then, is easier than making of our passions an insupportable +pain or sin, when, if we cut out, as is very just, the little sweetness +through which they lead us, there is left of them only the cruel +disquiet and bitterness with which they abound? Our sins are against us, +our sins are upon us, our sins are in the midst of us; like an arrow +piercing our body, an insupportable weight upon our head, a poison +devouring our entrails." + +Is not all that you have just listened to designed to show you the +bitterness of passion? I leave you this book, lined and thumb-marked by +the studious man who has found his thought there. And that man, who has +been inspired from a source of this kind, who has written of adultery in +the terms you have listened to, is prosecuted for outrage of public and +religious morals! + +A few lines still upon the _woman sinner_, and you will see how +M. Flaubert, having decided to paint this ardour, understood taking +inspiration from this model: + +"But, punished for our error, without being deceived by it, we seek in +change the remedy for our scorn; we wander from object to object, and +if, finally there is some one who holds us, it is not because we are +content with our choice, but because we are bound by our inconstancy." + + * * * * * + +"All appeared to her empty, false, disgusting in these creatures: far +from finding there those first charms which her heart had had so much +difficulty in defending, she saw in them now only frivolity, danger and +vanity." + + * * * * * + +"I will not speak of an entanglement of passion; what fears there are +that the mystery of it cannot dispel! what measures to keep on the side +of well-being and pride! what eyes to shun! what watchers to deceive! +what returns to fear from those whom one chooses for their aids and +confidants in their passion! what indignities to suffer from him, +perhaps, for whom one has sacrificed honour and liberty, and of whom one +dare not complain! To all this, add those cruel moments when passion, +less lively, leaves us to choose between falling back upon ourselves and +feeling all the humility of our position, and those moments where the +heart, born for more solid pleasures, leaves us with our own idols and +finds its punishment in its own disgust and inconstancy. Profane world! +if there is in you that felicity that is so much vaunted, favor your +adorers with it nor punish them for the faith they have added so lightly +to your promises." + +Let me say to you here: when a man in the silence of the night, +meditates upon the causes of enticement for woman, when he finds them in +her education and, putting aside personal observation, for the sake of +expressing his thoughts, matures them at the sources I have indicated, +not allowing himself to use his pen except from inspiration of Bossuet +and Massillon, permit me to ask you if there is a word to express my +surprise, my grief, on seeing this man dragged into Court--on account of +some passages in his book, and precisely for the truest and most +elevated ideas that he was able to bring together! And I pray you not to +forget this in relation to the charge of outrage against religious +morals! And then, if you will permit me, I will put in opposition to all +this, under your very eyes, what I myself call attacking the moral, that +is to say, satisfaction of the senses without bitterness, without those +large drops of cold sweat which fall from the brow of those who give +themselves over to it; and I will not quote to you from licentious books +in which the authors have sought to arouse the senses; I will quote from +only one book--which is given as a prize in colleges, but whose author's +name I ask leave to withhold until after I have read you a passage from +it. Here is the passage: I will ask you to pass the volume. It is a copy +that was given to a college student as a prize. I prefer you to take +this copy rather than M. Flaubert's: + +"The next day I was received into her apartment. There I felt all that +voluptuousness carries with it. The room was filled with the most +agreeable perfumes. She lay upon a bed which was enclosed in garlands +of flowers. She appeared to be lying there languishingly. She extended +her hand to me and made me sit beside her. In all, even in the veil +which covered her face, there was a charm. I could see the form of her +beautiful body. A simple cloth which moved as she moved allowed me at +one time to see, and at another to lose sight of, her ravishing beauty." + +A simple cloth when it was extended over a dead body appeared to you a +lascivious image; here it is extended over a living woman: + +"She noticed that my eyes were occupied, and when she saw them inflamed, +the cloth seemed to open itself away from her; I saw all the treasures +of a divine beauty. At this moment she took my hand; my eyes were +wandering. There is only my dear Ardasire, I cry out, who can be as +beautiful; but I swear to the gods that my fidelity.... She threw +herself on my neck and drew me into her arms. Suddenly the room became +darkened; her veil opened and she gave me a kiss. I was beside myself; a +flame started suddenly through my veins and aroused all my senses. The +idea of Ardasire was far from me. She remained to me only as a +memory ... there appeared to me but one thought.... I was going.... I +was going to prefer this one even to her. Already my hands had wandered +to her breasts; they ran rapidly everywhere; love showed itself only in +its fury; it hurried on to victory; a moment more and Ardasire could not +defend herself." + +Who, now, has written that? It is not the author of _The New Héloise_, +it is the President, Montesquieu! Here is no bitterness, no disgust, but +all is sacrificed to literary beauty, and they give it as a prize to +pupils in rhetoric, without doubt to serve as a model in the +amplifications and descriptions that they are required to +write. Montesquieu described in his Persian Letters a scene which could +not even be read. It concerns a woman placed between two men who dispute +over her. This woman, placed between two men, has dreams--which appear +to the author very agreeable. + +Shall we sum up, Mr. Attorney? Or is it necessary for me to quote you +Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his _Confessions_, and some others? No, I will +only say to the judges that if, on account of his description of the +carriage in _The Double Misunderstanding_, M. Mérimée had been +prosecuted, he would have been acquitted immediately. One sees in his +book only a work of art of great literary beauty. One would no more +condemn it than he would condemn paintings or statuary, which is not +content with representing all the beauties of the body, but wishes to +add ardour and passion. I will follow it no farther; I ask you to +recognise the fact that M. Flaubert has not weighted his images and has +done only one thing: he has touched with a firm hand the scene of +degradation. At each line of his book he has brought out the +disillusion, and instead of ending it with something charming, he has +undertaken to show us that this woman, after meeting scorn, abandonment, +and ruin of her house, comes to a frightful death. In a word, I can only +repeat what I said at the beginning of this plea, that M. Flaubert is +the author of a good book, a book which aims at the excitation of virtue +by arousing a horror of vice. + +I will now look into his outrage against religion. An outrage against +religion committed by M. Flaubert! And in what respect, if you please? +The Government Attorney has thought he found in him a sceptic. I can +assure the Government Attorney that he is deceived. I am not here to +make a profession of faith, I am here only to defend a book, and for +that reason I shall limit myself to a simple word. Now as to the book, I +defy the Government Attorney to find in it anything that resembles an +outrage against religion. You have seen how religion was introduced in +Emma's education, and how this religion, false in a thousand ways, could +not hold Emma from the bent that carried her astray. Would you know in +what kind of language M. Flaubert speaks of religion? Listen to some +lines that I take from the first number, pages 231, 232 and 233: + +"One evening when the window was open, and she, sitting by it, had been +watching Lestiboudois, the beadle, trimming the box, she suddenly heard +the Angelus ringing. + +"It was the beginning of April, when the primroses are in bloom, and a +warm wind blows over the flower-beds newly turned, and the gardens, like +women, seem to be getting ready for the summer fêtes. Through the bars +of the arbour and away beyond, the river could be seen in the fields, +meandering through the grass in wandering curves. The evening vapors +rose between the leafless poplars, touching their outlines with a violet +tint, paler and more transparent than a subtle gauze caught athwart +their branches. In the distance cattle moved about; neither their steps +nor their lowing could be heard; and the bell, still ringing through the +air, kept up its peaceful lamentation. + +"With this repeated tinkling the thoughts of the young woman lost +themselves in old memories of her youth and school-days. She remembered +the great candlesticks that rose above the vases full of flowers on the +altar, and the tabernacle with its small columns. She would have liked +to be once more lost in the long line of white veils, marked off here +and there by the stiff black hoods of the good sisters bending over +their prie-Dieu." + +This is the language in which his religious sentiment is expressed. And +yet we have understood from the Government Attorney that scepticism +reigned in M. Flaubert's book from one end to the other. Where, I pray +you, have you found this scepticism? + + + +THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: + +I have not said that there was any of it in its inner meaning. + + + +M. SENARD: + +If not in its inner meaning, where then, is it? In your cuttings, +evidently. But here is the work entire, as the Court will judge it, and +it can see that the religious sentiment is so forcefully imprinted there +that the accusation of scepticism is pure slander. And now, the +Government Attorney will permit me to say to him that it was not for the +purpose of accusing the author of scepticism that all this trouble has +been made. Let us proceed: + +"At mass on Sundays, when she looked up, she saw the gentle face of the +Virgin amid the blue smoke of the rising incense. Then she was moved; +she felt herself weak and quite deserted, like the down of a bird +whirled by the tempest, and it was unconsciously that she went towards +the church, inclined to no matter what devotions, so that her soul was +absorbed and all existence lost in it." + +This, gentlemen, is the first appeal of religion to hold Emma from the +trend of her passions. She has fallen, poor woman, and then been +repelled by the foot of the man to whom she abandoned herself. She is +nearly dead, but raises herself and becomes reanimated; and you shall +see now what is written in the 15th of November number, 1856, page 548: + +"One day, when at the height of her illness, she had thought herself +dying, and had asked for the communion; and while they were making the +preparations in her room for the sacrament, while they were turning the +night-table, covered with sirups, into an altar, and while Félicité was +strewing dahlia flowers on the floor, Emma felt some power passing over +her that freed her from her pains, from all perception, from all +feeling. Her body, relieved, no longer thought; another life was +beginning; it seemed to her that her being, mounting toward God, would +be annihilated in that love like a burning insense that melts into +vapour. [You see that this is the language in which M. Flaubert speaks +of religious things]. The bed-clothes were sprinkled with holy water, +the priest drew from the holy pyx the white wafer; and it was fainting +with a celestial joy that she put out her lips to accept the body of the +Saviour presented to her." + +I ask the pardon of the Government Attorney, I ask the Court's pardon +for interrupting this passage; but I must needs say that it is the +author who is speaking, and bring to your notice in what terms he +expresses the mystery of the communion. Before going on with the +reading, I must needs impress the literary value of this picture upon +the Court and insist that they seize upon these expressions which are +the author's own: + +"The curtains of the alcove floated gently round her like clouds, and +the rays of the two tapers burning on the night-table seemed to shine +like dazzling halos. Then she let her head fall back, fancying she heard +in space the music of seraphic harps, and perceived in an azure sky, on +a golden throne in the midst of saints holding green palms, God the +Father, resplendent with majesty, who with a sign sent to earth angels +with wings of fire to carry her away in their arms." + + * * * * * + +"This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most beautiful thing +that it was possible to dream, so that now she strove to recall her +sensation, that still lasted, however, but in a less exclusive fashion +and with a deeper sweetness. Her soul, tortured by pride, at length +found rest in Christian humility, and, tasting the joy of weakness, she +saw within herself the destruction of her will, that must have left a +wide entrance for the inroads of heavenly grace. There existed, then, in +the place of happiness, still greater joys,--another love beyond all +loves, without pause and without end, one that would grow eternally! She +saw amid the illusions of her hope a state of purity floating above the +earth mingling with heaven, to which she aspired. She wanted to become a +saint. She bought chaplets and wore amulets; she wished to have in her +room, by the side of her bed, a reliquary set in emeralds that she might +kiss it every evening." + +Here are some of his religious sentiments! And if you wish to pause a +moment to consider the author's thought, I will ask you to turn the page +and read the first three lines of the second paragraph: + +"She grew provoked at the doctrines of religion; the arrogance of the +polemic writings displeased her by their inveteracy in attacking people +she did not know; and the secular stories, relieved with religion, +seemed to her written in such ignorance of the world, that they +insensibly estranged her from the truths for whose proof she was +looking." + +This is the language of M. Flaubert. Now, if you please, we come to +another scene, that of the extreme unction. Oh! Mr. Government +Attorney, how you have deceived yourself when, stopping at the first +words, you accuse my client of mingling the sacred with the profane; +when he has been content to translate the beautiful formulas of extreme +unction, at the moment when the priest touches the organs of sense, at +the moment where, according to the ritual, he says: _Per istam +unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus +quid-quid deliquisti_! + +You said it was not necessary to touch upon holy things. With what right +do you misinterpret these holy words: + +"May God, in His holy pity, pardon you for all the sins that you have +committed through sight, taste, hearing, etc.?" + +Wait, I am going to read the condemned passage, and that will be all my +vengeance. I dare say vengeance, because the author has need of being +avenged! Yes, it is necessary for M. Flaubert to go out of here not +only acquitted, but avenged! You will see from what kind of reading he +has been nourished. The condemned passage is on page 271 of the +December 15th number, and runs thus: + +"Pale as a statue, and with eyes red as fire, Charles, not weeping, +stood opposite her at the foot of the bed, while the priest bending one +knee, was muttering words in a low voice." + +This whole picture is magnificent, and the wording of it +irresistible. But be quiet, and I will not prolong it beyond +measure. Now here is the condemnation! + +"She turned her face slowly, and seemed filled with joy on seeing +suddenly the violet stole, no doubt finding again, in the midst of a +temporary lull in her pain, the lost voluptuousness of her first +mystical transports, with the visions of eternal beatitude that were +beginning. + +"The priest rose to take the crucifix: then she stretched forward her +neck as one who is athirst, and gluing her lips to the body of the +Man-God, she pressed upon it with all her expiring strength the fullest +kiss of love that she had ever given." + +The extreme unction has not yet begun; but we are reproached for this +kiss. I am not going to search in the history of Saint Theresa whom you +perhaps know, but the memory of whom is too far away, I am not going to +seek in Fénelon for the mysticism of Madame Guyon, nor in more modern +mysticisms, in which I find much reason. I only wish to ask of those +schools which you designate as belonging to sensual Christianity, the +explanation of this kiss; it is Bossuet, Bossuet himself, of whom I +would ask it: + +"Obey, and strive finally to enter into the disposition of Jesus in +communing, which is the disposition of harmony, joy and love; the whole +gospel proclaims it. Jesus wishes that we may be with Him; He wishes to +rejoice and He wishes us to rejoice with Him: He has given Himself...." +etc. + +I continue the reading of the condemned passage: + +"Then he recited the _Misereatur_ and the _Indulgentiam_, dipped his +right thumb in the oil and began to give extreme unction. First upon the +eyes, that had so coveted all worldly pomp; then upon the nostrils, +greedy for warm breezes and amorous perfumes; then upon the mouth, that +had uttered lies, that curled with pride and cried out in lewdness; then +upon the hands, that had delighted in sensual touches, and finally upon +the soles of feet, so swift of yore when she was running to satisfy her +desires, and that now would walk no more. + +"The curé wiped his fingers, threw the bit of cotton dipped in oil into +the fire, and came and sat down by the dying woman, to tell her that she +must now blend her sufferings with those of Jesus Christ, and abandon +herself to the Divine mercy. + +"Finishing his exhortations, he tried to place in her hand a blessed +candle, symbol of the celestial glory with which she was soon to be +surrounded. Emma, too weak, could not close her fingers, and the taper, +but for Monsieur Bournisien, would have fallen to the ground. + +"However, she was not quite so pale, and her face had an expression of +serenity as if the sacrament had cured her. + +"The priest did not fail to point this out; he even explained to Bovary +that the Lord sometimes prolonged the life of persons when he thought it +meet for their salvation; and Charles remembered the day when, so near +death, she had received the communion. Perhaps there was no need to +despair, he thought." + +Now, when a woman dies and the priest goes to give her extreme unction, +if one portrays that mystic scene and translates for us the sacramental +words with scrupulous fidelity, they say that he has touched upon holy +things; that he has put a rash hand on sacred matters; because to the +_deliquisti per oculos, per os, per aurem, per manus et per pedes_ he +has added the sin which each of the organs has committed. But we are not +the first to walk in this path. M. Sainte-Beuve, in a book which you +know, has also a scene of extreme unction, and here is how he expresses +it: + +"Oh! yes, upon the eyes first, as the most noble and most alive of the +senses; upon those eyes for what they have seen and regarded too +tenderly, or that which was too perfidious in others' eyes, or too +mortal; for what they have read and re-read of endearment that was too +dear; for what they have poured out in vain tears over fragile goods and +faithless creatures; for the sleep which they have too often forgotten, +thinking only of the evening! + +"Upon the ears also for what they have heard and allowed themselves to +hear that was too sweet, too flattering and intoxicating; for that sound +which the ear steals from deceptive words; for what it drinks in from +stolen honey! + +"Then the smell, for the too subtle and voluptuous perfumes of evening +and the springtime in the depth of the woods, for flowers received in +the morning and all through the day, and breathed in with so much +pleasure! + +"Upon the lips, for what they have pronounced that was too confused or +too open; for what they did not reply at certain moments or what they +have not revealed to certain persons; for what they have sung in +solitude that was too melodious and too full of tears; for their +inarticulate murmur and for their silence! + +"Upon the neck, in the place of on the breast, for the ardor of desire +according to the consecrated expression (_propter ardorem libidinis_); +yes, for the grief in affection and the rivalry, for too much anguish in +human tenderness, for the tears which are suffocated in a voiceless +throat, for all that goes to wound the heart and break it! + +"Upon the hands also, for having seized a hand which was not bound to +holiness; for having received too burning tears; perhaps for having +begun to write and for finishing a response not lawful! + +"Upon the feet, for not having fled, for not having been satisfied with +long, solitary walks, for not having been weary soon enough in the midst +of temptations which were ever beginning anew!" + +You did not prosecute that. Here are two men who, each in his own +sphere, has taken the same thing and who have, according to his own +idea, added the sin, the fault. Can it be that you make an indictment +for simply translating the formula of the ritual: _Quidquid deliquisti +per oculos, per aurem_, etc.? + +M. Flaubert has done just what M. Sainte-Beuve did, without +plagiarizing. He has made use of a right which belongs to any writer, +to add to what another has said and complete the subject. The last +scene of the romance of _Madame Bovary_ has been made a complete study +of this kind from religious documents. M. Flaubert has taken the scene +of the extreme unction from a book which a venerable ecclesiastic, one +of his friends, lent to him; this same friend has read the scene and +been moved to tears, not imagining that the majesty of religion was in +any way offended. The book is entitled: _An historic, dogmatic, moral, +liturgical and canonical explanation of the catechism, with an answer to +the objections drawn from science against religion, by the Abbé Ambroise +Guillois, curate of Nôtre-Dame-du-Pré, 6th edition, etc_., a work +approved by His Eminence the Cardinal Gousset, N.N.S.S. the Bishops and +Archbishops of Mans, of Tours, of Bordeaux, of Cologne, etc., vol. III., +printed at Mans, by Charles Monnoyer, 1851. Now, you shall see in this +book, as you saw just now in Bossuet's, the principles, and, in a +certain way, the text of the passages which the Government has +condemned. It is no longer M. Sainte-Beuve, an artist, a literary +rhapsodist, whom I am quoting; we now listen to the Church itself: + +"Extreme unction can give back health to the body if it be useful to the +glory of God" ... and the priest says that this often happens. Now, here +is the extreme unction: + +"The priest addresses the sick with a short exhortation, if he is in a +state to hear it, in order to dispose him worthily to receive the +sacrament which is to be administered to him. + +"The priest then passes the unction upon the sick person with the +stiletto or the extremity of his right thumb, which he dips each time in +the oil. This unction should be made especially upon the five parts of +the body which nature has given to man as the organs of sensation, +namely: the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth and the hands." + +"As the priest makes the unctions [we have followed from point to point +the ritual which we have copied], he pronounces the words which +correspond to them. + +"_To the eyes, upon the closed eyeball_: Through this holy unction and +His divine pity, may God pardon all the sins that you have committed +through sight. The sick person should at this moment have a new hatred +of all the sins committed through sight: such as indiscreet looks, +criminal curiosity, and reading what has caused to be born in him a host +of thoughts contrary to faith or morals." + +What has M. Flaubert done? He has put in the mouth of the priest, by +uniting the two parts, what should be in his thoughts and also those of +the sick person. He has copied purely and simply. + +"_To the ears_: Through this holy unction and through His divine pity, +may God pardon all the sins that you have committed through the sense of +hearing. The sick person should, at this moment, detest anew all the +errors of which he is guilty from listening with pleasure to slander, +calumny, proposed dishonesty and obscene songs. + +"_To the nostrils_: Through this holy unction and His divine pity, may +the Lord pardon all the sins that you have committed through the sense +of smell. At this moment the sick person should detest anew all the +sins that he has committed through the sense of smell, his refined and +voluptuous search for perfumes, all his sensibilities, all that he has +breathed in of iniquitous odors. + +"_To the mouth, upon the lips_: Through this holy unction and through +His great pity, may the Lord pardon you all the sins that you have +committed by the sense of taste and words. The sick man at this moment +should detest anew all the sins that he has committed in oaths and +blaspheming ... in eating and drinking to excess.... + +"_Upon the hands_: Through this holy unction and through His great pity, +may the Lord pardon all the sins that you have committed through the +sense of touch. The sick man ought to detest at this moment all the +larcenies, the injustice of which he has been guilty, all the liberties, +more or less criminal, which he has allowed himself. The priest receives +the unction on his hands from without because he has already received it +from within at the time of his ordination, and the sick person receives +it within. + +"_Upon the feet_: Through this holy unction and His great pity, may God +pardon all the sins that you have committed in your walks. The sick man +ought, at this moment, to detest anew all the steps that he has taken in +the path of iniquity, such as scandalous walks, and criminal +interviews.... The unction of the feet is made upon the top or on the +sole, according to the convenience of the sick person, and according to +the custom of the diocese where it takes place. The most common practice +seems to be to make it on the soles of the feet. + +"And finally upon the breast. [M. Sainte-Beuve has copied this; we have +not, because it was concerned with the breast of a woman.] _Propter +ardorem libidinis,_ etc. + +"_On the breast_: Through this holy unction and His great pity, may the +Lord pardon all the sins which have been committed from the ardour of +the passions. The sick man ought, at this moment, to detest anew all the +bad thoughts to which he has abandoned himself, all sentiments of +hatred, or vengeance that he has nourished in his heart." + +And following the ritual, we could have spoken of something more than +the breast, but God knows what holy anger would have been aroused in the +Public Attorney's office, if we had spoken of the loins! + +"_To the loins_: Through this holy unction and His great pity, may the +Lord pardon all the sins that you have committed by irregular impulses +of the flesh." + +If we had said that, what a thunderbolt you would have had with which to +attempt to crush us, Mr. Attorney! and nevertheless, the ritual adds: +"The sick man ought, at this moment, to detest anew all illicit +pleasures, carnal delights, etc...." + +This is the ritual; and you have seen the condemned article. It has +nothing of raillery in it, but is serious and earnest. And I repeat to +you that he who lent my client this book, and saw my client make the use +of it that he has, has taken him by the hand with tears in his eyes. You +see, then, Mr. Government Attorney, how rash--not to use an expression +which in order to be exact is not too severe--is your accusation of our +touching upon holy things. You see now that we have not mingled the +profane with the sacred when, at each sense we indicated the sin +committed by that sense, since it is the language of the Church itself. + +I insist now upon mentioning the other details of the charge of outrage +against religion. The Public Minister said to me: "It is no longer +religion but the morals of all time that you have outraged; you have +insulted death!" How have we insulted death? Because at the moment when +this woman dies, there passes in the street a man whom she had met more +than once, to whom she had given alms from her carriage as she was going +to her adulterous meetings; a blind man whom she was accustomed to see, +who sang his song walking along slowly by the side of her carriage, to +whom she threw a piece of money, but whose countenance made her shiver? +This man was passing in the street; and at the moment when Divine pity +pardoned, or promised pardon, to the unfortunate woman who was expiating +the faults of her life by a frightful death, human raillery appeared to +her in the form of the song under her window. Great Heavens! you find +an outrage in this! But M. Flaubert has only done what Shakespeare and +Goethe have done, who, at the supreme moment of death, have not failed +to make heard some chant, or perhaps plaint, or it might be raillery, +which recalls to him who is passing to eternity some pleasure which he +will never more enjoy, or some fault to be atoned. Let us read: + +"In fact, she looked around her slowly, as one awakening from a dream; +then in a distinct voice she asked for her looking-glass, and remained +some time bending over it, until the big tears fell from her eyes. Then +she turned away her head with a sigh and fell back upon the pillows." + +I could not read it, I am like Lamartine: "The punishment seems to me to +go beyond truth...." I should not consider that I was doing a bad deed, +Mr. Attorney, in reading these pages to my married daughters, honest +girls who have had a good example and good teaching, and who would +never, never go away from the straight path for indiscretion, or away +from things that could and ought to be understood.... It is impossible +for me to continue this reading and I shall hold myself rigorously to +the condemned passages: + +"As the death-rattle became stronger [Charles was by her side, the man +whom you did not see but who is admirable] the priest prayed faster; his +prayers mingled with Bovary's stifled sobs, and sometimes all seemed +lost in the muffled murmur of the Latin syllables that tolled like a +passing bell. + +"Suddenly on the pavement was heard a loud noise of clogs, and the +clattering of a stick; and a voice, a raucous voice, sang: + +"'Maids in the warmth of a summer day, +Dream of love and of love alway; +The wind is strong this summer day, +Her petticoat is blown away.'" + +Emma raised herself like a galvanized corpse, her hair undone, her eyes +fixed, staring. + +"Where the sickle blades have been, + Nannette, gathering ears of corn, +Passes bending down, my queen, + To the earth where they were born." + +"'The blind man!" she cries. + +"And Emma began to laugh, an atrocious, frantic, despairing laugh, +thinking she saw the hideous face of the poor wretch that stood out +against the eternal night like a menace. + +"She fell back upon the mattress in a convulsion. They all drew +near. She was dead." + +You see, gentlemen, in this supreme moment, a recalling of her sin, and +with it remorse and all that goes with it of poignancy and fear. It is +not alone the whim of an artist wishing only to make a contrast without +a purpose or a moral; she hears the blind man in the street singing the +frightful song he had sung when she was returning all in a perspiration +and hideous from an adulterous meeting; it is the same blind man whom +she saw at each of those meetings; the blind man who pursued her with +his song and his importunity; it is he who comes now to personify human +rage at the instant when Divine pity comes to her and follows her to the +supreme moment of death! And this is called an outrage against public +morals! But I say, on the contrary, that it is an homage to public +morals, that there is nothing more moral than this; I say that in this +book the vice of education is awake, that it is taken from the true, +from the living flesh of our society, and that at each stroke the author +places before us this question: "Have you done what you ought for the +education of your daughters? Is the religion you have given them such as +will sustain them in the tempests of life, or is it only a mass of +carnal superstitions which leaves them without support when the storm +rages? Have you taught them that life is not the realization of +chimerical dreams, that it is something prosaic to which it is necessary +to accommodate oneself? Have you taught them that? Have you done what +you ought for their happiness? Have you said to them: Poor children, +outside the route I have pointed out to you, in the pleasures you may +pursue, only disgust awaits you, trouble, disorder, dilapidation, +convulsions, and execution...." And you will see that if anything were +lacking in the picture, the sheriff's officer is there; there, too, is +the Jew who has seized and sold her furniture to satisfy the caprices of +this woman; and the husband is still ignorant of this. Nothing remains +for the unfortunate woman, except death! + +But, said the Public Minister, her death is voluntary; this woman died +in her own time. + +But how could she live? Was she not condemned? Had she not drunk to the +last dregs her shame and baseness? + +Yes, upon our stage we show women who have strayed (and I cannot say +what they have done) as happy, charming and smiling. _Questam corpore +facerant_. I limit myself to this remark: When they show them to us +happy, charming, enveloped in muslin, presenting a gracious hand to +counts, marquises and dukes, often responding themselves to the name of +countess or duchess, you call that respecting public morals. But the man +who depicts the adulterous woman dying a shameful death, commits an +outrage against public morals! + +Now, I do not wish to say it is not your opinion that you have +expressed, since you have expressed it, but you have yielded to a +prejudice. No, it cannot be you, the husband, the father of a family, +the man who is there, it is not you, that is not possible; without the +prejudice of the speech of the prosecution and a preconceived idea, you +would never say that M. Flaubert was the author of a bad book! Surely, +left to your inspirations, your appreciation would be the same as +mine. I do not speak from a literary point of view; but from a moral and +religious standard, as you understand it and I understand it, you and I +could not differ. + +They have said, furthermore, that we have brought upon the scene a +materialistic curate. We took the curate as we took the husband. He is +not an eminent ecclesiastic, but an ordinary priest, a country +curate. And as we have insulted no one, expressed no thought or +sentiment that could be injurious to a husband, so we have insulted no +ecclesiastic. I have only a word to say beyond this. Do you wish to +read books in which ecclesiastics play a deplorable rôle? Take _Gil +Blas_, _The Canon_ (of Balzac), _Nôtre-Dame de Paris_ of Victor Hugo. If +you wish to read of priests who are the shame of the clergy, seek them +elsewhere, for you will not find them in _Madame Bovary_. What have we +shown? A country curate, who in his function of country curate is, like +M. Bovary, an ordinary man. Have I represented him as a gourmand, a +libertine, or a drunkard? I have not said a word of that kind. I have +represented him fulfilling his ministry, not with elevated intelligence, +but as his nature allowed him to fulfill it. I have put in contact with +him, and in an almost continual state of discussion, a type which +lives--as the creatures of M. Prudhomme live--as all other creations of +our time will live who are taken from truth and which it is not possible +for one to forget, and that is the country pharmacist, the Voltairean, +the sceptic, the incredulous man, who is in a perpetual quarrel with the +curate. But in these quarrels, who is it that is beaten, buffeted, and +ridiculed? It is Homais; to him is the most comic rôle given, because he +is the most true, because he best paints our sceptical epoch, a fury +whom we call a priest-hater. Permit me still to read to you page 206. It +is the good woman of the inn who offers something to her curate: + +"'What can I do for you, Monsieur le Curé?' asked the landlady, as she +reached down from the chimney one of the copper candlesticks placed with +their candles in a row. 'Will you take something? A thimbleful of +_cassis_? A glass of wine?' + +"The priest declined very politely. He had come for his umbrella, that +he had forgotten the other day at the Ernemont convent, and after asking +Madame Lefrançois to have it sent to him at the presbytery in the +evening, he left for the church, from which the Angelus was ringing. + +"When the chemist no longer heard the noise of his boots along the +square, he thought the priest's behavior just now very unbecoming. This +refusal to take any refreshment seemed to him the most odious hypocrisy; +all priests tippled on the sly, and were trying to bring back the days +of the tithe. + +"The landlady took up the defense of her curé. + +"'Besides, he could double up four men like you over his knee. Last year +he helped our people to bring in the straw; he carried as many as six +trusses at once, he is so strong.' + +"'Bravo!' said the chemist. 'Now just send your daughters to confess to +fellows with such a temperament! I, if I were the Government, I'd have +the priests bled once a month. Yes, Madame Lefrançois, every month--a +good phlebotomy, in the interests of the police and morals.' + +"'Be quiet, Monsieur Homais. You are an infidel; you've no religion.' + +"The chemist answered: 'I have a religion, my religion, and I even have +more than all these others with their mummeries and their juggling. I +adore God, on the contrary. I believe in the Supreme Being, in a +Creator, whatever he may be. I care little who has placed us here below +to fulfill our duties as citizens and fathers of families; but I don't +need to go to church to kiss silver plates, and fatten, out of my +pocket, a lot of good-for-nothings who live better than we do. For one +can know him as well in a wood, in a field, or even contemplating the +eternal vault like the ancients. My God! mine is the God of Socrates, +of Franklin, of Voltaire, and Béranger! I am for the profession of faith +of the 'Savoyard Vicar,' and the immortal principles of '89! And I can't +admit of an old boy of a God who takes walks in his garden with a cane +in his hand, who lodges his friends in the belly of whales, dies +uttering a cry, and rises again at the end of three days; things absurd +in themselves, and completely opposed, moreover, to all physical laws, +Which proves to us, by the way, that priests have always wallowed in +torpid ignorance, in which they would fain engulf the people with them.' + +"He ceased looking round for an audience, for in his bubbling over the +chemist had for a moment fancied himself in the midst of the town +council. But the landlady no longer heeded him; she was listening to a +distant rolling." + +What is this? A dialogue, a scene such as occurred each time that Homais +had occasion to speak of priests. + +There is something better in the last passage of page 271: + +"Public attention was distracted by the appearance of Monsieur +Bournisien, who was going across the market with the holy oil. + +"Homais, as we due to his principles, compared priests to ravens +attracted by the odour of death. The sight of an ecclesiastic was +personally disagreeable to him, for the cassock made him think of the +shroud, and he detested the one from some fear of the other." + +Our old friend, he who lent us the catechism, was very happy over this +phrase; he said to us: "It is a true hit; it is indeed the portrait of a +_priestophobe_ whom the cassock makes think of a shroud, and who holds +one in execration from a little fear of the other." He was impious, and +he profaned the cassock a little through impiety, perhaps, but much more +because he was made to think of a shroud. + +Permit me to make a _résumé_ of all this. I am defending a man who, if +he had met a literary criticism upon the form of his book, or upon +certain expressions, or on too much detail, upon one point or another, +would have accepted that literary criticism with the best heart in the +world. But to find himself accused of an outrage against morals and +religion! M. Flaubert has not recovered from it; and he protests here +before you with all the astonishment and all the energy of which he is +capable against such an accusation. + +You are not of the sort to condemn books upon certain lines, you are of +the sort to judge after reflection, to judge of the way of putting a +work, and you will put this question with which I began my plea and with +which I shall end it: Does the reading of such a book give a love of +vice, or inspire a horror of it? Does not a punishment so terrible drive +one to virtue and encourage it? The reading of this book cannot produce +upon you an impression other than it has produced upon us, namely: that +the work is excellent as a whole, and that the details in it are +irreproachable. All classic literature authorizes the painting of +scenes like these we are passing upon. + +With this understanding, we might have taken one for a model, which we +have not done; we have imposed upon ourselves a sobriety which we ask +you to take into account. If, as is possible, M. Flaubert has +overstepped the bound he placed for himself, in one word or another, I +have only to remind you that this is a first work, but I should then +have to tell you that his error was simply one of self-deception, and +was without damage to public morals. And in making him come into +Court--him, whom you know a little now by his book, him whom you already +love a little and will love more, I am sure, when you know him +better--is enough of a punishment, a punishment already too cruel. And +now it is for you to decide. You have already judged the book as a whole +and in its details; it is not possible for you to hesitate! + + * * * * * + +THE DECISION + + +The Court has given audience for a part of the last week to the debate +of the suit brought against MM. Léon Laurent-Pichat and Auguste-Alexis +Pillet, the first the director, the second the printer of a periodical +publication called the _Revue de Paris_, and M. Gustave Flaubert, a man +of letters, all three implicated: 1st, Laurent-Pichat, for having, in +1856, published in the numbers of the 1st and the 15th of December of +the _Revue de Paris_, some fragments of a romance entitled, _Madame +Bovary_ and, notably, divers fragments contained in pages 73, 77, 78, +272, 273, has committed the misdemeanor of outraging public and +religious morals and established customs; 2nd, Pillet and Flaubert are +similarly guilty; Pillet in printing them, for they were published, and +Flaubert for writing and sending to Laurent-Pichat for publication, the +fragments of the romance entitled, _Madame Bovary_ as above designated, +for aiding and abetting, with knowledge, Laurent-Pichat in the facts +which have been prepared, in facilitating and consummating the +above-mentioned misdemeanor, and of thus rendering themselves +accomplices in the misdeameanor provided for by articles 1 and 8 of the +law of May 17, 1819, and 59 and 60 of the Penal Code. + +M. PINARD, substitute, has sustained the prosecution. + +The COURT, after hearing the defense, presented by M. SENARD for +M. FLAUBERT, M. DEMAREST for PICHAT, and M. FAVÉRIE for the PRINTER, +has set for audience this day (Feb. 7) for pronouncing judgment, which +is rendered in the following terms: + +"_Be it known_, that Laurent-Pichat, Gustave Flaubert and Pillet are +charged with having committed the misdemeanor of an outrage against +public and religious morals and established customs; the first as +author, in publishing in the periodical publication entitled the _Revue +de Paris_ of which he is the manager-proprietor, and in the numbers of +the 1st and 15th of October, the 1st and 15th of November and the 1st +and 15th of December, 1856, a romance entitled _Madame Bovary_, Gustave +Flaubert and Pillet as accomplices, the one for furnishing the +manuscript, and the other for printing the said romance; + +"_Be it known_, that the particularly marked passages of the romance +with which we have to do, which include nearly 300 pages, are contained, +according to the terms of the ordinance of dismissal before the Court of +Correction, in pages 73, 77 and 78 (of the number of the 1st of +December), and 271, 272, 273 (of the 15th of December number, 1856); + +"_Be it known_, that the incriminated passages, viewed abstractively and +isolatedly, present effectively either expressions, or images, or +pictures which good taste reproves and which are of a nature to make an +attack upon legitimate and honorable susceptibilities; + +"_Be it known_, that the same observations can justly be applied to +other passages not defined by the ordinance of dismissal, and which, in +the first place seem to present an exposition of theories which would at +least be contrary to the good customs and institutions which are the +basis of our society, as well as to a respect for the most august +ceremonies of divine worship; + +"_Be it known_, that, from these diverse titles, the work brought before +the Court merits severe blame, since the mission of literature should be +to ornament and recreate the mind by raising the intelligence and +purifying manners, rather than by showing the disgust of vice in +offering a picture of disorder which may exist in our society; + +"_Be it known_, that the defendants, and particularly Gustave Flaubert, +energetically denied the charge brought against them, setting forth that +the romance submitted to the judgment of the Court had an eminently +moral aim; that the author had principally in view the exposing of +dangers which result from an education not appropriate to the sphere in +which one lives, and that, pursuant to this idea, he has shown the +woman, the principal personage in the romance, aspiring towards the +world and a society for which she was not made, unhappy in her modest +condition where she was placed by fate, forgetting first her duties as a +mother, afterward lacking in her duties as a wife, introducing +successively into her house adultery and ruin, and ending miserably by +suicide, after passing through all degrees of the most complete +degradation, having even descended to theft; + +"_Be it known_, that this data, moral without doubt in principle, must +be completed in its development by a certain severity of language and by +a reserve directed especially towards that which touches the exposition +of the pictures and situations which the author has employed in placing +it before the eyes of the public; + +"_Be it known_, that it is not allowed, under pretext of painting +character or local colour, to reproduce the facts, words, and gestures +of the digressions of the personages which a writer gives himself the +mission to paint; that a like system, applied to works of the mind as +well as to productions of the fine arts, would lead to a realism which +would be the reverse of the beautiful and the good, and which, bringing +forth works equally offensive to the eye and to the mind, would commit a +continual outrage against public morals and good manners; + +"_Be it known_, that there are limits which literature, even the +lightest, should not pass, and of which Gustave Flaubert and the +co-indicted have not taken sufficient account; + +"_Be it known_, that the work of which Flaubert is the author, is a work +which appears to be long and seriously elaborated, from a literary point +of view and as a study of character; that the passages coming under the +ordinance for dismissal, as reprehensible as they may be, are few in +number as compared with the extent of the work; that these passages, +either in the ideas they expose, or in the situations they represent, +bring out as a whole the characters which the author wished to paint, +although exaggerated and impregnated with a vulgar realism often +shocking; + +"_Be it known_, that Gustave Flaubert affirms his respect for good +manners, and all that attaches itself to religious morals; that it does +not appear that his book has been written like certain other books, with +the sole aim of giving satisfaction to the sensual passions, to a spirit +of license and debauch, or of ridiculing things which should be held in +the respect of all; + +"That he has done wrong only in losing sight of the rules which every +writer who respects himself ought never to lose sight of, or forget: +that literature, like art, in order to accomplish the good which it is +expected to produce ought only to be chaste and pure in its form and +expression; + +"In the circumstances, _be it known_, that it is not sufficiently proven +that Pichat, Gustave Flaubert and Pillet are guilty of the misdemeanor +with which they are charged; + +"The Court acquits them of the indictment brought against them, and +decrees a dismissal without costs." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Public vs. M. 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