2. ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee?’: John 2:4. Christ’s reply to his mother’s announcement during the wedding at Cana that the wine had run out. Adding ‘Mine hour is not yet come’, he proceeded to perform his first miracle. The abbé Marignan is expressing a popular male isegesis, or biased interpretation, whereby these words are construed to signify some kind of basic antipathy to women on the part of Christ, instead of his revolutionary shift away from contemporary family values.

3. of whom the poet speaks: The poet is Alfred de Vigny (1797–1863) in line 100 of his ‘La Colère de Samson’ (‘The Wrath of Samson’) in which woman, described as both infantile and treacherous, is ‘toujours Dalila!’

4. Ruth and Boaz … holy writ: Ruth, in the Biblical story, though a Moabite foreigner, comes to represent the epitome of filial piety by her devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi. Since Boaz, a much older and more powerful distant relative, marries her, she enjoys his protection and becomes eventually the great-grandmother of David. The abbé Marignan is clearly casting himself here in the role of similar protector to his niece.

AT SEA

First published in 1883 as ‘En mer’.

1. ‘Looks like the black to me’: The fisherman’s term for gangrene.

A MILLION

First published in 1882 as ‘Un million’.

1. to separate the Church from the State: Though total separation between the two did not become law until 1905, since 1880 a number of measures had been taken to limit the role and importance of the clergy in State affairs.

2. Dieudonné: The Bonnins named their child ‘Dieudonné’ meaning ‘God-given’. The name Theodore, the Greek equivalent, is part of the papal as well as the royal tradition, being the name of two seventh-century popes, the first of whom was later canonized.

FEMME FATALE

First published in 1881 as ‘La femme de Paul’.

1. Le Grillon: In reality the Maison Fournaise, a riverside restaurant well known to Maupassant and situated just below the Chatou bridge over the Seine.

2. The owner … red-bearded man of legendary strength: Alphonse Fournaise, proprietor of the above and nicknamed Hercule.

3. La Grenouillère: Literally ‘the frog-pond’. Suburban bathing spot on the Seine near Chatou. Immortalized by Renoir whose roughly contemporary painting of the place bears the same name. Another popular Parisian leisure spot.

4. fiacres: See p. 307, note 6.

5. Saint-Lazare: A prison on the rue de Clichy used mainly for the detention of women.

6. the can-can: Initially banned in public places, the can-can became one of the most popular dances at Parisian caf’-concs or concert cafés. Its most spectacular performances were at the Moulin Rouge where it was danced by La Goulue and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec.

MONSIEUR JOCASTE

First published in 1883. The disturbing nature of this story may account for the fact that, although it was published in Gil Blas in January 1883, Maupassant never included it in any collections of his work.

TWO FRIENDS

First published in 1883 as ‘Deux amis’.