#Auguste Forbin

[thestreamofconsciousness777]

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless: Jehovah will help them and provide them with escape. He will provide them with escape from wicked people and save them, because they have taken refuge in him...

“Blow a horn in Zion, O men, and shout a war cry in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land get agitated; for the day of Jehovah is coming, for it is near! It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick gloom, like light of dawn spread out upon the mountains

“There is a people numerous and mighty; one like it has not been made to exist from the indefinite past, and after it there will be none again to the years of generation after generation. Ahead of it a fire has devoured, and behind it a flame consumes. Like the garden of E’den the land is ahead of it; but behind it is a desolate wilderness, and there has also proved to be nothing thereof escaping.

“Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like steeds is the way they keep running. As with the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains they keep skipping about, as with the sound of a flaming fire that is devouring stubble. It is like a mighty people, drawn up in battle order. Because of it, peoples will be in severe pains. As for all faces, they will certainly collect a glow [of excitement].

“Like powerful men they run. Like men of war they go up a wall. And they go each one in his own ways, and they do not alter their paths. And one another they do not shove. As an able-bodied man in his course, they keep going; and should some fall even among the missiles, the [others] do not break off course.

“Into the city they rush. On the wall they run. On the houses they go up. Through the windows they go in like the thief. Before it [the] land has become agitated, [the] heavens have rocked. Sun and moon themselves have become dark, and the very stars have withdrawn their brightness. And Jehovah himself will certainly give forth his voice before his military force, for his camp is very numerous. For he who is carrying out his word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear-inspiring, and who can hold up under it?”

“And now also,” the utterance of Jehovah is, “come back to me with all YOUR hearts, and with fasting and with weeping and with wailing. And rip apart YOUR hearts, and not YOUR garments; and come back to Jehovah YOUR God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and he will certainly feel regret on account of the calamity. Who is there knowing whether he will turn back and actually feel regret and let remain after it a blessing, a grain offering and a drink offering for Jehovah YOUR God?

“Blow a horn in Zion, O men. Sanctify a time of fasting. Call together a solemn assembly. Gather [the] people together. Sanctify a congregation. Collect [the] old men together. Gather children and those sucking the breasts together. Let [the] bridegroom go forth from his interior room, and [the] bride from her nuptial chamber.

“Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep and say, ‘Do feel sorry, O Jehovah, for your people, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, for nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples: “Where is their God?”’ And Jehovah will be zealous for his land and will show compassion upon his people. And Jehovah will answer and say to his people, ‘Here I am sending to YOU the grain and the new wine and the oil, and YOU people will certainly be satisfied with it; and I shall not make YOU anymore a reproach among the nations. And the northerner I shall put far away from upon YOU, and I shall actually disperse him to a waterless land and desolated waste, with his face to the eastern sea and his rear section to the western sea. And the stink from him will certainly ascend, and the stench from him will keep ascending; for He will actually do a great thing in what He does.’

“Do not be fearful, O ground. Be joyful and rejoice; for Jehovah will actually do a great thing in what He does. Do not be fearful, YOU beasts of the open field, for the pasture grounds of [the] wilderness will certainly grow green. For the tree will actually give its fruitage. The fig tree and the vine must give their vital energy. And, YOU sons of Zion, be joyful and rejoice in Jehovah YOUR God; for he will be bound to give YOU the autumn rain in right measure, and he will bring down upon YOU people a downpour, autumn rain and spring rain, as at the first. And the threshing floors must be full of [cleansed] grain, and the press vats must overflow with new wine and oil. And I will make compensation to YOU for the years that the locust, the creeping, unwinged locust, and the cockroach and the caterpillar have eaten, my great military force that I have sent among YOU. And YOU will certainly eat, eating and becoming satisfied, and YOU will be bound to praise the name of Jehovah YOUR God, who has done with YOU so wonderfully; and my people will not be ashamed to time indefinite. And YOU people will have to know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah YOUR God and there is no other. And my people will not be ashamed to time indefinite.

“And after that it must occur that I shall pour out my spirit on every sort of flesh, and YOUR sons and YOUR daughters will certainly prophesy. As for YOUR old men, dreams they will dream. As for YOUR young men, visions they will see. And even on the menservants and on the maidservants in those days I shall pour out my spirit.

“And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah. And it must occur that everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will prove to be the escaped ones, just as Jehovah has said, and in among the survivors, whom Jehovah is calling.”

“For, look! in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captive ones of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also collect together all the nations and bring them down to the low plain of Je·hosh’a·phat; and I will put myself on judgment with them there on account of my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; and they apportioned out my own land. And for my people they kept casting lots; and they would give the male child for a prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine, that they might drink.

“And, also, what do YOU have to do with me, O Tyre and Si’don and all YOU regions of Phi·lis’ti·a? Is it the treatment that YOU are giving me as a reward? And if YOU are giving such treatment to me, swiftly, speedily I shall pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR heads. Because YOU men have taken my own silver and my own gold, and YOU have brought my own desirable good things into YOUR temples; and the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem YOU have sold to the sons of the Greeks, for the purpose of removing them far from their own territory; here I am arousing them [to come] from the place where YOU have sold them, and I will pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR own heads. And I will sell YOUR sons and YOUR daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they must sell them to the men of She’ba, to a nation far away; for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].

“Proclaim this, YOU people, among the nations, ‘Sanctify war! Arouse the powerful men! Let them draw near! Let them come up, all the men of war! Beat YOUR plowshares into swords and YOUR pruning shears into lances. As for the weak one, let him say: “I am a powerful man.” Lend YOUR aid and come, all YOU nations round about, and collect yourselves together.’” To that place, O Jehovah, bring your powerful ones down.

“Let the nations be aroused and come up to the low plain of Je·hosh’a·phat; for there I shall sit in order to judge all the nations round about.

“THRUST in a sickle, for harvest has grown ripe. Come, descend, for [the] winepress has become full. The press vats actually overflow; for their badness has become abundant. Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision. Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actually withdraw their brightness. And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice. And heaven and earth certainly will rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people, and a fortress for the sons of Israel. And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah YOUR God, residing in Zion my holy mountain. And Jerusalem must become a holy place; and as regards strangers, they will no more pass through her.

“And it must occur in that day that the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the very hills will flow with milk, and the very streambeds of Judah will all flow with water. And out of the house of Jehovah there will go forth a spring, and it must irrigate the torrent valley of the Acacia Trees. As regards Egypt, a desolate waste it will become; and as regards E’dom, a wilderness of desolate waste it will become, because of the violence to the sons of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. But as for Judah, to time indefinite it will be inhabited, and Jerusalem to generation after generation. And I will consider innocent their blood that I had not considered innocent; and Jehovah will be residing in Zion.”

-Joel 2 & 3, NWT

For The Day Of Jehovah Is Coming, For It Is Near!

[mathildeaquisexta]

So, I live in Aix-en-Provence. Since two months, my city was labelled "Ville Impériale" ("Imperial city") which means that important stuff happened here during the Consulate and the Empire and it left some historical and architectural heritage (I will make several posts about them all). And today I will be talking about a mansion and a castle that used to be occupied by princess Pauline Borghèse and Joseph Fouché (not at the same time obviously, that would have been insane lol).

First, the Hôtel de Forbin.

Pauline lived here for some time in 1807 because she fell in love with Auguste de Forbin, whose family owned the place. They stayed there for some time but it was complicated to maintain their secret relationship as the hôtel particulier was literally in the middle of the city's main street, le Cour. So she pretended to be sick and said she needed the fresh air of the countryside. Later, her husband joined her and I don't know if her lover was still there. Did he know ? Was he part of this relationship ? We will never know.

As for Fouché, it was his first home in Aix after his second disgrace in september 1810. He was appointed senator of the city and the people LOVED him, like everyone was in mourning when he left for Ferrières (and keep in mind these people were very religious and nostalgic for the monarchy, they were the first in France to respawn white rosettes out of nowhere when Napoleon was in Elba island). Interesting enough, in the municipal archives’ constitutional and political acts, they called him « His Excellency monsignor Joseph, Duke of Otrante » and just chose to ignore his family name.

Here, a crazy extract from Les Rues d’Aix :

so there basically, people invited by Fouché to celebrate the new year are complaining about the cold nights and fearing the olive trees would die and some noble guy is like « who cares about the olive trees as long as the Duke is fine ! »

Then, the Mignarde castle.

Insane and disgusting stuff happened here because of Pauline's whims. First she "made the frogs and the cicasias shut up" because their sound bothered her (basically she paid men with sticks and they just hit the trees and the lake until all those poor animals left of were k*lled) and then she took a donkey milk bath everyday but it was very expensive so that milk was sold to the city's market when she was done and people realized something was wrong when they poured it in their corn flakes bowl and it weidly smelled of lavender (obviously it was a huge scandal).

And what about Fouché ? Well, he lived there for some months without making scandals, just being the father of the year and walking in his garden holding the hand of his daughter Josephine. Nothing suspicious happening here.

[1five1two]

'Gonzalve of Cordoba seizing the Alhambra of Granada'. Auguste de Forbin. 1831.

[joachimnapoleon]

Meet the Bonapartes: Pauline (3/3)

[Part 1] [Part 2]

Following the untimely death of Leclerc, Pauline’s brothers were anxious to find her a new husband--preferably a politically advantageous one. Napoleon had hoped to marry her to Francesco Melzi d’Eril, a wealthy Milanese nobleman who had just become the Vice President of the Italian republic (Napoleon himself being the president), but Melzi respectfully declined. On August 28, 1803, Pauline was married to twenty-eight-year-old Don Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, Prince of Sulmon and of Rossano, Duke and Prince of Guastalla, who, in the words of Hortense de Beauharnais, “was not particularly clever but good-looking and who possessed a great fortune in Rome.” Napoleon was lukewarm to the match and, like Pauline, quickly came to regard Camillo as “an imbecile” (Napoleon, who adored bestowing derogatory nicknames on people, would also style Camillo as “His Serene Idiot”). The pair had no real chemistry and the marriage turned sour in no time. 

[Camillo Borghese]

In the summer of 1804, however, Camillo, still enthralled by his wife’s beauty, commissioned the sculptor Antonio Canova to immortalize Pauline in white marble. Canova was initially reluctant to accept the commission--until he laid eyes on Pauline in person, after which he agreed to begin working on it within a month. To Canova’s suggestion that he depict her as Diana, the virgin huntress, Pauline laughed, saying “No one would believe in my chastity.” She insisted on being portrayed as Venus, the goddess of love. 

[Canova’s statue of Pauline as Venus Victrix]

It was in August of 1804 that the relationship between Pauline and Camillo ruptured, and it would remain ruptured seemingly past the point of repair for the next twenty years. On the 14th of August, Dermide, Pauline’s only child with Leclerc, died in Rome after falling ill with a fever. Pauline was in Tuscany at the time, trying to reestablish her poor health. The news was first received by Camillo, who, anticipating his wife’s blame, had it kept from her for several days. “Pauline will regard me with horror!” he declared. “Wasn't it I who wanted her to leave her son in Rome? No doubt he would have died anyway, but she is bound to accuse me of his death.” Finally, one of Pauline’s attendants was forced to reveal the news after arousing her suspicions. Pauline raged at Camillo as “the butcher of my son” and ordered him out of her sight. The break between them was complete, and quite public. Pauline viciously hinted to her companions that Camillo was impotent, declaring that "to give oneself to Camillo was to give oneself to no one." She showed no interest in attempting to provide him with an heir, and took great delight in humiliating him by embarking on a series of openly flaunted love affairs. For his part, Camillo soon began a long-term affair with a distant cousin, the Duchessa Lante. From this point, Pauline and Camillo would lead mostly separate lives, until the final months of Pauline’s. Having never truly enjoyed Rome, she now grabbed any opportunity she could find to escape it.

In 1805, she began the first of the only two of her numerous affairs in the aftermath of Leclerc’s death in which she showed a legitimate, deep attachment to her lover. While taking the waters at Plombières, she met an artist, the thirty-year-old Comte de Forbin, and fell madly in love with him. Pauline soon made Forbin her chamberlain, so he could be with her constantly. The affair lasted for the next two years and, writes Pauline’s biographer Margery Weiner, 

was so intense, passionate and almost fatal because her obsession with him was so great that she declined visibly, although nothing would persuade her to detach herself from him; no doubt in temperament Forbin had much in common with Murat.

[The Comte de Forbin]

The eventual decline in her health was so great that a renowned gynecologist, Dr. Hallé, was called in, to consult with Pauline’s personal physician, Peyre. Hallé explained the situation in a letter to Peyre as follows:

Her habitual and constant state is one of uterine excitement and if this state is continued and prolonged it can become alarming. The spasms I saw in her arms were hysteric and so were the headaches. Her general condition is one of exhaustion. I talked to her in general terms about everything which contributed to the uterine irritation and I thought she listened to me but I'm afraid not sufficiently. One cannot always make douches responsible and one must suppose that in a young, pretty, sensitive and solitary woman, who is visibly fading away, there is a constant cause for this decline. Whatever this cause is it is time and more than time to eliminate it.

Napoleon was greatly displeased by the stories reaching him in Paris of his sister’s behavior in Rome. “Do not count on me for help,” he wrote to her, “if at your age you let yourself be governed by bad advice,” adding that if she continued to quarrel with Camillo, “France will be closed to you.” For good measure, he had their uncle Cardinal Fesch, write to Pauline to tell her, “on my behalf, that she is no longer pretty, that she will be much less so in a few years, and... she should not indulge in those bad manners which the bon ton reproves.”

Pauline’s affair with Forbin ended only when Forbin accepted an appointment in the army--whether at his own request, or at the insistence of Napoleon, remains unclear. Pauline soon moved on to other amusements. While staying in Nice during the winter of 1807-8, a young violinist, Felice Blangini, caught Pauline’s wandering eye. Pauline offered him the post of her chef d’orchestra (she had no orchestra). Blangini was a shy man, of a much humbler station than his predecessor Forbin, and found his suddenly elevation vaguely terrifying. "I knew,” he wrote later, “that the Emperor was kept informed of what his sister did, the names of her intimates.” But he lacked the will to stand up to Pauline, and submitted to being paraded around by her in public. It was with considerable relief on Blangini’s part that the affair was abruptly ended when Napoleon appointed Camillo governor-general of the Transalpine Department of the French Empire, and ordered him and Pauline to travel to Turin together to take up the seat. 

Pauline, disgusted at finding herself shackled to Camillo once more, made the journey to Turin as quarrelsome as possible. At one point she reminded her husband "in a not very amiable fashion that he was only governor-general by virtue of being her husband, and that he would be nothing if he had not married the Emperor's sister. Which," recounts Maxime de Villemarest, the secretary who accompanied the pair, "had some truth in it." To which Camillo responded in "the most piteous manner" (in the words of de Villemarest) with cries of "Paulette! Paulette!"

By mid-1808 she had already found a way to escape from Camillo and Turin (she insisted to Napoleon that the climate was bad for her health) and was back in France once more. Added to her delight was an increase of her income by Napoleon to six hundred thousand francs, a sum that Napoleon rendered off-limits to Camillo. In Paris she presided regularly over balls and cercles, and in no time had resumed her position as one of the central figures in Parisian society. In the words of one of her neighbors, Stanislas de Girardin, 

Pauline Borghese was then in the full brilliance of her beauty. Men pressed about her to admire her, to pay court. And she enjoyed this homage as her due. In the glances she exchanged with some of them, indeed, there was a recognition of past favors granted or hints of romance to come. Few women have savored more the pleasure of being beautiful.

She was one of the few people in whom Napoleon found comfort following his divorce with Josephine--an event which pleased Pauline greatly--in December of 1809. She was less pleased at Napoleon’s choice for a new bride--the teenage archduchess Marie-Louise--and sulked with her sisters over having to carry the bride’s train at the imperial wedding. The Countess Potocka has left this innuendo-laden description of Pauline from around this time (the italics are hers):

Princess Pauline Borghese was a type of classical beauty to be found in Greek statues. Despite the things she did which hastened the ravages of time, in the evening, by the aid of a little artifice, she captured all suffrages, and not a woman would have dared to dispute her the apple which Canova awarded her after unveiled contemplation, as it was said. To the most delicate and regular features imaginable she added an admirable figure too often admired. Thanks to so many graces, her wit passed unnoticed; nothing but her gallantries were spoken of, and certainly they gave plenty of matter for discussion.

After brief liaisons with Russian general Prince Alexander Tchernitcheff and Polish general (and future Marshal) Józef Poniatowski, Pauline embarked on her second of the two aforementioned love affairs in which she genuinely seems to have fallen for her partner. This time, her lover was a young hussar from Berthier’s staff named Jules de Canouville, who became fiercely devoted to her. At Pauline’s request, Napoleon made de Canouville a baron, but the young man (and his affair with Pauline) soon incurred the Emperor’s wrath. Napoleon sent him to Marshal Masséna in Spain, bearing dispatches (and a secret order to Masséna to keep the young man in Spain until further notice). It didn’t go quite as Napoleon had planned. Pauline’s biographer Fraser describes de Canouville’s journey:

Even in the midst of this duty, de Canouville thought only of Pauline. Knowing that, with her, to be absent was to be soon forgotten, he covered 170 relays at a gallop, a distance of over seven hundred miles, and arrived a few days later, covered in mud, at headquarters in Salamanca. There he learned that the supply lines to Portugal were cut and resolved to return the next day to Paris with the news, rather than pursue his quarry further.  An hour without Pauline, he said, was a desert, and he whiled away the evening while telling all who would listen that Napoleon had charged him with his mission only by way of vengeance.

[Jules de Canouville]

In 1812, he departed with the Grande Armée for Russia, where he served on the staff of Pauline’s brother-in-law Murat, who kept Pauline apprised of de Canouville’s whereabouts--and also informed her of his death at the battle of Borodino on 7 September. News of de Canouville’s death hit Pauline hard. “Apparently this braggart cavalier,” writes Fraser, “with his joie de vivre and optimism, had touched in Pauline some chord that her other, more sophisticated lovers had not. Weeks later Pauline's librarian and confidant Ferrand wrote: 'She does nothing but cry, she doesn't eat, and her health is altered.'"

She remained at Nice throughout 1813 and into 1814, her health continuing to decline, and her anxieties over the future of her brother’s reign mounting. She made efforts to prepare her finances for any potential catastrophe that might befall the family, but evinced no concern for her personal safety. When Napoleon was finally defeated and forced to abdicate in April of 1814, Pauline prepared to join him in exile on the island of Elba--after first going to Naples. She stayed in Naples from June through October, residing in a villa loaned to her during this period by her sister Caroline, the Queen of Naples, and reportedly helping to broker a reconciliation between Napoleon and the Murats, though there is no trace of any correspondence between Napoleon and his brother-in-law from this period. She also worked to quickly sell off her remaining properties in France, rather than risk having them sequestered by the Bourbons. Her final property, Neuilly--formerly belonging to the Murats--was sold to the British government, to serve as the residence of the newly-appointed ambassador to the court of Louis XVIII, the Duke of Wellington.

Pauline finally joined Napoleon on Elba in November of 1814, the only one of his siblings to do so. Her presence delighted Napoleon, and this delight in turn gave renewed life in the British tabloids to the long-recurring rumors of an affair between Napoleon and Pauline. At any rate, Napoleon soon began to fall into a state of depression, which Pauline worked to cure by arranging various balls and other entertainments to keep him occupied. She apparently attempted to coax multiple generals into affairs on Elba, and was turned down repeatedly, and Napoleon’s Mameluke servant Ali was highly critical of her conduct. Displeased with Napoleon’s plans to escape the island and return to France, she confided to Marchand both a diamond necklace for Napoleon to sell if he needed money, and her fear that she would never see her brother again. She was proven correct.

When it became known that the Allies intended to exile Napoleon to Saint Helena after his defeat at Waterloo, Pauline wrote to the Pope to request asylum in Rome. It was granted (partly on account of her brother Louis, now residing there himself, arguing on her behalf) and she made the journey in October. Like the rest of the Bonaparte siblings, she would remain, until the death of Napoleon, under heavy surveillance by multiple governments. The further intervention of the Pope ended a dispute between Camillo and Pauline which enabled Pauline to return to the Palazzo Borghese. Pauline received many British visitors here while Napoleon was on Saint Helena, and tried to charm as many influential Whigs as she could, knowing that they were sympathetic to Napoleon’s situation. As the years passed, reports of Napoleon's deteriorating health caused Pauline great anxiety, affecting her own health in turn. Visitors described her as "much altered" and "grown thin." The Canova statue--and its obvious contrast with her own now diminished figure--suddenly brought about in her a marked insecurity, to the point where Pauline eventually asked Camillo not to show it off to visitors anymore, using the absurd excuse that "the nudity of the statue approaches indecency." 

News of Napoleon's death in 1821 left Pauline both heartbroken and outraged. As she had following the death of Dermide, she lashed out for a scapegoat, finding it this time in the English people as a whole. “I have made a vow to receive no more of the English. Without exception they are all butchers." To Hortense she wrote, "I cannot accustom myself to the idea that I will never see him again. I am in despair. Adieu. For me life has no more charm, all is finished."

She fell deathly ill in Rome in late 1823, but recovered enough to continue to charm visitors and dance at soirees again the following year. Another reconciliation was affected with Camillo (this one also via the Pope), and Pauline moved back into the Palazzo Borghese--this time for good--in 1824. Surprisingly, their relationship seemed at last to be taking a genuinely positive turn, even inspiring a local poet “to write an ode on the subject of their matrimonial felicity."

In the spring 1825, Pauline's health began to fail for the final time. She suffered greatly--her bedchamber woman writing later that Pauline had been in pain for over eighty days. Her last letter was written to her brother Louis in Rome on 13 May 1825. "I do nothing but vomit and suffer, I am reduced to a shadow. They are repairing the street and I can't stand the awful noise. The Prince is going to take a villa in the suburbs here where we shall spend the month of May. It is impossible in the state in which I am to think of going to the villa in Lucca.... Embrace Mamma and I send a thousand good wishes to the family. I am ill, ill, but I embrace you." She also confirmed herself as a devout Catholic. "I die without any feelings of hatred or animosity against anyone, in the principles of the faith and doctrine of the apostolic church, and in piety and resignation." She died on 9 June 1825; a stomach tumor was attributed as her cause of death, as it had been for her father.

“Her greatest quality,” writes Margery Weiner, “was hidden except from those who knew her best; lovable herself, she was capable of the greatest devotion.... Not as Queen of Hearts, not as a woman given over to frivolity, narcissism and promiscuity should Pauline Bonaparte be remembered, but as a perfect example of a devoted and loving sister.”

***

Sources:

Broers, Michael. Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny. 2014.

Broers, Michael. Napoleon: The Spirit of the Age, 1805-1810. 2018.

De Beauharnais, Hortense. The Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Vol I (ebook, 2016)

Fraser, Flora. Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte, 2009.

Roberts, Andrews. Napoleon: A Life. 2014.

Stryienski, Casimir (ed.), Memoirs of Countess Potocka, 1900.

Weiner, Margery. The Parvenue Princesses: Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline Bonaparte. 1964.

[zeida49]

     ...حفل عربى - القاهره عام 1817 للفنان الفرنسى لويس نيكولاس فيليب اغسطس دو فوربن ..By Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin - French , 1779 - 1841

[ltwilliammowett]

Boarding of a Dutch ship by Jean Bart, June 29, 1694 during the Battle of Texel by François-Auguste Biard 1843

Jean Bart, or as he probably really was called Jan Baert, was born on 21 October 1650 in Dunkerque, † 27 April 1702 Dunkerque and he was a privateer from Flanders in the service of the French King Louis XIV. He hired in 1662 at the age of twelve as a ship’s boy on a smuggler, was at the age of 16 a leading officer and took part in the Dutch navy under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in a caper voyage against Great Britain. He fought under de Ruyter’s command in the four-day battle. When Louis XIV waged war against Holland in 1672, Bart returned to France and received royal letters of marque, as he could not actually assume an officer’s career due to his low background. A career as a patented buccaneer followed within the French fleet.

In 1689 he was captured by the English during a convoy. Together with his lieutenant Claude de Forbin and 20 sailors, he was able to flee the port of Plymouth a short time later and reach St. Malo on a stolen boat after three days of rowing.

In 1694, after his victory in the Battle of the Sea at Texel, he succeeded in freeing a convoy of grain from Scandinavian ships destined for France from Dutch hands.

For this act Bart was beaten to the Chevalier de St. Louis and raised to the nobility. After his successes and now finally a nobleman, Jean Bart became squadron commander (Rear Admiral) of the French fleet in 1696. In 1697 he commanded the unsuccessful expedition to Gdansk, the aim of which was to install Louis-François de Bourbon, prince de Conti, as successor to the late Polish king Johann Sobieski.

At the age of 51, the 2.04 metre high Jean Bart died of influenza on 27 April 1702 and found his final place on the cemetery of St Eloi’s Church in Dunkerque 

[thisdayinphishtory]

30 years ago: Townshend Family Park - Townshend, VT - 1989

Phish • August 26, 1989 • Townshend Family Park • Townshend, VT

Set 1: Fluffhead, Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Harry Hood, Split Open and Melt, Divided Sky, You Enjoy Myself -> Possum

Set 2: The Fishin' Hole > Bold As Love, Ya Mar, Slave to the Traffic Light, AC/DC Bag, Donna Lee, Funky Bitch > Foam, David Bowie

Set 3: The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu, Suzy Greenberg, Dinner and a Movie, Run Like an Antelope

Encore: Contact, The Lizards, La Grange

Apparently Fish got a speeding ticket on the way to the show and someone else had to set up his drum set. The Hood intro featured an Odd Couple theme tease from Page. The Fishin' Hole (aka The Andy Griffith Show theme) started with the band whistling and ended with the audience whistling to the band’s accompaniment! Slave was introduced by Mike as being written by Pete Rose; Avenu Malkenu was subsequently announced as a song written by “Pete Rose and God.” Donna Lee contained an Entrance of the Gladiators tease from Trey, the Bowie intro contained If I Were a Rich Man teases, and Antelope included a Paint it Black tease. This show was officially released as Live Phish 09.

[blprompt]

Image taken from page 35 of 'Souvenirs de la Sicile. (Le Rajah de Bednoure, histoire indienne.)'

Image taken from: Title: "Souvenirs de la Sicile. (Le Rajah de Bednoure, histoire indienne.)" Author: Forbin, (Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste) - Comte de Shelfmark: "British Library HMNTS 10151.dd.14." Page: 35 Place of Publishing: Paris Date of Publishing: 1823 Issuance: monographic Identifier: 001267134 Explore: Find this item in the British Library catalogue, 'Explore'. Download the PDF for this book (volume: 0) Image found on book scan 35 (NB not necessarily a page number) Download the OCR-derived text for this volume: (plain text) or (json) Click here to see all the illustrations in this book and click here to browse other illustrations published in books in the same year. Order a higher quality version from here. from BLPromptBot http://ift.tt/2nvopP5

[phishbase]

1991 Recommended

A Note on 1991: I think it’s fair to say 1996 is collectively thought of as the the ur-transition year for Phish, where they pivoted from the quirky New England cult band that stumbled into an arena size following, into the streamlined cosmic rock unit that sold out said hockey rinks and sheds from coast to coast until that epoch came to an end when it all unraveled a few years later. Until I listened to 1991 I understood this to be true.

Now though, I’d argue that 1991 was the O.G. transition year. One that unfolds in three distinct tours that, when it’s all said and done, nudged the band’s course away from the controlled and composed style that dominates ‘89 through the summer of ‘91, towards the more wide open set lists and chaotic improvisations that won’t fully bloom until the late summer of ‘93. 

With that in mind, the Fall 1991 tour deserves mention because this is when they re-opened the door that they closed in ‘88 after some fairly amateurish attempts at open improv in their early history. Re-visit performances like the wide open transition from TMWSIY>David Bowie on 10/24/91, the form breaking Weekapaug from 11/8/91, the On Broadway jam in Weekapaug at the Sommerville Theatre on 11/21/91 and the expansive YEM from 11/24/91 at Dartmouth, where they crack open the composed intro, a crevice that will eventually be filled by what we’ve come to know as the nirvana section. 

Fall ‘91 isn’t a classic tour by any stretch. There are few top-to-bottom gigs for your consideration, and similar to the aforementioned other great transition year, the highs they do reach are soon to be topped by what is just around the corner. By the time April of 1992 rolls around the band will be hitting peaks that put the previous fall in the rear view. 

Recommended Shows:

3/17/91 Wheeler Opera House, Aspen, CO

One of the chattiest gigs in Phish history, with warm callbacks to the Colorado ‘88 tour and good natured ribbing re: Fish getting lost either tripping or hiking in Telluride. Musically the show climbs the heights as well, with ripping long sustain from Trey in Foam, wondrous nirvana jamming in the rare at this point Slave To The Traffic Light and a raunchy, mid-2nd set Tweezer. 

4/19/91 Nietzsche’s, Buffalo, NY

The band’s only visit to the venue named for the German philosopher. The second set is the pick here, and may be the best one of the whole spring. Check the fierce bliss release of the Harry Hood opener, follow it straight through the platonic ideal of that classic ‘91 combo of Landlady>Destiny and stay for the quiet/loud A-Train, Antelope set closer. Bonus comes in the form of the 1st onstage mention of the classic band “Guyser” inside joke. 

4/21/91 SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY

Phish celebrates earth day on the New York/Canada border. A front loaded show, with the fireworks coming in the 1st set in the form of an elliptical outro in Divided Sky, active and abnormal Trey moves in Foam, and a scenic Ac/Dc Bag. 2nd frame has it moments too: upwelling arepeggios in the normally arpeggio-less Possum to open the set, an earth day centered Forbins narration and saucy bass bombs in the Harry Hood intro.

5/17/91 Campus Club, Providence, RI

A hot, hot show, literally and figuratively. The a.c. goes out for the night during the Chalk Dust opener, after the venue blows a fuse and can only recover enough power to feed the band. On the figurative front: this is the best beginning to end show of the spring. Whole 1st set builds towards a late Mike’s Groove. Trey develops a patient and repetitive motif and then hammers it home for a thundering and intense crowd-fed peak. Other half of the show is just as locked in, with a Mississippi Queen easter egg in Bike, a happy birthday tribute to Page, and a peak in Harry Hood that would be the crest of any other show of the Spring if it weren’t for that Weekapaug.

7/23/91 The Bayou, Washington D.C.

It’s tough to single out a given show from “The Horn Tour.” They are all remarkably consistent from night to night, if a tad repetitive when listened to in one whole block. For me, this night at The Bayou, an underrated Phish venue if there ever was one, hits the sweet spot of the seven piece unit tightening up after the initial run of show combined with harnessing the energy of the indoor venue where the crowd always seemed to bring it at every show the band played there.

8/3/91 Amy’s Farm, Auburn, ME

You know a show is a stone cold classic in band lore when it only has to be mentioned from fan to fan as simply “Amy’s Farm” and you know exactly what it is. The precursor to the modern Phish Festival that will arrive 5 years later, the band threw this free three set party as a thank you to their fans for their 8th anniversary. “Go wild because no one is going to stop you here”~Trey. Do i need to say more?

10/24/91 Hotel St. Michael, Prescott, AZ

In terms of Phish geography at this point in their career, this is the middle of nowhere-a supposedly haunted venue in the southwest college town. Easily one of the shows of the fall, musical highlights abound: an effortless Divided Sky cracks open the 1st set. Open improv from TMWSIY of all places, as it makes an interstitial transition into David Bowie. There is no slowdown after set break either. First, a tense Mike’s Groove to open and later, two large bust outs for the era: the first Tube since 11/90 and the final Slave To The Traffic Light until the infamous Cincinnati Zoo show in August ‘93. 

Hon. Mention: 10/13/91, 10/31/91, 11/30/91, 12/31/91

Recommended Tracks: 

2/3/91 David Bowie, Bouncing Around The Room 

2/8/91 Run Like An Antelope

2/14/91 Reba

2/22/91 Run Like An Antelope

3/8/91 Tweezer>Dave’s Energy Guide>Tweezer 

3/22/91 Run Like An Antelope

3/23/91 Chalk Dust Torture

4/4/91 David Bowie

4/12/91 Good Times Bad Times

4/15/91 Mike’s Groove

4/16/91 Paul and Silas

4/19/91 Harry Hood, Landlady>Destiny

4/21/91 Divided Sky, Foam, Ac/Dc Bag

4/26/91 Harry Hood

4/27/91 Reba

5/3/91 You Enjoy Myself

5/12/91 Destiny Unbound

5/17/91 Weekapaug Groove, Harry Hood

7/13/91 You Enjoy Myself

7/15/91 Dinner And A Movie

9/26/91 Divided Sky

9/27/91 Buried Alive

9/29/91 You Enjoy Myself, Reba

10/4/91 Chalk Dust Torture, Reba, David Bowie

10/10/91 Runaway Jim, Brother

10/12/91 Esther

10/13/91 Weekapaug Groove, David Bowie

10/17/91 You Enjoy Myself

10/18/91 Wilson>Llama, Run Like An Antelope, Split Open and Melt

10/19/91 My Sweet One

10/24/91 Divided Sky, TMWSIY>David Bowie

10/31/91 Brother, Foam, You Enjoy Myself, Runaway Jim

11/8/91 Weekapaug Groove

11/9/91 Terrapin

11/13/91 Possum

11/14/91 Llama, Tube, Roll Like A Cantaloupe

11/21/91 Weekapaug Groove

11/22/91 Stash

11/24/91 Fluffhead, You Enjoy Myself

11/30/91 You Enjoy Myself

12/5/91 Tube

12/31/91 Stash, Llama

[perelachaisecoletteproject]

Crédits

n.d.

Adcock, Patrick. Colette. 2013. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.fiu.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=fad0fe1c-a063-405b-ae86-24f050411b9e%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=88801451&db=ers>.

Allott, Philip. Invisible Power: A Philosophical Adventure Story. 2005.

Gilmour, Jane. Colette's France: her lives, her loves. Melbourne, London: hardie grant books, 2013.

Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d'honneur. The Legion of Honor is... n.d. <http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/en/page/legion-honor-10-questions/406>.

Isard, Holly. "Lessons We Can Learn from Colette." AnOther 3 August 2015.

Mills, Ian C. HEMINGWAY'S PARIS ~ Part 2. n.d. <http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Paris_Hemingway2.shtml)>.

Pichois, Claude and Roberte Forbin. Colette de l'Académire Goncourt: Lettres a ses Pairs. Paris: Flammarion, Éditeur, n.d.

Scriptorium. Willy [Colette] Claudine à l’école Claudine à Paris Claudine en ménage Claudine s’en va. n.d. <https://www.scriptorium-albi.com/product/books/literature/classicism/willy-colette-claudine-a-lecoleclaudine-a-parisclaudine-menageclaudine-sen-va/>.

"Sidonie." 1885. gettyimages. <https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/3244946 >.

Unknown. File:Colette and Mathilde “Missy” de Morny.jpg . n.d. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colette_and_Mathilde_“Missy”_de_Morny.jpg>.

[wmathison]

RT @GringoTJ: @wmathison We were able to disconnect Hal, but the Forbin project and Skynet will be a little more difficult.

We were able to disconnect Hal, but the Forbin project and Skynet will be a little more difficult.

— Richard Hartley (@GringoTJ) August 14, 2017

via Twitter https://twitter.com/wmathison August 14, 2017 at 12:19AM

[takemetomountains]

Auguste Forbin, view of Jerusalem from the valley of Jehoshaphat oil on canvas  in 1825 

[thisdayinphishtory]

8 years ago: UIC Pavilion, University of Illinois - Chicago, IL - 2011

Phish • August 17, 2011 • UIC Pavilion, University of Illinois • Chicago, IL

Set 1: Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Gumbo > Possum, Weigh > Divided Sky, Alaska, Bathtub Gin, Maze, Cavern > First Tube

Set 2: Crosseyed and Painless -> No Quarter > Timber (Jerry The Mule) > Tweezer > Prince Caspian > Piper > Ghost -> Makisupa Policeman[1] > Sleep > Buffalo Bill, Golgi Apparatus > Character Zero[2] > Run Like an Antelope[3]

Encore: Funky Bitch, Show of Life > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Lyrics referenced Trey's favorite music ("Dank Sinatra," "Herby Hancock," "Nat King Bowl", "Harry Chronic, Jr.," and "Van Inhalin'"), as well as Page's House and Mike's House. [2] Page's House reference. [3] Fish's House reference.

This show featured the first Forbin's opener since November 3, 1989 (1,249 shows). Timber, Piper and Zero all contained Crosseyed teases and quotes. Tweezer contained Tweezer Reprise and the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (aka Wild Signals) teases from Trey, and a DEG tease from Page. The Makisupa lyrics referenced Trey's favorite music ("Dank Sinatra," "Herbie Hancock," "Nat King Bowl'," Harry Chronic, Jr.," and "Van Inhalin'"), as well as Page's House and Mike's House. Sleep was played for the first time since August 7, 2009 (105 shows). Character Zero contained a reference to Page's House. Antelope contained Crosseyed teases and a Fish's House reference. Funky Bitch and Tweezer Reprise also contained Crosseyed quotes.

[thisdayinphishtory]

10 years ago: The Comcast Theatre - Hartford, CT - 2009

Phish • August 14, 2009 • The Comcast Theatre • Hartford, CT

Set 1: Punch You in the Eye, AC/DC Bag > NICU, Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Birds of a Feather, Lawn Boy, Stash, I Didn't Know, Middle of the Road, Character Zero

Set 2: Down with Disease[1] > Wilson > Slave to the Traffic Light, Piper > Water in the Sky, Ghost -> Psycho Killer -> Catapult -> Icculus[2] > You Enjoy Myself

Encore: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

[1] Unfinished. [2] Narration centered on the fact that "you crazy kids" just don't read anymore.

This show featured the first versions of Forbin’s and Mockingbird since September 30, 2000 (96 shows), which were performed without narration. During I Didn’t Know, Trey introduced Fish as “Recent Julliard Master’s Vacuum Program graduate, the one and only, Jon Moses Quagmire DeWitt Hampton.” DWD contained a Reba jam and was unfinished. Piper included a Spill the Wine tease from Page. This show featured the first Psycho Killer since December 7, 1997 (282 shows). Psycho Killer was unfinished and disintegrated into a self-described, electronic “Pong” jam. During the post-Psycho Killer “Pong” jam, Trey initiated a dance contest saying that whoever could best dance to that music would “win something.”  After Catapult (while continuing the “Pong” jam), Trey asked, “Does everybody else love this song as much as I do?” and said that he was “waiting for the day when they play stuff like this on the radio.”  Icculus was last performed on July 18, 1999 (193 shows). The Icculus narration centered on the fact that “you crazy kids” just don’t read anymore.  The “Pong” jam reappeared during the YEM jam. The soundcheck included a jam with lyrics that were made up on the fly with Trey on bass (so that Mike could check on bass sounds from the audience) and Fish on drums. Trey briefly quoted Spill the Wine and The Pendulum during the soundcheck jam.

[thisdayinphishtory]

22 years ago: Darien Lake Performing Arts Center - Darien Center, NY - 1997

Phish • August 14, 1997 • Darien Lake Performing Arts Center • Darien Center, NY

Set 1: Ya Mar, Funky Bitch > Fluffhead, Limb By Limb, Free, Cars Trucks Buses, Tela > Train Song > Billy Breathes, Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture, Love Me, Sparkle > Harry Hood -> Jam > Colonel Forbin's Ascent -> Merry Pranksters Jam[1] -> Camel Walk, Taste

Encore: Bouncing Around the Room, Rocky Top

[1] Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.

The second set featured a remarkable jam after Harry Hood ended and before Forbin’s began, as well as an appearance by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The Merry Pranksters Jam contained a Somewhere Over the Rainbow tease from Trey, an If I Only Had a Brain tease, a Spam Song quote, and a Frankenstein jam.