Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Friday, 11 December 1874

Monsieur and Mademoiselle Foster found us at lunch with Madame de Daillens, who arrived Monday evening. We went to the drawing-room, where Florence sang — Connais-tu le pays... from Mignon. Her brother leaves tomorrow.
They spoke of Madame Prodgers — Florence knows her from London. She goes a great deal into society, but is widely mocked, and is considered to have very bad manners, etc. — so says Florence.
Despite the rain I walked with Sabatini (the Italian woman) and Victor.
I love the rain. Would one believe it? Tall Macainne — that English beanpole who at Spa was wretched and imperceptible — is beginning to become fashionable here. Gambart and Prodgers have launched her; she has been spoken of in one or two newspapers such as Les Échos de Nice, and people are taking notice. Fortuna!
I had a disgusting dream. Thérèse — the mater dolorosa, as Count Merjeewsky calls her — was sitting on my lap; when I [Crossed out: shook] set her on the ground, she left on the apron of my grey dress a thing I dare not name. In short, I was greatly alarmed, despairing of ever being able to wash it out and rid the apron of the nauseating smell — so that on waking I examined myself to make sure it was only a dream.
This dream signifies, according to La vraie clef des songes, public contempt and family shame.
But [illegible] somnia semper fallaces — I am very glad to believe it this time.

Notes

"Do you know the land...?" — the famous aria from Act I of Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon (1866), based on Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. The line in full runs: "Connais-tu le pays où fleurit l'oranger?" ("Do you know the land where the orange-tree flowers?") ↩
In Latin in the original — "Fortune!" ↩
Mater dolorosa — "sorrowful mother"; a Catholic title of the Virgin Mary, used ironically by Count Merjeewsky for Thérèse's mournful expression. ↩
La vraie clef des songes — "The true key of dreams"; a popular 19th-century dream-interpretation manual. ↩
In Latin in the original — "dreams are always deceptive" (Marie's Latin is grammatically imperfect; the correct form would be somnia semper fallacia). ↩