Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Sunday, 7 August 1881

Saint Agathe got us a box for the dress rehearsal of Oedipus Rex at the Comédie-Française.1

Saint Agathe nous a eu une loge pour la repetition generale d' "Oedipe roi" au Francais.

The staging is perfect, the costumes admirable in their faithfulness and harmony, and Mounet-Sully,2 utterly wrong as a man of the world, is splendid in his robes. Hecht was in the next box. Afterwards I went to the studio, where I find Amanda Sidval — a Swedish woman, old and a spinster, who really ought not to be called Amanda3... In any case, she was waiting for Julian who did not come, so I take her away, leaving on the table these verses inspired by Oedipus:

La mise en scene est parfaite, les costumes admirables de fidelite et d'harmonie et Mounet-Sully, tres mal en homme du monde, est splendide avec ses draperies. Hecht etait dans une loge a cote. Puis j'ai passe a l'atelier ou je trouve Amanda Sidval, une Suedoise vieille et vierge qui ne devrait pas du tout s'appeler Amanda... Enfin, elle attendait Julian qui n'est pas venu, alors je l'emmene en laissant sur la table ces vers inspires d'Oedipe :

O illustrious Director of the painting studio, In your absence, alas! Two stars here have shone. Where were you, o wicked soul? To what happy, unreal shore had you fled? Signed: Amanda Sidval...4

0 illustre Directeur d'atelier de peinture / En ton absence helas ! deux astres ici ont luit. / Ou's qu'etais-tu o mauvaise nature ? / Vers quel rivage heureux, irreel avais-tu fui? / signe: Amanda Sidval...

Saint Agathe — I shall truly end by believing that is his real name — dines here and recounts all his monotonous nonsense.

Saint Agathe vraiment je finirai par croire que c'est son vrai nom, donc il dine ici et compte toutes ces monotones balivernes.

Notes

Oedipus Rex: a new production of Sophocles's tragedy at the Comédie-Française, one of the major theatrical events of the 1881 season. ↩
Mounet-Sully (1841–1916): Jean-Sully Mounet, one of the foremost tragic actors of the age at the Comédie-Française, celebrated for his performances of classical and Shakespearean roles. Marie finds his manner in ordinary life disappointing but his stage presence in classical robes magnificent. ↩
Amanda: from the Latin amanda, meaning "she who is to be loved" or "lovable." Marie's jibe is that this old spinster ill-befits a name so charged with romance. ↩
Marie is writing the note in the voice of Amanda Sidval, signing it with Amanda's name — a mock-classical verse in the high style of Greek tragedy, deliberately undermined by the colloquial Ou's qu'etais-tu (a vulgar contraction of Où est-ce que tu étais), creating comic bathos. ↩