Complainte de Girofla

Overview

The Complainte de Girofla is a comic lament that Marie wrote on 21 September 1875 in Nice, sung in the voice of Émile d'Audiffret, whom she calls Girofla, the ruined dandy who has lost everything. She copied it into the diary twice: a first draft across 043.0368-0379 and a longer fair copy at the head of the next notebook (044.0002-0011).

Text and form

It opens: "Là-haut, là-haut, sur la colline / Regardez bien ce beau château / Ce n'est pas une vieille ruine / Mais un château tout neuf et beau." The speaker then lists what he had -- terraces and chestnut trees, horses, carriage and liveried coachman, "des maîtresses titrées", a top hat and white shirt, "Andriot, Galula" (in the fair copy "Saëtone, Galula") as his following -- until "un jour papa en colère / Fit feu ! Et il ne reste rien". The refrain-line is "Plaignez le pauvre Girofla", and the house of cards ends with the Café de la Victoire, the London House and the Maison Dorée losing their best customer, and the speaker living "au troisième de l'hôtel". Marie notes the tune: "Cette complainte se chante sur l'air de 'Madame l'Archi-duchesse'" (043.0378). The name Girofla is her nickname for him, taken from Lecocq's operetta Giroflé-Girofla (1874), as the LAN note at 043.0368 records.

Marie and this work

She likes the verse for its ease: "Je ne finirai jamais cette complainte, j'ai encore trouvé des rimes. Je vais la recopier dans le livre suivant, elle m'amuse et surtout se fabrique si facilement que c'est un plaisir" (043.0380). Six pages of crossed-out drafts with variants follow at the end of the notebook (043.0381ff, a transcriber's note); the fair copy adds verses about a debonair aunt and an uncle in the old town (044.0005). She quotes the poet's rule, "Ajoutez quelquefois et souvent effacez", and adds: "J'ajoute toujours et j'efface rarement. ... Je me venge par cette misère de Girofla" (044.0012-0013). On 11 October (046.0345) it is listed among the three works she has kept to herself, with La valse and the Prédiction de Cassandre.

References in Diary

Related Entries

Sources