Arthur Danis

Overview

A small, slight young man of Nice, one of the "petit bataclan niçois" (046.0150) around the Audiffret set in 1875–76: Marie's lists of Nice men run «Saëtone, Galula, Danis, Roissard et de temps en temps Audiffret» (059.0684). Kernberger (2013, glossary) gives «Danis, Arthur: associate of Audiffret, acquaintance in Nice». The full name appears in Marie's own verse, «Plus timide, plus maigre et petit / Apparaît Arthur Danis / Aux faux cols irréprochables» (039/1875-08-21, 039.0170), and in a mock summons «sur Arthur Danis en particulier» (054.0204). Nothing further is known about him beyond the diary: age, family and later life are not identified. The «président Danis» who signs the invitation to the flood-relief bal champêtre (035.0167) is probably the same man in his committee role; «Danis-fils» (038.0218) may mean the son of a Danis senior, which would make him Arthur, but the text does not settle it.

Relationship to Marie

• First sighting: 2 January 1875, at the theatre, where Galula tells Aunt Sophie: «C'est M. Danis, un jeune homme de Nice» («Ce n'est que M. Danis, mais il n'est pas marié», 028.0122–0123). 3 February 1875: among the men of the Carnival committee rooms when she buys tickets (029.0170–0180).
• He stares at her from the stalls «comme aux premiers temps» (030.0168, 9 March 1875; recalled 061.0228) and in May–June sits with Saëtone near her bathing cabin, in boxes and cafés (033.0088, 033.0376, 033.0404).
• July 1875 is the high point. Introduced at the bal champêtre (036.0042–0049), he becomes her chief listener on 18 July (037.0272–0302): amazed by her room («un temple, un conte de Mille et une Nuits»), by her repartee and by what he calls «une telle fièvre de la vie» (037.0272; later «Je n'ai jamais vu une telle fièvre de la vie», 040.0108; Marie quotes the phrase of him, 052.0328). Marie decides: «Danis va partout et il parlera de moi, donc il m'est utile. Ménageons-le» (037.0302). On 21 July she makes him her «grand-amiral» (037.0351). He talks to her of the comte de Larderel (037.0299; 059.0185–0186).
• He writes to Aunt Sophie praising «Marie une perfection» (039.0009) and sends humble greetings to Marie in Rome (053.0427). Pairs with the comte Laurenti, «mon ami intime» (037.0292), as «les deux petits singes» in a box (048.0158). See #Laurenti.
• Later: he is the first at the Nice theatre exit on 14 December 1875, long ill (050.0777); with d'Aspremont he calls Audiffret's carnival prize the «Rossignol che vola» (054.0030); by 17 January 1877 «Danis n'est plus à Nice depuis longtemps» (068.0710); in June 1877 he is still at Monte-Carlo (072.0096). In a summing-up of her admirers (11 August 1877): «J'allais oublier Danis… il a été fou de moi lorsque je le prenais pour le comte de Constantin à cause de ses regards obstinés» (073.0390).

References in Diary

Carnets 028–037 (the main run), 038–040, 046–048, 050, 052–054, 059, 061, 068, 072, 073: 78 tagged paragraphs, about 40 read in full for this entry, 2026-10-21. First 028.0120–0123; last 073.0390.