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Language
In fact, Philippe's conversation is also brilliant and intelligent when and as much as he wants. It can be fatuous and mundane if necessary, or rough and vulgar. Philippe's language is as versatile as the character himself and reflects the complexity of his personality.
In the crucial scene of the blackmail, when Angélique, during a long carriage ride, succeeds in making him marry her, Philippe proves, in the different sequences of the dialogue, that he knows how to talk about worldly gossip, that he can skillfully throw back her arguments, that he can speak seriously of his affection for his father and for Condé, and that he manages to coolly contain his anger for the humiliating blackmail. Very brilliant, in particular, is the repetition of the same phrase uttered by Angélique, "Marriage could be considered otherwise than as a matter of money": the young woman reproached him with these words for marrying M.lle de Lamoignon for her dowry. Shortly afterwards, Philippe answers back with exactly the same sentence to her, who declares that she wants to marry him in order to become a marquise and to be received at court. The dialogues, as has been said, are as elegant or as intense when Philippe wants it and as much as he wants it, just consider the conversations of the last part of the story, when Philippe does not want to be rude or unpleasant. An example among all: the very moving dialogue after the death of Cantor (scene of the necklace), in which he manages to find the right words to comfort his wife for the loss of her son. "After all, you are a poet, Philippe," says Angélique. |
Also good is the answer, full of innuendo, to the King, who asks him if war has made him blind to feminine charm: "There are certain lights that can give eyes to the blind and give the flavour of other victories."
It is also true that Philippe often uses a direct, abrupt language, typical of the military or the hunters, with comparisons and metaphors inspired by nature or by war: "A too well-defended town…"; "I have a wide reputation for being persistent and sticking to my guns"; "Training must be conducted indoors, and face to face. It’s a hunting principle ”; "I don't like to see a purebred animal ruined by a bad birth"; "And like the most reluctant bitches, during childbirth you found the master's hand reassuring"; "You took me in your snare like a wild rabbit"; "It would be easier to make a thoroughbred out of a plow horse than to change the nature of a whore," and so on. The vocabulary is often colloquial, with words typical of the oral language, even of low and informal register. And not infrequently it is deliberately vulgar and offensive. Some examples. Scene of the contract: stunned and shocked by the claim of consummation of the marriage, he exclaims: “How am I prove to the world that I have honoured the coach of this person? By damaging the maidenhood of a harlot who has already two children and who has dragged herself through the beds of all the musketeers and financiers of the kingdom? ”; scene in the room of the attic of Versailles, when he realizes that in front of his name the words “Reserved for” are missing: "That slut there is responsible for my loss of favour”, and then "go to bed where you wish and with whom you wish"; adultery scene: “My wife is at everyone’s service”, “My sword is at the service of the King. I've never fought for whores before. " Blasphemies and insults dot the sexual relations with Angélique until the last embrace in his bedroom: "you little whore… You have no more dignity than a bitch in heat", when, however, Angélique considers these offenses as “the most tender declarations of love” (she has now come to know him). « Back to the Philippe du Plessis-Bellière: Part I |
