ppoli61

@ppoli611674629039 · 24 Nov 2020

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Another hellish encounter

#poe #humor

Le Duc de l'omelette presents a situation similar to that of Bon Bon. Here, however, the meeting between the duke of Omelette and the devil takes place directly in the afterlife, after the passing of the duke. He plays cards for his salvation, wins and can leave hell, but the most paradoxical and funny situation is his death: "De l'Omelette perished of an ortolan."

The duke, a refined esthete, usually brings to his table all the most delicious delicacies from all over the globe. But when, one bad day, having requested the famous bird of the queen "The Beautiful of Peru", he sees a miserable ortolan being delivered, he dies of disgust. The comedy of this situation is reinforced by the fairytale tone with which it is narrated.

Six peers of the Empire conveyed the happy bird

The character of the duke is as comic as the story he is the protagonist of. His impatience is ridiculous as he waits for the fatal bird.

Unable to restrain his feelings, His Grace swallows an olive

This impatience, in fact, originating from a culinary object can only be expressed through the action of eating something.

The duke is a haughty character, he refuses to obey Beelzebub who orders him to undress, stating that he cannot give up clothes so sumptuous and so suited to his dignity. The character's arrogance is punished by the devil in a characteristic way for Poe: Beelzebub replies to the duke who, when he pulled him out of the coffin, was wearing linen knickers and a shroud, it is understood as any other corpse.

This story also lives entirely in the dimension of comic reduction, both for the trivialization of the supernatural made human and tangible (see the devil's mention of his "cemetery inspector"), and for the frequent ironic cultural references.

Keats fell by a criticism. Who was it died of “the Andromacha”? Ignoble souls! - De l'Omelette perished of an ortolan. L’histoire is in short. Assist me, spirit of Apicius!

The cultural references to Keats and Montfleury create a comic chiaroscuro and are trivialized by the juxtaposition with the stupid death of the duke, whose name is in itself a compendium of heroism and futility. (Duke as opposed to Omelette). The invocation to Apicius is masterly. Instead of relying on the Muses or Apollo, Poe, setting out to tell the story of the “duke of the omelette”, invokes Apicius, a famous Latin writer of culinary treatises.

What characterizes this story is the style. The phrases in French reproduce the thoughts of the duke. The speed of the narration, which moves in short and incisive sentences, increases, together with the almost exclusive use of the present time, the tense, even if ridiculous, atmosphere.