Zola

464 JACQUES ALLARD pageantry) to finally more general concerns again, above all in relation to the Shakespearean canon (Bruce Smith on Shakespeare's changing use of obvious pageant moments, within drama, in what Smith persuasively defines as three phases of Shakespeare's dramatic career in this respect). Within this framework we have diversity, though most of the essays relate above all to Shakespeare's plays. Gail Paster, comparing court masque and civic show in general, admirably focuses on 'the idea oflandon' as celebrated in London's own civic pageants, and insists on the interest and complexity of these pageants in themselves. Gordon Kipling explores the political use of Biblical metaphors in the words, actions, and visual displays of pageantry dUring the reign of Richard II, and richly provokes both ouragreement and new questions. Gerard Cox andJames Black focus each on one Shakespearean play: Cox looks at chivalric conventions as used in 1 Henry IV, and Black, the least concerned of aU the contributors with pageantry outside the theatre proper, suggests use in the Aumerle scenes of Richard II of Harrowing of Hell tradition - making one wish for a development of the implication, in this suggestion, thatBolingbroke's presence chamberis a political hell. Barbara Palmer looks at the political utility of civic pageantry, both in itself and as discussed and treated withln the drama, in an examination of Shakespeare's second tetralogy. Neill's splendid essay I have already mentioned - though not its excellent accompanying illustrations of funeral pageantry. James Yoch discusses landscape pageantry in relation to Shakespeare's pastorals; and David Bergeron writes metaphorically about pageant elements in Middleton's No Wit No Help like a Woman's. The quality of the essays, though not uniform, is admirably high overall. Moreover, Bergeron provides a most useful introduction, which in part surveys the major pageantry SCholarship of especially the last fifteen years. Only fans of indexes will be disappointed in this volume - the index being too selective to appeal to ardent admirers of the genre. Zola JACQUES ALLARD I Emile Zola. Correspondanee, V, 1884-1886. Ed B.H. Bakker, Ms associes C. Becker, O. Morgan, et A. Pag~s Presses de I'Universite de Montreal et Editions du CNRS 1985. 515. $53.00 A man age, au milieu d'un Iabeurincessant, la consoiationquime reste, ce n'est pas d'amener asoi la betise de la foule, c'est de ne pas dechoiraux yeux de ceux qui vous aiment. (A H. Ceard, 22 mars 1885, p 250) Voila I'un des rares propos intimes de cette nouvelle tranche de la correspondance zolienne (419 lettres) au pese lourd la courte mais nombreuse missive d'affaires. A quarante-cinq ans, l'ecrivain, qui a renonce pour lars au journalisme, 's'enferme dans Ie roman' et administre presque seul son enorme entreprise litteraire. Germinal est pam apr~s un travail intense. L'auteur maintenant financi~rement al'aise ameliore son refuge de Medan. Dans la France latcisee de Ferry (puis de Grevy), comme dans toute l'Europe, c'est 'Ie triomphe du naturalisme.' On Ie traduit partout. On reconnait son 'autorite morale' (H. James, L'Art de la fiction, 1884), tout en constatant la faiblesse des disciples (G. Renard). Sur notre continent, 'les Americains [lui] volent toutes [ses] CEuvres et inondent I'Angleterre d'odieuses traductions' (it Stiegliz, p 159). En va-t-ilde meme pour/e Canada anglais? Cette edition franco·canadienne n'en dit mot. En ce qui conceme Ie Canada franc;ais, les lecteurs quebecois pourront h~moigner qu'on sent bientot les effets du 'triomphe' chez les marginaux d'une societe ch~ricalisee, comme chez R. Girard (Marie Calumet rappelle en 1904 Ies contes de Daudet et Autour d'un clacher de L. Desprez), chez A. Bessette (avec Le Debutant, 1914) et chez A. Laberge (La Scouine, 1918). La quarantaine zolienne, ceIles de I'age et de la retraite de Medan, se signaJe parfaitement dans les trois romans de cette epoque; Germinal, L'Oeuvre, La Terre. Leurs titres, qui sont parmi les moins anecdotiques, disent en eux·memes la profondeur de I'investissement tellurique et esthetique de l'ecrivain. Meme dans la bataille contre la censure au theatre (avec I'interdiction...