Here they are, my two kings, the ones to blame for starting it all.
I don’t even know why I looked them up. I’ve never been the least bit interested in history. But that’s how it started. I did a casual search, a few words typed in- and that’s when I stumbled on Cambrai and the two Kings – who signed a treaty in the town (well actually they didn’t, one mother and one aunt did. No matter. )
Something else about this town of Cambrai struck me- the clocktower with its two figurines – Martin and Martine. They come out on the hour with their hammers to ring the bells. They’ve been in the town since 1519.
For those familiar with MP’s narrative of Combray, the names of Martin and Martine in relation to a town by the name of Martinville rings a bell, pun intended. It’s a pivotal scene where young Marcel writes down his very first words! He’s sitting on the back of a cart driven by a certain Dr. Percepied, and it’s a bumpy ride. After writing the words, Marcel clucks like a hen laying an egg.
Looking out over the landscape, Marcel then notices the twin steeples of Martinville conjoin with the steeple of Combray. This scene, and these steeples, are referred to time and time again throughout the Recherche, and accrue value. They become part and parcel of the series of epiphanies that weave through and culminate in the Bal de Tete scene in the last volume of the Recherche, Time Regained.
Well, I thought. Maybe Proust named the town of Martinville after Martin and Martine, the giants from the town of Cambrai, the town of three steeples. Could it be?
And that, my friends, was the start of it. Of The Proust Question.