{"id":1016,"date":"2023-12-11T13:16:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T13:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prousty101.com\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2024-06-14T22:02:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T22:02:00","slug":"you-say-combray-i-say-cambray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/?p=1016","title":{"rendered":"You say Combray, I say Cambrai"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1283\" style=\"width: 485px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/prousty101.files.wordpress.com\/2023\/12\/screen-shot-2023-12-13-at-3.30.10-pm.png?w=956\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Even though I&#8217;m not French I get it. The sound of an &#8216;o&#8217; in a French word is nothing like the sound of an &#8216;a.&#8217; So you say it&#8217;s Combray and I say but maybe it could be Cambrai. And then you ask me if I&#8217;m nuts. And I say well I&#8217;m not French, but&#8230;<!--more--> I&#8217;ve been reading Proust for a very long time. Then we go out for a drink. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;d like to happen, okay? So meet me at the corner of Combray and Cambrai.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>And while we&#8217;re ordering our drinks, consider this. Cambrai was formerly known as Cambray way back when. So at least the y was there. From Cambray to Combray &#8211; just one little vowel. Just one!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1276\" style=\"width: 285px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/prousty101.files.wordpress.com\/2023\/12\/cambray-name-la-ville-de-cambray-name-small-1.png?w=525\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<p>My reasoning for focusing in on the transposition of letters is as follows:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\r\n<li class=\"li2\">In Merovingian times the town Cambrai was spelled Cambray. It was the seat of the archdiocese which included the shire of Brabant.\u00a0So the constant references to Genevieve de Brabant and Merovingian history in the Recherche make sense in this context. Interesting that Cambray\u00a0was &#8216;\u00e0 c\u00f4t\u00e9 de&#8217; Brabant at this time.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\">There&#8217;s a\u00a0clock tower\/ steeple\u00a0in the town which features two giant figurines &#8211; Martin and Martine\u00a0\u00a0&#8211; called \u2018jacquemarts.&#8217; They&#8217;ve been there\u00a0since the early 1500s ringing the bells every hour.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\">The town is often referred to as \u2018La Ville aux Trois Clochers.&#8217; or &#8216;the town of three steeples.\u201d<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\">Considering that Martin and Martine sit atop the steeple in Cambrai as a symbol of the town, it&#8217;s interesting to imagine that their names might have been used to create a fictional town of Martinville where the protagonist completes his first piece of writing, inspired after seeing three steeples in the distance moving in relation to one another as he observes from a carriage.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\">There\u2019s an oblique reference to Cambrai in the very first paragraph of the Recherche. It has to do with the rivalry of Francis I and Charles V. Part of the history of the longstanding rivalry of the two kings involves a \u2018treaty of Cambrai signed in 1529.\u00a0\u00a0The quote reads:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Fran\u00e7ois I and Charles V\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\">Last, another fun fact is that there\u2019s an archbishop by the name of Fran\u00e7ois Fenelon in the town of Cambrai who in the 1600&#8217;s took on the nickname \u201cThe Swan of Cambrai.&#8221; Perhaps possible that Cambrai became a \u2018Place -Name\u2019 for Combray, and Fenelon as Swan of Cambrai a &#8216;nom de plume&#8217; for Proust&#8217;s Swann of Combray.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>So, in a nutshell, that&#8217;s why I say Cambrai.<\/p>\r\n<p>For now, you can continue to say Combray. I understand. But if you have the urge, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/theproustquestion-com.preview-domain.com\/2023\/12\/11\/my-two-kings-francis-charles\/\">Martinville <\/a>connection to Cambrai-and a pair of Moors by the name of Martin and Martine who live in the town. And maybe at some point you&#8217;ll also consider that there might be a Cambray connection, as I did that day I stumbled onto this path of questions.<\/p>\r\n<p>Okay, that&#8217;s enough for now, friends. Prooosty signing off.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though I&#8217;m not French I get it. The sound of an &#8216;o&#8217; in a French word is nothing like the sound of an &#8216;a.&#8217; So you say it&#8217;s Combray and I say but maybe it could be Cambrai. And then you ask me if I&#8217;m nuts. And I say well I&#8217;m not French, but&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[25,26,34,35,37,53,60,63,64,81,96,102,104,105],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-combray-cambray-cambremer","category-little-phrase-big-theory","tag-cambrai","tag-cambray","tag-combray","tag-cygne","tag-deconstruction","tag-isolt","tag-madeleine","tag-marcel-proust","tag-martin-and-martine","tag-proust","tag-sign","tag-swan","tag-swann","tag-swanns-way"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/2456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}