#1.3.6

Towards the end of the chapter Favourite says: “I have the spleen, as the English say...” (the word “spleen” here is written in English in the French text)

This is a reference to humorism, a medicinal theory that lasted into the 1800s, the most famous model of which was founded on the concept of the “four humors.” The spleen was the organ associated with “black bile” and a melancholic temperament. To “have the spleen” meant that you had an excess of this humor and were afflicted with feelings of melancholy- that you were in a bad mood, had the blues, were down in the dumps.

Dahlia, still eating, whispered to Favourite through the hubbub, “Are you really so fond of your Blacheville, then?”

Nogvurot, Wildemount: Nogvurot is a city in the north of the Dwendalian Empire. While Mollymauk Tealeaf and Yasha Nydoorin were members, the Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities visited. Later, the Mighty Nein heard rumours of kidnappings in Nogvurot, but they never went to the city. 

image from the mighty nein origins: mollymauk tealeaf, by hunter severn bonyun and cathy le

Kamordah, Wildemount: Kamordah is a Dwendalian town built on a hotspot of geothermal activity. It is known for its wine. The Mighty Nein’s Beauregard Lionett is from Kamordah, and the party visited once while trying to break a curse.

This chapter title is a pun, and I totally didn’t even realize until I noticed different editions translated it differently. Most of the ones I have go for a variation of ‘Chapter in which lovers adore’ (Donougher, and a really clunky translation, frankly), but Wilbour goes for ‘Chapter of self-admiration.’ The French is ‘Chapitre où l'on s'adore.’ “On” in French gets used both as a sort of less formal we (not in a tu/vous sense of formality, but more in a sentence structure one, if that makes any sense -- it’s discouraged in formal writing but not incorrect) but also in the way that, in English, we would use the pronoun ‘one.’ So this is simultaneously the chapter in which we love each other, and the chapter in which one loves oneself. Clever, Hugo, clever.

And sure enough, as only fitting for a chapter beginning with a pun, this chapter is all about saying one thing while meaning another. Favourite is flirting with her student, buttering him up and playing her part to perfection, while actually despising him. Blachevelle, meanwhile, pretty clearly only likes being complimented, and is perfectly willing to accept that this smart, witty, beautiful woman adores him. And then Favourite, in an aside to another beautiful young woman, strips clean the artifice of it all and, by extension, the artifice of this whole lovely day they’ve had.