Briggs: Napoleon talks to De Beausset and Rapp. The game begins.
Maude: Napoleon's talk to de Beausset and Rapp. The game begins
Pevear and Volokhonsky: Napoleon drinks punch and talks with Rapp. He has a cold. At 5:30 a.m. the battle begins.
Translation:
XXIX.
Returning after a second preoccupied trip by the lines, Napoleon said:
— The chess is delivered, the game begins tomorrow.
Ordering to give himself punch and calling on Bosse, he started with him a conversation about Paris, about some change that he found was done at the courtier of the state empress,697 amazing the prefect with his memory to all the petty details of the courtiers relationship.
He was interested in trifles, joked about the love to travel of Bosse and carelessly chatted so, as this is made famous, assured and knowing his business as an operator, in that time as he rolls up his sleeves and puts on an apron, but the sick is tied to the bunk. —"The business is all in my hands and in my head, it is clear and definite. Now I will need to begin the business, I will do it as nothing different, but now I can joke, and the more I am kidding and calm, by that the more you must be sure, calm and surprised by my genius."
Graduating to his second glass of punch, Napoleon went to relax before the severe business, which, as to him it seemed, was to him tomorrow.
He was so interested by this lying ahead of him business that he could not sleep and, despite the intensified from evening dampness of his runny nose, at three at night, loudly blowing his nose, got out to the great parting of the tent. He asked about whether the Russians were not gone. To him it was answered that the enemy lights were all in those same places. He approvingly nodded his head.
The on duty adjutant entered in the tent.
— Well, Rapp, how do you think: whether our case will now be good?698 — he turned to him.
— Without any doubt, Sire.699 — was the response of Rapp.
Napoleon looked at him.
— Whether you remember, Sire, those words, which you deigned to say to me at Smolensk, — said Rapp, —the wine is uncorked, it is needed to drink it.700
Napoleon frowned and long silently sat with his lowered head in his hand.
— The poor army! — he said suddenly, — It is very much decreased from Smolensk. Fortune is a real whore, Rapp. I have always said this and have begun to test it. But the guard, Rapp, the guard is intact?701 — he interrogatively said.
— Yes, Sire,702 — was the response of Rapp.
Napoleon took a lozenge, placed it in his mouth and looked at his watch. He did not want to sleep, to morning was still long away; but so to kill time, orders could not be now done, because of how all were made and happened now at the entrusted.
— Whether the crackers and rice were delivered to the guards?703 — strictly asked Napoleon.
— Yes, Sire.704
— But the rice?705
Rapp responded that he delivered the orders of the sovereign about the rice, but Napoleon displeasingly shook his head, as if he did not believe that his order was executed. A servant entered with punch. Napoleon told to give another glass to Rapp and silently took a sip from it.
— I have no taste or smell, — he said, sniffing the glass. — This runny nose has bothered me. They interpret about medicine. How is medicine, when they may not cure a runny nose? Corvisar gave me these lozenges, but they aid nothing. What may they mend? To mend cannot be. In our body there is a machine for life. It is for this arranged. Leave in it life alone, let it defend itself, it will do more alone than when you interfere with it with medicines. Our body is like a watch, which must go to a famous time; the watchmaker may not open it and only groping and with tied up eyes may manage it. In our body there is a machine for life.706 And as if to march in the way of definitions, définitions, which so loved Napoleon, he suddenly made a new definition. — Whether you know, Rapp, what such is military art? — he asks. — The art is to be stronger than the enemy in the known moment. — That is all.707
Rapp did not reply.
— Tomorrow we will have business with Kutuzov.708 — said Napoleon. — We'll see! Remember, at Braunau he commanded the army and not once in three weeks sat down on a horse so to explore a strengthening. We'll see!
He looked at the watch. It was still only 4. Sleep was not wanted, the punch was finished, and there was all the same nothing to do. He got up, walked back and forward, allotted a warm frock coat and hat, and got out of the tent. The night was dark and raw; a little bit audible dampness fell from above. The fires not brightly burned nearby, in the French guard, and long away through the smoke shone by the Russian lines. Everywhere was quiet, and clearly was heard a rustle and the clattering started now with the movements of the French troops for the lessons of the positions.
Napoleon walked before the tent, looked at the lights, listened to the stomping, and passing by the high guardsman, in a furry hat, standing sentry at his tent, and as a black pillar stretched out at the appearance of the emperor, stopped against it.
— From which year in the service? — he asked from that habitual affectation of rough and affectionate militancy, with which he always approached with the soldiers. The soldier responded to him.
— Ah! Of the old people!709 Received rice in the regiment?
— Received, your majesty.
Napoleon nodded his head and walked away from him.
—————
At half to six, Napoleon on horseback rode to the village Shevardin.
It began to get light, the sky cleared, only an alone cloud lied to the east. Abandoned fires burned out in the weak light of the morning.
To the right rang out a thick lone cannon shot, flashed and frozen among the general silence. Passed a few minutes. Rang out a second, a third shot, the air hesitated; a fourth, a fifth was heard close and solemnly somewhere to the right.
Still had not echoed the first shots, as were heard still another, more and more, merging and interrupting one another.
Napoleon drove with the retinue to the Shevardin redoubt and tore from his horse. The game began.
697 maison de l’impératrice, (house of the empress,)
698 Eh bien, Rapp, croyez-vous, que nous ferons de bonnes affaires aujourd’hui? (Well, Rapp, do you believe that we will be doing good business today?)
699 Sans aucun doute, Sire, (Without a doubt, Sir,)
700 Vous rappelez-vous. Sire, ce que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de dire à Smolensk, le vin est tiré, il faut le boire (You remember. Sir, that you did me the honor to say in Smolensk, the wine is drawn, it must be drunk)
701 Cette pauvre armée, elle a bien diminué depuis Smolensk. La fortune est une franche courtisane, Rapp; je le disais toujours, et je commence à l’éprouver. Mais la garde, Rapp, la garde est intacte? (This poor army, it has greatly diminished since Smolensk. Fortune is a frank courtesan, Rapp; I always said it, and I'm starting to feel it. But the guard, Rapp, is the guard intact?)
702 Oui, Sire, (Yes, Sir,)
703 A-t-on distribué les biscuits et le riz aux régiments de la garde? (Were the biscuits and rice distributed to the guard regiments?)
704 Oui, Sire. (Yes, Sir,)
705 Mais le riz? (But the rice?)
706 Notre corps est une machine à vivre. Il est organisé pour cela, c'est de nature; laissez-y la vie à son aise, qu’elle s’y défende elle même: elle fera plus que si vous la paralysiez-en l’encombrant de remèdes. Notre corps est comme une montre parfaite qui doit aller un certain temps; l’horloger n’a pas la faculté de l’ouvrir, il ne peut la manier qu’à tâtons et les yeux bandés. Notre corps est une machine à vivre, voilà tout. (Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is by nature; let it live at its ease, let it defend itself: it will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies. Our bodies are like a perfect watch that has to go for a certain time; the watchmaker does not have the faculties to open it, he can only handle it gropingly and blindfolded. Our body is a machine for living, that is all.)
707 Voilà tout. (That is all.)
708 Demain nous allons avoir affaire à Koutouzoff! (Tomorrow we will have to deal with Koutouzoff!)
709 Ah! un des vieux! (Ah! one of the old!)
Mentioned: to-morrow, three weeks
Locations: Shevardino
Mentioned: Paris, Russian, Smolensk, Braunau, French
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:
Napoleon is in a rather light-hearted mood after checking the line again and Tolstoy compares him to a self-assured surgeon. However, this is only around his courtiers as when he goes to bed, he stays up and is worried.
The wine is drawn, it must be drunk was a phrase Tolstoy used for the attitude of Napoleon's soldiers in the previous chapter. In this chapter, it is used by Rapp to Napoleon.
Napoleon gives an anti-doctor speech ("Our body is a machine for living, that's all.") and gives "definitions" similar to Bilibin's mots and critiques the way Kutuzof never gets on a horse to inspect fortifications. Repeated emphasis on Napoleon trying to find something to do to pass the night.
Line break after episode with the soldier Napoleon speaks to and before "At half past five Napoleon was...". The cannons start firing and "The game had begun", working as a bookends to the chapter.
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Napoleon (also "emperor".)
Beausset
Empress (Napoleon talks about his wife's household.)
Rapp
Corvisart
Kutuzof (or "Koutouzoff" in the French.)
Abridged Versions: Line break after "Napoleon nodded and left him" in Dole. Line break in the same spot in Dunnigan, Mandelker, Briggs, Edmonds, Wiener, and Maude.
End of Chapter 3 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 29: line break after "nodded and walked away."
Fuller: The jovial punch-drinking section of the chapter where Napoleon speaks to Beausset is removed, cutting from the introduction to Napoleon not being able to sleep. Rest of chapter is kept and followed by a line break.
Komroff: Other than some details and Napoleon's speech about the human body being made for living, the chapter is preserved.
Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut.
Bromfield: No apparent corresponding chapter.
Simmons: Chapter 29: entire chapter is cut and replaced with: "Napoleon passes a sleepless night before the battle of Borodino. He talks with Beausset and his adjutant Rapp."
Additional Notes: Garnett: "Baron Jean-Nicolas Corvisart des Marets (1755-1821) was Napoleon's physician."
Roberts: Page 534: “Friedrich Staps, the eighteen-year-old son of a Lutheran pastor from Erfurt, attempted to assassinate him while pretending to hand him a petition. He would have succeeded had Rapp not seized him a few paces away, whereupon Rapp, berthier and two gendarmes found a large carving knife on him...with the Alsatian-born Rapp interpreting. The Emperor hoped that the young student was insane and thus might be pardoned, but Corvisart pronounced him healthy and rational, albeit a political fanatic. When asked by Napoleon what he would do if he were freed, he replied, ‘I would try to kill you again.’ He was shot at 7 a.m. on the 17th, crying ‘Long live Germany!’ to the firing (Page 535) squad, and ‘Death to the tyrant!’”
Segur/Townsend: Page 37: "But when, out of the soldiers' sight, he had been sobered by the attitude of Ney and Murat and had listened to the words of Poniatowski who was as frank and wise in counsel as he was brave in battle; when he learned that scouts had advanced twenty miles without overtaking the enemy, when the suffocating heat began to press down on him--then his disillusionment began...Smolensk had become one vast hospital."
“Tolstoy and the Forms of Life” by Martin Price
Page 236: “Kutuzov has his own game, if that is the word of it; he is like the patient defendant who keeps prudently deferring a trial until the plaintiff litigates himself into insolvency...Kutuzov is a man who exhibits little distinction of manner, he is corpulent and untidy, in some ways resembling both Pierre and Karataev..
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