Another Source for Poe's "The Duc De L'Omelette"

Author(s): David H. Hirsch

Source: American Literature, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Jan., 1967), pp. 532-536
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2923457
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 NOTES AND QUERIES

Another Sourcefor Poe's "The Duc De L' Omelette"

DAVID H. HIRSCH
Brown University

N HER PERCEPTIVE STUDY of Edgar Allan Poe and Benjamin

Disraeli, Ruth L. Hudson demonstrates most convincingly that
Poe's source for "The Duc De L'Omelette" (March 3, I832) was
Disraeli's novel, The Youang Duke, published in i83I.' The tale
concerns an epicurean Duke who, as he is about to sup magnificent-
ly on an ortolan, expires "in a paroxysm of disgust" when he
finds that the bird, a "little winged wanderer," has been served to
the accompaniment of "soft music," "deshabilM de ses plumes...."
Three days later, his Grace, the Duke, awakens to find himself in
the presence of his Majesty, the Devil. Refusing to comply with the
Devil's command to strip, the Duke manages to engage him in a
game of cards. The Duke tricks the Devil, wins the game, and
escapes, returning to his ortolan. The elements that Miss Hudson
finds common to the novel and the tale are the epicurean character
of both dukes, the eating, in both instances, of naked ortolans to
the accompaniment of "soft music," and references to the bird as
a "wanderer." She also cites similarities between Disraeli's descrip-
tion of the private palace of the Duke of St. James and Poe's de-
scription of the apartment in which the Duc De L'Omelette awak-
ens after he has "perished of an ortolan."2
What I wish to suggest here is that Poe's parody of Disraeli's
novel may have been prompted not only by the novel itself but
by a review of it which appeared in the October, I83I, issue of the
Westminster Review.3 I will show that certain features in Poe's
tale are in the review but not in the novel, that certain features of
Poe's tale that appear in both the review and the novel are more clear-
'"Poe and Disraeli," American Literature, VIII, 402-4I6 (Jan., I937). Poe's story was
presumably submitted in a contest that closed December i, I83I, and was printed in the
Philadelphia Saturday Courier, March 3, I832.
2pp. 407-4I0.
The conflation of several sources is not an unusual technique for Poe.

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 Notes and Queries 533

ly juxtaposed in the review, and that certain deviations from and

inversions of material in the novel can be explained by recourse to
the review.
The reviewer of Disraeli's novel starts with a vicious attack on
what he calls the "Lackey School" of authors. In the course of his
attack he proceeds to narrow his focus specifically to The Young
Duke by calling attention to the absurdity of one of the episodes
in the novel:

Why, in comedies and farces, are there always a dram bottle and a fellow
of vast gluttony? For the same reason, that in the "Young Duke" there
is much dainty eating and drinking, and a dinner with the king! Of
what quality is a book which describes the eating of ortolans. How the
reader who delights in novels of fashionable life respects an author who
possesses knowledge of the flavour of ortolans! how he reverences the
man who shows how a duke ought to dine with a king! To such how
palatable must be this vein and manner of writing-the subject, orto-
lans-4

Having made his point that the eating of ortolans is a subject

hardly worthy the attention of the serious novelist, the reviewer
then quotes a passage from the novel:

"Oh! doff, then, thy waistcoat of vine-leaves, pretty rover! and show me
that bosom more delicious even than woman's! What gushes of rapture!
What a flavour! How peculiar! Even how sacred! Heaven at once sends
both manna and quails. Another little wanderer! Pray follow my example!
Allow me. All Paradise opens! Let me die eating ortolans to the sound
of soft music! The flavour is really too intensely exquisite. Give me a
teaspoonful of Maraschino!" (I, 79).5

"What," the reviewer indignantly asks, "are we to think of those

who take a pleasure in reading [such stuff], or who can read it
without disgust?"c6
It is precisely the passage quoted by the reviewer that is at the
heart of Poe's parody. He describes the ortolan in his story as a
"little winged wanderer, enamored, melting, indolent."7 The bird
is served as follows: "At this moment the door gently opens to the
4Westminster Review, XV, 400-40I.
SIbid., p. 40.I
Ibid.
'The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. James A. Harrison (New York, I902),
II, 197.

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534 American Literature

sound of soft music, and lo! the most delicate of birds is before the
most enamored of men!"8 At this juncture, Poe's Duke discovers
the nakedness of the bird and consequently "expire[s] in a paroxysm
of disgust."
The nakedness of the bird, its femininity, the image of the bird
as a wanderer, the rapture of the epicure, the soft music, the hyper-
bolic diction have all been duly noted by Miss Hudson as existing
in both Disraeli's novel and Poe's story. But Poe has also adapted
the review to serve his own purposes, fusing the reviewer's extrava-
gant response to the eating of ortolans with the actual matter of the
novel. The reviewer's savagery and his contempt for the triviality
of the eating of ortolans as a proper subject for the fiction writer
have been embodied in the opening sentences of Poe's story: "Keats
fell by a criticism . . . De L'Omelette perished of an ortolan." Poe
also takes the notion of "disgust" which is introduced by the re-
viewer and brilliantly feeds it back into the situation of his own
story, so that it is of distaste that the epicurean duke dies. Finally,
there seems to be a typically Poesque inversion: whereas Disraeli's
duke talks about Heaven and Paradise, in Poe's story the governing
image becomes Hades or Hell. As Miss Hudson put it, "Poe's
duke . . . found himself, after three days, not in the paradise con-
jured up by Disraeli, but in a magnificent apartment presided over
by his Satanic Majesty. He saved himself from the humiliation of
complying with the devil's order to strip by cheating at ecarte and
politely bowed himself out of a ticklish situation."9
Both the inversion of Heaven into Hell and the idea of stripping
can be accounted for by the comments of the reviewer. Poe depicts
as follows the scene in which the Duc De L'Omelette refuses to
strip before the Devil:

"Strip, indeed! very pretty i' faith, no, sir, I shall not strip. Who are
you, pray, that I, Duc De L'Omelette, Prince de Foie-Gras, just come of
age, author of the 'Mazurkiad,' and Member of the Academy, should
divest myself at your bidding of the sweetest pantaloons ever made by
Bourdon, the daintiest robe-de-chambre ever put together by Rombert-
to say nothing of the taking my hair out of paper-not to mention the
trouble I should have in drawing off my gloves?"'
'Ibid., pp. 197-198.
'American Literature, VIII, 408.
0 Works, II, I 98.

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 Notes and Queries 535

In creating this scene Poe seems to have taken his cue not from
the novel, but directly from the review itself, which contains the
following remarks:
The author is as great at describing a duke dressing as a king dining:
Learn ye people-learn ye millions of little ones of the world, how a
duke dresses-how his towels are provided-how his back is supported
(the beast) while a boy puts his legs and feet into silk stockings, and
how shall we write it-velvet shoes fastened by mother of pearl buckles!
After this, we know who must be the author of those fashions which
appear monthly, setting forth, that men of fashion wear yellow coats,
and red small clothes-but the velvet shoes beat all. The very lackies in
Hell would not improperly assassinate the Duke, or being having the
semblance of a man, who appeared in velvet shoes. It would be justifiable
homicide to crack him between two thumb nails.'1

One other aspect of Poe's story may be more indebted to his

reaction to the review than to his reading of the novel itself, and
that is his exploitation of the use of titles. A long quotation from
the novel, which I shall not reproduce in full, is used by the re-
viewer to bolster his contention that the novelist is a bona fide
member of the "Lackey School":
His majesty summoned a dinner party, a rare but magnificent event,-
and the chief of the house of Hauteville appeared among the chosen
vassals. This visit did the young Duke good; and a few more might
have permanently cured the conceit, which the present one momentarily
calmed. His Grace saw the plate, and was filled with envy; his Grace
listened to his Majesty, and was filled with admiration.12

In Poe's tale this is ingeniously translated into the climactic card

game with the Devil: "His Grace was all care, all attention-his
Majesty all confidence. A spectator would have thought of Francis
and Charles. His Grace thought of his game. His majesty did not
think; he shuffled. The Duc cut." In this case, of course, Poe might
have taken the idea of the titles from the novel directly. Neverthe-
less, singled out as it is in the review, the device as it appears might
have made a greater impact on Poe's imagination.
Finally, there is one more element in Poe's story which would
suggest the review as well as the novel as a source. Between Dis-
1 Westminster Review, p. 403.
"lIbid., p. 402.

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536 American Literature

raeli's ortolan passage and Poe's there is one telling difference.

Poe's duke takes his meal in the following circumstances: "That
night the Duc was to sup alone. In the privacy of his bureau he
reclined languidly on that ottoman for which he sacrificed his
loyalty in outbidding his king-the notorious ottoman of Cadet."13
Disraeli's ortolon appears not at a meal which the Duke of St. James
is taking in solitude but at a banquet attended by, among others,
"two princes of the blood and a child of France." The image of
the meal taken in solitude used by Poe can again be traced to
the review. On the same page on which the reviewer quotes the
ortolan passage he also quotes another passage which in the novel
itself appears some twenty-eight pages later: " 'To eat,' he exclaimed
-'really, to eat, one must eat alone, with a soft light, with simple
furniture, an easy dress, and a single dish-at a time. Oh, hours
that I have thus spent! Oh, hours of bliss!' "14
The accumulation of internal evidence, then, seems to point to
Poe's having set out to parody both the novel and the review. He
might reasonably have expected a good part of his audience to be
readers of the prestigious British periodicals, and therefore to be
aware of the review of the novel even if they had not actually read
the novel itself. Moreover, Poe's ridicule of this wholly subjective
and meretricious review is consistent with and foreshadows the
theories of analytic criticism that he was to develop more discursively
and elaborately in later years.
It is perhaps true that the reader who is not sympathetic to Poe
will not find the story any better or even more amusing for know-
ing its sources. The sources themselves, however, and Poe's ingenious
manipulation of them, seem to confirm Floyd Stovall's recent judg-
ment that Poe's works must be considered "the product of con-
scious effort by a healthy and alert intelligence."15
"Works, II, I97.
4 Westminister Review, p. 401.
s"The Conscious Art of Edgar Allan Poe," College English, XXIV, 42I (March, I963).

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