22. =Florestan de Belle-Isle.= There seems to be here a reference also to one of Scribe’s contemporaries, Florestan de Bel-Montet, who was of a Bonapartist family. He had tried to secure for Napoleon III, in 1831, the crown of Poland. Napoleon III himself had been given the name of “Florestan” in a novel by Disraeli.
24. =Courlande=: a province of Russia in Europe, south of the Gulf of Riga; population about 673,000.
=20=, 3. =Arminius=: (Hermann), leader of the German army which destroyed the Roman legions under Varus in 9 A.D.
17. =Malplaquet=: a town in northern France, scene of the victory of the Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill, 1650-1722) and Prince Eugène over Marshal Villars, Sept. 11, 1709.
17. =le prince Eugène=: Eugène de Savoie, a celebrated general (1663-1736).
18. =Pierre le Grand=: Peter the Great, Czar of Russia from 1682 to 1725.
18. =Stralsund=: in Pomerania, on the Baltic. Charles XII of Sweden was besieged there.
=23=, 7. =Sa Majesté Très Chrétienne=: ‘His Most Christian Majesty,’ Louis XV, king of France.
17. =Menzikoff=: Mentchikof (Alexandre-Danilovitch) (1672-1729), prime minister of Russia under Peter the Great and Catherine I. He took an important part in the victory over Charles XII of Sweden, at Pultava, in 1709.
18. =Mittau=: a city of Courlande in Russia. Louis XVIII of France resided there from 1798 to 1807.
=24=, 2. =A la Charles XII=: ‘like Charles XII’ (1682-1718), king of Sweden, a very warlike and adventurous ruler who fought against the Danes, Russians, Poles, and Turks.
3. =Bender=: a city of European Russia, where Charles XII, after his defeat by the Russians at Pultava, was besieged by the Turks.
=25=, 27. =le cardinal de Fleury.= See note to p. 10, l. 15.
=26=, 13. =le vainqueur de Menzikoff.= There may be here a hidden reference also to another of similar name--the prince Martznikoff, who was, in 1845-46, one of the best known admirers of the actress, Mlle Rachel. Napoleon III, whose experiences resembled in many particulars those of Maurice de Saxe, had, at the time the play of _Adrienne Lecouvreur_ was presented (1849), superseded Martznikoff as the protector of Rachel.
=27=, 6. =déclamation emphatique=: ‘affected, or overdrawn, elocution.’