A85.Inglish BCEnc. Blauwe Kaas Encyclopedie, Duaal Hermeneuties Kollegium.

Inglish Site.85.
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TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP
SYDNEY KNIGHT, SYR JAMES JESUS SINGLETON, SYR CANARIS, SYR LAVRENTI BERIA ; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED THEM,
AND BEING DEAD GIVE THEM
THEIRE DVE.
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In the beginning there is darkness. The screen erupts in blue, then a cascade of thick, white hexadecimal numbers and cracked language, ?UnusedStk? and ?AllocMem.? Black screen cedes to blue to white and a pair of scales appear, crossed by a sword, both images drawn in the jagged, bitmapped graphics of Windows 1.0-era clip-art?light grey and yellow on a background of light cyan. Blue text proclaims, ?God on tap!?
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Introduction.
Yes i am getting a little Mobi-Literate(ML) by experimenting literary on my Mobile Phone. Peoplecall it Typographical Laziness(TL).
The first accidental entries for the this part of this encyclopedia.
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This is TempleOS V2.17, the welcome screen explains, a ?Public Domain Operating System? produced by Trivial Solutions of Las Vegas, Nevada. It greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall ?DESQview, the ?Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of ?personal computing? necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
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Index.
216.Drifters (?????? Dorifutazu?).
217."The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges.
218.The Comte de Saint Germain.
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216.Drifters (?????? Dorifutazu?).
Drifters (?????? Dorifutazu?) is a fantasy, alternate history Japanese manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. The manga started serialization in Sh?nen Gahosha's magazine, Young King Ours on April 30, 2009. It centers on various historical figures summoned to an unknown world where their skills and techniques are needed by magicians in order to save their worlds from total destruction.
Plot.
Shimazu Toyohisa, while involved at the Battle of Sekigahara, manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically wounded in the process. As he walks from the field wounded and bleeding, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a corridor of doors, where a bespectacled man at a desk waits for him. This man, Murasaki, sends Toyohisa into the nearest door where he wakes up in another world. There, Toyohisa meets other great warriors like him who have been transported as well, to be part of a group known as "Drifters". This world contains both native humans and a number of fantastical races, including elves, dwarves, and hobbits. However, the world is at war, with the humans waging a losing war against another group of great warriors, the "Ends", who wish to take over the world and kill all of the Drifters. Under the Ends' command are many terrible creatures, including dragons, which they use to destroy everything in their wake. At the start of the series, the Ends' army has control of the northern part of the continent, and are currently trying to invade the south through a pivotal fortress at the northernmost tip of a nation called Carneades. Meanwhile, the "Octobrist Organization", a group of human magicians native to this world, attempt to bring together the many individual Drifters to save their world from the brutal Ends.
Characters.
Drifters.
Some of the Drifters. From left to right, back: Naoshi Kanno, Unknown, Oda Nobunaga; front: Shimazu Toyohisa, Nasu no Yoichi.
Murasaki (???)
Voiced by: Mitsuru Miyamoto
A bespectacled man who constantly wears a suit. He is apparently the one responsible for the appearance of the Drifters, using them as a means to right the wrong of the Ends' conquest of the magical world. He is often seen sitting in the middle of the door corridor, smoking, and reading a newspaper that gives news of the events relating to the Drifters. In the corridor he is associated with and accompanied by light. He uses a magic newspaper to keep tabs on the battles in the other world.
Shimazu Toyohisa (?? ???)
Voiced by: Y?ichi Nakamura
The main protagonist. Historically he died in 1600. When he first arrived in the world, he was critically injured, only to be brought to the hideout of Nobunaga and Yoichi by some young "elves". Of the three original Drifters in the group, Toyohisa is the most willing to help the elves, first by attacking the humans massacring them and then by convincing them to kill the leader of those humans. He uses a long sword and is seen carrying a short sword as well. He's also shown carrying a what appears to be a sawed off Tanegashima, which he only uses when his swords are infeasible.
Oda Nobunaga (?? ???)
A famous warlord who conquered most of Japan during Sengoku period. Historically he is known for being the daimyo who took the first step of unification of the Japan, and the first Japanese military commander to utilize arquebuses in battles. Perhaps because of this, as a Drifter he uses an arquebus in battle. He died twenty years before Toyohisa (1582). As a Drifter, he has only aged six months since arriving in the new world.
Nasu no Yoichi (?? ???)
A very effeminate man of nineteen. Although he died many years before Nobunaga and Toyohisa, Yoichi is the youngest in the group. His historical death date is unclear, yet some records indicate that he either died on 1189, 1190, or 1232, at up to 64 years old. Historically he is known as a powerful warrior who served Minamoto no Yoshitsune during the Genpei War, and he also appears in The Tale of the Heike. However, Nobunaga notes that Yoichi is very different from historical accounts. Yoichi acts as the group's archer, killing fleeing enemies.
Hannibal
A famous Carthiginian military commander, who died in either 183 or 181 BC. Now a Drifter and elderly, he is seen arguing with Scipio Africanus over the latter's "plagiarism" of Cannae at the Battle of Zama. After nearly being killed by the Black King's army, Hannibal insists that victory is still possible. After being seperated from Scipio, Hannibal becomes depressed and senile, but is still able to articulate battle tactics to his fellow Drifters via indirect means.
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
Hannibal's Roman adversary during the Second Punic War, who is believed to have died around 183 BC. As a Drifter, he is as old as Hannibal, who he is seen constantly arguing with, claiming that "a winner takes all" since he won at Zama. Nevertheless, Scipio respects Hannibal greatly, saying he is worth a million men, because though a million men would not budge Rome, Hannibal nearly tore it down. He is currently travelling with Butch, The Sundance Kid, and Naoshi.
The Wild Bunch
Transported from the Wild West, the outlaws now fight against the Black King and his armies. They carry a large amount of firearms including machine guns and pistols. Two members of the bunch are Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
Naoshi Kanno (?? ??)
During a battle with the Black King, with the Drifters' side under attack by dragons, World War II fighter pilot Naoshi Kanno is transported into the world in his plane. He decides to attack the dragons when their attacks remind him of the US bombing of Tokyo. His plane later crashed and he soon found himself worshipped as a god by natives, only to leave with Scipio after duscovering Scipio was "Italian". He does not trust Butch or Sundance Kid, as they are American. He is addressed as Sugano Nao in the Dark Horse translation, an alternate reading of his name.
Tamon Yamaguchi (?? ???)
An admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He is first mentioned in Chapter 19 directing the destruction of Orte Empire ships via flying griffin forces from the naval fleet he now leads.
Ends.
Easy
A young woman with long, black hair. Apparently at odds with Murasaki, she is responsible for the Ends, an opposing force similar in origin to the Drifters. In the corridor she is associated with and accompanied by darkness, she primarily uses her computer to keep tabs on the battles taking place in the other world.
The Black King
The Black King is the leader of the Ends. He claims that he once tried to "save" humans but he has since shifted his agenda towards nonhumans after humans "denied" his efforts. His identity has yet to be established but he is shown to possess healing powers and the ability to multiply any life form he wishes, infinitely producing food or wood. He also has puncture scars in both of his palms. In Chapter 33, the Black King has instructed Rasputin to create a simple alphabet and a syncretic religion to allow the different races of the nonhumans to find a common ground. His ultimate goal is to eradicate all humans and create a new civilization of nonhumans in a perpetual Dark Age, ensuring that they never advance far enough to become as destructive as humans, creating what the Black King believes will be a utopia.
Hijikata Toshiz? (?? ???)
The former vice-commander of the Shinsengumi who died fighting in the name of the Tokugawa Bakufu during the Boshin War. Hijikata has the ability to use smoke in order to manifest ghostly images of members of the Shinsengumi and uses them to cut apart his enemies.
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc)
The heroine of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. Joan, who was driven insane after being burned at the stake, now desires nothing more than to see the world burn. As an Ends- with her Christian crosses now upside down - she has manifested the ability to manipulate fire. Surprisingly, she seems to be self-conscious of her (lacking) femininity, though this could be another result of her insanity. In Chapter 24, Joan is defeated by Toyohisa in battle; however, she is able to flee the scene alive due to Toyohisa's personal vow to never kill a woman.
Gilles de Rais
A French nobleman who was once one of Joan's companions-in-arms, but was later executed for multiple cases of alleged murder, sodomy, and heresy. He wields an incredible strength and continued to accompany Joan to battle even in death until he was defeated by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, whereafter he disintegrated into salt. He is the first End to be killed in the series.
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova (????????? ?????????? ????????)
The youngest daughter of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II. Anastasia and her family were shot by a Bolshevik firing squad when Anastasia was seventeen. Now she has the supernatural ability to create blizzards. She apparently has some attachment to Joan.
Grigori Rasputin (???????? ???????? ????????)
A famous Russian mystic who once held a great influence over the Russian Imperial Court because of his ability to supposedly heal the Romanov's hemophiliac heir, Alexei. He now serves the Black King.
Akechi Mitsuhide
Nobunaga's archenemy turned End.
Orte Empire.
Adolf Hitler
The infamous Führer and Chancellor of Nazi Germany. Revealed in Chapter 35 to be a Drifter, Hitler ended up appearing in the current world fifty years before the current storyline and inspiring the local humans through speeches at a tavern to rise up and form the Orte Empire. He mysteriously committed suicide soon after; however, his followers continued to revere him as the "Father" of their country long after his death.
Count Saint-Germi
A nobleman and Drifter who owns a quarter of the Empire and was Hitler's closest ally in its formation. It is said that the Empire could not have existed without his "betrayal", and as such he is free to live as he pleases without criticism from any of his peers. Despite this position however, he is not loyal to the Empire and knows that its demise is near; as such, he plans to reach out to the elves and the Drifters that accompany them. As a side note, in spite of the fact he is well over fifty years old, as the Orte Empire was formed fifty years before the current storyline, Saint-Germi appears as a youthful drag queen with an effeminate personality. In Chapter 35, it is revealed that he is a Drifter and has knowledge the modern era (due to the fact that he is aware of the existence of firearms and gunpowder), as well as some knowledge with Japanese history.
Mills
A former tax collector of the elvish colonies. He now works for the elves as a servant.
Aram
A knight of the Orte Empire who was killed by the elves.
Alester
An aide to Count Saint-Germi.
Flemi
An aide to Count Saint-Germi.
The Octobrist OrganizationEdit
Abe no Seimei (?? ???)
Abe no Seimei is a legendary Japanese magician who devoted his life to the extermination of the Ends soon after he first appeared in the new world as a Drifter. He now serves as one of the heads of the Octobrist Organization, an anti-Ends society.
Olminu (Sem)
A young magician of the Octobrists. She was charged with watching Toyohisa's group of Drifters. She seems to be quite incompetent at reconnaissance, and is terrified of the Drifters she must follow. After she is discovered and kidnapped by Toyohisa's group, she tells them the story of the Drifters and Ends. She is often used as comic relief, shown in a generally incompetent, powerless and cowardly way, and is a frequent target of sexual harassment by Nobunaga (Who calls her names such as "Olminipples") but can be helpful. Olminu can also serve as an spectator to the story, with the narrative enlightening plot elements trough her perception.
Ham
Ham is an assistant to Abe no Seimei.
Elves.
Marsha
Marsha is one of the elf brothers that discovers Toyohisa.
Mark
Mark is one of the elf brothers that discovers Toyohisa.
Shara
Shara, a brother of Marsha and Mark, is an elf that starts an elvish rebellion against the Orte Empire after his father is killed.
Others.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (? ???)
Former leader of Nasu no Yoichi. Their dynamic in this world as well as which side he aligns himself with (if any) remains to be seen.
Bronze Dragon
One of the six Great Dragons that govern the winged dragons. Although she objects to the employment of her subjects as the personal "pets" of the Black King, she is soon tortured with his powers and made into a living copper mine.
Doug
A spy for the Oct.
Organizations.
Drifters
Many heroes and great warriors from different eras and cultures seem to have been brought to this new world by Murasaki, where they are meant to fight the Ends. A common element to the Drifters is that although they are driven by violence, victory, and conquest, they are not cruel; they love to fight and win, but do not care about hurting innocents.
Ends
The opposing force in this world, the Ends are, like the Drifters, mainly composed of powerful historical figures who died under unorthodox and often violent circumstances. Unlike the Drifters, however, the Ends are humans that have forsaken their humanity, and are thus capable of using supernatural powers. Now, Ends are driven completely by an intense hate for humanity. They seem to have been brought into the new world by Easy, who is at odds with Murasaki.
The Octobrist Organization
A group of humans, known as magicians, native to the world whose duty is to observe and gather Drifters together to fight the Ends. Unlike many humans in this world, Octobrists do not subjugate the demihumans. It is led by Abe no Seimei who is a Drifter against th.........................
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217."The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges.
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941), which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones (Fictions) in 1944. It was the first of Borges's works to be translated into English by Anthony Boucher when it appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in August 1948.
Borges's vision of "forking paths" has been cited as inspiration by numerous new media scholars, in particular within the field of hypertext fiction.[1][2][3] Other stories by Borges that express the idea of infinite texts include "The Library of Babel" and "The Book of Sand".[1]
Plot summary.
The story takes the form of a signed statement by a Chinese professor of English named Doctor Yu Tsun who is living in the United Kingdom during World War I. Tsun is a spy for the German Empire who has realized that an MI5 agent called Captain Richard Madden is pursuing him, has entered the apartment of his handler Viktor Runeberg, and either captured or killed him. Doctor Tsun is certain that his own arrest is next. He has just discovered the location of a new British artillery park and wishes to convey that knowledge to his German handlers before he is captured. He at last hits upon a desperate plan in order to achieve this.
Doctor Tsun explains that his spying has never been for the sake of Imperial Germany, which he considers "a barbarous country." Rather, he says, he did it because he wanted to prove to his racist masters that an Asian is intelligent enough to obtain the information needed to save their soldiers' lives. Tsun suspects that Captain Madden, an Irishman in the employ of the British Empire, might be similarly motivated.
Taking his few possessions, Tsun boards a train to the village of Ashgrove. Narrowly avoiding the pursuing Captain Madden at the train station, he goes to the house of Doctor Stephen Albert, an eminent Sinologist. As he walks up the road to Doctor Albert's house, Tsun reflects on his great ancestor, Ts'ui Pên, a learnèd and famous man who renounced his job as governor of Yunnan in order to undertake two tasks: to write a vast and intricate novel, and to construct an equally vast and intricate labyrinth, one "in which all men would lose their way." Ts'ui Pên was murdered before completing his novel, however, and what he did write was a "contradictory jumble of irresolute drafts" that made no sense to subsequent readers; nor was the labyrinth ever found.
Doctor Tsun arrives at the house of Doctor Albert, who is deeply excited to have met a descendant of Ts'ui Pên. Doctor Albert reveals that he has himself been engaged in a longtime study of Ts'ui Pên's novel. Albert explains excitedly that at one stroke he has solved both mysteries?the chaotic and jumbled nature of Ts'ui Pên's unfinished book and the mystery of his lost labyrinth. Albert's solution is that they are one and the same: the book is the labyrinth.
Basing his work on the strange legend that Ts'ui Pên had intended to construct an infinite labyrinth, as well as a cryptic letter from Ts'ui Pên himself stating, "I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths". Doctor Albert realized that the "garden of forking paths" was the novel, and that the forking took place in time, not in space. As compared to most fictions, where the character chooses one alternative at each decision point and thereby eliminates all the others, Ts'ui Pên's novel attempted to describe a world where all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, each one itself leading to further proliferations of possibilities. Albert further explains that these constantly diverging paths do sometimes converge again, though as the result of a different chain of causes; for example, he says, in one possible time-line Doctor Tsun has come to his house as an enemy, in another as a friend.
Though trembling with gratitude at Albert's revelation and in awe of his ancestor's literary genius, Tsun glances up the path to see Captain Madden approaching the house. He asks Albert to see Ts'ui Pên's letter again. Doctor Albert turns to retrieve it, Tsun draws a revolver, and declares his friendship before murdering him in cold blood.
Doctor Tsun is arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death by hanging. However, he has, "most abhorrently triumphed," as he has revealed to Berlin the location of the artillery park. Indeed the park is bombed as Tsun goes on trial. The location of the artillery park was in Albert. Doctor Tsun had realized that the only way to convey that information was to murder a person of that name, so that the news of the murder would appear in British newspapers connected with his name.
In modern culture.
In 1987 Stuart Moulthrop created a hypertextual version of the "The Garden of Forking Paths". This name was given to relate the Gulf War setting of his novel and Borges: Victory Garden. This work would never be published but is highly discussed in academic literature.[1]
In homage to the story, the TV series FlashForward made an episode entitled "The Garden of Forking Paths". In the episode, the character Dyson Frost referred to a map of the possible futures as his "Garden of Forking Paths."
Parallels have been drawn between the concepts in the story to the Many-worlds interpretation in physics by Bryce DeWitt [4] in his preface to "The Many World Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics".[5]
Andrew Gelman references "The Garden of Forking Paths" to describe how scientists can make false discoveries when they do not pre-specify a data analysis plan and instead choose "one analysis for the particular data they saw."[6] The "Garden of Forking Paths" refers to the near infinite number of choices facing researchers in cleaning and analyzing data, and emphasizes the need for pre-analysis planning and independent replication, an especially relevant consideration in social psychology's recent replication crisis.
See also
Gilles Deleuze's use of this story to illustrate the Leibnizian concept of several impossible worlds simultaneously existing and the problem of future contingents.
Ayssar Arida's linking of "The Garden of Forking Paths" and quantum theory's sum over histories concept for an event-driven urbanism project.
References
^ a b c Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Nick Montfort, eds. The New Media Reader. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
^ Bolter, Jay David; Joyce, Michael (1987). "Hypertext and Creative Writing". Hypertext '87 Papers. ACM. pp. 41?50.
^ Moulthrop, Stuart (1991). "Reading From the Map: Metonymy and Metaphor in the Fiction of 'Forking Paths'". In Delany, Paul; Landow, George P. Hypermedia and Literary Studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT Press.
^ Biographical Sketch of Hugh Everett, III, Eugene Shikhovtsev http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/everett/everett.html
^ The Many World Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, N. Graham and B. DeWitt eds., Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1973. http://dspace.nacs.uci.edu/handle/10575/1302
^ The garden of forking paths: Why multiple comparisons can be a problem, even when there is no ?fishing expedition? or ?p-hacking? and the research hypothesis was posited ahead of time, Andrew Gelman and Eric Loken http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/unpublished/p_hacking.pdf
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"The Garden of Forking Paths".
by Jorge Luis Borges
I
On page 22 of Liddell Hart?s History of World War I you will read that an attack against the Serre-Montauban line by thirteen British divisions (supported by 1,400 artillery pieces), planned for the 24th of July, 1916, had to be postponed until the morning of the 29th. The torrential rains, Captain Liddell Hart comments, caused this delay, an insignificant one, to be sure.
The following statement, dictated, reread and signed by Dr. Yu Tsun, former professor of English at the Hochschule at Tsingtao, throws an unsuspected light over the whole affair. The first two pages of the document are missing.
?. . . and I hung up the receiver. Immediately afterwards, I recognized the voice that had answered in German. It was that of Captain Richard Madden. Madden?s presence in Viktor Runeberg?s apartment meant the end of our anxieties and?but this seemed, or should have seemed, very secondary to me?also the end of our lives. It meant that Runeberg had been arrested or murdered.[1]
Before the sun set on that day, I would encounter the same fate. Madden was implacable. Or rather, he was obliged to be so. An Irishman at the service of England, a man accused of laxity and perhaps of treason, how could he fail to seize and be thankful for such a miraculous opportunity: the discovery, capture, maybe even the death of two agents of the German Reich? I went up to my room; absurdly I locked the door and threw myself on my back on the narrow iron cot. Through the window I saw the familiar roofs and the cloud-shaded six o?clock sun. It seemed incredible to me that day without premonitions or symbols should be the one of my inexorable death. In spite of my dead father, in spite of having been a child in a symmetrical garden of Hai Feng, was I?now?going to die? Then I reflected that everything happens to a man precisely, precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea, and all that really is happening is happening to me . . . The almost intolerable recollection of Madden?s horselike face banished these wanderings. In the midst of my hatred and terror (it means nothing to me now to speak of terror, now that I have mocked Richard Madden, now that my throat yearns for the noose) it occurred to me that tumultuous and doubles happy warrior did not suspect that I possessed the Secret. The name of the exact location of the new British artillery park on the River Ancre. A bird streaked across the gray sky and blindly I translated it into an airplane and that airplane into many (against the French sky) annihilating the artillery station with vertical bombs. If only my mouth, before a bullet shattered it, could cry out that secret name so it could be heard in Germany . . . My human voice was very weak. How might I make it carry to the ear of the Chief? To the ear of that sick and hateful man who knew nothing of Runeberg and me save that we were in Staffordshire and who was waiting in vain for our report in his arid office in Berlin, endlessly examining newspapers . . . I said out loud: I must see. I sat up noiselessly, in a useless perfection of silence, as if Madden were already lying in wait for me. Something?perhaps the mere vain ostentation of proving my resources were nil?made me look through my pockets. I found what I knew I would find. The American watch, the nickel chain and the square coin, the key ring with the incriminating useless keys to Runeberg?s apartment, the notebook, a letter which I resolved to destroy immediately (and which I did not destroy), a crown, two shillings and a few pence, the red and blue pencil, the handkerchief, the revolver with one bullet. Absurdly, I took it in my hand and weighed it in order to inspire courage within myself. Vaguely I thought that a pistol report can be heard at a great distance. In ten minutes my plan was perfected. The telephone book listed the name of the only person capable of transmitting the message; he lived in a suburb of Fenton, less than a half hour?s train ride away.
I am a cowardly man. I say it now, now that I have carried to its end a plan whose perilous nature no one can deny. I know its execution was terrible. I didn?t do it for Germany, no. I care nothing for a barbarous country which imposed upon me the abjection of being a spy. Besides, I know of a man from England?a modest man?who for me is no less great than Goethe. I talked with him for scarcely an hour, but during that hour he was Goethe . . . I did it because I sensed that the Chief somehow feared people of my race?for the innumerable ancestors who merge within me. I wanted to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies. Besides, I had to flee from Captain Madden. His hands and his voice could call at my door at any moment. I dressed silently, bade farewell to myself in the mirror, went downstairs, scrutinized the peaceful street and went out. The station was not far from my home, but I judged it wise to take a cab. I argued that in this way I ran less risk of being recognized; the fact is that in the deserted street I felt myself visible and vulnerable, infinitely so. I remember that I told the cab driver to stop a short distance before the main entrance. I got out with voluntary, almost painful slowness; I was going to the village of Ashgrove but I bought a ticket for a more distant station. The train left within a very few minutes, at eight-fifty. I hurried; the next one would leave at nine-thirty. There was hardly a soul on the platform. I went through the coaches; I remember a few farmers, a woman dressed in mourning, a young boy who was reading with fervor the Annals of Tacitus, a wounded and happy soldier. The coaches jerked forward at last. A man whom I recognized ran in vain to the end of the platform. It was Captain Richard Madden. Shattered, trembling, I shrank into the far corner of the seat, away from the dreaded window.
From this broken state I passed into an almost abject felicity. I told myself that the duel had already begun and that I had won the first encounter by frustrating, even if for forty minutes, even if by a stroke of fate, the attack of my adversary. I argued that this slightest of victories foreshadowed a total victory. I argued (no less fallaciously) that my cowardly felicity proved that I was a man capable of carrying out the adventure successfully. From this weakness I took strength that did not abandon me. I foresee that man will resign himself each day to more atrocious undertakings; soon there will be no one but warriors and brigands; I give them this counsel: The author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past. Thus I proceeded as my eyes of a man already dead registered the elapsing of that day, which was perhaps the last, and the diffusion of the night. The train ran gently along, amid ash trees. It stopped, almost in the middle of the fields. No one announced the name of the station. ?Ashgrove?? I asked a few lads on the platform. ?Ashgrove,? they replied. I got off.
A lamp enlightened the platform but the faces of the boys were in shadow. One questioned me, ?Are you going to Dr. Stephen Albert?s house?? Without waiting for my answer, another said, ?The house is a long way from here, but you won?t get lost if you take this road to the left and at every crossroads turn again to your left.? I tossed them a coin (my last), descended a few stone steps and started down the solitary road. It went downhill, slowly. It was of elemental earth; overhead the branches were tangled; the low, full moon seemed to accompany me.
For an instant, I thought that Richard Madden in some way had penetrated my desperate plan. Very quickly, I understood that was impossible. The instructions to turn always to the left reminded me that such was the common procedure for discovering the central point of certain labyrinths. I have some understanding of labyrinths: not for nothing am I the great grandson of that Ts?ui Pên who was governor of Yunnan and who renounced worldly power in order to write a novel that might be even more populous than the Hung Lu Meng and to construct a labyrinth in which all men would become lost. Thirteen years he dedicated to these heterogeneous tasks, but the hand of a stranger murdered him?and his novel was incoherent and no one found the labyrinth. Beneath English trees I meditated on that lost maze: I imagined it inviolate and perfect at the secret crest of a mountain; I imagined it erased by rice fields or beneath the water; I imagined it infinite, no longer composed of octagonal kiosks and returning paths, but of rivers and provinces and kingdoms . . . I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars. Absorbed in these illusory images, I forgot my destiny of one pursued. I felt myself to be, for an unknown period of time, an abstract perceiver of the world. The vague, living countryside, the moon, the remains of the day worked on me, as well as the slope of the road which eliminated any possibility of weariness. The afternoon was intimate, infinite. The road descended and forked among the now confused meadows. A high-pitched, almost syllabic music approached and receded in the shifting of the wind, dimmed by leaves and distance. I thought that a man can be an enemy of other men, of the moments of other men, but not of a country: not of fireflies, words, gardens, streams of water, sunsets. Thus I arrived before a tall, rusty gate. Between the iron bars I made out a poplar grove and a pavilion. I understood suddenly two things, the first trivial, the second almost unbelievable: the music came from the pavilion, and the music was Chinese. For precisely that reason I had openly accepted it without paying it any heed. I do not remember whether there was a bell or whether I knocked with my hand. The sparkling of the music continued.
From the rear of the house within a lantern approached: a lantern that the trees sometimes striped and sometimes eclipsed, a paper lantern that had the form of a drum and the color of the moon. A tall man bore it. I didn?t see his face for the light blinded me. He opened the door and said slowly, in my own language: ?I see that the pious Hsi P?eng persists in correcting my solitude. You no doubt wish to see the garden??
I recognized the name of one of our consuls and I replied, disconcerted, ?The garden??
?The garden of forking paths.?
Something stirred in my memory and I uttered with incomprehensible certainty, ?The garden of my ancestor Ts?ui Pên.?
?Your ancestor? Your illustrious ancestor? Come in.?
The damp path zigzagged like those of my childhood. We came to a library of Eastern and Western books. I recognized bound in yellow silk several volumes of the Lost Encyclopedia, edited by the Third Emperor of the Luminous Dynasty but never printed. The record on the phonograph revolved next to a bronze phoenix. I also recall a famille rose vase and another, many centuries older, of that shade of blue which our craftsmen copied from the potters of Persia . . .
Stephen Albert observed me with a smile. He was, as I have said, very tall, sharp-featured, with gray eyes and a gray beard. He told me that he had been a missionary in Tientsin ?before aspiring to become a Sinologist.?
We sat down?I on a long, low divan, he with his back to the window and a tall circular clock. I calculated that my pursuer, Richard Madden, could not arrive for at least an hour. My irrevocable determination could wait.
?An astounding fate, that of Ts?ui Pên,? Stephen Albert said. ?Governor of his native province, learned in astronomy, in astrology and in the tireless interpretation of the canonical books, chess player, famous poet and calligrapher?he abandoned all this in order to compose a book and a maze. He renounced the pleasures of both tyranny and justice, of his populous couch, of his banquets and even of erudition?all to close himself up for thirteen years in the Pavilion of the Limpid Solitude. When he died, his heirs found nothing save chaotic manuscripts. His family, as you may be aware, wished to condemn them to the fire; but his executor?a Taoist or Buddhist monk?insisted on their publication.?
?We descendants of Ts?ui Pên,? I replied, ?continue to curse that monk. Their publication was senseless. The book is an indeterminate heap of contradictory drafts. I examined it once: in the third chapter the hero dies, in the fourth he is alive. As for the other undertaking of Ts?ui Pên, his labyrinth . . .?
?Here is Ts?ui Pên?s labyrinth,? he said, indicating a tall lacquered desk.
?An ivory labyrinth!? I exclaimed. ?A minimum labyrinth.?
?A labyrinth of symbols,? he corrected. ?An invisible labyrinth of time. To me, a barbarous Englishman, has been entrusted the revelation of this diaphanous mystery. After more than a hundred years, the details are irretrievable; but it is not hard to conjecture what happened. Ts?ui Pe must have said once: I am withdrawing to write a book. And another time: I am withdrawing to construct a labyrinth. Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing. The Pavilion of the Limpid Solitude stood in the center of a garden that was perhaps intricate; that circumstance could have suggested to the heirs a physical labyrinth. Ts?ui Pên died; no one in the vast territories that were his came upon the labyrinth; the confusion of the novel suggested to me that it was the maze. Two circumstances gave me the correct solution of the problem. One: the curious legend that Ts?ui Pên had planned to create a labyrinth which would be strictly infinite. The other: a fragment of a letter I discovered.?
Albert rose. He turned his back on me for a moment; he opened a drawer of the black and gold desk. He faced me and in his hands he held a sheet of paper that had once been crimson, but was now pink and tenuous and cross-sectioned. The fame of Ts?ui Pên as a calligrapher had been justly won. I read, uncomprehendingly and with fervor, these words written with a minute brush by a man of my blood: I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths. Wordlessly, I returned the sheet. Albert continued:
?Before unearthing this letter, I had questioned myself about the ways in which a book can be infinite. I could think of nothing other than a cyclic volume, a circular one. A book whose last page was identical with the first, a book which had the possibility of continuing indefinitely. I remembered too that night which is at the middle of the Thousand and One Nights when Scheherazade (through a magical oversight of the copyist) begins to relate word for word the story of the Thousand and One Nights, establishing the risk of coming once again to the night when she must repeat it, and thus on to infinity. I imagined as well a Platonic hereditary work. transmitted from father to son, in which each new individual adds a chapter or corrects with pious care the pages of his elders. These conjectures diverted me; but none seemed to correspond, not even remotely, to the contradictory chapters of Ts?ui Pên. In the midst of this perplexity, I received from Oxford the manuscript you have examined. I lingered, naturally, on the sentence: I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths. Almost instantly, I understood: ?the garden of forking paths? was the chaotic novel; the phrase ?the various futures (not to all)? suggested to me the forking in time, not in space. A broad rereading of the work confirmed the theory. In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives, he chooses one and eliminates the others; in the fiction of Ts?ui Pên, he chooses? simultaneously?all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork. Here, then, is the explanation of the novel?s contradictions. Fang, let us say, has a secret; a stranger calls at his door; Fang resolves to kill him. Naturally, there are several possible outcomes: Fang can kill the intruder, the intruder can kill Fang, they both can escape, they both can die, and so forth. In the work of Ts?ui Pên, all possible outcomes occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings. Sometimes, the paths of this labyrinth converge: for example, you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy, in another, my friend. If you will resign yourself to my incurable pronunciation, we shall read a few pages.?
His face, within the vivid circle of the lamplight, was unquestionably that of an old man, but with something unalterable about it, even immortal. He read with slow precision two versions of the same epic chapter. In the first, an army marches to a battle across a lonely mountain; the horror of the rocks and shadows makes the men undervalue their lives and they gain an easy victory. In the second, the same army traverses a palace where a great festival is taking place; the resplendent battle seems to them a continuation of the celebration and they win the victory. I listened with proper veneration to these ancient narratives, perhaps less admirable in themselves than the fact that they had been created by my blood and were being restored to me by a man of a remote empire, in the course of a desperate adventure, on a Western isle. I remember the last words, repeated in each version like a secret commandment: Thus fought the heroes, tranquil their admirable hearts, violent their swords, resigned to kill and to die.
From that moment on, I felt about me and within my dark body an invisible, intangible swarming. Not the swarming of the divergent, parallel and finally coalescent armies, but a more inaccessible, more intimate agitation that they in some manner prefigured. Stephen Albert continued:
?I don?t believe that your illustrious ancestor played idly with these variations. I don?t consider it credible that he would sacrifice thirteen years to the infinite execution of a rhetorical experiment. In your country, the novel is a subsidiary form of literature; in Ts?ui Pên?s time it was a despicable form. Ts?ui Pên was a brilliant novelist, but he was also a man of letters who doubtless did not consider himself a mere novelist. The testimony of his contemporaries proclaims?and his life fully confirms?his metaphysical and mystical interests. Philosophic controversy usurps a good part of the novel. I know that of all problems, none disturbed him so greatly nor worked upon him so much as the abysmal problem of time. Now then, the latter is the only problem that does not figure in the pages of the Garden. He does not even use the word that signifies time. How do you explain this voluntary omission?
I proposed several solutions?all unsatisfactory. We discussed them. Finally, Stephen Albert said to me:
?In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word??
I thought a moment and replied, ?The word chess.?
?Precisely,? said Albert. ?The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time; this recondite cause prohibits its mention. To omit a word always, to resort to inept metaphors and obvious periphrases, is perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it. That is the tortuous method preferred, in each of the meanderings of his indefatigable novel, by the oblique Ts?ui Pên. I have compared hundreds of manuscripts, I have corrected the errors that the negligence of the copyists has introduced, I have guessed the plan of this chaos, I have re-established?I believe I have re-established?the primordial organization, I have translated the entire work: it is clear to me that not once does he employ the word ?time.? The explanation is obvious: The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts?ui Pên conceived it. In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us. In the present one, which a favorable fate has granted me, you have arrived at my house; in another, while crossing the garden, you found me dead; in still another, I utter these same words, but I am a mistake, a ghost.?
?In every one,? I pronounced, not without a tremble to my voice, ?I am grateful to you and revere you for your re-creation of the garden of Ts?ui Pên.?
?Not in all,? he murmured with a smile. ?Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures. In one of them I am your enemy.?
Once again I felt the swarming sensation of which I have spoken. It seemed to me that the humid garden that surrounded the house was infinitely saturated with invisible persons. Those persons were Albert and I, secret, busy and multiform in other dimensions of time. I raised my eyes and the tenuous nightmare dissolved. In the yellow and black garden there was only one man; but this man was as strong as a statue . . . this man was approaching along the path and he was Captain Richard Madden.
?The future already exists,? I replied, ?but I am your friend. Could I see the letter again??
Albert rose. Standing tall, he opened the drawer of the tall desk; for the moment his back was to me. I had readied the revolver. I fired with extreme caution. Albert fell uncomplainingly, immediately. I swear his death was instantaneous?a lightning stroke.
The rest is unreal, insignificant. Madden broke in, arrested me. I have been condemned to the gallows. I have won out abominably; I have communicated to Berlin the secret name of the city they must attack. They bombed it yesterday; I read it in the same papers that offered to England the mystery of the learned Sinologist Stephen Albert who was murdered by a stranger, one Yu Tsun. The Chief had deciphered this mystery. He knew my problem was to indicate (through the uproar of the war) the city called Albert, and that I had found no other means to do so than to kill a man of that name. He does not know (no one can know) my innumerable contrition and weariness.
[1] An hypothesis both hateful and odd. The Prussian spy Hans Rabener, alias Viktor Runeberg, attacked with drawn automatic the bearer of the warrant for his arrest, Captain Richard Madden. The latter, in self-defense, inflicted the wound which brought about Runeberg?s death. (Editor?s note.)
*
218.The Comte de Saint Germain.
The Comte de Saint Germain (born 1712?; died 27 February 1784) was a European courtier, with an interest in science and the arts. He achieved prominence in European high society of the mid-1700s. Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel considered him to be "one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived". St. Germain used a variety of names and titles, an accepted practice amongst royals and nobles at the time. These include the Marquis de Montferrat, Comte Bellamarre, Chevalier Schoening, Count Weldon, Comte Soltikoff, Graf Tzarogy and Prinz Ragoczy. In order to deflect inquiries as to his origins, he would invent fantasies, such as that he was 500 years old, leading Voltaire to sarcastically dub him "The Wonderman".
His birth and background are obscure, but towards the end of his life he claimed that he was a son of Prince Francis II Rákóczi of Transylvania. His name has occasionally caused him to be confused with Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, a noted French general, and Robert-François Quesnay de Saint Germain, an active occultist.
Background.
The Count claimed to be a son of Francis II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania, possibly legitimate, possibly by Duchess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria. This would account for his wealth and fine education. It also explains why kings would accept him as one of their own. The will of Francis II Rákóczi mentions his eldest son, Leopold George, who was believed to have died at the age of four. The speculation is that his identity was safeguarded as a protective measure from the persecutions against the Habsburg dynasty. At the time of his arrival in Schleswig in 1779, St. Germain told Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel that he was 88 years old. This would place his birth in 1691, when Francis II Rákóczi was 15 years old.
St. Germain was educated in Italy by the last of Medicis, Gian Gastone, his mother's brother-in-law. It is believed that he was a student at the University of Siena.
Historical figure.
He appears to have begun to be known under the title of the Count of St Germain during the early 1740s.
England.
According to David Hunter, the Count contributed some of the songs to L'incostanza delusa, an opera performed at the Haymarket Theatre in London on all but one of the Saturdays from 9 February to 20 April 1745. Later, in a letter of December of that same year, Horace Walpole mentions the Count St. Germain as being arrested in London on suspicion of espionage (this was during the Jacobite rebellion) but released without charge:
The other day they seized an odd man, who goes by the name of Count St. Germain. He has been here these two years, and will not tell who he is, or whence, but professes [two wonderful things, the first] that he does not go by his right name; [and the second that he never had any dealings with any woman - nay, nor with any succedaneum (this was censored by Walpole's editors until 1954)] He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible. He is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; a somebody that married a great fortune in Mexico, and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople; a priest, a fiddler, a vast nobleman. The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain. However, nothing has been made out against him; he is released; and, what convinces me that he is not a gentleman, stays here, and talks of his being taken up for a spy.
The Count gave two private musical performances in London in April and May 1749. On one such occasion, Lady Jemima Yorke described how she was 'very much entertain'd by him or at him the whole Time- I mean the Oddness of his Manner which it is impossible not to laugh at, otherwise you know he is very sensible & well-bred in conversation'. She continued:
'He is an Odd Creature, and the more I see him the more curious I am to know something about him. He is everything with everybody: he talks Ingeniously with Mr Wray, Philosophy with Lord Willoughby, and is gallant with Miss Yorke, Miss Carpenter, and all the Young Ladies. But the Character and Philosopher is what he seems to pretend to, and to be a good deal conceited of: the Others are put on to comply with Les Manieres du Monde, but that you are to suppose his real characteristic; and I can't but fancy he is a great Pretender in All kinds of Science, as well as that he really has acquired an uncommon Share in some'.
Walpole reports that St Germain:
'spoke Italian and French with the greatest facility, though it was evident that neither was his language; he understood Polish, and soon learnt to understand English and talk it a little [...] But Spanish or Portuguese seemed his natural language'.
Walpole concludes that the Count was 'a man of Quality who had been in or designed for the Church. He was too great a musician not to have been famous if he had not been a gentleman'. Walpole describes the Count as pale, with 'extremely black' hair and a beard. 'He dressed magnificently, [and] had several jewels' and was clearly receiving 'large remittances, but made no other figure'.
France.
St Germain appeared in the French court in around 1748. In 1749 he was employed by Louis XV for diplomatic missions.
A mime and English comedian known as Mi'Lord Gower impersonated St-Germain in Paris salons. His stories were wilder than the real Count's ? he had advised Jesus, for example. Inevitably, hearsay of his routine got confused with the original.
Giacomo Casanova describes in his memoirs several meetings with the "celebrated and learned impostor". Of his first meeting, in Paris in 1757, he writes:
The most enjoyable dinner I had was with Madame de Robert Gergi, who came with the famous adventurer, known by the name of the Count de St. Germain. This individual, instead of eating, talked from the beginning of the meal to the end, and I followed his example in one respect as I did not eat, but listened to him with the greatest attention. It may safely be said that as a conversationalist he was unequalled.
St. Germain gave himself out for a marvel and always aimed at exciting amazement, which he often succeeded in doing. He was scholar, linguist, musician, and chemist, good-looking, and a perfect ladies' man. For a while he gave them paints and cosmetics; he flattered them, not that he would make them young again (which he modestly confessed was beyond him) but that their beauty would be preserved by means of a wash which, he said, cost him a lot of money, but which he gave away freely.
He had contrived to gain the favour of Madame de Pompadour, who had spoken about him to the king, for whom he had made a laboratory, in which the monarch ? a martyr to boredom ? tried to find a little pleasure or distraction, at all events, by making dyes. The king had given him a suite of rooms at Chambord, and a hundred thousand francs for the construction of a laboratory, and according to St. Germain the dyes discovered by the king would have a materially beneficial influence on the quality of French fabrics.
This extraordinary man, intended by nature to be the king of impostors and quacks, would say in an easy, assured manner that he was three hundred years old, that he knew the secret of the Universal Medicine, that he possessed a mastery over nature, that he could melt diamonds, professing himself capable of forming, out of ten or twelve small diamonds, one large one of the finest water without any loss of weight. All this, he said, was a mere trifle to him. Notwithstanding his boastings, his bare-faced lies, and his manifold eccentricities, I cannot say I thought him offensive. In spite of my knowledge of what he was and in spite of my own feelings, I thought him an astonishing man as he was always astonishing me.
In 1760, at the height of the Seven Years' War, St. Germain travelled to Holland where he tried to open peace negotiations between Britain and France. British diplomats concluded that St. Germain had the backing of the Duc de Belle-isle and possibly of Madame de Pompadour, who were trying to outmanoeuvre the French Foreign Minister, the pro-Austrian Duc de Choiseul. However Britain would not treat with St. Germain unless his credentials came directly from the French king. The Duc de Choiseul convinced Louis XV to disavow St. Germain and demand his arrest. Count Bentinck de Rhoon, a Dutch diplomat, regarded the arrest warrant as internal French politicking which Holland should not involve itself in. However, a direct refusal to extradite St. Germain was also considered impolitic. De Rhoon therefore facilitated the departure of St. Germain to England with a passport issued by the British Ambassador, General Joseph Yorke. This passport was made out "in blank", allowing St. Germain to travel under an assumed name, showing that this practice was officially accepted at the time. Peace between Britain and France was later concluded at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
Death.
In 1779 St. Germain arrived in Altona in Schleswig. Here he made an acquaintance with Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, who also had an interest in mysticism and was a member of several secret societies. The Count showed the Prince several of his gems and he convinced the latter that he had invented a new method of colouring cloth. The Prince was impressed and installed the Count in an abandoned factory at Eckernförde he had acquired especially for the Count, and supplied him with the materials and cloths that St. Germain needed to proceed with the project. The two met frequently in the following years, and the Prince outfitted a laboratory for alchemical experiments in his nearby summer residence Louisenlund, where they, among other things, cooperated in creating gemstones and jewelry. The Prince later recounts in a letter that he was the only person in whom the Count truly confided. He told the Prince that he was the son of the Transylvanian Prince Francis II Rákóczi, and that he had been 88 years of age when he arrived in Schleswig.
The Count died in his residence in the factory on 27 February 1784, while the Prince was staying in Kassel, and the death was recorded in the register of the St. Nicolai Church in Eckernförde. He was buried 2 March and the cost of the burial was listed in the accounting books of the church the following day. The official burial site for the Count is at Nicolai Church (German St. Nicolaikirche) in Eckernförde. He was buried in a private grave. On April 3 the same year, the mayor and the city council of Eckernförde issued an official proclamation about the auctioning off of the Count's remaining effects in case no living relative would appear within a designated time period to lay claim on them. Prince Charles donated the factory to the crown and it was afterward converted into a hospital.
Jean Fuller-Overton found, during her research, that the Count's estate upon his death was: a packet of paid and receipted bills and quittances, 82 Reichsthalers and 13 shillings (cash), 29 various groups of items of clothing (this includes gloves, stockings, trousers, shirts, etc.), 14 linen shirts, 8 other groups of linen items, and various sundries (razors, buckles, toothbrushes, sunglasses, combs, etc.). There were no diamonds, jewels, gold, or any other riches. There were no kept cultural items from travels, personal items (like his violin), or any notes of correspondence.
Music by The Count.
The following list of music comes from Appendix II from Jean Overton-Fuller's book "The Comte de Saint Germain".
Trio Sonatas.
Six Sonatas for two violins with a bass for harpsichord or violoncello.
Op.47 I. F Major, 4/4, Molto Adagio
Op.48 II. B Flat Major, 4/4, Allegro
Op.49 III. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.50 IV. G Minor, 4/4, Tempo giusto
Op.51 V. G Major, 4/4, Moderato
Op.52 VI. A Major, 3/4, Cantabile lento
Violin Solos.
Seven Solos for a Violin.
Op.53 I. B Flat Major, 4/4, Largo
Op.54 II. E Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.55 III. C Minor, 4/4, Adagio
Op.56 IV. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.57 V. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.58 VI. A Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.59 VII. B Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
English Songs.
Op.4 The Maid That's Made For Love and Me (O Wouldst Thou Know What Sacred Charms). E Flat Major (marked B Flat Major), 3/4
Op.7 Jove, When He Saw My Fanny's Face. D Major, 3/4
Op.5 It Is Not That I Love You Less. F Major, 3/4
Op.6 Gentle Love, This Hour Befriend Me. D Major, 4/4
Italian Arias.
Numbered in order of their appearance in the Musique Raisonnee, with their page numbers in that volume. * Marks those performed in L'Incostanza Delusa and published in the Favourite Songs from that opera.
Op.8 I. Padre perdona, oh! pene, G Minor, 4/4, p. 1
Op.9 II. Non piangete amarti, E Major, 4/4, p. 6
Op.10 III. Intendo il tuo, F Major, 4/4, p. 11
Op.1 IV. Senza pieta mi credi*, G Major, 6/8 (marked 3/8 but there are 6 quavers to the bar), p. 16
Op.11 V. Gia, gia che moria deggio, D Major, 3/4, p. 21
Op.12 VI. Dille che l'amor mio*, E Major, 4/4, p. 27
Op.13 VII. Mio ben ricordati, D Major, 3/4, p. 32
Op.2 VIII. Digli, digli*, D Major, 3/4, p. 36
Op.3 IX. Per pieta bel Idol mio*, F Major, 3/8, p. 40
Op.14 X. Non so, quel dolce moto, B Flat Major, 4/4, p. 46
Op.15 XI. Piango, e ver, ma non procede, G minor, 4/4, p. 51
Op.16 XII. Dal labbro che t'accende, E Major, 3/4, p. 56
Op.4/17 XIII. Se mai riviene, D Minor, 3/4, p. 58
Op.18 XIV. Parlero non e permesso, E Major, 4/4, p. 62
Op.19 XV. Se tutti i miei pensieri, A Major, 4/4, p. 64
Op.20 XVI. Guadarlo, guaralo in volto, E Major, 3/4, p. 66
Op.21 XVII. Oh Dio mancarmi, D Major, 4/4, p. 68
Op.22 XVIII. Digli che son fedele, E Flat Major, 3/4, p. 70
Op.23 XIX. Pensa che sei cruda, E Minor, 4/4, p. 72
Op.24 XX. Torna torna innocente, G Major, 3/8, p. 74
Op.25 XXI. Un certo non so che veggo, E Major, 4/4, p. 76
Op.26 XXII. Guardami, guardami prima in volto, D Major, 4/4, p. 78
Op.27 XXIII. Parto, se vuoi cosi, E Flat Major, 4/4, p. 80
Op.28 XXIV. Volga al Ciel se ti, D Minor, 3/4, p. 82
Op.29 XXV. Guarda se in questa volta, F Major, 4/4, p. 84
Op.30 XXVI. Quanto mai felice, D Major, 3/4, p. 86
Op.31 XXVII. Ah che neldi'sti, D Major, 4/4, p. 88
Op.32, XXVIII. Dopp'un tuo Sguardo, F Major, 3/4, p. 90
Op.33 XXIX. Serbero fra'Ceppi, G major, 4/4, 92
Op.34 XXX. Figlio se piu non vivi moro, F Major, 4/4, p. 94
Op.35 XXXI. Non ti respondo, C Major, 3/4, p. 96
Op.36 XXXII. Povero cor perche palpito, G Major, 3/4, p. 99
Op.37 XXXIII. Non v'e piu barbaro, C Minor, 3/8, p. 102
Op.38 XXXIV. Se de'tuoi lumi al fuoco amor, E major, 4/4, p. 106
Op.39 XXXV. Se tutto tosto me sdegno, E Major, 4/4, p. 109
Op.40 XXXVI. Ai negli occhi un tel incanto, D Major, 4/4 (marked 2/4 but there are 4 crochets to the bar), p. 112
Op.41 XXXVII. Come poteste de Dio, F Major, 4/4, p. 116
Op.42 XXXVIII. Che sorte crudele, G Major, 4/4, p. 119
Op.43 XXXIX. Se almen potesse al pianto, G Minor, 4/4, p. 122
Op.44 XXXX. Se viver non posso lunghi, D Major, 3/8, p. 125
Op.45 XXXXI. Fedel faro faro cara cara, D Major, 3/4, p. 128
Op.46 XXXXII. Non ha ragione, F Major, 4/4, p. 131
Literature about The Count of St. Germain.
Biographies.
The best-known biography is Isabel Cooper-Oakley's The Count of St. Germain (1912), which gives a satisfactory biographical sketch. It is a compilation of letters, diaries and private records written about the Count by members of the French aristocracy who knew him in the 18th century. Another interesting biographical sketch can be found in The History of Magic, by Eliphas Levi, originally published in 1913.
There have also been numerous French and German biographies, among them Der Wiedergänger: Das zeitlose Leben des Grafen von Saint-Germain by Peter Krassa, Le Comte de Saint-Germain by Marie-Raymonde Delorme and L'énigmatique Comte De Saint-Germain by Pierre Ceria and François Ethuin. In his work Sages and Seers (1959), Manly Palmer Hall refers to the biography Graf St.-Germain by E. M. Oettinger (1846).
Books attributed to the Count of St. Germain.
One book attributed to the Count of Saint Germain is La Très Sainte Trinosophie (The Most Holy Trinosophia), and although there is little evidence that it was written by him, the original was certainly in his possession at one point. There are also two triangular books in the Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts at the Getty Research Library which are attributed to Saint Germain.
In Theosophy.
Main article: St. Germain (Theosophy)
Myths, legends and speculations about St. Germain began to be widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continue today. They include beliefs that he is immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the "Elixir of Life", a Rosicrucian, and that he prophesied the French Revolution. He is said to have met the forger Giuseppe Balsamo (alias Cagliostro) in London and the composer Rameau in Venice. Some groups honor Saint Germain as a supernatural being called an Ascended Master.
Madame Blavatsky and her pupil, Annie Besant, both claimed to have met the Count who was traveling under a different name.
In Fiction.
The Count has inspired a number of fictional creations:
The mystic in the Alexander Pushkin story "The Queen of Spades"
He appears in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro used the count as the base for her series character Count Saint-Germain (vampire), although only the initial book deals with the historical rather than fictional St. Germain.
He is the main character of the historical mystery novel based on his early adventures The Man Who Would Not Die by Paul Andrews. He is presented as the son of Principal Rákóczi.
He is an influential character in Katherine Kurtz' novel Two Crowns For America, where he is one of the principal behind-the-scenes leaders in the Masonic connections behind the American Revolution.
He is also mentioned as a main character in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott as an immortal alchemist and teacher of Fire Magic who is married to Joan of Arc.
The Count is also one of the main characters in the trilogy of the German writer Kerstin Gier; in it, he is a time traveler who wants to become immortal through use of the philosopher's stone.
He appears as a traveler, prestidigitator and perfume researcher that has learned many forms of armed and unarmed combat in Robert Rankin's book The Japanese Devil Fish Girl. In Rankin's The Brentford Trilogy, Professor Slocombe is at one point directly addressed as "St. Germain" by another character, the implication being that the character recognises him as the immortal Count.
He appears in Kouta Hirano's manga Drifters.
He is a significant character in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (specifically Dragonfly in Amber), and an apparent time traveler in Gabaldon's spin-off novella, "The Space Between".
He is a central character in K?ji Kumeta's manga Sekkachi Hakushaku to Jikan Dorobou.
In Vertigo Comics' Dead Boy Detectives, the Count is a pseudonym taken on by occultist child-murderer Gilles de Rais, his claims of immortality genuine.
St. Germain is an NPC in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. He is a person who can travel through time and constantly asks Hector to abandon his quest.
He was possibly the inspiration for the D.Gray-Man manga's Millenium Earl.
In the novelization The Night Strangler (from the TV film of the same name), it is strongly hinted that the immortal villain, Dr. Richard Malcolm, is actually the Count St. Germain. When asked directly, Malcolm laughs ironically but does not deny it.
He's an important character in Mária Szepes's novel The Red Lion (novel), where he's portrayed as the son of Principal Rákóczi, and he's an immortal alchemist in possession of The Philosopher's Stone and a mentor to the protagonist.
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