Après moi, le déluge

"Après moi, le déluge" (pronounced [apʁɛ mwa lə delyʒ]; lit. 'After me, the flood') is a French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France, or in the form "Après nous, le déluge" (pronounced [apʁɛ nu lə delyʒ]; lit. 'After us, the flood') to Madame de Pompadour, his favourite.^[1]^[2] It is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone.^[3]^[2]^{[clarification needed]} Its meaning was translated in 1898 by E. Cobham Brewer in the forms "When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care", and "Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone".^[4]

One account says that Louis XV's downcast expression while he was posing for the artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour inspired Madame de Pompadour to say: "Il ne faut point s'affliger; vous tomberiez malade. Après nous, le déluge."^[1]^{[note 1]} Another account states that the Madame used the expression to laugh off ministerial objections to her extravagances.^[4] The phrase is also often seen as foretelling the French Revolution and the corresponding ruin brought to France.^[5]^{[better source needed]}

The phrase is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French,^[1] and may have been a reference to the biblical flood.^[6]^{[better source needed]}^{[note 2]} A recent interpretation from biographer Michel Antoine argues that in taking the remark out of original context—which included anticipation of a 1757 arrival of Halley's Comet—earlier interpretations ignore the King's proficiency in astronomy and knowledge of the impending comet, and that it was commonly blamed for causing the Genesis flood (in French, déluge). Thus the expression, Antoine argues, was not a reference to fear of revolution, but to the predicted comet's passing and possible impact.^[7]^{[clarification needed]}

Interpretations

A further, more recent interpretation by biographer Michel Antoine argues that the remark is usually taken out of its original context. He argues that in the year it was made, 1757, France experienced the assassination attempt on the King, and the crushing defeat of the French army by the Prussians at the Battle of Rossbach, while anticipating the arrival of Halley's Comet. Hence, he argues that the "déluge" the King referred to was not a revolution, but the predicted comet's passing the earth in 1757—the comet having been commonly blamed for causing the Genesis flood, with accompanying prediction of a new deluge on its return. The argument notes that the King was a proficient amateur astronomer, who collaborated with the best French astronomers; Antoine writes that the King's remark "was a manner of evoking, with his scientific culture and a good dose of black humor, this sinister year beginning with the assassination attempt by Damiens and ending with the Prussian victory". He notes that Halley's Comet finally passed the earth in April 1759, accompanied by enormous public attention and anxiety, but no floods.^[7]^{[clarification needed]}

Literary and other uses

Literature prior to 19th century

A phrase of similar meaning to the title phrase is attributed to the Arabic poet Abu Firas al-Hamdani who died in 968 AD; the phrase translates as, "If I die of thirst, may it never rain again".^{[according to whom?]}^{[citation needed]} The phrase in the original text is "إذا مِتُّ ظمآنًا فلا نزلَ القطرُ".^[8]

Literature in and after the 19th century

Karl Marx used the phrase in Das Kapital (1867) stating, "Après moi, le déluge! is the watchword of every capitalist and of every capitalist nation."^[9]^[10]^{[full citation needed]}

Fyodor Dostoevsky applies the phrase in his writings to describe the selfishness and apathy of certain corrupting values.^{[citation needed]}^{[original research?]} He used it in The Idiot, (serialised beginning in 1868) as an epigraph for an article written by one of the characters of the novel.^{[citation needed]}^{[original research?]} During the trial of Dimitri Fyodorovich Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (serialised beginning in 1879), the prosecution uses the expression to describe the attitude of the defendant's reprobate father and to lament the deterioration of Russian values more generally.^{[citation needed]}^{[original research?]}

Literature in the 20th century

Arthur Moeller van den Bruck was fond of using the phrase, as in:

The liberal has flourished at all periods. The nobody is always eager to imagine himself a somebody. The man who is a misfit in his own society is always a liberal out of amour propre The disinterestedness of the conservative cherishes the sacredness of a cause that shall not die with him; the liberal says: Après moi, le déluge. Conservatism is rooted in the strength of man; liberalism battens on his weakness. The liberal's conjuring trick consists in turning others' weakness to his own account, living at other men's expense, and concealing his art with patter about ideals. This is the accusation against him. He has always been a source of gravest danger.^[11]

D. H. Lawrence used the phrase in "Whitman" (1923), calling it "the soul's last shout and shriek, on the confines of death".^[12]^{[full citation needed]} In other of his writings of the 1920s, Lawrence uses the expression a number of times,^{[original research?]} calling it "the tacit utterance of every man", in his "crisis" of unbearable "loneliness ... surrounded by nullity".^[13]^{[non-primary source needed]} But "you mustn't expect it to wait for your convenience," he warns the dissolute "younger generation";^[14]^{[non-primary source needed]} "the real deluge lies just ahead of us".^[15]^{[non-primary source needed]}

Kurt Vonnegut uses "Après moi le déluge" in his novel Player Piano (1952), when the main character Paul talks to Doctor Pond.^{[citation needed]}^{[original research?]}

In popular culture

Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor included "Après moi, le déluge" in the chorus of her song "Après Moi" from her album Begin to Hope,^[when?]^{[citation needed]} a song later covered by Peter Gabriel.^[when?]^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Mould 2011 p. 43.
^ ^a ^b OUP-Lexico 2020.
^ Nishitani 1990 p. 132.
^ ^a ^b Brewer 1898 p. 342.
^ Farlex Inc. Staff 2015.
^ Ammer 2013, pp. 10f.
^ ^a ^b Antoine 1989 pp. 740f.
^ "صحيفة عمون : إذا مِتُّ ظمآنًا فلا نزلَ القطرُ". وكالة عمون الاخبارية. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
^ Price 2011.
^ Das Kapital, Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter Ten, Section 5.^{[full citation needed]}
^ Moeller van den Bruck, Arthur. (1934). Das Dritte Reich, Translated by E. 0. Lorimer. Introduction by M. A. Hamilton. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD. Full text online. (Original work published 1923), p.90-91
^ Studies in Classic American Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 155.
^ "The Crown", IV (1925) in Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 280.^{[full citation needed]}
^ "Latter-Day sinners" from Pansies (1928) in Poems, Volume 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 461.^{[full citation needed]}
^ "The Memoires of Duc de Lauzun", Version 1 (1926) in Introductions and Reviews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 91.^{[full citation needed]}

Notes

^ transl. "There is no need to grieve; you'll make yourself ill. After us, the deluge."^{[citation needed]}
^ This is also suggested within the Mould dictionary entry, by its cross-rerefence to the biblical entry for "Déluge", therein. See Mould, op. cit.

Sources

Ammer, Christine (2013). "Après moi le déluge". The Dictionary of Clichés: A Word Lover's Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. Dictionary of Clichés. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 10f. ISBN 978-16263-6011-2. après moi le déluge After I'm dead nothing will matter. This cliché, literally meaning "after me, the flood," was allegedly said in slightly different form in 1757 by Madame de Pompadour to Louis XV after Frederick the Great defeated the French and Austrians at Rossbach. (She put it après nous le déluge, "after us the flood.") The flood alludes to the biblical flood in which all but those in Noah's ark perished. The phrase is still always stated in French.
Antoine, Michel (1989) [1982]. Louis XV. Collection Pluriel (in French). Vol. 8571. Paris, France: Fayard/Hachette Pluriel. ISBN 9782010178184. Retrieved 5 September 2024.^{[clarification needed]} A further relevant field may be ISBN 2010178181.
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham (1898). "Del'uge". Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. p. 342. Retrieved 5 February 2024 – via Internet Archive. Del'uge. After me the Deluge ["Aprés moi le Déluge"]. When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care. Generally ascribed to Prince Metternich, but the Prince borrowed it from Mme. Pompadour, who laughed off all the remonstrances of ministers at her extravagance by saying, "Aprés nous le déluge" (Ruin if you like, when we are dead and gone).
Farlex, Inc. Staff (2015). "Apres moi le deluge". Dictionary.com (Farlex Dictionary of Idioms). Huntingdon Valley, PA: Farlex, Inc. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
Mould, Michael (2011). "Popular cutural references (Ch. 1): Après moi, le déluge". The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French (1st ed.). Milton Park, Oxfordshire, England: Taylor & Francis. pp. 3, 43. doi:10.4324/9780203830925. ISBN 9780203830925. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
Nishitani, Keiji (1990). The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism. Nazan studies in relgion and culture, SUNY series in modern Japanese philosophy. Translated by Graham Parkes; with Setsuko Aihara. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 132. ISBN 0791404382. Retrieved 5 September 2024. Dostoevsky's figures voluntarily leap into nihilism and try to be themselves within its boundaries. The nihility expressed in "If there is no God, everything is permitted,"... or "après moi le déluge," provides a principle whose sincerity they try to live out to the end.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Price, Steven D. (2011). "Après moi le deluge [sic.]". Endangered Phrases. Huntingdon Valley, PA: Farlex, Inc. Retrieved 5 September 2024. Karl Marx, who repeated the phrase in his Das Kapital: 'Après moi le déluge! is the watchword of every capitalist and of every capitalist nation. Hence capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society.'
Oxford University Press (OUP) (2024). "Après nous le déluge". Lexico.com. Oxford, England: Lexico/OUP. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020. après nous le déluge ... 'After us the flood.' Used to express complete indifference to what may happen when one is gone. / Origin / Early 19th century; earliest use found in Richard Edgeworth (1744–1817), educational writer and engineer. From French après nous le déluge, lit. 'after us the flood,' reputed comment of Madame de Pompadour to Louis XV after the French defeat at Rossbach in 1757 from après after + nous us + le the + déluge, apparently as alteration of après moi le déluge.