Scareship_Issue8

Spain held a lifelong fascination for Mérimée. He visited the
country five times between 1830 and 1863, on his first trip meeting
the Countess of Montijo, the source for the short novel that he
would publish fifteen years later as Carmen. There are numerous
reasons as well for his interest in England and its stronghold of
Gibraltar. His mother’s family had lived in England, and Mérimée
himself would visit England repeatedly.
Significantly enough, in his early guise as translator, Mérimée
claimed to have met Clara Gazul in Gibraltar. It was to this English
bastion on the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula that Spain
laid siege in 1779. She enjoyed the intermittent support of her ally
France, and in 1782 the two countries launched a massive assault
upon it. 3
At about the same time, while reading about what is
remembered today as the Great Siege, young inventor Joseph-
Michel Montgolfier daydreamed of taking the fortress by air. With
the help of his brother, Joseph-Michel would shortly pioneer
manned flight by balloon, but by then the siege had been lifted and
English control of Gibraltar confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles.
However, fear of such an attack continued to preoccupy the
English for years.
As we now realize, the young Mérimée also envisioned such
an attack. We may conjecture that the reference to Gibraltar in Le
Théâtre de Clara Gazul is a souvenir of that bracing period, as are
the many references in Carmen.
3 Despite the fact that both France and Spain were involved in the siege,
Mérimée’s MS does not make any reference to the latter country or its troops.
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