We will trace the classical antecedents of this famous expression, and I already anticipate that practically all of these antecedents will coincide more with notion b) than with a). In this second case, the speaker asserts that nothing that happens after his disappearance matters to him. The phrase can have two distinct, though related, meanings, according to the verb which we implicitly supply:Ī) On the one hand, if we understand After me the deluge will come, the saying seems to imply, as an assertive affirmation: “After my reign, the nation will be plunged into chaos and destruction.”ī) The verb could also be understood as a subjunctive concession: After me, let the deluge come (it can come, but it makes no difference to me). In any case, the phrase had a certain prophetic quality, if we interpret it post eventum as alluding to the breaking out of the French Revolution (1789-1799), which took place fifteen years after the king’s death and which cost the life of his grandson and successor, Louis XVI.Īs a first approach to the saying, note that one is dealing with a nominal phrase, that is, without an explicit verb.
The phrase “Après moi, le déluge” (“After me, the deluge") is attributed to the King of France Louis XV (1710-1774):Īccording to another interpretation, the phrase may have been coined not by the king himself, but by his most famous lover, Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764):
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