The Rose of Versailles (Berusaiyu no Bara) / p. 320

[ pours poison into the wine ]

Please, God, send me to hell!
Then please send my beloved to heaven!

[Andre enters Oscar's room. He sees that Oscar is reading La Nouvelle Héloïse, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a novel that idealizes the tragic love between a noblewoman (Julie) and her commoner lover (St. Preux). The lovers are forced apart when Julie is married off to another aristocrat. Julie's husband allows her to spend time alone with St. Preux, but this only makes things worse, because their intense desire for each other comes into conflict with their moral abhorence of adultery.   Finally, on her deathbed, Julie prays for the consummation of their love in heaven. ]