Esmeralda’s birth-name was Agnès. She is the love child of Paquette Guybertaut, nicknamed “la Chantefleurie”, an orphaned minstrel’s daughter who lives in Rheims. Paquette has become a prostitute after being seduced by a young nobleman, and lives a miserable life in poverty and loneliness. Agnes’s birth makes Paquette happy once more, and she lavishes attention and care upon her adored child: even the neighbors begin to forgive Paquette for her past behavior when they watch the pair. Tragedy strikes, however, when Roma kidnap the young baby, leaving a child with kyphosis (the infant Quasimodo) in place. The townsfolk come to the conclusion that the Travellers have cannibalized baby Agnès; the mother flees Rheims in despair, and the deformed child is exorcised and sent to Paris, to be left on the foundling bed at Notre-Dame. Later in the story, when Quasimodo is sentenced to the pillory for his attempted kidnapping, it is Esmeralda, his victim, who pities him and serves him water. Because of this, he falls deeply in love with her, even though she is too disgusted by his appearance even to let him kiss her hand. At the pillory, Paquette la Chantefleurie, now known as Sister Gudule, an anchoress, curses Esmeralda, claiming she and the other Roma ate her lost child. Later still, Esmeralda rejects the advances of Claude Frollo. The girl asks to be executed. Angry, Frollo casts her into the arms of Gudule (Paquette Guybertaut). There, the two women realize that Esmeralda is in fact Gudule’s lost child, Agnès. The guards arrive, and Gudule pleads for them to show Esmeralda and herself mercy. Gudule follows the guards to the scaffold, kicking and biting along the way. A guard throws Gudule to the ground; she hits her head and dies.
First Appearance The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831)
First Publisher Gosselin
Appearance List Book: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). Comics: Jumbo Comics #1-8,10, Four Color Comics #854, Wonderworld Comics #4. Film: Esmeralda (1905), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911), The Darling of Paris (1917), Esmeralda (1922), The Hunch-Back of Notre Dame (1923). Stage: La Esmeralda (1836), Esmeralda (1847, Esmeralda (1883), Notre Dame (1914). Ballet: La Esmeralda (1844), Gudule’s Daughter, or Esmiralda (1902).
Description Esmeralda’s birth-name was Agnès. She is the love child of Paquette Guybertaut, nicknamed “la Chantefleurie”, an orphaned minstrel’s daughter who lives in Rheims. Paquette has become a prostitute after being seduced by a young nobleman, and lives a miserable life in poverty and loneliness. Agnes’s birth makes Paquette happy once more, and she lavishes attention and care upon her adored child: even the neighbors begin to forgive Paquette for her past behavior when they watch the pair. Tragedy strikes, however, when Roma kidnap the young baby, leaving a child with kyphosis (the infant Quasimodo) in place. The townsfolk come to the conclusion that the Travellers have cannibalized baby Agnès; the mother flees Rheims in despair, and the deformed child is exorcised and sent to Paris, to be left on the foundling bed at Notre-Dame. Later in the story, when Quasimodo is sentenced to the pillory for his attempted kidnapping, it is Esmeralda, his victim, who pities him and serves him water. Because of this, he falls deeply in love with her, even though she is too disgusted by his appearance even to let him kiss her hand. At the pillory, Paquette la Chantefleurie, now known as Sister Gudule, an anchoress, curses Esmeralda, claiming she and the other Roma ate her lost child. Later still, Esmeralda rejects the advances of Claude Frollo. The girl asks to be executed. Angry, Frollo casts her into the arms of Gudule (Paquette Guybertaut). There, the two women realize that Esmeralda is in fact Gudule’s lost child, Agnès. The guards arrive, and Gudule pleads for them to show Esmeralda and herself mercy. Gudule follows the guards to the scaffold, kicking and biting along the way. A guard throws Gudule to the ground; she hits her head and dies.
