'Le voyage était jeu’: les grands périples dans Mémoires d’Hadrien de Marguerite Yourcenar: Title translation:Travel was play: extended journeys in Memoirs of Hadrian of Marguerite Yourcenar

The theme of travel in the work of Marguerite Yourcenar—a theme corresponding to a personal predilection of a writer who travelled extensively—has often been discussed in critical articles. Aspects of the theme still remain to be analysed. This article explores voyages in the imaginary memoirs of the Roman emperor, Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 124 of the Common Era and whose principate was characterised by his frequent travel to all parts of his vast empire. The work examined here — the prize-winning Memoirs of Hadrian — was published in 1951. Backed up by one of the Emperor’s characteristics, and supported by a poem he wrote just before his death, Marguerite Yourcenar breathes playfulness into the Emperor’s reveries of the journeys he has undertaken. This penchant for play, which belongs to a rich Roman tradition discussed in this essay, will feature along with other aspects of the Emperor’s journeys.