Part 33

[88] The Abbé Perrin and his brother-in-law, the Marquis de Sourdéac, the first regular directors of opera in France, ruined themselves in less than three years through their expensive decorations and machinery. In 1672 Lulli and his son-in-law Francine obtained permission to manage another opera-house, but spent far less money on decorations than their predecessors had done. Our author calls Lulli “Amphion,” a Greek musician who is said to have built Thebes by the music of his lute.

[89] At that time there was a regular theatre for puppet-shows, founded by Pierre dʼAttelin, better known as Brioché.

[90] In 1670 Corneille and Racine had each a tragedy, _Bérénice_, represented; _Pénélope_, a tragedy of the Abbé Genest, was played in 1684.

[91] One of those busybodies is said to have been a certain M. Manse, engineer of the waterworks of Chantilly, the seat of the Condés; and he pretended to have chiefly organised the festival given by the Prince de Condé, a son of the great Condé and the father of La Bruyèreʼs pupil, the Duke de Bourbon, to the Dauphin, the son of Louis XIV., at Chantilly during the month of August 1688. This entertainment lasted eight days; hence the necessity of a theatre.

[92] The “hunt on the water” took place on the sixth day of the festival, when some living deer and other animals were thrown alive into a large lake, which the ladies, in boats, tried to catch by means of ropes, and which, when caught, were set at liberty.

[93] On the first day of the feast a splendid “collation” was given by the Prince to the Dauphin, at the cross-way of “La Table,” amidst a temple of verdure erected for the occasion. Any meal taken between the dinner and supper hours, or any festive repast, was called in Louis XIV.ʼs time a _collation_.

[94] “Another wonderful _collation_ given in the Labyrinth of Chantilly,” says a note of La Bruyère. An engraving still exists of the table, its decorations and ornaments.

[95] This compliment to the Prince de Condé only appeared for the first time in the fourth edition of the “Characters,” published in 1689, when the whole court was still talking about the entertainment.

[96] This is said to be a hit at the partisans of Quinault, who could see no charms in anything except in his operas.

[97] In the original, _esprit fort_, which sometimes meant “a man who does not care for the opinions of the world,” and sometimes “a freethinker.”

[98] La Bruyère puts in a note: “A rebellion was the ordinary ending of tragedies.”

[99] Some commentators think this is an allusion to the tragedies of Quinault, but they were already buried in oblivion when he died in 1688: it seems rather to refer to those of Jean Galbert de Campistron (1656-1713), who, during ten years, from 1683 to 1693, produced almost yearly a tragedy, none of which have come down to posterity.

[100] Molière often put peasants on the stage; but he never made of them, nor of intoxicated persons, his principal characters: the “sick person” is said to be a hit at Argan in Molièreʼs _Le Malade imaginaire_. See also page 21, § 38.

[101] This is an allusion to the actor Baronʼs _LʼHomme à bonnes fortunes_ (1686) and the _Débauché_ (1690); this latter comedy, acted before the court the very year the above paragraph first appeared, was a complete failure, and has never been printed. Intoxicated people were often represented on the stage in La Bruyèreʼs time.

[102] In the original _comédies_, a word employed for tragedies as well as for comedies.

[103] Cinna in the tragedy of that name, Felix in _Polyeucte_, and Rodogune in _Rodogune_ are examples of this.

[104] The original has _nombreux_, the Latin _numerosus_.

[105] Three tragedies by Corneille. Though he himself calls the last tragedy by the name given above, its real title is _Horace_.

[106] Mithridates, the hero of Racineʼs tragedy of that name; Porus, a character in the _Alexandre_, and Burrhus in the _Britannicus_ of the same author.

[107] In the comparison between Corneille and Racine there are some reminiscences of a _Parallèle de M. Corneille et de M. Racine_, published in 1686 by a certain author, de Requeleyne, Baron de Longepierre.

[108] Sophocles (495-406 B.C.), Euripides (480-406 B.C.)

[109] Cassius Longinus (213-273), a Greek orator, philosopher, and author, is chiefly known by his “Treatise on the Sublime,” which is generally attributed to him. In it he states that there are five principal sources of the sublime, and that the third is nought but the figures of speech turned about in a certain manner. Boileauʼs translation of this “Treatise” appeared in 1674, and in his preface he described but did not define the sublime, a definition also not found in Longinus.

[110] The original has _capable_, in the sense of the Latin _capax_.

[111] According to Boileau, Longinus does not understand by “sublime” a sublime style, but something extraordinary and marvellously striking, which causes a work to enrapture, delight, and transport us. A sublime style always requires grand, eloquent words; but the sublime may be found in a single thought, a single figure of speech, a single phrase. Longinus himself says that anything which leaves us food for thought, which almost carries us away, and of which the remembrance is lasting, is sublime.

[112] In rhetoric there is a difference between a metaphor and a comparison.

[113] The above paragraph is said to refer to the polemical writings interchanged between the Jesuits and Jansenists, and seems not quite fair to Pascalʼs _Lettres Provinciales_.

[114] Some “Keys” mention the names of Bouhours and Bourdaloue, whilst more modern commentators think that La Bruyère only wished to give a paragraph on the French prose of his time.

[115] The original has _artisan_, which even in La Bruyèreʼs time meant an artisan, when used without being qualified; our author employs it, however, for “artist.”

[116] Some annotators say a certain Abbé Bourdelon (1653-1730), a completely forgotten critic, was meant; others think it was a hit at Ménage (1613-1692), who had the good sense not to recognise himself in this portrait, and is said to have been also the original of Vadius in Molièreʼs _Femmes Savantes_.

[117] This author was the Abbé de Villiers, who published in 1682 a poem in four cantos, _LʼArt de Précher_, in which he tried to imitate _LʼArt poétique_ of Boileau, and in 1690 _Réflexions sur les défauts dʼautrui_, which were very successful; some suppose Father Bouhoursʼ _Pensées ingénieuses des anciens et des modernes_ (1689) hinted at; whilst M. G. Servois, the able editor of La Bruyère in the _Grands Ecrivains de la France_ (1865-1878), thinks that possibly the “author” was Jacques Brillon, a lawyer and indefatigable imitator, who in his youth may have been presumptuous enough to have asked La Bruyèreʼs advice on some of his literary works, the _Portraits sérieux_, etc., the _LʼOuvrage nouveau dans le goût des Caractères de Théophraste et des Pensées de Pascal_, the _Théophraste moderne_, etc., which three books appeared, however, after La Bruyèreʼs death, from 1696 to 1700. Adrien Baillet, an erudite scholar and fertile author, is also mentioned by some “Keys.”

[118] It is now generally supposed that by the satirist described Boileau is meant, for he sometimes commences grand subjects, as in his satires _Sur lʼHomme_ or _Sur la Noblesse_, but he never enters deeply into the matter, and treats of _Les Embarras de Paris_ or _Le Repas ridicule_.

[119] Those names stand for Varillas (1624-1695) and Maimbourg (1610-1686), two voluminous historians, the first of whom is known for the inaccuracy of his facts, the second by his pretentious style, though Madame de Sévigné and Voltaire do not entirely condemn the latter, and Bayle, in his _Dictionnaire_, praises his knowledge and accuracy. “Handburg” is the German for “Maimbourg.”

[120] _Glorieux_ in the original, which in La Bruyèreʼs time, and even later, had the meaning “conceited.” One of N. Destouchesʼ (1680-1754) best comedies is called _Le Glorieux_.

[121] The original has _un honnête homme_, which meant, in La Bruyèreʼs time, “a gentleman, a well-mannered man,” but never “an honest man,” which is in French _un homme de bien_.

[122] “The stammerer” was meant for the son of Achille de Harlay (1639-1712), chief president of the parliament of Paris, and is said not to have stammered, but to have been very idle, and without any oratorical talents. Yet, in 1691, at the age of twenty-three, he was appointed advocate-general, through the influence of his father. Hence his appearance in the sixth edition of the “Characters,” also published in 1691. Mdlle. de Harlay, a daughter of the first president, was sent to a convent in 1686 on account of her affection for Dumesnil, a singer at the Opera.

[123] Xanthus was M. de Courtenvaux, the eldest son of the Minister for War, M. de Louvois, and is said not to have excelled either in good looks or bravery.

[124] V ... stands for Claude François Vignon (1634-1703), a son of an artist of the same name; C ... is Pascal Colasse, a pupil of Lulli, whose opera, _Achille et Polyxène_, was played a short time before the “Characters” were first published (1687); _Pyrame_, written by Pradon (1632-1698), was acted in 1674; he had brought out several other tragedies before the first appearance of La Bruyèreʼs book. At that time Pierre Mignard (1635-1695), the celebrated artist, and Pierre Corneille (1606-1694) were still alive, and Lulli (1633-1687), the great musician, had only been dead a few months.

[125] Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536), one of the most celebrated scholars and learned men of his time.

[126] By this bishop some say was meant M. de Harlay (1625-1695), archbishop of Paris; others think the archbishop of Rheims, Le Tellier (1642-1710), the brother of Louvois, was designated. See also page 141, note 1.

[127] The original has _collier dʼordre_, the collar of the order of the Holy Ghost.

[128] Trophime, it was supposed, stood for our authorʼs friend Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), the eminent theologian, preacher, and bishop of Meaux, but he never became a cardinal. So general was this supposition, that in all editions of the “Characters” published after the authorʼs death the name of “Bénigne” was put instead of “Trophime.” Some “Keys,” however, mention the name of Etienne le Camus (1632-1707), bishop of Grenoble, who became a cardinal in 1686.

[129] Lord Stafford is meant here; he was a relative to the Duke of Norfolk, very rich and very eccentric, and married in 1694 a daughter of the Count de Gramont. Some think the Count dʼAubigné, the brother of Mdlle. de Maintenon, is spoken of.

[130] La Bruyère adds in a footnote, “an agate.”

[131] In the original _il ne se plaint non plus_. _Plaindre_ had sometimes the meaning of “to be sparing,” and Le Sage employs it in _Gil Blas_ in that sense.

[132] This is said to apply to a certain M. de Mennevillette, _receveur-général_ of the clergy, whose son married Mdlle. de Harlay.

[133] In the original _drap de Hollande_, because the best cloth came from Holland. Colbert induced some Dutch and Flemish weavers to settle in France, where they made a cloth called _Toile Colbertine_, of which Molière wore a doublet as the Marquis in _les Fâcheux_. Colberteen is also mentioned in “The Fopʼs Dictionary” (1690), and in Congreveʼs “The Way of the World.”

[134] The _lumen gloriæ_ is, according to Roman Catholic theologians, “The help God affords to the souls of the blessed, to strengthen them that they may be able to see God ‘face to face,’ as St. Paul says (1 Cor. xiii. 12), or by intuition; as they say in the schools; for without such a help they could not bear the immediate presence of God.”

[135] A certain preacher, Charles Boileau, was meant; others think it was a canon of Notre-Dame, called Robert.

[136] The man of learning is Mabillon (1632-1707), a scholarly Benedictine, and author of _De Re diplomatica_, _De Vetera analecta_, and other works.

[137] The original has _homme de bien_. See page 43, note 2.

[138] Montaigne, Saint-Evremond, and the latest French writer on Alexander, M. Jurien de la Gravière, happily still alive, and formerly Minister for the French Navy, think more favourably than La Bruyère did of the talents of the youthful king of Macedonia.

[139] Æmilius is the Prince de Condé (1621-1686). The whole of the above paragraph is filled with reminiscences from Bossuetʼs _Oraison funèbre du Prince de Condé_, delivered in the year 1687.

[140] The battle of Rocroi was won in 1643, when Condé was only twenty-two years old, whilst those of Freiburg, Nordlingen, and Lens were gained, respectively, in 1644, 1645, and 1648.

[141] An allusion to the siege of Lerida, raised by Condé in 1647.

[142] La Bruyère forgets the wars of the Fronde (1648-1653) and the part Condé took in them, as well as in the wars of Spain against France, from 1652 till 1659.

[143] His grandson and his nephew married illegitimate daughters of Louis XIV.

[144] An allusion to his bad and hasty temper.

[145] La Bruyère adds in a note, “Sons and grandsons, descendants of kings.” This seems a reminiscence of the Homeric Διογενῖς, Διοτρεφεῖς, Βασιλεῖς.

[146] This compliment was addressed to the princes of the Condé family, of whom one, the Prince de Conti (1629-1661), was in command of the army in Catalonia, though he had never served. Compare the saying of Mascarille in Molièreʼs _Les Précieuses Ridicules_: “People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.”

[147] Charles Castel, Abbé de Saint Pierre (1658-1743), a member of the French Academy, whence he was ejected in 1718 on account of his _Discours sur la Polysynodie_, a work in which he proposed a kind of Constitution for the French nation.

[148] Celsus is the Baron de Breteuil, who was sent in 1682 on a diplomatic mission to the dukes of Parma and Modena, but failed, and was disowned.

[149] The “two brothers” are said to have been the counsellors of the parliament, Claude and Michel le Peletier, and the quarrel was about a question of precedence.

[150] The “two ministers” were Louvois and de Seignelay, a son of Colbert, and the chief cause of their falling out seems to have been the more or less assistance which should be given to James II. against England.

[151] Menippus is the Marshal François de Villeroy (1644-1730), the favourite of the king and of Mademoiselle de Maintenon, only known as a perfect courtier when La Bruyère published his book, but who later on proved himself an incapable general. In the _Mémoires_ of the Duke de Saint-Simon, he is called _glorieux à lʼexcès par nature_. See also page 43, note 1. Some commentators say Menippus was the Marquis de Cavoye (1640-1716), one of the handsomest men and one of the greatest duellists of the court.

[152] The original has _de mise_, which was also used by Voltaire and Rousseau, but seems now to have become antiquated.

[153] _Montre la corde_ in the original.

[154] When the “Characters” first made their appearance in 1689, Louis XIV. no longer resided in the Louvre, but at Versailles. The greatest nobles, in order to pay their court to the king, lodged in some wretched rooms in the palace.

[155] The first part of this paragraph, referring to “false greatness,” is said to apply to the Marshal de Villeroy; the second, alluding to “true greatness,” to Marshal Turenne (1611-1675).

[156] An allusion to a fashion of the time La Bruyère wrote, when the ladies wore shoes with very high heels and enormous head-dresses, called _Fontanges_; the latter were invented by Marie-Angélique Scoraille de Roussille, Duchesse de Fontanges (1661-1681), who was one of the mistresses of Louis XIV. Our author refers to them in his chapter “Of Fashion,” § 12.

[157] Some of the ladies at court, in order to hide the hollowness of their cheeks, used, it is said, to hold small balls of wax in their mouths.

[158] Lise is generally supposed to have been Catherine-Henriette dʼAngennes de la Loupe, Countess dʼOlonne, one of the most dissolute ladies of the court of Louis XIV., who was fifty-five years old when this paragraph appeared (1692), and died in 1714. Many particulars about her are related in Bussy-Rabutinʼs _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_.

[159] This is said to allude to a certain Mademoiselle de Loines, who fell in love with a crooked, ill-looking, dwarfish limb of the law.

[160] The memoirs of the time of Louis XIV. teem with examples of young men of the highest families who considered it no disgrace to live at the expense of rich and amorous old crones, and even to receive money from young ladies.

[161] The original has _dans une ruelle_. _Ruelle_ means literally “a small street,” hence the narrow opening between the wall and the bed, on which bed superfine ladies, gaily dressed, were lying when they received their friends, and thus _ruelle_ came to mean “any fashionable assembly.” In Dr. Ashʼs “Dictionary of the English Language,” London, 1755, _ruelle_ is still defined “a little street, a circle, an assembly at a private house.”

[162] _En cravate et en habit gris_, says the French, which was the usual dress of dandified magistrates, although they were strictly forbidden to wear any other clothes but black ones.

[163] Only officers of the kingʼs household were allowed to wear gold-embroidered scarfs.

[164] This alludes to the Count dʼAubigné, a brother of Madame de Maintenon, who was no favourite at court. See also the portrait of “Theodectes” in the chapter “Of Society and Conversation,” § 12, page 106.

[165] The “lady” is said to have been Madame de la Ferrière, the wife of a _maître des requêtes_, and Dorinna a certain Mdlle. Foucault, a relative of some well-known _conseiller au parlement_, who was in love with a Doctor Moreau.

[166] The original has _questionnaire_, a word then already antiquated, and which meant a man applying the _question_ or rack.

[167] Roscius seems to have been intended for a portrait of the celebrated actor Michael Baron (1653-1729), whilst the names of Lelia, Cesonia, Claudia, and Messalina probably allude to some of the ladies of the court who intrigued with actors. During the eighteenth century the names of the Maréchale de la Ferté, and of her sister the Countess dʼOlonne (see page 61, note), both of very dissolute manners, were mentioned as having been the originals of Claudia and Messalina, whilst Claudia was also, according to some, a portrait of Marie-Anne Mancini, Duchesse de Bouillon, though it is not probable that La Bruyère intended to allude to her. Bathyllus and Cobus stand for Le Basque, Pécourt, or Beauchamps, dancers at the Opera; Draco is Philibert, a German flute-player of those times; Lelia or Cesonia are supposed to have been a certain widow of the Marquis de Constantin.

[168] Is this not an allusion of our author to some nunneries not in very good repute at the time?

[169] This applies, it is said, to the Maréchale de la Ferté, mentioned on page 67, note 2, and to the Duke dʼAumontʼs second wife, who died in 1711, sixty-one years old.

[170] At the time La Bruyère wrote, nearly every fashionable lady had, besides her father-confessor, a spiritual director, who was her “guide, philosopher, and friend.” Boileau, in his tenth satire, says:—

“Mais de tous les mortels, grâce aux dévotes âmes, Nul nʼest si bien soigné quʼun directeur de femmes.”

[171] _Placer des domestiques_, in the original; _domestique_ was used for any person belonging to the household of some great nobleman, even if he were himself a noble; it also meant “a household.”

[172] A note of La Bruyère says that this refers to “assumed piety.”

[173] Those ladies are supposed to have been the Duchesse dʼAumont, already mentioned; the Countess de Lyonne, the wife of a minister of state; the Duchess de Lesdiguières, and the Countess de Roucy.

[174] Our authorʼs note says, “A pretended pious woman.”

[175] It was then the custom for people who had a lawsuit to go and solicit their judges in person.

[176] In La Bruyèreʼs time many ladies had a great reputation for learning, such as Madame de Sévigné, and her daughter, Madame de Grignan, who greatly admired Descartesʼ philosophy; Madame de la Fayette; and a sister of Madame de Montespan, who was Abbess of Fontévrault. Montaigne was of opinion that women had no need of learning, and Molière, in his _Femmes Savantes_, holds the golden mean.

[177] Such were, for example, the heroines of the Fronde, who only cared for ambition. Saint Simon in his _Mémoires_ speaks of the Maréchale de Ciérambault, “who only left off gambling whilst at meals;” the Princess de Harcourt, who took usually the sacrament after having gambled until four in the morning; and the Duchesse dʼAumont, whom we have already mentioned.

[178] “Most women have no characters at all,” says Pope in the Second Epistle “Of the Characters of Women.” The late Rev. Whitwell Elwin thinks this “a literal rendering” of La Bruyèreʼs § 65 “Of Men.” I imagine it inspired by the above paragraph.

[179] To deceive some one is now in French _en imposer à quelquʼun_, but until the last hundred years _imposer_ was used, which meant “to deceive” and “to impose respect.”

[180] Glycera is said to have been Madame de la Ferrière, whom we have already mentioned. See page 66, note.

[181] Pierre du Puget, lord of Montauron, who died in 1664, first president of the _bureau des finances_ at Montauban, was celebrated for his riches and vanity. P. Corneille dedicated his tragedy _Cinna_ to him. Michael Particelli, lord of Esmery, became, through the patronage of Cardinal Mazarin, _surintendant des finances_, and died in 1650.

[182] Venouse is not Venuzia, the native town of the Roman lyric poet Horace, but Vincennes; the road from Paris to Vincennes was a favourite spot for walking.

[183] The Faubourg Saint-Germain is meant by the “grand suburb.”

[184] Canidia, a Neapolitan lady, is said to have been loved by Horace, and to have deserted him. Out of revenge the poet, in his _Epodes_ v. and xvii., depicted her as an old sorceress who could unsphere the moon. Canidia is supposed to allude to La Voisin, who was burned at the stake in Paris, in 1680, for having poisoned several people.

[185] In the original _affranchi_, freedman.

[186] All the “Keys” say that “the husband” of this paragraph and the following one was a certain Nicolas de Bauquemare, _président de la deuxième chambre des requêtes au palais_.

[187] Wives of a similar kind seem to have been Madame de Montespan, Madame de Sévigné, and Madame de la Fayette.

[188] This paragraph refers again to the _président_, mentioned on page 80, note 2, and to his wife, who was always called “DʼOns-en-Bray,” pronounced “DʼOsembray,” after a property belonging to her husband.

[189] _Stupide_ had, in La Bruyères time, the meaning of “stupefied” as well as of “stupid.”

[190] It might have been expected that some of the “Keys” would have told us who Emira was, but this anecdote is either invented by La Bruyère or founded on a fact only known to him.

[191] La Rouchefoucauld, in the _Maximes_ (1665), makes almost the same remarks, and so does Pascal in the _Pensées_ (1670). It often happens that those two authors agree in their expressions and thoughts with La Bruyère, who carefully studied them before publishing his _Caractères_.

[192] _Discordia fit carior concordia_ is a saying of the Latin poet Publius Syrus (104-41 B.C.)

[193] In the chapter “Of the Affections,” La Bruyère has borrowed a goodly number of ideas of Senecaʼs treatise _De beneficiis_; this is one of them.

[194] An imitation of another line of Publius Syrus: _Ita amicum habeas, posse inimicum fieri ut putes_.

[195] This paragraph was not very clear in the original. We have followed M. Destailleurʼs explanation.

[196] In the original _déterminément_, an adverb employed by the best authors of the seventeenth century, but now antiquated.