Chapter XVI: Of Freethinkers.853 (3)

[198] All commentators are agreed that by Drance the Count de Clermont-Tonnerre, first gentleman-in-waiting of the Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV., is meant.

[199] Montesquieu has developed this idea of the influence of climate on the mind and race in his _Esprit des Lois_, as well as H. A. Taine in his “History of English Literature.”

[200] Arontius is said to be Perrault (See page 14, note 2.) Who Melinda was has never been discovered.

[201] _Phébus_ is nonsensical and exaggerated language, so called after Phœbus, the sun-god, on account of his brilliancy. The poet M. Regnier (1573-1613) had already made use of this word; it was something like the language employed by the Englishman, John Lily, in his “Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit,” etc., published 1578-1580.

[202] La Bruyère says in a note, “They would call them ‘Sir.’” He also, and on purpose, leads the reader astray by using the names of three courtiers who died some time ago: Zamet, a favourite of Catherine de Medici and Henri IV., who died in 1614; Ruccellaï, one of Conciniʼs partisans, who lived till 1627; and Concini, Maréchal dʼAncre, assassinated in 1617.

[203] Some traits of this character apply to Saumery, a gentleman-in-waiting of the Duke of Burgundy, a grandson of Louis XIV.

[204] Such an adventure is said to have happened to a certain _conseiller au châtelet_, Robert de Châtillon. Montesquieu, in his _Lettres Persanes_, describes a similar character.

[205] Theodectes is the Count dʼAubigné. See page 65, note 4.

[206] It was the custom in La Bruyèreʼs time, even among the upper classes, to throw on the floor what was left on the plates or in the glasses. See also the character of Menalcas, chapter xi., “Of Men,” §7.

[207] _Il est au-dessus de vouloir se soutenir_, literally, he is above wishing to keep himself up. This expression seems to be peculiar to La Bruyère.

[208] No suggestion has ever been made as to what person is portrayed as Troïlus; still it seems to have been intended by our author for one of his contemporaries.

[209] A certain boasting Abbé de Vassé is meant, who refused the bishopric of Mans, and died in 1716 at the age of sixty-five.

[210] The authorʼs note says, “A kind of people who pretend to be very nice in their language.”

[211] _Proprement_, in the original, was in La Bruyèreʼs time generally used for “elegantly,” “correctly.”

[212] Oaths were more commonly used by the upper classes in the seventeenth century than they are now.

[213] Cléon is supposed to have been a certain financier Monnerot, who died in prison rather than pay a fine of two million francs, to which he had been condemned by a court of justice.

[214] This personage is said to stand for Constantin Heudebert du Buisson, appointed _intendant des finances_ the same year (1690) the seventh edition of the “Characters” was published. See also page 153, §63.

[215] The _livre parisis_, probably meant here, was equal in value to the _franc_, first coined in 1573, under Henri III. An income of ten thousand francs in La Bruyèreʼs time would represent one of fifty thousand francs now.

[216] The original has _congratuler_, now only used with a ridiculous meaning attached to it.

[217] It is generally supposed Theodemus was a certain Abbé de Drubec, who stopped short in the middle of a sermon preached before the court of Louis XIV.; others imagine it was a hit at the Abbé Bertier, who became bishop of Blois in 1697.

[218] In this paragraph, as well as in the preceding one, some commentators imagine there is an allusion to the President Achille de Harlay, so bitterly attacked by St. Simon in his _Mémoires_. See also page 45, note 1.

[219] Our author says in a note, “Written in imitation of Montaigne.”

[220] The principal antiquated words in this imitation are _estriver_, to strive, to quarrel; _se ramentevoir_, to call to mind, used by Molière in the _Dépit amoureux_ (iii. 4); and _succéder_, to be successful, which, of course, is at present in French _réussir_.

[221] According to all the “Keys,” this paragraph refers to a separation of two old friends, Courtois and Saint-Romain, both councillors of state; but they were still friends when the “Characters” were published.

[222] Some persons, now totally unknown, have been supposed to represent Cleantes: such as a certain M. Loyseau, _receveur général des finances_ in Brittany; a M. de lʼEscalopier, _conseiller au parlement_, and others.

[223] Such a contract was called _les nourritures_ in French legal phraseology.

[224] G ... is supposed to stand for François Vedeau de Grammont, _conseiller au parlement_, or for his father-in-law, Philippe Genoud de Guiberville, and H ... for Charles Hervé, _doyen du parlement_; and the quarrel arose about the right of fishing in a brook. Vedeau lost his case, and was convicted of having falsified certain legal documents. Only a few years before La Bruyèreʼs death he fired at different times on a legal officer and some soldiers who were attempting to arrest him in his house in Paris, killed one and wounded another, was finally imprisoned, dismissed from his office, and banished from the kingdom.

[225] _Lʼoffrande, lʼencens et le pain benit_, in the original. In small Roman Catholic towns there were formerly always quarrels about the sum to be given to the vicar when kissing the “patena,” about the carrying of the censer, and above all, whose turn it was to give a cake to be consecrated by the officiating clergyman.

[226] A _bailli_ was a magistrate who judged certain cases, an _élu_ a sort of assessor of various taxes, and an _assesseur_ an assistant magistrate.

[227] This is an allusion to the society of the Hotel de Rambouillet and to the so-called _précieuses_.

[228] It is generally supposed that here Isaac de Benserade (1612-1691) is meant, who was pre-eminently a court poet, and wrote a great deal of namby-pamby poetry, now deservedly forgotten. His “Character” appeared for the first time in the sixth edition of La Bruyèreʼs work, only a few months before his death, when he was seventy-eight years old.

[229] Our author draws a distinction between gentlemen in town and at court, though he mentions those in town first. The silly novels he attacks were those of Gomberville (1600-1647), of La Calprenède (1610-1663), and above all those of Mdlle. de Scudéri (1607-1701), one of the _précieuses_ of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and author of the _Grand Cyrus_ (1650), _Clélie_ (1665), and of many other works.

[230] It seems to have escaped all commentators of La Bruyère that in his time it was the fashion for the ladies at court to call a spade a spade with a vengeance, and to use very plain and realistic language, whilst the “city ladies” were not quite so daring; moreover, some of the streets, squares, etc., of Paris had very peculiar names, quite unfit for the mouth of any modest woman.

[231] By “silly things,” our author means “plays on words” called in his time _équivoques_ or _turlupinades_.

[232] Marcus Annæus Lucanus, a Latin poet, who died in the year 65, was put to death for his share in Pisoʼs conspiracy, at the early age of twenty-seven.

[233] Claudus Claudianus (365-408), a Latin poet.

[234] L. Annæus Seneca, a stoic philosopher, and tutor to Nero, was also put to death in the year 65 by order of his former pupil.

[235] Hermagoras is, according to all commentators, Paul Perron, a learned Benedictine, and author of _LʼAntiquité des temps rétablie_, etc. The old English translations name, however, also Isaac Vossius (1618-1688), an able Dutch philologist, and a well-known French literary man, Urbain Chevreau (1613-1701).

[236] In 1687, when this paragraph was first published, there was no longer an independent kingdom of Hungary, for three years before the crown had been declared hereditary in the House of Austria, which had ruled Bohemia as well since 1525.

[237] These wars, interrupted by the peace of Nymeguen (1678), were going on whilst our author wrote.

[238] Henri IV. (1553-1610), or _Henri le Grand_, according to La Bruyèreʼs own note, was not the son of the last of the Valois, Henri III. (1551-1589), but after the latterʼs death became heir to the French throne, because Henry IV.ʼs father, Antoine de Bourbon, was descended from the Count de Clermont, the fifth son of Louis IX.

[239] Those names La Bruyère found in the _Histoire du Monde_ of Chevreau (see page 124, note 5); and nearly all of them are so wrongly spelt that it is almost hopeless to discover whom they meant.

[240] In the month of December of the same year this paragraph had been published, Joseph I. (1678-1711), emperor of the Romans, was crowned king of Hungary, in virtue of his hereditary right. See page 215, note 1.

[241] Ninus was the husband of Semiramis, about 2182 B.C., and founded with her Nineveh, of which empire she became queen; she abdicated after a reign of forty-two years in favour of her son Ninyas. All these persons seem, however, to have been mythological, and to have had no foundation in history. The Semiramis of Herodotus lived 810-781 B.C.

[242] The passage in Josephus containing Manethosʼ tradition says, “Mesphratuthmosis drove the Hyksos [or shepherd kings] as far as Avaris [San in Egypt], and shut them up in it. His son Tuthmosis obliged them to evacuate it.” Tuthmosis is really Aahmes, the founder of the 18th dynasty, who drove the shepherd kings out of Egypt. Misphratuthmosis, sometimes written Misphramuthosis, and Alisphragmuthosis, his relative or ancestor, is meant by this name Alipharmutosis, but he has not been recognised in Egyptian records.

[243] Sesostris is the Greek name of the conqueror Rameses II., the third king of the 19th Egyptian dynasty.

[244] Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, succeeded his father Xerxes I., 465 B.C., and died about 425 B. C.

[245] Cydias is Fontenelle (see page 11, note 1), who was only thirty-seven years old when this paragraph was first printed in the eighth edition of the “Characters,” in 1694, and who became La Bruyèreʼs enemy ever since.

[246] Fontenelle had written for his uncle Thos. Corneille (1625-1709) certain parts of two operas, _Psyché_ (1678) and _Bellérophon_ (1679); for Beauval, in prose, an eulogy on Perrault (1688), and for a certain Mdlle. Bernard, part of a tragedy of _Brutus_ (1691).

[247] Lucianus of Samosata, a satirist and a rhetorician (120-200 A.D.)

[248] The author adds “a philosopher and a tragic poet.” See page 124, note 4.

[249] Plato, the well-known Greek philosopher (430-347 B.C.)

[250] Publius Virgilius Maro, the Roman epic and bucolic poet (70-19 B.C.)

[251] Theocritus, a Greek bucolic poet, who flourished about 272 B.C. Fontenelle had written Dialogues of the dead, as Lucianus had done; philosophical works and tragedies like Seneca, philosophical dialogues in Platoʼs style, and pastoral poetry like Virgil and Theocritus.

[252] Perrault, La Motte (1672-1731), De Visé (1640-1710), and others.

[253] This friend is supposed to have been La Motte.

[254] The right of presentation to nearly all offices at court, or official positions, was publicly bought and sold in Louis XIV.ʼs time.

[255] Commentators, who see allusions everywhere, suppose the “very rich man” was Louvois, whose sons-in-law were the Dukes de la Rocheguyon and de Villeneuve; or Colbert, who became the father-in-law of the Dukes de Chevreuse, de Beauvilliers, and de Mortemart; or, finally, Frémont, keeper of the royal treasury, who married his daughter to the Duke de Lorges.

[256] This lady is said to have been Madame Fleurion dʼArmenonville, daughter of a clothier, whose husband was keeper of the seals and _directeur des finances_.

[257] Those men were the so-called “farmers of the revenue,” nearly all of low birth, and who formerly had been in some trade or business. See page 136, note 2, and page 137, § 15.

[258] Little, silly, ugly rich men were not more rare in our authorʼs time than they are at present; but the commentators will have it that the Marquis de Gouverney and the Duke de Ventadour were meant.

[259] M. de Saint-Pouange, a relative of the ministers Colbert, Le Tellier, and Louvois, and the latterʼs principal secretary, is meant.

[260] Nearly all the great lords had Swiss doorkeepers. Petit-Jean, in Racineʼs comedy _Les Plaideurs_, says also: “Il mʼavait fait venir dʼAmiens pour être Suisse.”

[261] The “Keys” mention several people for Clitiphon, such as M. le Camus, _lieutenant-civil_, or his brother the cardinal, or another brother who was _maître des requêtes_.

[262] In the original there is a play on the word _rare_ which cannot be rendered in English.

[263] This seems to refer to Platoʼs “Timæus” and his “Phædo.”

[264] Jupiter is the largest and Saturn the second largest planet of our solar system. The celebrated Dutch natural philosopher Huyghens van Zuylichem (1629-1695), who discovered the fourth satellite of Saturn and proved the existence of its ring, lived in Paris from 1666 till 1681, and may have met La Bruyère.

[265] The original has _trivial_, from the Latin _trivialis_ and _trivium_, hence the meaning of exposed to the public gaze, “perceptible.”

[266] By these initials are meant _partisans_, a name given to the farmers-general of the revenue. Until 1726, these persons obtained in France, for a fixed money payment, the right of collecting one or more of the public taxes. This system was first inaugurated by Sully (1560-1641), the able finance-minister of Henri IV., out of necessity, in order to raise money; and was continued for more than two hundred years, and the cause of many arbitrary measures and great oppression. The number of these _fermiers-généraux_ was first forty and afterwards sixty, but there were a goodly number of _sous-fermiers_ and many other agents, who were all practically irresponsible. In 1726, a company of capitalists undertook the collection of the greater part of the kingʼs taxes, which was called the _fermes-générales_ or _unies_, and lasted till the first French Revolution. The _ministre des finances_, a name only first given in 1795, was, in the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth century, called _surintendant des finances_, and from 1661 till 1791 _contrôleur-général des finances_.

[267] Sosia in Greek is generally used as the name of a servant or a slave, and Molière gives that name to a servant in his _Amphitryon_; in Latin a farmer of the public revenue was called _socius_, because he was the associate of other similar farmers. It was not at all uncommon in Louis XIV.ʼs time for footmen to rise to the rank of financiers, and La Bazinière, de Gourville, and de Bourvalais, who were all three very rich, as well as many others, might be quoted as examples of this. Two _fermiers-généraux_, Révol and dʼApougny, became churchwardens.

[268] See page 43, note 2.

[269] The wives of a good many farmers of the revenue have been named by various commentators and “Keys.”

[270] The _huitième denier_ was a tax imposed in 1672 during the war with Holland on all purchasers of estates from the clergy.

[271] The “Keys” give several names of financiers, such as Aubert, who at one time was worth more than three millions of francs, and who died in a garret, Guénegaud, and Rémond. The _Chambre de Justice_, a name given to certain committees which were appointed from time to time to inquire into financial malversations and abuses condemned in 1661 the above-named three gentlemen to pay very heavy fines; hence their comparative poverty.

[272] “Champagne” stands for Monnerot. (See page 110, note 2.) It was not uncommon to give such names as _Poitevin_, _Lorrain_, _Basque_, _Provençal_, etc., to footmen, after their supposed native provinces.

[273] Two still Champagne wines. Sparkling Champagne was not drunk till the eighteenth century.

[274] All commentators agree that here the farmer-general George is meant, who bought the Marquisate dʼEntragues and married a daughter of the Marquis de Valençay.

[275] The _taille_ was a kingʼs tax levied every year only on the people and the commoners.

[276] Who Dorus is has not been found out.

[277] The Appian Way, the oldest and best of all the Roman roads, leads from the Porta Cappena at Rome to Capua.

[278] The Lictors at Rome, with the _fasces_, always walked before the Consul or the Dictator.

[279] Some think that here a certain M. de Langlée, _maréchal des camps et armées du roi_, was meant. Others think it was an uncle of the minister Colbert, a M. Pussort, one of the kingʼs counsel of state; but the first was unmarried and had a very wealthy father, and the second, who was also unmarried, and a miser to boot, owed his influence wholly to his position.

[280] The original has _pancartes_, which our author in a note states were _billets dʼenterrement_.

[281] _Noble homme_ was a title which citizens of importance took in all legal contracts, whilst men of less influence, tradesmen and artisans, were styled _Honorable homme_, and _Messire_ was only reserved for persons of rank.

[282] This youth was M. le Tellier, who became Archbishop of Rheims in 1671, when he was only twenty-nine years old, but who already, before that time, received the revenues of six abbeys. (See also page 47, note 2.)

[283] Formerly _six vingts_, hundred and twenty—thus in the original—was as commonly used as _quatre-vingt_.

[284] The first two editions contained a note of La Bruyère, to say that by _médailles dʼor_ he meant _louis dʼor_. This he thought no longer necessary in the other editions; he only wanted to draw attention to the fact that the “youth” received his clerical dues in golden coin, and not by a cheque on some _fermier-général_, who would have taken a discount for cash payment.

[285] This paragraph seems to be a hit at the _fermier-général_ Langeois, whose daughter married the Marshal de Tourville, and whose son was married to a niece of de Pontchartrain, the _contrôleur-général_ of the finances.

[286] Although this remark seems to refer to the Baron de Beauvais, _capitaine des chasses_, to whom the king had given the right of selling the briars and brambles growing on the road to Versailles, the portrait of Ergastus alludes to those men who were for ever advising to tax articles not already imposed, and by whom France became finally ruined.

[287] Berrier, one of the secretaries of Colbert, is said to have been the original of Crito.

[288] This is generally believed to refer to de Pontchartrain, mentioned before, who, for some time, was very pious.

[289] See page 136, note 2.

[290] The old English translations of the “Characters” say this is an allusion to M. Fouquet (1615-1680), _surintendant des finances_, who, kept in prison by Louis XIV. for more than twenty years, had a great many friends and partisans when in prosperity, but they nearly all turned against him in his adversity.

[291] The desire to make oneʼs fortune was so great, that at that time, even at court, it was customary to take money from forgers and scoundrels; thus the Count de Grammont drew about fifty thousand _livres_ from a peculator, and the wife of the son of the king of France received as a present from Louis XIV. the estate of a prisoner who had committed suicide in the Bastile, which was thought to be worth a great deal of money. A similar custom existed also at the courts of Charles II. and James II.; and William Penn was even accused of having become an agent for the maids-of-honour of the court, and of obtaining pardons for a pecuniary consideration, but it is now generally admitted it was another Penn who acted thus.

[292] The “Keys” think that either Nicholas dʼOrville, the confidant of Louis XIV. and Mdlle. de la Vallière, and royal treasurer at Orléans, or Boucherat, _chancelier de France_, and a perfect noodle, according to St. Simonʼs _Mémoires_, were alluded to as the “weak-minded men.”

[293] See page 43, note 2.

[294] A few of the “Keys” give Racine the poet as the original of such a man, but this is very unlikely, for Racine was a friend of our author, and, moreover, had acquired more glory than riches.

[295] Some commentators think that the Marquis de Seignelay, the eldest son of Colbert, is meant here; for after his death, which took place when he was only thirty-nine years old, he is said to have left five millions _livres_ debts; others pretend he left a capital large enough to yield a yearly income of four hundred thousand francs.

[296] Boileau, in his fifth _Epître_, says also: “Qui vit content de rien possède toute chose.”

[297] Jean Fauconnet, _fermier-général des domaines de France_, became also receiver-general of two other taxes, which was very unusual. Our author speaks of “Fauconnets,” to indicate farmers of the revenues in general, though there was only one Fauconnet. In La Bruyèreʼs time the financiers seem to have despised men of letters; but later on, during the Regency and the reign of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., it became the fashion to invite literary men on every festive occasion, and to lionise them—a custom not unknown, even at the present time, and in other countries than France.

[298] Our author had René Descartesʼ (1596-1650) name printed in small capitals, to remind his readers of the persecutions this philosopher had suffered.

[299] _Au denier dix_ in the original.

[300] In former times French Governments often suppressed certain monies or diminished their legal value, and a law to this effect had been passed by Louis XIV. as late as 1679.

[301] Orontes is supposed to be a certain M. Neyret de la Ravoye, who became later _trésorier-général de la marine_, and who married a Mademoiselle Valière.

[302] _En bon français_ in the original; just as we say “in plain English.”

[303] A certain Count de Marsan seems to have made his fortune by marrying first one rich widow and then another.

[304] These different degrees of legal dignity were formerly in French _praticien_, _officier_, _magistrat_, _président_.

[305] Without any proof whatever, the “Keys” pretend that a certain _intendant des finances_, M. du Buisson, was meant.

[306] The miser is supposed to have been a M. Morstein, formerly chief treasurer of Poland, who went to reside in Paris, where he died in 1693; two years later his only son was killed at the siege of Namur.

[307] Thus M. Langlée, a “man sprung from nothing,” as St. Simon calls him, but a first-rate gambler, played for several years every day with the king. See also page 139, note 6. Gourville (see page 137, note 1) gambled with noblemen of the highest rank; and a certain Morin, after having lost large sums of money, was obliged to fly to London, where he managed the gambling table of the Duchess de Mazarin, and is often mentioned by St. Evremond.

[308] Our author says in a footnote: “See the narratives about the kingdom of Siam.” The _zombay_ seems to have been a very profound inclination and prostration of the body. In “A New Historical Relation of Siam by M. de Loubère, envoy extraordinary from the French king to the king of Siam in the years 1687 and 1688, done out of French,” and printed in London in 1693, we find “they (the Siamese) kept themselves prostrated on their knees and elbows, with their hands joined at the top of their forehead, and their body seated on their heels; to the end that they may lean less on their elbows, and that it may be possible (without assisting themselves with their hands, but keeping them still joined to the top of their forehead) to raise themselves on their knees, and fall again upon their elbows, as they do thrice together, as often as they would speak to their king.”

[309] In the French parliaments or courts, councillors were allowed to plead, and justice was administered in the kingʼs name; but these parliaments had no legislative power, and had only to register the royal edicts before they became law.

[310] A game of chance played with cards.

[311] Those who made their fortune by gambling were, according to the “Keys,” Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau, who left behind him a very valuable _Journal_ of the sayings and doings of the court of Louis XIV., which has often been printed; but he did not owe his success in life to gambling alone; and Morin, already mentioned, page 155, note 1.

[312] All the “Keys” give as the model of a perfect gambler a certain Louis Robert, Seigneur de Fortille, who made his fortune as _intendant_ of different army-corps, and lost almost everything he possessed; but as the passion for gambling was very common, and as the king was the first to give the example of it, ruined gamblers were to be found in plenty. Cheating at play was also not rare.

[313] Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, after the death of her husband Odenathus, waged war for five years against the Romans, and was vanquished by Aurelian in the year 273.

[314] _Ouvrier_, in the original, is sometimes used by our author for “artist.”

[315] Phidias (490-432 B.C.) was a Greek sculptor of renown; Zeuxis (424-400 B.C.), a Greek painter, who is said to have painted grapes so well that some birds came and pecked at them.

[316] The “herdsman” alluded to in the above paragraph seems to have been the financier La Touanne, _trésorier de lʼextraordinaire des guerres_. He had a mansion near the park of Saint Maur, part of an estate formerly belonging to Catherine de Medici (Zenobia), on which he spent enormous sums, whilst the other part belonged to the Prince de Condé, who in vain tried to induce the parvenu to sell him his property. Hence the attack of our author on the man who dared to oppose the wishes of his noble patron. However, when this paragraph appeared, La Touanne did not yet live at Saint Maur.

[317] According to the commentators, this refers to Jacques Bordier, _intendant des finances_, who, after having spent more than a million on his estate at Raincy, was obliged to leave it; but his creditors did not expel him, for it was sold by his heirs after his death.

[318] The Marquis de Seignelay is supposed by some to have been the original of Eumolpus; he did not, however, enjoy a long life. (See page 149, note ?)

[319] _Libertin_, in the original, which first meant a man of free-and-easy manners, came to be chiefly used in the second half of the seventeenth century for a “freethinker.”

[320] _Superstitieux_ sometimes had the above meaning; Littré gives two examples of it in his dictionary.

[321] Giton and Phædo do not apply to any one in particular, though some commentators maintain that by the first the Marquis de Barbézieux, the son of Louvois, was meant.

[322] Now we speak of town and country, but in La Bruyèreʼs time people mentioned the town or city and the court, wholly different in customs and manners. Boileau begins his _Satires_ with the two following lines—

“Damon, ce grand auteur dont la muse fertile,
Amusa si long-temps et la cour et la ville.”

Our author places his chapter “Of the Town” before that “Of the Court” and “Of the Great,” and leads up to that “Of the Sovereign.”

[323] Le Cours la Reine, familiarly called Le Cours, was a part of the Champs-Elysées, planted with trees by order of Maria de Medici, the wife of Henri IV.; hence the name. The theatre finished then at seven oʼclock, when it was not too late to take a walk in summer-time. See also Molièreʼs _Les Fâcheux_, act i. scene 1.

[324] The favourite and fashionable walk, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, was from Paris to Vincennes.

[325] That bank is now the quays Saint-Bernard and Austerlitz.

[326] Bourdaloue (1632-1704), a celebrated preacher, censures a similar behaviour in his sermon on _Les Divertissements du Monde_.

[327] To the _grande robe_ belonged all magistrates; to the _petite robe_ all _avoués_ and _procureurs_, somewhat like attorneys and solicitors; the _avocats_ or barristers were between the two, and the court of justice or _parlement_ above them all.

[328] The _avocats_ were generally not considered to belong to the _grande robe_, and La Bruyère was one of them; the latter part of the paragraph is a direct attack on the sale of legal offices.

[329] This applies, according to the “Keys,” to a certain M. de la Briffe, a _maître des requêtes_, or to M. de Saint-Pouange. (See page 134, note 3.)

[330] Two celebrated barristers of La Bruyèreʼs time.

[331] J. H. de Mesmes, who became _président à mortier_ in 1688, when he was only twenty-seven years old, is said to have been a constant companion of profligate young noblemen. A _mortier_ was a round velvet cap, worn by the Chancellor and Presidents of parliaments.

[332] See page 165, note 1.

[333] The original has _et qui a consigné_, a meaning which we have still in the English word “consignment.” The explanation of this word is given by the author himself.

[334] An allusion to the three fleurs de lis of the Bourbons.

[335] _Litre_, in the original, is a kind of mourning hangings, or, rather, a broad velvet band on which the coats of arms of certain nobles were painted, and which was placed around the church, inside as well as outside. The right of using the _litre_ belonged only to noblemen who had founded a church, or to those who had exercised a certain jurisdiction in their domains.

[336] The commentators hint at several magistrates as the originals of the Crispins, and imagine that the Sannions were the family of Leclerc de Lesseville, the descendants of rich tanners, who became ennobled for having lent 20,000 crowns to Henry IV. after the battle of Ivry.

[337] This “other man” was a certain President de Coigneux, who neglected his legal duties to spend all his time in sport.

[338] _Laisse-courre_ in French; formerly _courre_ was used instead of _courir_, as a sporting term.

[339] A. M. Jérôme de Nouveau, the head of the post-office, is said to have asked his head huntsman a similar question.

[340] Hippolytus, son of Theseus, king of Athens, “a youth who never knew a woman,” thrown from his chariot and killed, is the hero of Racineʼs tragedy _Phèdre_.

[341] The Ile meant nearly always the Ile Saint-Louis; the Quartier du Temple, formerly the _Marais_, is even sometimes now called by that name.

[342] The commentators have given the names of several obscure people for those “infatuated men,” and for André as well; but it is surely not a rare thing for men to ruin themselves through vanity.

[343] The Abbé de Villars, who died in 1691, was a son of the Marquis de Villars, French ambassador to the Court of Spain, and is said to have been the original of Narcissus.

[344] The Convent of the Feuillants, a branch of the Cistercian monks, was in the Rue Saint-Honoré; that of the Minims, an order founded by St. Francis of Paula in 1453, was near the Place Royale.

[345] Ombre, a Spanish game of cards, often mentioned by English authors of the eighteenth century; Pope has a poetical description of it in his “Rape of the Lock.” Reversis is another game of cards, played by four persons, and in which those who make the fewest tricks win the game.

[346] A golden pistole was usually worth eleven _livres_.

[347] The _Gazette de Hollande_ was a newspaper published in Holland, and in which everything was put that could not be printed or said in France. For the _Mercure Galant_, see page 24, note 2.

[348] Cyrano de Bergerac (1620-1655) was the author of the _Histoires Comiques des Etats et Empires de la Lune, etc._, of a tragedy, _Agrippine_, and of a comedy, _Le Pédant Joué_, from which Molière borrowed two scenes.

[349] Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin (1596-1676), an author of various plays, novels, and poems, and one of the first in France to attack the authority of the ancients.

[350] Louis de Lesclache (1620-1661), a grammarian and a writer on philosophy.

[351] Barbin, a well-known publisher at the time our author wrote.

[352] The Plaine was probably the Plaine des Sablons; for the Cours, see page 164, note 2.

[353] The “Keys” are unanimous in saying that the Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had married a sister of the Maréchal de Luxembourg, and who died at the Hague in 1692, is meant by “this man.”

[354] This was the boulevard of the Porte Saint-Antoine, sometimes called the Nouveau Cours, on the road to Vincennes.

[355] A large garden in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was called thus, after a financier of the same name who had laid it out.

[356] A sort of mock tilting-match on horseback.

[357] The alliance between France and Switzerland was always solemnly sworn, and this was done for the last time in 1663 in Notre-Dame.

[358] Every year under Louis XIV.ʼs reign there were published large engravings, in which the king, the princes, and the principal persons of the court were represented, whilst lower down the citizens, the people, etc., were looking on, and the real almanack was pasted quite at the bottom.

[359] Saint Hubert was the patron saint of the chase, and on the 5th of November, when his festival was held, the king and the greatest personages of the court hunted at Versailles.

[360] Two small places near Versailles where often soldiers encamped and reviews were held.

[361] Bernardi was the director of a celebrated gymnasium at that time, and every year his pupils attacked and defended an artificial fort, erected by his orders.

[362] The Marquis de Chamlay was a noted tactician; Jacquier had been the head of the commissariate, and died in 1684; and Berbier du Metz, lieutenant-general of the artillery, was killed at the battle of Fleuras in 1690.

[363] Beaumavielle, a celebrated basso-singer at the opera, died about 1688.

[364] Marthe de Rochois sang at the opera from 1678 till 1697.

[365] The _Annales Galantes_ were published in 1670, and written by Madame de Villedieu; no _Journal Amoureux_ ever saw the light.

[366] _Roland_, an opera by Quinault (see page 28, note 2) and Lulli (see page 25, note 1, and page 46, note), was represented for the first time at Versailles in the beginning of 1685, and Mademoiselle de Rochois played the part of Angelica in it.

[367] See page 65, note 1.

[368] M. de Terrat, the _chancelier_ of Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV., is hinted at here, probably merely on account of his name.

[369] _Le mortier_, in the original. See page 168, note 3.

[370] La Bruyère employs _le vide de la consignation_. See page 169, note 2.

[371] _Pécunieux_ our author uses in its Latin meaning.

[372] Gilt nails were the principal ornaments of the heavy and unwieldy coaches of the age of Louis XIV.

[373] Some unprincipled suitors borrowed costly jewels which they put in the _trousseau_ of their brides, but which had to be returned after the marriage.

[374] Gaultier was the proprietor of a well-known warehouse for the sale of silks and gold and silver-embroidered stuffs in the Rue des Bourdonnais, in Paris, during the latter part of the seventeenth century.

[375] According to an immemorial custom in Paris, a young wife showily dressed had to sit up on her bed during the first three days after marriage to receive visits. Several memoirs and letters of the time refer to it. Addison in “The Spectator,” No. 45, speaks also of the “English ladies ... brought up the fashion of receiving visits in their beds.”

[376] People were then (1688-1694) in the habit of dining at twelve oʼclock, and of taking supper at seven or eight; hence the reference to the “five hours.”

[377] We do not know if this refers to Swiss porters or Swiss guards; I should think it meant the former, and intends to point out that the lady made three calls. (See also page 134, note 4.)

[378] This paragraph alludes, of course, to the visits ladies pay one another.

[379] _Sou pour livre_, or a penny in the pound, in the original, was a tax on merchandise of a twentieth part of their value.

[380] Wax-candles were a luxury at the time La Bruyère wrote, and chiefly manufactured at Bougiah, on the coast of Africa; hence their name, _bougie_.

[381] In every parliament there were originally two courts, and two kinds of barristers or _conseillers_; one court was called the _grandʼchambre_, where the cases were heard; in the other court, the _chambre des enquêtes_, reports in writing were made of all cases.

[382] The nobleman or lady of high rank to whom the education of the children of royalty was intrusted in France bore the title of _gouverneur_, or _gouvernante des enfants de France_.

[383] Voltaire attacked this paragraph, and maintained it was ridiculous to praise our forefathers for being calculating, slow, coarse, and not very cleanly. Moreover, money should not be stowed away in coffers, but circulate. One of the latest commentators of La Bruyère, M. Destailleur, observes rightly that our author only praises economy, simplicity, and moderation, and not avarice and uncleanliness, and that he merely attacks the pretended showiness of men wishing to imitate people of high rank; hence the last sentence.

[384] Not alone La Bruyère, but many of the most eminent persons of his time, such as Saint-Simon, Bourdaloue, Fénelon, Massillon, Madame de Maintenon, the Duke of Orléans and his mother, had the same opinion of the court and courtiers.

[385] It was only in the sixth edition of the “Characters” that our author printed Versailles in full; until then it was only “V ...”

[386] The French has _fourriers_, _petits contrôleurs_, and _chefs de fruiterie_. The first looked after the lodgings of the persons following the court when the king was travelling; the second superintended the expenses of the kingʼs table and household; and the third set out the dessert and provided the wax-candles for the kingʼs dining-room. A _fourrier_ is still a non-commissioned officer in the French army who has charge of the quarters and provisions of the men.

[387] _Faire son capital_, in the original, a phrase much in vogue during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[388] This paragraph is said to apply to a certain M. de Barète, unknown to fame, or to the brother of Madame de Maintenon. (See page 65, note 4.)

[389] It was not considered etiquette to knock or to rap at the door of the kingʼs chamber, or at the door of any noblemanʼs room; but a person asking to be admitted simply scratched the door with his nails, whilst the fashionables used their combs, which they always carried about with them to comb their long wigs. Only the princes, the grand officers of the crown, and some favourite nobles were admitted to the grand levée of Louis XIV., then officers of an inferior rank and a certain number of courtiers were allowed to enter the room; the crowd were not admitted, but had to wait till the king left the room, and then stood aside.

[390] This is said to be an allusion to a certain Italian quack, Caretto or Caretti, then the fashion, who is mentioned by Saint-Simon in his _Mémoires_ and by Madame de Sévigné in her _Letters_.

[391] By the Castle is meant Versailles.

[392] This seems a more correct portrait of M. de Langlée than the one to be found in the chapter “Of the Gifts of Fortune,” § 21 (see also page 139, note 6). Saint-Simon, in his _Mémoires_, often mentions him and his mother, who was the queenʼs chamber-maid, and through her influence at court got him introduced amongst the highest of the land. He also speaks of de Langléeʼs successes at play, his intimacy with the king, and the kingʼs mistresses, favourites, and family, his want of intelligence, and his great tact, except in continually using obscene words, and finally his being an _arbiter elegantiarum_. Madame de Sévigné also refers to him and his familiarity.

[393] See p. 135, note 4.

[394] Some commentators think this refers to the Duke de Bouillon, because his name means also “beef-tea,” and because he wished to add to his family name, La Tour, that of dʼAuvergne, but the name was illustrious. A modern commentator, M. Hémardinquer, rightly thinks it might apply to the ministers of Louis XIV., who all were descended from citizens, and took for their titles Marquis de Louvois, de Seignelay, de Barbézieux, Count de Maurepas, de Maillebois, etc., all of which titles might be considered “not pretty” as names.

[395] This points to M. de Clermont-Tonnerre, bishop of Noyon, who always boasted of his lineage, and thought himself a wit because he had been elected a member of the French Academy by the desire of the king.

[396] By the princes of Lorraine are probably meant the Guises, whose family name was de Lorraine; they were, however, princes de Joinville. The Rohans were one of the oldest families in Brittany; the Châtillons, of whom the Admiral de Coligny was one, were related to the Montmorencys, who date from the tenth century, and had been chiefly rendered famous in history by the _connétable_ de Montmorency (1492-1567), the rival of the Duke de Guise.

[397] The _Oriflamme_ was the banner of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and only brought out by order of the king the moment the battle began.

[398] _Demoiselle_ was originally the appellation given to any married or unmarried lady of noble birth, but in La Bruyèreʼs time it was generally applied to ladies of plebeian origin. In several legal contracts our authorʼs mother is called _demoiselle veuve_.

[399] There was no public lottery in France before the year 1700, but the king often had one drawn, and not seldom gave permission to hospitals and other public institutions also to have them drawn.

[400] The king usually allowed the holders of certain offices to appoint their successors, or to hold such posts conjointly. But they had to pay heavily for such _survivances_, as they were called, to the royal tax-gatherers and to the original holders. (See also page 130, note.)

[401] The original has _tout lʼappartement_. The rooms where the courtiers danced attendance at Versailles were called thus.

[402] Some commentators imagine this refers to the Marshal de Luxembourg, who in 1675 was appointed to succeed the Prince de Condé as commander-in-chief of the army—an appointment which gave general satisfaction—and four years later fell into disgrace and was exiled. The hero who “appears deformed when compared to his portraits,” seems also to refer to the Marshal, who was humpbacked. However, many other and earlier authors have made similar remarks about favourites of fortune fallen from their high estate.

[403] There were three persons named Rousseau, well known to the courtiers: an innkeeper near the Porte Saint-Denis, the doorkeeper of the Kingʼs chamber, and the fencing-master of the young royal princes. Fabry was a man who was “burned at the stake for his infamous vices about twenty years ago,” says La Bruyère; and La Couture, the tailor of the Dauphine, had become insane, and was always about the court.

[404] See page 43, note 2.

[405] The “Keys” pretend that Artemon is the Marquis de Vardes, who, after having been in exile for twenty years, intrigued to be appointed governor of the youthful Duke of Burgundy, and died in 1688, before he was successful; about a year afterwards the Duke de Beauvilliers was appointed to the vacant post.

[406] An allusion to the Duke de Beauvilliers, mentioned in the preceding note.

[407] The French Academy, composed of forty members, was established on the 2d of January 1635, and still exists.

[408] It is said that the Minister of State Abel Servien (1598-1639) refused politely, and that Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661) did not know how to give.

[409] P. Corneille, in his comedy _Le Menteur_ (act i. scene 1), says also—

“Tel donne à pleines mains qui nʼoblige personne:
La façon de donner vaut mieux que ce quʼon donne.”

[410] Saint-Simon adopts the word _amphibie_ from our author, and names, among others, a certain M. Saint-Romain, who was ambassador at the court of Portugal, and enjoyed the income of two abbeys. Some commentators think this paragraph refers to M. de Villeroy, who was archbishop as well as governor of Lyons, and died in 1693; whilst others suppose it alludes to the Chevalier de Hautefeuille, _grand prieur dʼAquitaine_, and lieutenant-general to boot.

[411] Menophilus is said to be either Father la Chaise (1624-1709), the Jesuit confessor of Louis XIV., or the celebrated Capuchin monk Joseph (1577-1638), the confidant of Cardinal Richelieu. Most likely the portrait was intended for neither.

[412] When our author wrote, it was the fashion for gentlemen and ladies of the best society to be present at public executions. Even Madame de Sévigné went with some ladies of the court to see the poisoners the Marchioness de Brinvilliers and la Voisin executed (1670 and 1680).

[413] This “happy” individual seems to have been a certain M. Boucherat, who after his nomination as _chancelier de France_ became very arrogant.

[414] Some commentators appear to think this refers to M. de Pontchartrain (see page 143, note 3), who had been Secretary of State for more than a year when this paragraph first appeared in 1691; but this Minister was a friend and patron of our author.

[415] There were two kinds of _abbés_. The _abbé régulier_, who was always a priest, wore the habit of his order, not seldom was a high dignitary of the Church, and the _abbé commendataire_, who was a layman, and only enjoyed the revenues of the abbey; in time many a layman, who had no revenues whatever, either from an abbey or from any other source, adopted the semi-clerical dress of an _abbé_ and called himself so.

[416] A bishop wore a golden cross on his breast; cardinals wear purple dresses.

[417] Louis XIV. used on festive occasions to bestow various gifts on his courtiers, as well as abbeys and ecclesiastical appointments on clerical dignitaries.

[418] The “Keys” give the names of several well-known financiers as those “knaves.”

[419] In the original _homme de bien_. (See page 43, note 2.)

[420] Our author imitates some old French writer, or at least employs antiquated words, of which the only one worthy of notice is _saffranier_, stained with saffron, because the houses of bankrupt traders were formerly stained yellow; hence _saffranier_ meant “a bankrupt.”

[421] Another allusion to the disgrace of the Duke de Luxembourg. (See page 195, note 2), which happened from 1679 to 1681.

[422] This new Minister was, according to some, M. Claude le Peletier (see page 54, note 1), appointed _contrôleur-général des finances_ in 1683, and with whom the Duke de Villeroy, afterwards defeated by Marlborough at Ramillies, 1706, claimed relationship, though without any foundation. It seems more likely to have referred to M. de Pontchartrain. (See page 201, note 2.)

[423] Plancus is the Minister for War, Louvois, who died suddenly in 1691, about a year before this paragraph appeared: Tibur stands for Meudon, near Paris. In the ancient Tibur, a town of Latium to the east of Rome, and now called Tivoli, the Latin poet Horace had his country-seat; Plancus, the Consul, was one of his friends.

[424] This is a reference to Psalm cxxxv. 16, 17.

[425] In French _certaines livrées_, certain liveries. Can this be an allusion to the _justaucorps à brevet_, or coats only worn by the Kingʼs permission?

[426] The commentators suppose that a certain Abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) is meant, who passed a great part of his life dressed as a woman.

[427] See page 121, note.

[428] The original has _tout ce qui paraît de nouveau avec les livrées de la faveur_. See also page 205, note 2.

[429] The Italian astronomer T. D. Cassini (1625-1712) was the head of the Parisian _Observatoire_ for astronomical studies.

[430] A parhelion is a mock sun or meteor near the sun, sometimes tinged with colours; a parallax is the difference between its position as seen from some point on the earthʼs surface and its position as seen from some other conventional point.

[431] This is a hit at the courtiers, who all simulated piety after the king had married Madame de Maintenon and revoked the edict of Nantes in 1685, and when he was wholly governed by the Jesuits. This paragraph first appeared in the seventh edition of the “Characters” in 1692.

[432] _Cheminer_, in the original; a word much employed by the courtiers of Louis XIV.

[433] This country is, of course, the court.

[434] By Harlequinʼs comedies the Italian stage is meant.

[435] See page 174, note 1.

[436] All the “Keys” say this is an allusion to the Cardinal de Bouillon; but the “Keys” are wrong, for his disgrace did not end until 1690, when this paragraph had already been two years published.

[437] Xantippus is supposed to be M. de Bontemps, the son of one of the _premiers valets de chambre_ of the king; but this supposition seems not correct, for he was brought up at court, and was never what can be called “a favourite.”

[438] See page 186, note 3.

[439] See also page 213, § 75.

[440] The court, Versailles, and the mass which Louis XIV. attended daily in the royal chapel are alluded to in the above paragraph. The Iroquois and the Hurons, both tribes of North American Indians, were, at the time La Bruyère wrote, considered as typical savages, and are often mentioned in the literature of the period.

[441] De Bussy-Rabutin, Madame de Sévigné, the Marshal de Villeroy, and the Duke de Richelieu, all describe in their writings the misery they felt on not seeing the king.

[442] This seems to be an ironical allusion to the idolatrous worship the courtiers felt, or at least pretended to feel, for Louis XIV., whom they considered “the image of the Divinity on earth.”

[443] Pascal expresses a similar thought in his _Pensées_, vi. 19, and so do other authors. The commentators mention as known court-wits the Count de Grammont, the Duke de Roquelaure, the Duke de Lauzun, the Count de Bussy-Rabutin, and others.

[444] M. de Bontemps and the Marquis de Dangeau, both of whom we have already mentioned (see page 210, note 2, and page 156, note 2), seem to be meant.

[445] The commentators give the names of several personages, all already mentioned before, such as the Count dʼAubigné, the Chancellor Boucherat, the Archbishop of Rheims, Le Tellier, and others.

[446] All the “Keys” say that M. de Pomponne (1618-1699) is meant by Aristides; but he was still in disgrace when this paragraph was published (1689), and remained so for two years longer.

[447] Straton is undoubtedly the Duke de Lauzun, and his brother-in-law, the Duke de Saint-Simon, admits it. Lauzun had been a great favourite of the king, and had nearly married Louis XIV.ʼs cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, but he was disgraced, imprisoned for ten years, partly reinstated in the kingʼs favour, banished again from the court, and finally sent with an army of French auxiliaries to assist James II. in Ireland, where he was present at the battle of the Boyne. The Duke died in 1723, at the age of ninety.

[448] The first and last paragraphs of this chapter are an epitome of the whole.

[449] Nearly all commentators suppose that Theagenes is Phillippe de Vendôme (1655-1727), _grand prieur de Malte_, a grandson of Henry IV. and Gabrielle dʼEstrées, and one of the most profligate men of his age; but it is more likely that La Bruyère wished to reprove his former pupil, the Duke de Bourbon, who at the time this paragraph appeared (1691) was but twenty-three years old, and addicted to very bad company.

[450] This seems to be an allusion to Louis XIV., who never felt the loss of any of his ministers or officers. The latter part of the above paragraph probably refers to the successors of Turenne, Condé, and Colbert, who had all been dead some time before the year 1689, when it first appeared.

[451] If the Abbé de Choisy (see page 205, note 3) ever told La Bruyère how he was brought up, as he mentions in his _Mémoires_, there can be no doubt he was the original of Lucilius.

[452] In the original, _il se fait de fête_; an expression also used by other authors in La Bruyèreʼs time.

[453] Theophilus is generally believed to have been the Abbé Roquette (1623-1707), Bishop of Autun, the supposed prototype of Molièreʼs _Tartuffe_, and, according to Saint-Simon, “a man all sugar and honey, and mixed up in every intrigue.” The “great man ... scarcely set foot on shore” was James II. of England, who came to France in 1689, two years before the above paragraph was published. The Abbé Roquetteʼs character seems not so black as it has been painted, at least according to M. J. Henri Pignotʼs Life of him, published in 1876.

[454] Compare in the chapter “Of Personal Merit,” § 33.

[455] Telephon, an odd name now, is said to be a portrait of François dʼAubusson (1625-1691), Count de la Feuillade, Duke de Rouanez, and Marshal of France, who at his cost erected a bronze monument to the glory of Louis XIV. on the Place des Victoires in Paris, where it still stands.

[456] Davus is a certain Prudhomme, a proprietor of bath-and wash-houses, with whom M. de la Feuillade lodged before he became a favourite, in whom he had always the greatest confidence, and whose daughter he is supposed to have married after the death of his first wife.