Chapter XVI: Of Freethinkers.853 (4)

[457] It is even now usual for strict Roman Catholics abroad to celebrate the day of the saint after which they are named, instead of the day on which they are born.

[458] Rinaldo is the Achilles of the Christian army in Tassoʼs “Jerusalem Delivered,” and the rival of Orlando in Ariostoʼs “Orlando Furioso;” the second is the true hero of the latter poem, the third the friend and companion of Orlando, and the fourth the greatest of the Christian warriors except Rinaldo, in Tassoʼs poem, already mentioned.

[459] Among the great there were such names as Tancrède de Rohan, Hercule de Fleury, Achille de Harlay, Phébus de Foix, Cyrus de Brion, etc.; even citizens took grand classical or romantic names.

[460] The original has _côteaux_, most probably because some noblemen only drank certain wines which grew on some hill-slopes, called _côteaux_ in French.

[461] Thais, an Athenian courtesan, mentioned in Drydenʼs “Alexanderʼs Feast;” Phryne was another Athenian courtesan, said to have been Apellesʼ model.

[462] Philipsburg, an ancient fortified town of the Grand Duchy of Baden, had been taken by the Dauphin in 1688, after a monthʼs siege.

[463] Among the citizens who had “become powerful” may be reckoned J. B. Colbert (see page 132, note), whose three daughters married dukes, and whose son married a relative of the Bourbon family.

[464] La Bruyère had, no doubt, experienced this when at the Duke de Condéʼs.

[465] The original has _mal content_, for, during the seventeenth century, _mal_ was more generally placed before an adjective than now; at present _mécontent_ would be used, which, when La Bruyère wrote, had often the meaning of “a rebel.”

[466] Gaston dʼOrléans (1608-1660), the brother of Louis XIII., and even the Prince de Condé were examples of such “great.”

[467] The original has _vertu_, in the sense of the Latin _virtus_, courage.

[468] Thersites, according to the _Iliad_, was squinting, humpbacked, loquacious, loud, coarse, and scurrilous, but he was not a “common soldier,” but a chief. Achilles was the hero of the allied Greek army besieging Troy.

[469] Le Brun (1616-1690), a celebrated painter, was still alive when this paragraph appeared. For Lulli and Racine, see page 46, note, and page 11, note 3. Compare also page 226, § 19.

[470] Achille de Harlay (1639-1712), President of the Parliament of Paris, and descended from an illustrious line of magistrates, is said to have feigned an excess of modesty which was not natural to him. See also page 45, note 1.

[471] This beginning of every English town-crierʼs oration, pronounced “Oh yes! Oh yes!” is merely the imperative of the defective French verb, _ouir_, “to hear,” now seldom used, except in the present infinitive and in proverbial phrases.

[472] Aristarchus also refers to the above President, whose liberality, according to public rumour, was somewhat ostentatious.

[473] Another allusion to M. de Harley, whose “wise saws and modern sayings” were proverbial.

[474] A _cabinet_ was a sort of social circle in Paris, where people generally met to exchange small talk and to hear the news or lectures on all subjects.

[475] See page 19, note 3.

[476] M. de Harlay (1625-1695), Archbishop of Paris, is said to have been the original of Theognis. (See page 46, § 26.) He was the nephew of the President mentioned on the previous page, note 1.

[477] Pamphilus is the Marquis de Dangeau, of whom we have already spoken (see page 156, note 2), and who made himself ridiculous by his excessive vanity. Saint-Simon, in his _Mémoires_, calls the Marquis _un Pamphile_, but our author speaks of _les Pamphiles_, and describes them at three different times, namely, in 1681, 1691, and 1692.

[478] See page 47, note 3. When this paragraph appeared, the Marquis de Dangeau had been already three years a Knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost. The knights of this order wore a cross hanging from a broad blue ribbon, which were both depicted around their escutcheon.

[479] See page 70, note 1.

[480] Such an official was in our authorʼs time called _le premier commis_.

[481] The original has _il vous coupe_, “he will cut you,” an expression also used by Saint-Simon and Madame de Sévigné; the English phrase “to cut a person,” in the sense of passing by him without pretending to see him, seems almost to have the same primary meaning.

[482] Two celebrated actors of the seventeenth century; Floridor, whose real name was Josias Soulas de Frinefosse, died in 1672, and Mondori in 1651.

[483] See page 240, note 3.

[484] This minister is said to have been Louvois (see page 204, note 2), who liked to have many postulants about him.

[485] See page 164, note 1.

[486] The Rue Saint-Denis was a street in Paris crowded with small tradesmen, and still exists. Our author was nearly always afraid of clearly mentioning Versailles or Fontainebleau, and very often employed only the initial letters and asterisks or dots.

[487] The original _république_, which was inserted for the first time in the fourth edition of the “Characters,” is used in the sense of the Latin _respublica_.

[488] During the reign of Louis XIV., the signboards, which were often very large, swung above the heads of the passers-by, and the police tried in vain to reduce their dimensions or to have them fixed against the walls. Sometimes the government interfered in the municipal or provincial elections without any opposition, and sometimes a diminution of town councillors, or a promulgation of a stamp act for legal documents, was violently resisted, and the rebellion had to be quenched by an armed force, as, for example, in Guienne and Brittany from 1673 till 1675.

[489] Taxes are meant here.

[490] Adolphe de Belleforière, Chevalier de Soyecourt, a captain of the gendarmes of the Dauphin, died two days after the battle of Fleurus (July 1, 1690), of wounds received in this battle, in which his elder brother, the Marquis de Soyecourt, was also killed. Both those young men were the sons of Maximilien Antoine, Marquis de Soyecourt, _grand veneur_, who died in 1679, and was the original of Dorante in Molièreʼs comedy _Les Fâcheux_. The name of the Marquis is often mentioned in the lampoons of the times for his reputation of valour in other fields than those of Mars. La Bruyère was a friend of the family, whose name was always pronounced Saucourt, and even sometimes written so.

[491] Dijon, the former capital of Burgundy, had been besieged in 1515 by thirty thousand men, who retired after the conclusion of a treaty of peace which the king, Francis I., did not ratify. Corbie, a town in Picardy, was taken when Burgundy and Picardy were invaded by the Imperials in 1636.

[492] This refers to the League of Augsburg, a coalition of England, Germany, Spain, Holland, Sweden, and Savoy against Louis XIV., with whom they were at war when this paragraph was published in 1691.

[493] Olivier le Daim, first the barber of Louis XI. (1423-1483), became his favourite, but was hanged in 1484, after that kingʼs death. Jacques Cœur, a rich merchant, rendered great services to Charles VII. (1403-1461), became his treasurer, and was accused of peculation; thrown into prison, he escaped, and died in exile in 1461. The characters of both these men were not very well known when La Bruyère wrote.

[494] The Imperial cavalry had a well-deserved reputation for cruelty and rapaciousness.

[495] Another allusion to the battle of Fleurus, won by the Marshal de Luxembourg about a year before this paragraph was published (1691).

[496] This refers to Mons, besieged by Vauban, and taken on the 9th of April 1691.

[497] In the month of July 1690, a rumour spread in Paris that William III. was dead, upon which many people publicly rejoiced, until the news came that the report was false. The “Keys” of the old English versions name for the first and second prince “the Duke of Savoy and the king of Spain.”

[498] The original has _halles et fauxbourgs_, “markets and suburbs.”

[499] The letters T. K. L. stand for Tækely, a Hungarian nobleman who broke out in open rebellion against the Emperor of Austria, Leopold I. (1640-1705), and gained a victory over the Imperial troops on the 21st of August 1690.

[500] At that time the Sultan was Soliman II., who only reigned from 1687 until 1691.

[501] The Grand Vizier Kara-Mustapha laid siege to Vienna in 1683.

[502] A league formed in the Hague against France was called “The Triple Alliance,” and was entered upon in 1668 between England, Holland, and Sweden. Sometimes the treaty formed in 1717 between George I., the Regent of France, and the United Provinces is also called “Triple Alliance.”

[503] Cerberus, a dog with three heads, which keeps guard in the infernal regions.

[504] According to the commentators, two insignificant newsmongers are supposed to be portrayed in Demophilus and Basilides, an Abbé de Sainte-Hélène and a certain du Moulinet, whom some think might have been an abbé or a magistrate, because instead of clothes he speaks of his _robe_ or gown.

[505] Proteus, in the mythology, is a sea-god residing in the Carpathian Sea, who could change his form at will.

[506] This paragraph is the longest La Bruyère has written; it covers between eight and nine pages in the original edition.

[507] An indirect homage to the assumed gravity of Louis XIV.

[508] Most probably this is a discreet allusion to Madame de Maintenon, whom the king had married in 1684, and in whose room generally a Council of State was held.

[509] _Bas de saye_, in the original, is a plaited petticoat worn in Louis XIV.ʼs time by actors in classical tragedies; it owes its name to the Latin _sagum_, a military cloak of the ancient Gauls. _Brodequins_ was the name given to the buskins of comic actors; the tragic actors strutted in their _cothurnes_.

[510] This paragraph only appeared for the first time in the fourth edition of the “Characters,” published in 1689, and disappeared, never to be printed again, two years afterwards. It was probably suppressed for fear of offending either Louis XIV., who had allowed his former favourites, Bussy-Rabutin and Lauzun, to reappear at court (see page 18, note 5, and page 218, note 2), or of hurting the feelings of these two noblemen, above all of Bussy-Rabutin, who, after being admitted to the presence of the King, twice left a court where he felt he was not wanted, and could not obtain any command in the army.

[511] This refers to Cardinal Georges dʼAmboise (1460-1510), Prime Minister of Louis XII.

[512] Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) is meant.

[513] In politics, La Bruyère was in advance of his age, but not in religious questions. He shared the idea of “the extirpation of heresy,” not alone with almost all the prelates of his time, but with some of the most eminent men in science, art, and literature, who all applauded the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), and advocated the notion of one religion for the whole State.

[514] This is an allusion to the reduction of the interest on the French debt, and the calling in and recoining of certain monies, a measure which was often taken by the French kings, and even by Louis XIV., who, however, made no profit by it. See also page 152, note 2.

[515] Colbert has been wrongly accused of having made money by those means; an accusation which was also brought against Mazarin, Fouquet, and the _fermiers généraux_, on far better grounds.

[516] Our author had to conciliate Louis XIV. at a time when it was supposed the publication of the “Characters” might make him many enemies. Hence the direct and indirect flatteries he bestows on the king, who prided himself on his complete mastery of details, for which he was praised by some and blamed by others; and amongst these latter must be reckoned Fénelon, who in his _Telemachus_ (Book xvi.) criticises Louis XIV. in the character of Idomeneus. That the king had a talent for mastering details cannot be doubted, and this is even admitted by the late John Richard Green, in his “Short History of the English People,” chap. ix. sect. vii., whose opinion of Louis XIV. I transcribe here, as a corrective of the flatteries scattered on this royal despot by La Bruyère: “Louis the Fourteenth, bigoted, narrow-minded, commonplace as he was, without personal honour or personal courage, without gratitude and without pity, insane in his pride, insatiable in his selfishness, had still many of the qualities of a great ruler; industry, patience, quickness of resolve, firmness of purpose, a capacity for discerning greatness and using it, an immense self-belief and self-confidence, and a temper utterly destitute indeed of real greatness, but with a dramatic turn for seeming to be great.”

[517] An allusion to an operation for fistula performed on Louis XIV. in 1686.

[518] Voltaire, in his _Siècle de Louis XIV._, says: “From 1663 until 1672 every year some new manufactory was established. The fine cloths formerly imported from England and Holland were manufactured at Abbeville.... The cloth manufactories of Sedan, which had almost gone to wreck and ruin, were re-established.” See also page 48, note 3.

[519] Louis XII. was called by the States-General assembled at Tours (1506) the “father of his people.”

[520] Such was, however, the opinion of Louis XIV. himself, who states in his _Mémoires_: “Kings are absolute masters, and naturally dispose fully and entirely of all the property possessed by the clergy and laity.”

[521] This is another flattery intended for Louis XIV., who thought that his ministers got their talents “by virtue of their office.” The word _subalternes_, “subordinates,” seems also out of place applied to such men as Colbert and Louvois.

[522] Louis XIV. was certainly not displeased when his presence awed those who were presented to him.

[523] All those excellent qualities, which La Bruyère thinks are necessary to a sovereign, were those generally attributed to Louis XIV., and which Saint-Simon also ascribes to him in his _Mémoires_.

[524] Another hit at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

[525] A reference to the royal edicts against duelling.

[526] Louis XIV., from 1667 to 1685, promulgated several laws reforming abuses in civil and criminal jurisprudence, and abolishing certain restrictions on trade, commerce, etc.

[527] To say that Louis XIV. increased by his example the influence of religion and virtue, can only apply to him after his marriage with Madame de Maintenon. See page 258, note 3.

[528] An allusion to the declaration of the liberties of the Gallican Church, published in 1682, and said to be written by Bossuet.

[529] The commentators of La Bruyère do not explain why the subsidies to be granted to the king were lighter in the provinces. Can it be that in certain provinces, called _pays dʼétat_, the subsidies voted by the provincial states were smaller than those voted by the authorities appointed by the king in those provinces not belonging to the _pays dʼétat_, and called _pays dʼélections_?

[530] This allusion must greatly have pleased Louis XIV., who thought himself great as a strategist and as a politician.

[531] Although this paragraph is only half the size of paragraph 12, page 253, there is only one full stop in it in the original, and that is at the end.

[532] The original has _avec_, which, in the seventeenth century, often was used for “in spite of.”

[533] The author adds in a note: “This is not so much a portrait of one individual, as a collection of anecdotes of absent-minded persons. If they please, there cannot be too large a number of them, for as tastes differ, my readers can pick and choose.” The chief traits of Menalcas are based on stories related by the Count de Brancas, who died eleven years before the above paragraph first saw the light (1691); others are said to have happened to the Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, afterwards Prince de Conti (1664-1709), and to a certain Abbé de Mauroy, chaplain to Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Eustace Budgell (1685-1736) depicts in No. 77 of the “Spectator” “an absent man,” and also speaks of Monsieur Bruyère, who “has given us the character of an absent man with a great deal of humour;” and then prints “the heads” of Menalcasʼ portrait. According to Wattʼs _Bibliotheca Britannica_, Budgell was the author of a translation of La Bruyèreʼs “Characters,” published 1699 and 1702; but in the edition of 1702 there is on the title-page, “made English by several hands.”

[534] Many of the streets in Paris were so narrow when our author wrote, that two people could hardly pass abreast; it was, therefore, the fashion to “give the wall,” as it was called, to persons of a superior rank.

[535] See page 243, note.

[536] The wigs were already worn very long, and completely concealed the ears.

[537] See page 164, note 1.

[538] There was usually only one or two arm-chairs in a reception-room, reserved for the master or mistress of the house, or for both.

[539] It was reported that Brancas, _chevalier dʼhonneur_ of the queen-mother, Anne of Austria (1602-1666), behaved in almost a similar manner to his royal mistress.

[540] Blotting-paper was not invented when our author wrote; even now it is not unusual abroad to find the ink of letters dried with sand, either plain or coloured.

[541] _Balais_ in French, a kind of pale-coloured ruby, so called, according to Littréʼs _Dictionnaire_, from Balakschan or Balaschan, not far from Samarcand.

[542] The king used to hunt at Fontainebleau almost every day in October. See also page 174, note 4.

[543] There existed a great deal of coarseness at the court of Louis XIV. underneath a semblance of extreme polish and refinement, and some of the stories told by Saint-Simon of the habits and customs of the king himself would not bear repeating at the present time, and even be considered disgraceful by the lowest classes of society. As an example of this general coarseness, it will, no doubt, have been observed that it was the usual habit of decent people to expectorate on the floor (see page 277, line 12), as well as to throw there the wine they did not wish to drink; for Menalcas is only laughed at for his absence of mind, and not for his bad habits. See also in the chapter “Of the Gifts of Fortune,” § 83, the character of Phædo, page 161, and in the chapter “Of Society, etc.,” the character of Troïlus, page 106, § 13.

[544] See page 65, note 1.

[545] In the Convent of the Carthusians, then near the Luxembourg, were to be found the twenty-two celebrated pictures of Eustache Lesueur (1616-1655), representing the history of Saint Bruno, founder of that order, who died in 1101. The greater part of these pictures is now in the Louvre.

[546] This picture represents the burial of an eloquent and learned canon, who, whilst being carried to the tomb, rose in his coffin, exclaimed that he was damned, and fell back again.

[547] See page 138, note 3.

[548] Tallemant des Réaux, in his _Historiettes_, tells a more probable story of de Brancas, how one day, being on horseback and stopped by footpads, he mistook them for footmen, and ordered them to let go his horse, and how he did not find out his mistake till they clapt a pistol to his breast.

[549] Compare what our author says in the above paragraph with the remarks he makes in § 21, page 260, and § 34, page 266.

[550] One of these fathers appears to have been the Duke de Gesvres (1620-1704), who spent all his money on purpose not to leave any to his children.

[551] See the chapter “Of Society,” § 63.

[552] Epidaurus, a city of Peloponnesus, where Æsculapius, the god of medicine and a son of Apollo, was worshipped.

[553] This paragraph appeared for the first time in the eighth edition of the “Characters,” published in 1694, three years after the former favourite of Louis XIV., Madame de Montespan, had left the court, and about ten years after he had married Madame de Maintenon. Madame de Montespan had then become an imaginary invalid, and made frequent journeys to take the waters at different places, and chiefly to Bourbon-lʼArchambaud, where, it is said, a doctor made her a similar answer as recorded above. It is doubtful whether La Bruyère would have spoken of her corpulency, failing sight, and her growing old if Madame de Montespan had still remained a favourite; his former pupil, the Duke de Bourbon, had married, in 1685, Mademoiselle de Nantes, one of her daughters by Louis XIV.

[554] See page 68, note 3.

[555] This refers to the Prince de Conti (1661-1685), a cousin of the Duke de Bourbon, the pupil of our author. When the Princeʼs wife, formerly Mademoiselle de Blois, a daughter of Louis XIV. and Mademoiselle de la Vallière, was attacked by the small-pox, he nursed her so well that she recovered, but he died.

[556] According to the “Keys,” this paragraph alludes to Louvois. See page 132, note, and page 242, note 2.

[557] The original has “aux âmes bien nées,” a very favourite expression of the French authors of the seventeenth century; thus P. Corneille, amongst others, says in the _Cid_:

“Pour des âmes bien nées,
La valeur nʼattend point le nombre des années.”

[558] Gambling was highly valued at court (see page 154, § 71); the Marquis de Dangeau (see page 156, note 2) owed partly his position to his successes at the gambling-table; and the mathematician Sauveur, a member of the Academy of Sciences, used to give scientific demonstrations before the king and the court of the various combinations of the fashionable games.

[559] The Marshal de la Feuillade is supposed to be meant. Besides the monument he erected to Louis XIV. (see page 227, note 2), there are many other proofs of his eccentricity, as, for example, his going with two hundred volunteers to wrest Candia from the Turks, and his voyage to Spain to challenge a certain M. de Saint-Aunay, who was accused of having calumniated Louis XIV.

[560] The commentators speak of a certain captain of the guard, Boisselot, and of an Irish officer, Macarthy, one of the generals of James II.; but there would have been nothing astonishing in their “mixing with the people.” It may be that this paragraph points at the Duke of Orléans, a brother-of Louis XIV., who had shown some valour at the battle of Cassel in 1677, but who was never more employed, and was not very “judicious.”

[561] All the “Keys” say the Archbishop of Paris, M. de Harlay, was meant. See also page 238, note 4.

[562] The Cardinal de Bouillon (1644-1715) is supposed to be meant by this remark; he was, however, according to Saint-Simon, always very dissolute in his manners. See page 210, note 1.

[563] Some “Keys” name here wrongly Boutillier de Rancé, the founder of the Trappists, whilst others speak of Le Camus, bishop of Grenoble (see page 47, note 4). La Bruyèreʼs allusion is far more general.

[564] All the “Keys” say this refers to the _Dictionnaire de lʼAcadémie_, but its first edition only appeared in 1694, and this paragraph was published four years before. See page 9, note 2. It alludes probably to those encyclopedias called _Traités sur toutes les sciences, très abrégés à lʼusage de la noblesse_, or to some collection of anecdotes, a kind of _omnium gatherum_, entitled _Bibliothèque des gens de cour_; perhaps it might also apply to some verses then in vogue, and called _vers abécédaires_, of which the first line began with an “a,” the second with a “b,” and so on. Those “sports of wit,” which our author calls by the name of _jeux dʼesprit_, witticisms, also existed later in England, _e.g._, “The Foundling Hospital for Wit.”

[565] Several persons have been named whose duty it was to distribute charity to the poor, but it has been rightly observed that the person alluded to in this paragraph “makes a display of it,” and therefore it cannot have been his duty.

[566] In French, _sœurs grises_, grey sisters, because the Sisters of Charity wore grey dresses. Bands were then worn by every one, but clergymenʼs bands were plain and called _petits collets_, the name our author gives them.

[567] Holders of certain legal or financial offices had the right of reversion or next nomination whilst they were alive, and not seldom delayed exercising it until they were very old; but unless they did so within forty days of their death, and had paid an annual tax called _le droit de paulette_, so called after Charles Paulet, a minister of Henri IV. who established it in 1604, and which tax varied from a sixtieth to a fourth of the value of the office, the king had a right to make fresh appointments. See also page 192, note 1.

[568] Jean François, Marquis dʼHautefort, who was, it is said, the original of Harpagon in Molièreʼs _Avare_, seems to be partly portrayed in this paragraph.

[569] Some of the commentators pretend that the “courtier of a ripe old age” was the Marshal Nicolas de Villeroy, the former governor of Louis XIV., who died in 1685, and whose son, the Duke, is mentioned on page 54, note 3, and on page 204, note 1.

[570] It is said that by Philip our author intended to portray the Marquis de Sablé, a son of the finance minister Servien, who was the proprietor of Meudon, sold it to Louvois (see the chapter “Of the Court,” page 204, note 2), and seems to have been chiefly known by his love for eating and drinking, his eccentricities and his debauchery.

[571] Louis Roger Danse, a canon of the _Sainte-Chapelle_, and a noted _gourmand_, is supposed to have sat for Gnathon, as well as for the stout Canon Evrard in Boileauʼs _Lutrin_.

[572] The Count dʼOlonne, a well-known lover of good cheer, who died in 1690, is said to have been limned as Clito; others think it was another _gourmet_, M. de Bruslard, Count de Broussain, who lived until 1693.

[573] See page 179, note 1.

[574] The _potages_, in La Bruyèreʼs time, different from what is now understood by them, seem to have been a sort of stew.

[575] These were either _entremets_ or side-dishes not larger than could be contained in a plate or _assiette_.

[576] _Trivial_ in French. See page 136, note 1.

[577] See page 181, note 1.

[578] This asking for an injunction was called _sʼopposer au sceau_, literally “to oppose oneʼs self to the seal.”

[579] See page 130, note, and page 192, note.

[580] _Committimus_, in the original.

[581] The chairman is the _syndic de direction_.

[582] _Vieil meuble de ruelle._ _Vieil_ was, in La Bruyèreʼs time, often used instead of _vieux_, even before a consonant. For _ruelle_, see page 65, note 1.

[583] The original speaks of the “Marais” (see page 172, note 1), and of the “Grand Faubourg,” probably the “Faubourg Saint-Germain.”

[584] See page 72, note 2.

[585] The “Keys” name for Antagoras two eccentric noblemen of the time now wholly unknown, a Count de Montluc and a Marquis de Fourille.

[586] In Louis XIV.ʼs time France was divided into thirty-three provinces, and as communications were difficult, the inferior noblemen were what our author describes them to be, and had no other amusements but duelling, dining, and drinking.

[587] The original has _fourrures et mortiers_; the gowns of bachelors, licentiates, and doctors of the various faculties were bordered and even sometimes lined with fur. For _mortier_ see page 168, note 3.

[588] In French _les masses dʼun chancelier_, for the mace was always carried before the Chancellor of France.

[589] La Bruyère adds in a note: “We can only mean that philosophy which is depending on the Christian religion.”

[590] An allusion to the theory of Descartes (see page 151, note 2), that beasts were only automatons without any consciousness of their acts.

[591] In French “Alain,” the name of a rustic servant in Molièreʼs _École des Femmes_.

[592] All the names given by our author have already been mentioned before, except that of Claude de Lingendes (1595-1660), one of the best preachers among the Jesuits, and whose reputation must have been great to quote him with such illustrious dead; and whilst Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Fénelon were still alive.

[593] An allusion to the entertainments given by Louis XIV.

[594] Such places were, in our authorʼs time, Versailles, Fontainebleau, Marly.

[595] This seems to hit at the courtiers of Louis XIV., who pretended to become devout in order to please the monarch and Madame de Maintenon.

[596] La Bruyère is not in advance of his times in what regards corporal punishment: Montaigne was.

[597] For “caps” and “gowns” the original has _mortier_ and _fourrures_ (see page 168, note 3, and page 318, note 2); for _fasces_ see page 139, note 5

[598] Some commentators think that the Marshal de Villeroy (see page 54, note 3) is meant by Timon, but this cannot be, as the Marshal was rather ostentatious, and not at all a misanthrope. Perhaps our author thought of giving another version of Molièreʼs _Alceste_, as later on he gives another of _Tartuffe_, in his portrait of Onuphre, in the chapter “Of Fashion,” page 395, § 24.

[599] The original has _entêtement_, “infatuation,” “obstinacy,” which sometimes meant “enthusiasm,” as in Molièreʼs _Femmes Savantes_, act iii. scene 2, “Jʼaime la poésie avec entêtement.”

[600] Our author adds in a note, “a pretended pious person.”

[601] The original has _pétitoire_ et _possessoire_, printed in italics.

[602] M. Terentius Varro (116-26 B.C.) was considered one of the most learned among the Romans. His principal works are _De re rustica_ and _De Lingua latina_.

[603] This is an allusion to Quinault (see page 28, note 2), whose tragedies were all bad, but whose operas were considered well written. (See page 175, note 4.) He died in 1688, one year before the appearance of this paragraph.

[604] J. Chapelain (1595-1674), the author of _La Pucelle dʼOrléans_, an epic poem of which only twelve cantos appeared, was the wealthiest of all the authors of his time. _Rodogune, Princesse des Parthes_, one of the most successful tragedies of Pierre Corneille, had been acted in 1644, and this great dramatist died in poverty and want twenty years later, at the age of seventy-eight, four years before the above paragraph was published.

[605] Bathyllus is Le Basque or Pécourt (see page 67, note 2); the names of several long-forgotten female dancers or singers are given for Rhoe, Roscia—the feminised name of the celebrated Roman actor Roscius—and Nerina.

[606] An allusion to the wife of Dancourt (1661-1725), an author and comic actor, who is, as an actress, said to have been neither beautiful nor excellent.

[607] According to the “Keys,” the actor referred to was Baron (see page 67, note 2), or Champmeslé (1642-1701), an author and actor, and the husband of a lady known to posterity as a friend of the poet Racine.

[608] The Cardinal dʼEstrées (1628-1714) was a member of the French Academy: his nephew, the Marshal, was considered a learned and polished gentleman. There were several magistrates of the name of Séguier, of whom the best known is the Chancellor Séguier (1588-1672). The Duke de Montausier, the former governor of the Dauphin, the husband of Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, and the supposed original of Molièreʼs _Misanthrope_, was still alive when his name appeared, but died about a year later, in 1690. The Duke de Chevreuse, afterwards Duke de Luynes (1620-1690), an author of moral and religious works, was a friend of the Port-Royalists. The first President of the Parliament, Potier de Novion, was a member of the Academy, and died in 1693. There were two Lamoignons—the first, President of the Parliament, who died in 1677, and his son, Chrétien François, _président à mortier_, the friend of Boileau and Racine, who lived till 1709. Paul Pellisson (1624-1693), the friend and defender of Fouquet, became perpetual secretary to the French Academy, of which he wrote a history, and was considered the ugliest man of his time. M. de la Bruyère adds in a footnote, that in speaking of Scudéry, he meant Mademoiselle Scudéry, to distinguish her from her brother Georges, also an author; this lady wrote a good many novels then in vogue (see page 123, note 1), and died in 1701, more than ninety years old. For de Harlay see page 237, note 1; for Bossuet see page 47, note 4; and for Wardes or Vardes see page 197, note 2.

[609] The Duke de Chartres (1674-1723), only seventeen years old when this paragraph appeared, was reputed very clever for his age; he afterwards became the Regent dʼOrléans. By Condé, either the great Condé, who died in 1686, or his son Henri-Jules, the father of La Bruyèreʼs pupil, was meant. For François-Louis, Prince de Conti (1634-1709), see page 273, note; his father, Armand de Bourbon (1629-1666), had first been an admirer and then an antagonist of Molière. For Bourbon and Vendôme see page 221, note; there was also a celebrated general, the Duke de Vendôme (1654-1712). The Duke de Maine (1670-1736), the eldest of the children of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan, was twenty years old when his name appeared in the above paragraph, and was considered a prodigy of learning.

[610] The Cardinal dʼOssat (1536-1604) became an able diplomatist and statesman, after having been professor of rhetoric and philosophy at the University of Paris; Cardinal Ximenes (1437-1517) published several works of Aristotle, founded the University of Alcala, and promoted the publishing of a polyglot Bible before becoming prime minister of Charles V. of Spain. Richelieu (see page 261, note 2) wrote several theological works, some tragedies, and founded the French Academy.

[611] The original has _grimaud_, also used by Trissotin in addressing Vadius in Molièreʼs _Femmes Savantes_, act iii, scene 5: “Allez, petit grimaud, barbouilleur de papier.”

[612] Jérôme Bignon (1589-1656) was a celebrated magistrate; his son was also a scholar, and his grandson, the Abbé Jean-François (1662-1743), was a member of the French Academy. For the Lamoignons see page 333, note 2.

[613] Plato expresses this idea in the seventh book of his “Republic,” but it was often in the mouth of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180), called Antoninus, as being the adopted son of Antoninus Pius.

[614] Henri III. of France is said to have fainted if he caught sight of a cat, and some commentators state a certain Abbé de Drubec (see page 112, note) had this weakness. Shakespeare, in the _Merchant of Venice_ (act iv. scene 1) also says, “Some that are mad, if they behold a cat.”

[615] In our authorʼs time there were only feather beds or straw palliasses, but no flock beds.

[616] The original has _praticien_. See page 153, note 3.

[617] A footman. We have already seen in the chapter “Of the Town” (page 137, note 1) how many footmen became financiers of the highest order.

[618] This stands for Antoine Benoît, the royal waxwork maker, who had a gallery of waxworks called _cercle royal_.

[619] B ... was a certain Barbereau who sold Seine water for mineral water, or perhaps Brimbeuf, another quack, who sold a specific for perpetual youth.

[620] This may be Caretti (see page 186, note 4), or Domenico Ammonio, another Italian quack.

[621] A good many panders at the court of Louis XIV. were politely called Mercuries, after the messenger of Jupiter; it is therefore difficult to say whom La Bruyère meant. Some say he spoke of Bontemps, first _valet-de-chambre_ of the king; others imagine he wished to hit the Marquis de Lassay, who had the reputation of being pander to the Duke de Bourbon, the former pupil of our author.

[622] In La Bruyèreʼs time people wore long wigs but were closely shaved.

[623] Tityrus is a shepherd, who, according to the first line uttered by Melibœus in Virgilʼs first “Eclogue,” is one of those men who “lay at ease under their patrimonial beech trees.”

[624] This is an allusion to the Siamese ambassadors, who came to Paris in 1686, and produced a great sensation.

[625] The original has _agreste_, taken with the meaning it sometimes has in Latin. La Bruyère says in a note: “This word is used here metaphorically.”

[626] Our author was probably for a month either at Rouen or Caen as _trésorier-général des finances_, an office which he bought in 1673, and, whilst there, might have had a quarrel with some of his colleagues. This is the more likely as in the first three editions of the “Characters” the magistrates alone were named.

[627] A game played with four cards, formerly in use; it was _primero_ when the hands were shown, and the four cards were of different colours; _grand primero_ when more than thirty points were made. In Shakespeareʼs _King Henry VIII._ (act v. scene 1), Gardiner tells Sir Thomas Lovell that he left the king “at primero with the Duke of Suffolk.”

[628] This is supposed to have been a portrait of M. de Noailles, who was Bishop of Châlons when La Bruyère wrote this paragraph, but who in 1695 became Archbishop of Paris and a Cardinal. The number of bishops residing in their dioceses was very small at the end of the seventeenth century.

[629] An allusion to some members of the clergy and legal profession who frequented fashionable society.

[630] According to the Abbé de Chaulieu, Arténice is Catherine Turgot, the wife of Gilles dʼAligres, Seigneur de Boislandry, who, after a scandalous lawsuit, separated from her one year before this “Fragment” appeared (1694). She was then only twenty-one, and became, it is said, the mistress of de Chaulieu; afterwards she married again a certain M. de Chevilly, a captain of the royal guards. Her friend, Mademoiselle de la Force, is supposed to have been Elvira.

[631] An allusion to the President de Harlay. See page 237, note 1.

[632] This paragraph and the preceding one seem to refer to Pellisson. See page 333, note 2.

[633] A grain is the 576th part of an ounce, which is the 16th part of a pound.

[634] The original has _honnête homme_ (see page 43, note 2) for “gentleman,” _homme de bien_ for “honest man” (see page 49, note 4), and _habile homme_ for “clever man.”

[635] For “ombre” see page 172, note 5.

[636] A portrait of La Fontaine (see page 335, § 19), who was still alive when this paragraph appeared (1691).

[637] This is a sketch of Pierre Corneille (see page 9, note 1, and page 18, note 1), and _Augustus_, _Pompey_, _Nicomedes_, and _Heraclius_ are the names of some of his tragedies.

[638] Theodas is Santeul (1630-1697), one of the most elegant of the modern Latin poets, whose character, immediately recognised by all his contemporaries, seems to have been the compound of folly and sense La Bruyère made it out to be; he is said to have died in consequence of having drunk a glass of wine and snuff given to him by the Duke de Bourbon, the father of our authorʼs pupil.

[639] These two men are said to have been the brothers Le Peletier. See page 54, note 1.

[640] Bachelors in theology and the canon law were the only graduates compelled to study the history of the first four centuries of the Christian era.

[641] Aristotle.

[642] Cicero.

[643] La Bruyère did not wish to give a sketch of Socrates, as he himself admitted in one of his letters to Ménage. It is supposed he meant to give a portrait of himself; at least he was sometimes called “an intelligent madman.”

[644] A gambler was in La Bruyèreʼs time a regular profession, perhaps not considered quite as respectable as any other of the learned professions, but still decent enough to entitle its professors to be received at court and in very good society. The gambler was almost as much admired for his pluck and dash as a gentleman-jockey is at present.

[645] It was generally believed that this paragraph refers to the minister Le Tellier (1603-1685) and to his son Louvois, for whom see pages 132 and 242, notes 1 and 2.

[646] Cato of Utica (95-46 B.C.). Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the father-in-law of Julius Cæsar, had been accused by Cicero in the year 59 B.C. of extortions, and of plundering Macedonia.

[647] See also the chapter “Of Mankind,” pages 308 and 321, §§ 104 and 139.

[648] Our author had already praised people of a certain age in his chapter “Of the Court,” page 211, § 74.

[649] An allusion to Pierre-Louis de Reich, Seigneur de Penautier, receiver-general of the clergy of France, who had been accused of having poisoned his father-in-law.

[650] The Archbishop of Lyons bore the title of _primat des Gaules_, which is in the original French.

[651] See page 192, note.

[652] Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1475-1524), a great military commander, deservedly received the name of the “knight without fear and without reproach.” Our author states in a footnote that the Marquis de Montrevel was commissioner-general of the cavalry, and lieutenant-general. Seven years after the death of La Bruyère, he became Marshal of France. Saint-Simon calls him “a very brave but a rather stupid, not over-honest and ignorant man,” who died of fright by the upsetting of a salt-cellar.

[653] This theory was maintained by Descartes.

[654] Vauban (1633-1707), the great French military engineer, after the retaking of Namur by William III. in 1695, four years after this paragraph saw the light, was accused of having committed some errors in the erection of the fortifications of that town, but he proved those accusations to be unfounded.

[655] Antiphilus is Pope Innocent XI. (1676-1689), who held other opinions as a cardinal than he did as a pope; he opposed the liberties of the Gallican Church.

[656] The original has _savantasse_, a word always used with a bad meaning.

[657] In French _praticien_. See page 153, note 3.

[658] See the chapter “Of Mankind,” page 299, § 76.

[659] An allusion to the siege of Namur, June 1692, which lasted one month, during which many courtiers and magistrates went there out of curiosity. Racine and Boileau were also present as the kingʼs historians. The above paragraph appeared the same year the siege took place.

[660] A French army of eighty thousand men under the Marshal de Luxembourg (see page 195, note 2) prevented William III. from coming to the relief of Namur.

[661] According to M. G. Servoisʼs preface to the _Lexique_ of La Bruyère, _ravelin_, a synonym of _demi-lune_, and _fausse-braie_, a counter breastwork, are antiquated in French. However, “ravelin” and “demi-lune” are still found as English words in certain dictionaries.

[662] Montaigne was of the opinion of La Bruyère and in favour of Cæsar; Pascal, in his _Pensées_, on the contrary, thought that Cæsar, assassinated at the age of fifty-six, was too old for the conquest of the world, and that it would have better suited the youthful Alexander. See also page 49, § 31.

[663] This paragraph in praise of the Dauphin (1661-1711), written in epigraphic style, was printed in capital letters, and published whilst he was in command of the army of the Rhine (1688).

[664] La Bruyère says in a note: “This is an opinion opposed to a well-known Latin maxim.” Erasmus, in his _Adagiorum Chiliades_, gives the Latinised proverb, _Filii heroum noxæ_, “the sons of heroes degenerate,” and our author alludes to this. As for the “divine qualities,” see page 51, § 33.

[665] La Bruyèreʼs feeling about the happiness of being his own master breaks out now and then. See also page 232, § 33.

[666] This paragraph, and almost all the following ones, refer to the revolution (1688) which placed William III. on the throne of Great Britain.

[667] An allusion to the abortive attempt of the French in Ireland to aid in the re-establishment of James II. See also page 218, note 2.

[668] The first-mentioned enemy was Charles V., Duke of Lorraine, who died in 1690; the second was William III., a rumour of whose death spread in Paris the same year, and caused great rejoicings.

[669] _O Tempora! O Mores!_ is the opening of the first of Ciceroʼs _Catilinaria_.

[670] Our author lets Heraclitus, the weeping philosopher, utter this paragraph, whilst he puts the following into the mouth of Democritus, the laughing, or better, the sneering philosopher of Abdera.

[671] According to the mythology, Lycaon, king of Arcadia, murdered his guests and served them up at his table, in order to test the divine knowledge of Jupiter, who changed him into a wolf. Ægistheus was the son of Thyestes, and the murderer of Agamemnon.

[672] William III.

[673] The “they have less to fear from us,” &c., was also one of the arguments used by France during the first revolution.

[674] This, of course, refers to the hospitality Louis XIV. granted to James II.

[675] Leopold I. (see page 252, note 3), Emperor of Germany, broke off a war in which he was engaged against the Ottomans, who had twice invaded Hungary, and entered the League of Augsburg (1686) against Louis XIV., because the latter had compelled him to accept the Treaty of Nimeguen, in 1679. See page 253, note 2.

[676] An allusion to Pope Innocent XI. (see page 361, note 1), who was too little of a friend of Louis XIV. to show much zeal on behalf of James II.

[677] Musket-balls.

[678] Cannon-balls.

[679] Shells.

[680] Athos was a mountain in Roumelia which the sculptor Dinocrates proposed to hew into a statue of Alexander. Our author refers to this; Byron has also an allusion to it in the twelfth canto of his “Don Juan.”

[681] The enemies of William III. often alluded to the livid colour of his countenance, and Boileau in his wretched _Ode sur la prise de Namur_ also speaks of “Nassau blème.”

[682] The Prince of Orange ordered in 1672 the dykes in Holland to be opened to delay the advance of the French army; hence the allusion to “bogs.”

[683] William III. became the adopted son of the Dutch republic on the death of his father in 1666, and on the proposal of John de Witt. Frenchmen pretend he was far more dictatorial in Holland than in England, and accuse him of having behaved ungratefully towards de Witt, his so-called “nurse.”

[684] When William III. returned to the Hague (1690), several princes who had joined the League of Augsburg came to compliment him; it was even rumoured that the Elector of Bavaria had some time to wait before he could obtain an audience.

[685] In the original _archonte_, archon, the chief magistrate in ancient Athens.

[686] This seems to refer to the siege of Mons (1690), which William III. did not venture to raise.

[687] The Emperor of Germany.

[688] The arms of the house of Austria proper.

[689] Theotimus stands for M. Sachot, who was vicar of Saint-Gervais at the time La Bruyère wrote, and used to shrive all the fashionable people, but gradually was supplanted by Bourdaloue, who also succeeded him in his vicarage. The fashion of not bleeding during a fever still exists, and rightly so.

[690] The “Keys” speak of a certain lawyer, Cambout or Cabout, who belonged to the household of the Condés, and of a flute-player, Descosteaux, both passionately fond of flowers, as the supposed originals of the “lover of flowers.”

[691] This lover of fruit was the financier Rambouillet de la Sablière, who had a large garden in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. See also page 173, note 10.

[692] Four well-known antiquarians, the Duke dʼAumont, Vaillant, Le Nostre, and Father Menestrier, the latter author of an _Histoire de Louis le grand par les médailles_, have been supposed the originals of Diognetes.

[693] Several collectors of prints of the time have been named by the commentators as the original of Democedes.

[694] At the time La Bruyère wrote, the houses on the bridge called the “Petit-Pont” and those in the “Rue Neuve-Notre-Dame” were covered with hangings and adorned with common prints on the days when a procession was passing.

[695] Jacques Callot (1593-1655), a celebrated Lorraine artist and etcher.

[696] In the “Rue Vieille-du-Temple,” in Paris, there was, at the time our author wrote, a mansion erected by M. Amelot de Bisseuil, which was considered one of the curiosities of Paris.

[697] According to some “Keys,” this refers to the Hotel Lesdiguières; according to others, to the hotel of M. de Langlée. See page 188, note 2.

[698] In the original, _il donne pension à un homme_, antiquated in this sense.

[699] The author states: “These are names of various shells.” The original has “le Léopard, la Plume, la Musique,” and the English names have been kindly suggested by M. Hugh Owen in “Notes and Queries” as equivalents for the French ones.

[700] A few years before La Bruyère wrote, there was quite a mania for butterflies at court, and in Paris.

[701] An allusion to the ordeal by duel, of which one of the last was fought between Jarnac and La Chateigneraye, in 1542, before Henri II. and his court. A treacherous thrust of the first-named nobleman has given rise to the proverbial saying _un coup de Jarnac_.

[702] Louis XIV. was strongly opposed to duelling, and several legal prohibitions of it were promulgated during his reign.

[703] Sophonius Tigellinus, a favourite and accomplice of the Roman emperor Nero, was put to death about the year 70.

[704] In the original, _souffler_ and _jeter en sable_, “to gulp down;” only the last word is found in the dictionary of the French Academy of 1694. The old English translators of La Bruyère have been greatly puzzled by the sentence beginning with the word “a Tigellinus,” and give it: “a juggler, one who turns _aqua-vita_ black, and performs other feats of legerdemain (other surprising things),” whilst the translation of 1767 speaks of “a fiddler, who, besides several odd performances on his instrument, gulps down,” &c.

[705] See the chapter “Of the Gifts of Fortune,” §§ 71-75.

[706] In the original _la crapule_, now no longer used for “intoxication.”

[707] C. Valerius Catullus (87-47 B.C.), the well-known Roman poet; is supposed to allude to the Abbé de Chaulieu (see page 342, note). The latterʼs disciple was the Chevalier de Bouillon.

[708] See page 173, note 1.

[709] During the summer of 1689 the fashionable ladies at court adorned themselves with bouquets of cornflowers.

[710] For Voiture see page 20, § 37, and note 3. Sarrazin (1603-1654) was a rival of Voiture in an affected and pretentious style.

[711] The original has _gens dʼesprit_. See page 20, note 1.

[712] Those of my readers who wish to see the various fashions in dress of the end of the seventeenth century should look at the etchings at the head of each chapter, which faithfully represent them at the time La Bruyère wrote; the high head-dresses had been abandoned when he penned this paragraph (1691), but they became again the rage the following year (see Chapter iv., “Of Women,” § 5), and continued so for a considerable period.

[713] In the original _il parle gras_; _parler gras_ means usually “to speak thick,” but is sometimes said, as it is here, of people who lisp, which generally in French is _grasseyer_.

[714] In the original _indécence_, “crudeness,” “want of harmony,” now antiquated with this meaning.

[715] Attila, king of the Huns, died 453.

[716] The “long black veil,” coming down to the feet, worn by ladies in mourning, and during some grand ceremonies, was called a _mante_. Our author adds in a note: “Oriental habits.” The tiara, or triple crown, was the head-dress of the ancient Persian potentates, of the Jewish high priest, and of the Pope. For the _sagum_, see page 259, note 1.

[717] The author says in a note: “Offensive and defensive.”

[718] Canions, or _canons_ in French, were large round pieces of linen, often adorned with lace or bunches of ribbons, which were fastened below the breeches, just under the knee.

[719] _Libertin_ in the original. See page 161, note.

[720] It was two years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) that La Bruyère made these remarks about “pretended piety,” for since the influence of Madame de Maintenon over Louis XIV., all the courtiers were turning pious. See also page 207, note 3.

[721] Our author is careful to add in a note, “assumed piety.”

[722] _Connaître le flanc_ is used by La Bruyère. Some of the commentators think this is a military term used purposely by our author.

[723] None of La Bruyèreʼs commentators have observed that the “unknown jargon” seems to refer to the mystic quietism taught by Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (1648-1717), who was at the height of her reputation when this paragraph was published for the first time in the eighth edition of the “Characters” in 1694. To our author has also been attributed “Dialogues sur le Quiétisme.”

[724] La Bruyère is always very careful when he uses the word “devout” or “pious,” in a bad sense, to add in a note, “assumed” or “false piety.” See also § 22.

[725] See page 43, note 2.

[726] This “devout courtier” was Paul de Beauvillier, Dulce de Saint-Aignan, peer of France, _gouverneur des enfants de France_. See also page 197, note 2.