PARIS, Friday, January 14, 1689.
I have dined, my dear child, and am now in the chevalier’s apartment;
he is in his chair, with a thousand little aches and pains that fly
about him. He has slept well; but this confinement affects his spirits,
and vexes him exceedingly; I too am grieved at it, as I know the ill
consequences better than any one. It is very cold; the thermometer
is at the lowest degree; our river is frozen; it snows, freezes, and
thaws at the same time; there is no walking in the streets; I keep to
the house, and to the chevalier’s chamber. If I could have an answer
from you before the end of a fortnight, I would desire you to tell me
whether I do not incommode him, by staying with him all day; but as
I have no time to lose, I put this question to himself, and I fancy
he is not displeased at it. The weather is an additional cause of his
illness; it is not the sort he likes; it is always unfavorable when it
is extreme.
M. de Gobelin is still at St. Cyr; Madame de Brinon is at Maubuisson,
where she will soon be tired; she can never remain long in a place;
she has made many agreements, and been in several convents; her good
sense does not screen her from this error. Madame de Maintenon is much
pleased with the comedy[245] which she has made her young ladies of
St. Cyr perform; it will be a very fine piece according to report. She
has paid a visit to the Queen of England, who, having made her wait a
moment, said she was very sorry she had lost any time in seeing and
conversing with her, and received her extremely well. Every one is
pleased with this queen; she has an excellent understanding. She said
to the king, on seeing him caress the Prince of Wales, who is a lovely
child, “I formerly envied the happiness of my son, in not feeling his
misfortunes; but I now pity him, for being insensible to your majesty’s
caresses and kindness.” All she says is proper and to the purpose;
but this is not the case with her husband: he has a great share of
courage, but his understanding is not above the common standard; he
relates what has passed in England with an insensibility that excites
the same feeling for himself. He is a good man,[246] and partakes of
all the amusements of Versailles. The dauphiness does not intend to
visit this queen; she wants her right hand seat and chair of state,
which can not be; she will therefore be always in bed, when the queen
visits her. Madame is to have an arm-chair upon the left hand, and the
princesses of the blood are to visit with her; before whom they have
tabourets only. The duchesses will be upon the same footing as at the
dauphiness’s; this is settled. The king, knowing that a king of France
gave a Prince of Wales only a chair on the left hand, chooses that
the King of England should treat the dauphin in the same manner, and
precede him. He is to receive Monsieur without chair or ceremony. The
queen has saluted him, saying to our sovereign what I told you. It is
not yet certain that M. de Schomberg is to succeed the Prince of Orange
in Holland. This is a year of falsehood.
[245] It was the Supérieure Brinon who first made the pensioners
of St. Cyr perform pieces of her selection. They were ill chosen.
Cinna, and afterward Andromache, were substituted in their room.
But there was so much love in this last tragedy, and the young
ladies played it so well, that it was not judged proper for their
representation. This was what Madame de Maintenon wrote herself
to Racine, at the same time desiring him to supply another poem,
moral or historical. Racine hesitated: he wished to please the
court, but the public and posterity withheld him. He deemed it
impossible to fill the frame that was given him, by a performance
worthy of his music. Boileau, too, despaired of it. Racine
thought of the subject of Esther; and his friend considered it
well judged, as it really was. This very Boileau, the severity
of whose taste and character made him so much aspersed, gave, in
his regard for Racine, the most perfect example of friendship--an
example perhaps, that will never again be met with between two
men gifted with the same kind of superiority.
[246] The Archbishop of Rheims, brother of M. de Louvois, seeing
him come out of the chapel of Versailles, said: “What a good man!
he has given up three kingdoms for a mass.”