Par lʼardeur dont au ciel il poussait sa prière;
Il faisait des soupirs, de grands élancements,
Et baisait humblement la terre à tous moments.”
[731] The “chapel” and the “anteroom” refer to the chapel and anteroom
of the palace of Versailles.
[732] _Il a des vapeurs_ in the original, which, when our author wrote,
was somewhat like the “out of sorts” of the present time.
[733] A reference to the declaration Tartuffe makes to Elmire, the wife
of Orgon. See Molièreʼs _Tartuffe_, act iii. scene 3.
[734] An allusion to Josephʼs adventure with Potipharʼs wife.
[735] La Bruyère is very careful to add again in a note: “False piety.”
[736] Again our author adds “false piety,” in a footnote.
[737] Tartuffe, in the comedy of that name (act iii.), obtains from
Orgon a deed of gift of all his property, to the detriment of his son
and his second wife. This was against the French law, which obliged a
man to leave a certain part of his goods, called _la légitime_ (see
page 95, § 71), to his wife and children; but this law did not apply to
cousins, nephews, and nieces.
[738] Orgon, the patron of Tartuffe, has a son and a daughter.
[739] See _Tartuffe_, act v. scene 7.
[740] The original has _ne trouve pas jour_; the French noun has become
antiquated in this sense.
[741] According to some commentators, Zelia was intended for the wife
of de Pontchartrain, the _contrôleur-général_ of the finances; but
they seem to forget that La Bruyère was his friend and under some
obligations to him.
[742] In this and the following paragraph the author adds again in a
note, “pretended piety.”
[743] Already in the first edition of the “Characters” (1687), La
Bruyère gave in the above paragraph his opinion about the danger of
compelling the courtiers to become pious.
[744] Favier, a dancer at the opera, was also the dancing-master of
the Duke de Bourbon, the pupil of La Bruyère. The anthems of Paolo
Lorenzani, the music-master of Ann of Austria (1601-1666), were
published in 1693.
[745] Many of the bishops in our authorʼs time were continually
dangling about the court, and not residing in their dioceses. See page
340, note 2.
[746] Our author added in a note of the first four editions,
“secretaries of the king.” Those offices were bought, and ennobled
their holders, hence the nickname of _savonnettes à vilain_, literally,
“soap balls for serfs.” Other offices also gave a title to the persons
who filled them, and this is probably the reason of the suppression of
this note.
[747] La Bruyèreʼs own note says “veterans,” a name given to the
_conseillers_ (see page 181, note 1), who, after having practised for
twenty years, sold their post, but retained all the privileges attached
to it.
[748] Here our author gives the same note as above.
[749] Commoners were ennobled by the grant of letters of nobility,
whilst nobles whose ancestors had derogated were rehabilitated.
However, commoners who had become wealthy often asked and obtained
letters of rehabilitation, and, therefore, pretended to be of noble
origin. “Rehabilitation,” according to Thomas Blountʼs Law Dictionary,
1717, was in England: “one of those exactions ... claimed by the Pope
... and seems to signify a _Bull_ or _Breve_ for _re-enabling_ a
spiritual person to exercise his function, who was formerly disabled;
or a _restoring_ to former _ability_.”
[750] The “war-cry” is a great proof of the nobility being ancient. The
_heaume_, head-piece, is the same as the _casque_, helmet, which latter
word was generally used in French heraldic language. According to
certain rules which soon ceased to be practised, the vizard was open or
shut, and showed more or less bars, whilst the helmet was in front or
profile, according as the owner of the coat of arms was of ancient or
modern nobility. The “Keys” refer to the Le Camus and Bezons families,
as having taken the pictorial emblems of their fatherʼs signboards for
their family arms. See also Molièreʼs _École des Femmes_, Act i. Scene
1.
[751] The DʼHoziers were a family of genealogists, flourishing from
1592 till 1830. La Bruyère speaks most probably of Louis Roger and
his brother Charles-René dʼHozier, who were of middle age when the
“Characters” were published.
[752] It is said this is a hit at Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV.,
who, in imitation of the kingʼs son and grandsons, did no longer wish
to be addressed as “Royal Highness,” but simply as “you;” an example
followed by all other French princes.
[753] A _maître dʼhôtel_ of Louis XIV., Delrieux, is said to have
called himself De Rieux, and there had been a marshal of that name.
Syris is the name of a slave in Plautusʼ and Terenceʼs comedies;
Cyrus, a celebrated king of Persia, was killed in battle against the
Massagetæ, 529 B.C.
[754] Such men were a M. Sonnin, the son of a _receveur-général_,
who called himself M. de Sonningen, and M. Nicolai, Marquis de
Goussainville, descended from a M. Nicolas.
[755] The marriages of the Marquis de Tourville with a Mdlle. Langeois
(see page 142, note 3), and of the Marshal de Lorges with Mdlle.
Frémont, (see page 132, note 1), are examples of this, though many
similar marriages took place almost daily.
[756] An ironical remark referring to noblemen marrying the daughters
of commoners, for nobility descended only from the father to the
children, but not if the mother were a serf; in Champagne, however,
nobility could be inherited from the motherʼs side.
[757] “Franchise” is a privilege or exemption from ordinary
jurisdiction, and “immunity” the right of not paying taxes, or of
paying less than the commonalty. La Bruyère, in speaking of “certain
monks who obtained titles,” adds in a note: “a certain convent was
secretary to the king.” The convent of the Celestines had already in
the fourteenth century been appointed to a secretaryship, and received
its emoluments, but never fulfilled its duties. The religious community
said to have had an interest in the _gabelle_ or salt tax, is supposed
to have been that of the Jesuits, but this accusation seems to have
been made without sufficient proof.
[758] A certain Geoffroy de La Bruyère had really taken part in the
third crusade and died during the siege of St. Jean dʼAcre in 1191,
or almost a century after Godfrey of Bouillon (1061-1100). Our author
only mentioned his ancestorʼs full name in the sixth edition of the
“Characters,” published in 1691.
[759] _Abbé_ is derived from the Syrian _aba_, father; the “cardinal”
may have been the Cardinal de Bouillon, who always was gaily dressed.
See page 306, note 1.
[760] In the palace Farnese at Rome, built by order of the Cardinal
Alexander Farnese, who afterwards became Pope under the name of Paul
III. (1534-1549), are to be found many works, such as Aurora and
Cephalus, Diana and Endymion, Galathea, Polyphemus and Acis, and
Ganymedes and Jupiter, painted by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609),
and Domenichino (1581-1641), all representing nude figures, and not
religious subjects.
[761] Richeletʼs Dictionary, published in 1680, mentions the _gigue_ as
“une danse anglaise, composée de toutes sortes de pas, quʼon danse sur
la corde,” and hence, he continues, “any dancing tune was thus called.”
But was a jig originally danced on the tight-rope? The “chapel” is of
course the chapel-royal at Versailles.
[762] Paris, a son of Priam and Hecuba, had to decide whether Juno,
Venus, or Minerva was the most beautiful, and should receive a “golden
apple” as a prize. The three goddesses did not present themselves for
this competition with too many clothes on.
[763] Hangings representing nude figures and profane subjects were
seen until almost the last fifty years in some of the churches of the
capital of France.
[764] Our author adds in a note, “an anthem translated into French by
LL....” but no commentator has discovered who this unknown poet can
have been.
[765] The TT ... were the Theatine monks, who settled in France about
1644, built a splendid church, and tried to raise money by charging
for seats, during service, which was held with full orchestral and
vocal music, about ten years before our author first published this
paragraph, in 1694, in the eighth edition of his book.
[766] Although this paragraph appeared when the “Characters” were first
published in 1688, yet the great Bossuet went, five years later, out
of his way to attack, in a sermon, Molière, the actor and playwright,
although the latter had been dead more than twenty years.
[767] This paragraph reveals to us the quarrels raging between the
secular and regular clergy, and seems to point out that, at the
time our author wrote, the Barnabites were in vogue as confessors.
The “monk” is supposed to have been a certain Father la Combe, the
spiritual director of Madame Guyon. See page 393, note 1.
[768] Three parish priests have been named by the commentators as the
originals of La Bruyèreʼs portrait, but our author was far more general
in his application.
[769] _Les fourrures_ in the original. See page 318, note 2.
[770] The original has the proper name Ambreville, a noted rogue and
head of a band of robbers, who was publicly burned at the stake in 1686.
[771] The lady superior of an abbey was appointed by the king, but in
a nunnery she was elected by the entire sisterhood; hence our authorʼs
remarks about “a popular or a despotic rule.”
[772] When our author wrote, it was the fashion among the upper classes
for a man never to be seen in public with his wife. Some years later
people began even to be ashamed of being married, and if comedies hold
the mirror up to nature, this may be observed in _Le Philosophe marié_
(1727), by N. Destouches, and in _Le Préjugé à la Mode_ (1735), by La
Chaussée. For the Cours, see page 164, note 2.
[773] The author states in a note that by “making the most of oneʼs
money” he means “lending it out on bills and notes of hand,” for
which, according to the old French legislation and the old canonical
law no interest could be charged, though some divines allowed trading
companies to pay interest on borrowed monies.
[774] Several remarks had been made on this part of the above paragraph
whilst La Bruyère was still alive, and a note of the ninth edition of
the “Characters” (1696), published one month after the authorʼs death,
explained that it only referred to monies deposited in the _greffe_ or
clerkʼs office of certain tribunals whilst a lawsuit was going on.
[775] An allusion to the bankruptcy of some hospitals in Paris,
which ruined many persons who had advanced money on annuities. This
bankruptcy took place in the year 1689, and the fourth edition of
the “Characters,” in which the above paragraph first appeared, was
published the same year. The original has also a play on words, on _le
fonds perdu_, to sink money in an annuity, and _un bien perdu_, money
irretrievably lost.
[776] For the _huitième denier_, see page 138, note 1. The _aides_ were
indirect taxes which the clergy and the nobility had to pay as well as
the common people.
[777] The original has _partisans_. See page 136, note 2.
[778] The President Potier de Novion (see page 333, note 2) was the
first, it is said, to adopt this custom, but a few months before this
paragraph was published (1689), he had to resign his post on account of
malversation and abuse of authority.
[779] See page 155, note 3.
[780] See page 181, note 1.
[781] See page 72, note 2.
[782] Counsellors of parliament (see page 181, note 1) were obliged to
wear bands, by an order of Council obtained at the request of _M. de
Harlay_ (see page 45, note 1); before that time they wore cravats like
other gentlemen. See also page 65, note 2.
[783] The counsellors of parliament wore red gowns, the magistrates red
fur-lined cloaks. See page 318, note 2. The original of “on account of
his money” is _consignation_. See page 169, note 2.
[784] In most of the courts of France the places of magistrates were
bought and sold. See also the chapter “Of the Town,” page 167, § 5.
[785] Marcus Valerius Martialis (43, was living 104) says: “Iras et
verba locant.”
[786] Montaigne, Montesquieu, and many other eminent Frenchmen attacked
the legal employment of torture, but it was continued in France till
1788.
[787] Our author uses by exception _honnêtes gens_ for honest men.
A certain Marquis de Langlade was put on the rack (1688), and after
having been innocently sentenced to the galleys on a false accusation
of having robbed the Duke de Montmorency, died there in 1689; and a
servant, Le Brun, accused of the murder of Madame Marel, died after
having been cruelly tortured (1690). The real criminals were discovered
some time afterwards, and this produced a great sensation at the time
La Bruyère wrote (1691).
[788] It has been said that the wife of M. de Saint-Pouange (see page
134, note 3) was robbed of a diamond buckle when leaving the opera, but
that it was returned to her by M. de Grandmaison, _grand prévôt de la
connétablie_.
[789] The “Keys” mention as one of these men the President de Mesmes.
See page 168, note 3.
[790] During the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV., fire-raising
was very common in the rural districts of France, and it was one of the
means the peasants chose for revenging themselves on their masters for
their exactions and for fiscal cruelties.
[791] The original has _lanternes_, tribunes in Parliament whence
people could see what was going on without being seen.
[792] _Il se voit officier_ in the original. See page 153, note 3.
[793] Titius and Seius were often quoted in Roman law, as “A.” and “B.”
are in English law, in stating a case to counsel. Mævius was a wretched
poet of Virgilʼs time, and seems to be wrongly named by La Bruyère
in apposition to Titius. According to some commentators, the mishap
attributed to Titius really happened to a M. Hennequin, _procureur
général au grand conseil_.
[794] The notary, M. de Bonnefoi, in Molièreʼs _Malade Imaginaire_ (act
i. scene 9) explains to the hypochondriacal Argan: “You cannot give
anything to your wife by your will ... Common law is opposed to it ...
in Paris and in all countries where common law exists.... All the good
which man and woman joined in wedlock can do to each other, is a mutual
donation while living; and then there must be no children.” And when
Argan asks what he has to do to leave his wife his property, the honest
notary replies: “You can quietly choose an intimate friend of your
wifeʼs, to whom you will give, in due form by your will, all that you
can; and this friend shall afterwards give it all back to her.”
[795] _Vaudeville_ in the original, of which the primitive meaning was
“a satirical song.”
[796] _Le mortier_ in French. See page 168, note 3. When the king was
not present at a sitting of the Parliament, the president claimed the
right to represent him, and therefore, to take precedence before any
one.
[797] A certain de Charnacé, formerly lieutenant in the kingʼs
body-guard, committed several crimes in Anjou, even coined false money,
and finally was obliged to flee for his life. In many of the provinces
the conduct of the nobles was so inhuman and disgraceful, that the
kings of France were often obliged to appoint special committees,
called _grands jours_, to try and punish them, the latest and most
celebrated of which had been held in Auvergne in 1665.
[798] The “Keys” name Louis de Crevant, Duke dʼHumières, who was made
Marshal of France in 1668, and died in 1694; Jacques Henri de Durfort,
Duke de Duras, brother to the Earl of Feversham, and also a Marshal of
France, who died in 1704, at the age of seventy-four; and the Marshal
de Créqui, as having displayed great luxury whilst in the field. The
king, who had first given the example of such splendour, finally
attempted to restrain it, and in vain promulgated edicts against it in
1672.
[799] Hermippus is supposed to be a certain Jean-Jacques Renouard,
Count de Villayer, _maître des requêtes_, a member of the
French Academy, who was very ingenious, and always invented new
machinery—amongst others, a kind of lift—and who died in 1691.
[800] The original has _improuver_, now antiquated.
[801] _Leurs pensions_ in French. See page 384, note 1.
[802] A dʼAquin (1629-1696), who was physician to Louis XIV., had one
son a magistrate and another a bishop. See also page 273, note 1.
[803] See page 186, note 4. Some “Keys” also say that perhaps Adrien
Helvétius, the grandfather of the philosopher, may be meant, but this
seems hardly likely, for Helvétius was wealthy, gave his medicine
gratis, was a very honest man, and the first to recommend the use of
ipecacuanha in certain diseases.
[804] In Molièreʼs _Malade Imaginaire_ (act iii. scene 4), Toinette,
the servant, dressed up as a physician, says almost the same thing.
[805] _Constitution (de rentes)_ understood in the text.
[806] Guy Crescence Fagon (1638-1718) became in succession physician
to the wife of the Dauphin, the queen, and the royal children, and in
1693, when dʼAquin fell into disgrace, first physician to Louis XIV. He
was for his time an able and conscientious man. His eldest son became
Bishop of Lombez, and his second _intendant des finances_.
[807] Fagon was a strenuous defender of emetics and of Peruvian bark,
which latter remedy was first imported into France in the seventeenth
century, and had become so popular that Jean la Fontaine sang its
praises in a pretty long poem, _le Quinquina_, the French name of the
Peruvian bark, so called after the Countess del Cinchon, wife of the
Viceroy of Peru, whence the bark was first sent to Europe.
[808] Fagon was also professor of botany and chemistry in the kingʼs
botanical garden, and one of the editors of its catalogue, called
_Hortus regius_, published in 1665.
[809] The belief in sorcerers and witchcraft was very general when our
author wrote, and there existed an almost universal idea that robbers
and murderers might be discovered by means of the motion of a hazel
rod. Even the magistrates in France tried sometimes such a rod to find
out criminals.
[810] Many eminent pedagogues have held a contrary opinion; for
example, Malebranche in his _Traité de Morale_, and Jean Jacques
Rousseau in his _Emile_, both maintain languages should be acquired
when the child is not too young.
[811] The going “open-breasted” was the fashion of the time of Francis
I.; ruffs and bands were worn in France during part of the reigns of
Henri II. and Henri III., but were no longer in vogue when our author
wrote; they were, however, still used in Spain.
[812] This is an allusion to the wearing of very tight silk stockings
and short breeches, showing the legs.
[813] It was never the custom in France for ladies to hide their feet,
but in Spain it was considered highly improper and indecent even to
show the smallest part of them (see the Countess dʼAulnoy, _Relation
du Voyage en Espagne_, 1690); and as the wife of Louis XIV., Maria
Theresa, was a daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, it is probable that the
ladies at court followed the fashion set to them by the queen.
[814] According to Voltaireʼs _Siècle de Louis XIV._, chap, viii.,
the king and his officers went, however, to the trenches wearing
head-pieces and breast-plates.
[815] Bertrand du Guesclin (1320-1380) was constable of France under
Charles V., whilst Olivier de Clisson (1332-1407) filled the same
high office under Charles VI.; Gaston de Foix (1331-1391), surnamed
“Phœbus,” was Viscount of Bearn, and Jean le Maingre de Boucicault
(1364-1421) was Marshal of France. They all four distinguished
themselves in the wars against the English during the fourteenth
century.
[816] Our author now launches into a dissertation about the relative
value of certain words which was far from unusual at the time he wrote,
and is found in almost the same form in several contemporary writers.
I also imagine the late Walter Savage Landor was influenced by La
Bruyèreʼs dissertation when he wrote in his “Imaginary Conversations”
the two “Dialogues” between Dr. Johnson and Horne Tooke.
[817] _Mais_, says La Bruyère in a note, but this word is not an
anagram of _ains_, which comes from the Latin _ante_, whilst _mais_ is
the Latin _magis_.
[818] It is not yet settled whether _maint_ is of Latin, Celtic, or
Teutonic origin.
[819] Some purists wished to forbid the use of _car_, which was
defended by Voiture. (See page 20, note 3.)
[820] A good many words which La Bruyère thought were going out of
fashion are still in use at present.
[821] _De moi_ and _que cʼest que_ have been employed several times
by Malherbe (see page 21, note 4) and other good authors, but these
expressions are now quite obsolete.
[822] _Oraison_, phrase in the original; antiquated in this sense.
[823] The people formally changed the Latin syllables _pro_ and _fro_
into _prou_ or _pour_ and into _frou_ or _four_; hence _proufit_,
_fourment_, or _froument_, from the Latin _proficere_ and _fromentum_.
The scholars of the sixteenth century brought back these words to their
etymological form.
[824] In French adjectives in _il_ derived from Latin words with a long
_i_, on which the accent rests, form their feminine by adding an _e_,
whilst adjectives with the termination _ile_ for the masculine and
feminine are formed from Latin words with a short _i_, not accentuated.
[825] In the French of the Middle Ages these substantives had the
termination _els_, _aus_, or _iaus_ in the nominative singular plural,
and _el_ in the accusative singular and the nominative plural; _aus_
became generally adopted in all cases, but dropped the _s_.
[826] Vaugelas and his commentators insisted that all words not
sanctioned by custom should not be admitted into the French language.
[827] Laurent was a wretched versifier at the time of La Bruyère, who
published rhymed descriptions of all kinds of festivals.
[828] For Marot. See page 22, note 3. Philippe Desportes (1555-1606),
an imitator of the Italian school of poetry, enjoyed a great reputation
in his time.
[829] See page 122, note 1, and page 20, note 3.
[830] The original _rondeaux_ which are given here are not so old as La
Bruyère thought they were, and are merely very fair imitations, written
probably about the end of the sixteenth century. The hero of the first
_rondeau_ is Ogier, generally called _le Danois_, which does not mean
the Dane, but is a contraction of _le DʼArdennois_, from the Ardennes.
I owe the above translation to Mr. J. E. Barlas, of New College,
Oxford, who has endeavoured to imitate the pseudo-antiquated style of
the original, and to use several Chaucerian and Spenserian words.
Bien à propos sʼen vint Ogier en France
Pour le païs de mescréans monder:
Jà nʼest besoin de conter sa vaillance
Puisquʼ ennemis nʼosoient le regarder.
Or quand il eut tout mis en assurance,
De voyager il voulut sʼenharder;
En Paradis trouva lʼeau de jouvance,
Dont il se sceut de vieillesse engarder
Bien à propos.
Puis par cette eau son corps tout décrépite
Transmué fut par manière subite
En jeune gars, frais, gracieux et droit.
Grand dommage est que cecy soit sornettes:
Filles connois qui ne sont pas jeunettes,
A qui cette eau de jouvance viendroit
Bien à propos.
* * * * *
De cettuy preux maints grands clercs ont écrit
Quʼoncques dangier nʼétonna son courage:
Abusé fut par le malin esprit,
Quʼil épousa sous feminin visage.
Si piteux cas à la fin découvrit,
Sans un seul brin de peur ny de dommage,
Dont grand renom par tout le monde acquit,
Si quʼon tenoit très honeste langage
De cettuy preux.
Bien-tost après fille de Roy sʼéprit
De son amour, qui voulentiers sʼoffrit
Au bon Richard en second mariage.
Donc sil vaut mieux ou diable ou femme avoir,
Et qui des deux bruit plus en ménage,
Ceulx qui voudront, si le pourront scavoir
De cettuy preux.