Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

He habitually used, it seems, as a prayer-book, a volume, in which were described the numerous cornuted husbands of the court, under the semblance of saints, those unfortunate vroλoides, as they are metaphorically designated by Theophrastus, whose honour, in the feeble custody of their consorts, unguarded by virtue, fell, like a defenceless citadel, too easy a prey to the seductive powers of aggression that assailed it; while the example of the sovereign, and triumphant ascendancy of his victims, overshadowed the hideousness of vice, and

[blocks in formation]

He

Probably, the only serious, though eventually unsuccessful, resistance encountered by Louis, in his licentious pursuits, was that of Louise de la Vallière; for the long-distant instance of Madame de Maintenon offers no fair parallel. Rulers seldom experience much difficulty in these conquests; and to none did they prove of easier achievement than to him. needed not the formal authorisation of a law, similar to that meditated, we are told, by Cæsar, which should place at his command such, and as many, wives as he might desire, "liberorum quærendorum causâ." (Suetonius, cap. 51.) This we find confirmed by DioCassius, or rather, Xiphilinus, who writes, (Lib. xliv. 7.) "Apéλe Kai γυναιξίν, ὁποίαις καὶ ὅσαις ἂν θελήσῃ

Il cherchera partout mille nouveaux moyens
Pour te ravir l'honneur, la liberté, les biens;
Tu te plaindras en vain de tant de violence.'
Ce peuple en vit l'effet, il en fut étonné.

Ainsi régne aujourd'hui, par les vœux de la France,
Ce monarque absolu qu'on nomme DIEUDONNE."

This sonnet would, at least, as well suit the character, and be much more apposite to the position and fortunes of Napoleon. It is generally ascribed to the poet Hesnault, better known as the author of the famous "Sonnet de l'Avorton," written on the crime or mishap, as reported, of one of the queen's maids of honour, usually supposed, though certainly in error, to be Mademoiselle de Guerchi; for the event referred to by Hesnault occurred some years previous to this lady's misfortune. Voltaire also fell into this mistake. ("Šiécle de Louis XIV. Anecdotes.") The sonnet is a tissue of antitheses, but, as a specimen of the taste which gave it celebrity, I may quote it.

"Toi, qui meurs avant que de naître,

Assemblage confus de l'être et du néant,
Triste Avorton, informe enfant,

Rebut du néant et de l'être.

Toi, que l'amour fit par un crime,

Et que l'honneur défait par un crime à son tour,

Funeste ouvrage de l'amour,

De l'honneur funeste victime.

Donnes fin aux remords par qui tu t'es vengé,

Et du fond du néant, où je t'ai replongé,

N'entretiens point l'horreur dont ma faute est suivie :

Deux tyrans opposés ont décidé ton sort;

L'amour, malgré l'honneur, t'a fait donner la vie,

L'honneur, malgré l'amour, t'a fait donner la mort."

The Jesuit Bouhours, "Manière de bien Penser," &c. p. 371, has criticised this composition, which La Place (Pieces Curieuses, v. 162,) attributes, unauthorisedly, to St. Evremont. Bayle has devoted an article to Hesnault; and a reference to the sonnet has, I believe, been made by some of our British essayists.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Myrto and Xantippe is now believed to be a falsehood. (See Plutarch, in Vitâ Aristidis, ed. Bryant, vol. ii. p. 326, and the Lectiones Atticæ of J. Luzac.)

In the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1840, page 22, an extract is introduced from St. Simon's Memoirs, stating the origin of the name of Beauharnais, on the occasion of the death of Madame de Miramion, widow of J. J. de Beauharnais, Seigneur de Miramion, whose father had exchanged his previous unseemly patronymic for this sonorous appellative. The lady, after the loss of her husband, though very young, only eighteen, beautiful and rich, devoted her long widowhood of forty-eight years to acts of piety and beneficence. She had rejected numerous suitors, and, amongst others, Bussi-Rabutin, who, under the protection of "le Grand Condé,"-a heroic act not omitted, I hope, by his recent biographer, Lord Mahon,* contrived

*The notice of this work in the recent Quarterly Review, No. 141, is ample in space and attractive in narration; but I may venture to assert, that it contains little of moment that has not been anticipated, under various heads, in the columns of this Magazine. I must also observe, that several inaccuracies have escaped the writer, when relying on his own stock of knowledge, and moving independently of his guide; for Lord Mahon's narrative, whenever directly referred to, appears historically correct. To his lordship, surely, cannot be imputed the anachronism at page 114, where it is affirmed that, at the last moments of Louis XIII. "the little Dauphin, now seven years old, exclaimed, with childish exultation, "Je suis Louis Quatorze," for, on his father's death, the 14th May 1643, the Dauphin, born the 5th September 1638, was still under five years of age. And at page 121, the Duke of Orleans, born the 25th April, 1608, (le jour de St. Marc, as stated in his Memoirs,) is called old Gaston in 1646, when only 38, his lordship's own age! See Mémoires de feu M. le Duc d'Orléans, &c. 1682, 12mo. anonymous, but written by Etienne Algay de Martignac. Cardinal de Retz (pp. 147, 153, 155, &c.) is written du Retz, and lettre de cachet, (p. 163) du cachet; an error which I am willing to assign to the press; but that excuse will hardly apply to the interposed de, in the name of Bussi-Rabutin, also at p. 163. Rabutin de Bussi might, not improperly, though not usually, be said; for the title was (Rabutin) Comte de Bussi; but Bussi de Rabutin is a complete misnomer, or inversion of the proper names. As well might a Frenchman say, Lord Wardour of Arundel, Lord Walden de Howard, Mr. Wilson of Croker, or transpose any other noble or eminent name. That of Bussi appertained to several families-BussiBrach, Bussi Le Clerc, Bussi d'Ambroise, &c. which it was necessary to discriminate, and equally so, this junior branch of the Rabutins from the elder, Rabutins-Chantal, to which belonged Madame de Sévigné. Apparently insignificant as these aberrations may be to a foreign ear, to the native they betray an imperfect acquaintance with the persons and usages of the time and country, as the not-uncommon Sir Peel, Sir Graham, &c. instead of Sir Robert, Sir James, in French writers, similarly evince an ignorance of our customs. At page 113, Mazarin is stated to have originally been a domestic-if understood as a menial, it is incorrect, but if meant in the sense and relation that so many now noble families stood, in their origin, to Wolsey, it is quite true; for Richelieu was still more powerful than our Cardinal, while the expression should have been less ambiguous. (See Gent. Mag. for September, 1840, p. 251.) Nor is the praise (p. 106,) given to Horace Walpole's French Style, as of admirable purity, even by the admission of native critics," exact; for the merit assigned to it was by no means its purity, but the strength infused into it by a tincture of foreign idiom,

66

and accomplished her abduction. But even this unprincipled man was awed by the dignity of her resistance into an abandonment of further violence; and, thenceforward, all her faculties of will and deed were consecrated to the moral improvement and personal relief

of her fellow-beings. She was truly an admirable woman, as her Life (Paris, 1707) by her cousin, the Abbé de Choisy (Gent. Mag. April, 1842, p. 379) demonstrates. Madame de Sévigné, in her letter of 29th March, 1696, only three weeks preceding her

or English energy, compared with Madame Dudeffant's feebler diction-" La langue Française, (says Voltaire,) est une guese fière, à qui il faut faire l'aumône malgré elle;" but it now accepts what it then fastidiously rejected or ungraciously received.

In the quotations from the noble author several faults occur, which, I am quite sure, could not have been committed by him, particularly at pages 158 and 160; for the transcripts from his lordship's volume generally, are perfectly correct in language; but they are too few to warrant any decided opinion on his style, though, from early education, habitual use of the tongue, and long establishment in the country, I may not be wholly unauthorised to pronounce one. I shall, however, observe, that his models appear rather chosen from the classical than the romantic school, from the purer and more chastened sources of the preceding centuries-than the more glowing and irregular system of modern composition. Still he will find, as a critic has remarked on such attempts, 66 que la langue Française est un instrument qui se laisse difficilement manier par un étranger." This article of the Review would afford various other grounds of animadversion, were I not apprehensive of prolonging the notice of it beyond due limits; for the subject certainly was little familiar to the writer.

Nor are our neighbours less aberrant in their conception of our language or literature. In the "Revue des Deux Mondes," a journal on a parallel rank with the Edinburgh or Quarterly Reviews, the special contributor for our English politics is M. Duvergier de Hauranne, whom we find, in the number for November last, page 612, quoting an expression of Mr. Joseph Sturge-" the selfish aristocracy and rampant church of England," which he gives in the original, and translates, "l'aristocratie égoïste, et l'église servile d'Angleterre." The ungracious epithet, by which Mr. Sturge characterizes the Church of England, could hardly be rendered in a sense more inverse to its meaning; but, as in French, the word rampant signifies creeping, the writer sought no further, and applied the English in synonymous acceptation. In heraldry, too, the term bears quite a different construction from its French version by M. de Hauranne. Yet this gentleman, an old deputy, is considered the first political writer in France on British affairs, though I may refer to the Gent. Mag. for November, 1841, p. 488, for a blunder of his, in confounding Lord Stanley with his father, the Earl of Derby, in character and person, and that, too, after having passed some days with these noblemen, who so little resemble each other in feature or manner, at Lathom House. He is the son of one of the principal merchants at Rouen, also a deputy, and my neighbour, for some years, in the "rue neuve des Mathurins," at Paris, where he died about 1832.

In the same periodical, M. Philaréte Charles, to whom, especially, are committed the essays on English literature, at pages 638, 639, &c. represents the poet Burns as anterior to Cowper, ("suivi par Cowper,") and Barry Cornwall as the genuine name of the fictitious Procter! According to him, again, the Ballantynes of Edinburgh, when on the point of ruin by overtrading, were rescued and sustained by Scott. This is not their story. But, far less pardonable, in another article, at page 612, the Constable of France, Du Guesclin, it is stated, "prêchait...... surtout la haine de l'Anglais,"—" mot," adds the reviewer of the warrior's life, "qu'il a fait, et qui vivra autant que la France." Heaven forbid that such language should provoke a vindictive reciprocity! But these are no unfair specimens of the talent or liberality of the leading Parisian review; and further evidence could be easily adduced of similar tenor. Yet, while I fear that our transgressions in French literature are often quite as glaring, our national antipathy is less inflamed by our public writers, and old prejudices less embittered, because unaggravated, as with our rivals, by the rankling impatience of national pride to wash away the humiliation of defeat in the blood of their victors. But their Conqueror still survives.

"Maxime Teucrorum ductor, quo sospite, nunquam
Res equidem Trojæ victas aut regna fatebor."

Eneid, lib. viii. 470.

SO

own death, in communicating that of Madame de Miramion to the Abbé de Coulanges, emphatically concludes, "Pour Madame de Miramion, cette mère de l'Eglise, ce sera une perte publique." Her only child, a daugh. ter, married into another family; but her husband's brother was the progenitor of the fortunate Beauharnais, who have mingled their blood with so many of the sovereign houses of Europe; though, as Gibbon exhorted the ducal and lordly Spencers to consider the name of their poetic kinsman, the author of the Faerie Queen, as the brightest jewel of their coronet, well may this prosperous race feel a legitimate pride in the association of Madame de Miramion's truly ennobling memory with their plebeian origin. No virtue, however, could redeem in St. Simon's estimation this inherent stain; and, indeed, numerous additional proofs of the novelty of the family's noblesse, have occurred to me since the article referred to was written. But it contains an error, which I am bound to rectify. At page 24 the historian Bignon is quoted as confounding Charles d'Hozier, the genealogist, with Bouvet de l'Hozier, (it should be de Lozier,) while he properly distinguishes them. Both, however, were engaged in the conspiracy of 1804, against Bonaparte, for which they, with seven others, though convicted, were granted their lives; when Georges, the Vendean Chief, forfeited his, and Pichegru fell a sacrifice, either to his own sensitive, or the Corsican's vengeful feelings, most probably to the former. And I equally believe Bonaparte innocent of any direct part in the death of Captain Wright, the following year, notwithstanding the contrary assertion of M. Henoult, his fellow-prisoner in the Temple. The unfortunate Wright was a native of Cork, born here in 1769. (See Gent. Mag. for October 1842, p. 365.)

Having, at the close of a note in page 593 of this Magazine for December last, intimated the intention of correcting some misconceptions in respect to Madame de la Vallière and Bussi-Rabutin, I have here endeavoured to fulfil the implied engagement. But before I allow myself to conclude this portion of my present

address, I cannot forbear pointing the reader's attention to the contrast exhibited by the seductive, unhappily too seductive, delineation transmitted to us of the French Court, caricatured by our own, at that period, in vulgar and vicious imitation, with the frigid, repulsive picture presented in Madame D'Arblay's narrative of royal life, under our austere George the Third, and his consort, the virtuous, unattractive, Charlotte.

46

The bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice." Paradise Lost, i. 598-600.

It is, indeed, much to be regretted, that so important an advantage should have been passively surrendered, with

out an emulative effort to enliven the abode of morality, and, for the torpor and frivolousness of an ultra-Spanish ceremonial, to substitute the graces and charms of purified social intercourse. In the instance adverted to, on the contrary, we see evaporate the spirit and powers of youth, and its elastic vivacity, chained in fetters of vapid forms, ultimately sink in languor and inaction; its time consumed and its talents dissolved; for greatly inferior, surely, will be found the gifted lady's subsequent writings to those which preceded her splendid servitude. Even a palace, immersed in solemn dulness, soon loses the enchantment with which popular illusion complacently invests all royal associations, and becomes one of "dim night," as expressed by the dying

Romeo.

Yours, &c. J. R.

(To be continued.)

MR. URBAN,

Feb. 13th. THE Bill of Mortality for the metropolis, which appears in your current number, exhibits the burials from Dec. 27 to Jan. 24 as amounting to 827; a view of the state of public health which would be highly gratifying if true, but produced, I am afraid, by the accidental substitution of one week's return for the result of four.

Since the commencement of your time-honoured Magazine, a brief summary of the bills of mortality has been considered worthy of a place in your

pages, but various circumstances have combined to render that statement so inaccurate and defective, that I am induced to believe it has long ceased to be a matter of interest or utility to your readers. The weekly bills, from which your abstract is taken, are prepared and published by the Company of Parish Clerks. They were originated about the beginning of the 17th century, when the frequent recurrence of the plague in London, and its devastating effects on the inhabitants, led to the establishment of these notices as a warning to the court, and to others, to leave the town whenever that pestilence became more than usually fatal.* They reported the number of christenings and burials in each week, with the respective ages of persons deceased, and the causes of death, which were ascertained by females called searchers, whose duty it was to examine all dead bodies, and report to the parish clerks of what disease they died.

The somewhat obsolete names of these diseases seriously injured the reputation of the bills; but they have become every year more defective, by the discontinuance, on the part of some of the larger parishes, to furnish the returns; indeed, of the entire body of parish clerks, I believe scarcely twothirds now make their reports to the Company. In addition, the great and increasing number of interments in cemeteries and private burial grounds, which are never entered in the parochial registers, do not, of course, find their way into the public bills, although the deaths may have occurred in the parishes they include. Thus incomplete, it is obvious they are of very little use, and upon their testimony it would be idle to attempt to form an estimate of the sanatory condition of the metropolis.

In

* It is said that by far the greater part of mankind were swept away by this Indian pestilence, which ravaged Asia, Africa, and Europe, in succession. London above 20,000 persons died of the plague in 1563, above 15,000 in 1592, and in 1603 more than 36,000. It was extremely fatal in 1625, when above 35,000 died of it, and the last great plague of 1665 destroyed 68,596 persons. After the conflagration of the whole city in 1666, the plague languished, and finally disappears from the Bills of Mortality in 1679. GENT. MAG. VOL. XIX.

To remedy this defect, a Table of Mortality has been recently issued from the Office of the Registrar General of Births, &c. compiled from weekly returns obtained from the Metropolitan Registrars of the deaths registered in each district, without reference to the place of burial. These tables are of undoubted efficiency, and as they include all the parishes within the boundaries of the old Bills of Mortality, I would venture to suggest that a monthly abstract prepared from them would be much more acceptable to your readers than the present imperfect and fallacious account. The importance of accurate information as to the health of a population amounting to nearly two millions, the largest, perhaps, that is anywhere congregated in so small a space, will, I imagine, be universally admitted.

Before laying down my pen, I am tempted somewhat abruptly to remark, that the subject of the hereditary transmission of avocation incidentally referred to by your erudite correspondent J. R. in his last communication, (p. 149) is one of considerable curiosity and interest. In the Church, the Army, and the Navy, we have numerous instances of an uninterrupted pursuit of the same profession through several generations, and our commercial interests afford examples of ancient descent, which will almost bear a comparison with the genealogy of some noble families. The house of Childs and Co. cited by J. R. is known to possess documents proving its existence as a bank in 1663, and as the founder, Sir Josiah Child, probably blended the banker with the merchant some years before, your correspondent correctly dates it from the Commonwealth. In stating, however, that no individual of the founder's family has for many years been connected with it, J. R. has overlooked the fact, that at the present time the largest share in the bank is held by the Countess of Jersey, as heiress to her maternal grandfather, Robert Child, esq. of Osterley Park, co. Middlesex, a direct descendant of the founder. The books of Messrs. Hoares of Fleet

+ Within a few years back, two of our richest bankers were peeresses, the late Duchess of St. Alban's as chief partner in the house of Coutts and Co. and Lady Jersey. 2 L

« VorigeDoorgaan »