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    May 30,1857.] THE LEADE R. ______ _ _ _ ...

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    THE MEMOIRS OF ST. SIMON. The Memoirs of...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Romany Rye. The Romany Rye: A Seqtiel To...

    things , and Mr . Borrow would be of tire same opinion if they would adopt his fleas and swear by his theories . The interior of his head appears to be filled with notions of all sorts , good , bad , and indifferent . He puts his hand " nto the cavity as he might into a basket , and , taking out whatever he finds noDermost , he hurls it with a sort of burly independence into the face of the public . If the public likes it , we can have no possible objection . There is entertainment to be gained out of Mr . Borrow . If you can't laugh with him , vou can laugh at him , which is every whit as satisfactory . Now and then he puts forward original whims , and makes you acquainted with original characters . Whether they are probable , or even possible , in the situations in which you find them , does not greatly signify . The characters are good in themselves , and you can converse with them in a dingle or on a moor ,

    iu * t aswe'l as in a drawing-room . Perhaps Mrs . Petulengrp never was in a drawin' > --rooin , but she would very much like to have been there , since she admired gentility , and everybody who could speak French . Jasper himself is a very edifying sort of person , cunning , roguish , full of lies , and not over addicted to honesty , but lively and frank as anyone could desire . Isopel is a character which the writer could not manage . After suggesting somethin " verv curious and interesting , he breaks down . The man in black is an audacious priest , who is much more frank about the peculiarities of his church than p : iests are likely to be .

    The style of the work is vigorous and original , but often coarse . The mind of the writer has been soured by hostile criticism , and he loses not only all dignity , but even all decency in his recriminations . Of course , there is a great deal of injustice discoverable in criticism , because there is a great deal of misapprehension . Personal motives also , jealousy , spite , envy , and other unainiable feelings , exert their influence over the judgment and warp-it . But this is no reason why an author should get beside himself , and deal in frantic figures of . speech , which enable the smallest of his critics to look down upon him . Mr . Borrow has good stuff in him , and might write clever and interesting books if he could restrain his propensity to get in a passion . The world is an imperturbable thing , and criticism itself is cold-blooded . Why cannot Mr . Borrow reconcile himself to things as they are , and lake good-humouredly what is well intended . We like parts of his book , and feel an interest in the whole , but should like it much better if it were less aggressive .

    May 30,1857.] The Leade R. ______ _ _ _ ...

    May 30 , 1857 . ] THE LEADE R . ______ _ _ _ & 21 __

    The Memoirs Of St. Simon. The Memoirs Of...

    THE MEMOIRS OF ST . SIMON . The Memoirs of the Duke of St . Simon on the lieign of Louis XIV . and the Regency . Abridged from the French by Bayle St . John . First Series . 2 vols . . Chapman and Hall . When Louis XIV . resolved to lay siege to Namur , he led into the field a superb cavalcade of nobles . "Among the musketeers of his household , " writes Mr . Macaulay , " rode , for the first time , a stripling of seventeen , who soon afterwards succeeded to the title of Duke of St . Simon , and to whom we owe those inestimable Memoirs which have preserved , for the delight and instruction of many lands and of many generations , the vivid picture of a France winch has long since passed uw . iy . " The ' inestimable Memoirs , ' nevertheless , have been , surprisingly neglected in England . Even now , small critics a fleet to doubt whether their publication was a blow to the

    Bourbon monarchy . Yet it is certain that , upon opening these pages—a light kindled to exhibit an abyss of depravity—the French first understood how history had duped them , how the court of the Great King , the idol of camps , the demi-god of epics , was a theatre of shabby pretence , of abject selfishness , of Oriental profligacy . In France , the work became as an authority at once classic and popular ; it abounded in literary defects as well as merits ; it was suspected of occasional partiality , yet it was accepted as a text-book for students of the Louis Quatorze and Regency eras . Had it appeared in the last century , it would probably have aided in accelerating , as it undoubtedly did in justifying , the Revolution . As it was , Duclos , Marmontel , and Madame du Defiant had access to the St . Simon manuscripts ; and even Voltaire , after publishing his romantic paraphrase ^ of history in connexion with i-ouis XIV ., caught a glimpse of these singular records . But the Memoirs were long kept under a government seal ; and

    it was not until 1829 that anything like a complete edition appeared . What , then , in the sight of France , became of Voltaire ' s heroics ? Forty volumes of pictures , anecdotes , epigramy , and minute personal narrations demonstrated the character of the monarch and of the court he decorated , degraded , and enslaved . For nearly thirty years , therefore , the French public has been familiar with the Memoirs of St . Simon ; but in England they have hitherto been little known , though often quoted , or misquoted . Certainly , the majority even of persons who read have passed over a work which occupies twenty large octavo volumes of about four hundred and fifty Sflgcs each , nine of which are condensed in Mr . St . John ' s ' first series . ' Ir . St . John quotes some amusing examples of misconception with regard to St . Pinion . One literary gentleman has been pleased to describe the Duke as a republican associate of Robespierre ; another asks why ho was canonised ; another mistakes him for the uuthor of a new religion .

    Wo aro gruteful for this publication . It is an abstract of St . Simon s narrutivo , referring chiefly to the latter days of Louis XIV . and to the Regency , and u collection of his anecdotes , the most varied , the lightest , and the most abundant contained in any set of French memoird . Mr . St . John never deviates from his author ' s meaning or criticises his statements by the way , but is content with a preface , in which ho denies the claims of Louis to be styled a soldier or a statesman , and calls him a lean and slippered pantaloon , a pitiful old gentleman , a mean and contemptible egotist , a smirking , grimacing , old dancing-master , who patronised Lobrun , could not understand Lesueur , Claude do Lorraine , or l ' oussin , gave Molioro the smallest pension accorded to any poet of his day , wasted the genius ol Racine , and corrupted the morality of Franco by his patronage of tho most ignoble and loathsome of persons . Mr . St . John ' s abridgment h a careful reconstruction of tho Memoirs

    upon a reduced scale . No important matter has been sacrificed ; lew atories havo been omitted . Since the reader wi . l find it easy and pleasant to follow tho narrative for himself , we shall best charnctwze tho book by a few quotations ;—

    THE POLISH OF COUKT MANNERS . A son of Montbron , no more made to dance at Court than his father was to be chevalier of the order ( to which , however , he was promoted in 1688 ) , was among the company . He bad been asked if he danced well ; and he had replied with a confidence which made every one hope that the contrary was the case . Every one was satisfied . From the very first bow he became confused , and he lost step at once . He tried to divert attention from his mistake by affected attitudes , and carrying his arms high ; but this made him only more , ridiculous , and excited bursts of laughter , . which , in despite of the respect due to the person of the King ( who likewise had great difficulty to hinder himself from ' laughing ) , degenerated at length into regular hooting . On the morrow , instead of flying the Court or holding his tongue , he excused himself by saying that the presence of the King had disconcerted him , and promised marvels for the ball which was to follow . lie was one of my friends , and I felt for him . I should even have warned him against a second attempt , if the very different success I had met with , had not made me fear that my advice would be taken in ill part . Aa soon as h . e began to dance at the second ball , those who -were near stood up , those who were far off climbed wherever they could to get a sight ; and the shouts of laughter were mingled with clapping of hands . Every one , even the King himself , laughed heartily , and most of us quite loud , so that I do not think any one was ever treated so before . Montbrou disappeared immediately afterwards , and did not show himself again for a long time . MADAME rANACHE A LADY BUFFOON . She was a little and very old creature , with lips and eyes so disfigured that they were painful to look upon ; a species of beggar who had obtained a footing at Court from being- half-witted , who was now at the supper of the King , now at the dinner of Monseigneur , or at other places , where everybody amused themselves by tormenting her . She in turn abused the company at these parties , in order to cause diversion , blit sometimes rated them very seriously and with strong words , which delighted still more those princes and princesses , who emptied into her pockets meat and ragouts , the saucs of which ran all down her petticoats : at these parties some gave her a pistole or a crown , and others a fillip or a smack in the face , which put her in fury , because with her bleared eyes not being able to see to the end of her nose , she could not tell who had struck her;—she was , in a word , the pastime of the Court ! tHE MAGIC OF CHAENACE . About this time the King caused Charnace to be arrested in a province to which he had been banished . He was accused of many wicked things , and , amongst others , of coining . Charnace was a lad of spirit , who had been page to the King and officer in the body guard . Having retired to his own house , he often playeJ off many a prank . One of these [ will mention , as being full of wit and very laughable . He had a long and perfectly beautiful avenue before his house in Anjou , but in the midst of it were the cottage and garden of a peasant ; and neither Charnace , nor his father before him , could prevail upon the man to remove , although they offered him lar" -e sums . Charnace determined at last to gain his point by stratagem . The peasant was a tailor , and lived all alone , without wife or child . One day Charnace ' sent for him , said he wanted a court suit in all haste , and , agreeing to lodge and feed him , stipulated that he should not leave the house until it was done . The tailor agreed , and set himself to the work . While he was-thus occupied , Charnace had the dimensions of his house and garden taken with the utmost exactitude ; made a plan of the interior , showing the precise position of the furniture and the utensils ; and , when all was done , pulled down the house and removed it a short distance off . Then it was arranged as before with a similar-looking garden , and , at the same time , the spot on which it had previously stood was smoothed and levelled . All this . was done before the suit was . finished . The work being at length over on both sides ,. Cliarnace amused the tailor until it was quite dark , paid him , and dismissed him content . The man went on his way down the avenue ; but , finding the distance longer than usual , looked about , arid perceived he had gone too far . Returning , he searched diligently for his house , but without being able to find it . The night passed in this exercise . When the day came he rubbed his eyes , thinking they might have been in fault ; but as he found them as clear as usual , hegan to believe that the devil had carried away his house , garden and all . By dint of wandering to and fro , and casting his eyes in every direction , he saw at last a house which was as like to his aa are two drops of water to each other . Curiosity tempted him to go and examine it . He did so , and became convinced it was his own . He entered , found everything inside as lie had left it , and then became quite persuaded he had been tricked by a sorcerer . The day was not , however , very far advancod before he learned the truth through tlic banter of his neighbours . In fury he talked of going to law , of demanding justice , but was laughed at everywhere . The King when lie heard of it lau _ hed also ; and Charnace' had his avenue free . If ho had never done anything worse than this , he would have preserved his reputation and his liberty . THE l'OLITE PRINCESSE D ' lIAKCOUBT . Entering the room in which the ambassadors were to be received and where a largo number of ladies were already collected , she glidod behind the Duchesse do l tohan , nnd told her to pass to tho loft . Tho Duchesac do Rohan , much surprised , replied that she was very well placed already . Whereupon , the Princesse d'Harcourt , who was lull and strong , niude no further ado , but with her two arms seized tho Duchosau tie Kohan , turned her round , anil sat down in her place . All the ladies were strangely scandalized at this , but none darod say a word , not even Madame do Lude , lady in waiting on tho Duchease do Bourgogne , who , for her part also , felt the insolence of tho act , but dared not speak , being so young . As for tho Duchesae do Kohan , feeling thai opposition must lead to iiaLiculfr , she curtseyed to tho Ducheseo and quietly retired to Another place . M . DU MJXISMBOL'KO AT A MASKED BALL . Soon after my arrival at tho bull , I saw a figure strangely clad in long flowing muslin , and with a head-dress on which was fixed tho horns of a stag , so high that they became entangled in tho chandelier . Of course everybody was much astonished at so strange a . sight , and all thought that that musk must bo very sure oCliiawifoto deck hinidt'lf so . Suddenly the mask turned round and showed us M . do Luxembourg . Tho burat of laughter « t this was scandalous . ( Jood M . do Luxembourg , who never was very remarkable for wit , benignly took nil this laughter aa having been excited uimplv by tho singularity of his costume , and to tho questions addressed him , ropliod quito " simply that hia dross had been arranged by M . lo L ' rince ; then , turning to tho right nnd to tho left , ho admired himself and Htrutted with pleasure at having boon masqucd by M . lo Prince . In a moment more tho ladies arrived , and tho King immediately uftor thorn . Tho laughter commenced anew aa loudly as over , and M . do Luxembourg presented himself to tho company with a confidence that waa raviahing . Ilia wife hud hoard nothing of this masquerading , and wlion she saw it lost countenance , bi'uzon aa aho was . Evorybody stared at her and her huabund , and soomod dying of laughter . M . lo Prince looked at tho aconc from behind tho King , and inwardly laughed at hia malicious trick . This amusement lasted throughout nil tha ball , and tho King , Holf-oontaincd as ho usually was , laughed also ; people wore iiovor tired of admiring an invention uo cruelly ridiculouo , and spoke of it for sovornl daya . THK INUXOWSTION OP A KINO ' S SON . .. They found Moneoignovu- hnlf naked : Mb sovvanta endeavouring to make Mm wane

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 30, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30051857/page/17/