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    Sept. 1, I860.] The Saturday Analyst and...

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    * tfouvonlr* .!<• Miulamo do (Mylu., Nou...

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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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    picturesque narrative of Cardinal de Retz , or the amusing , although not generally edifying' critcism of " Tallexnand des Reaux , " what a treat it must be to . see le grand monarque himself letting- us into his secrets , detailing to us his political and administrative plans ; in a ' word , justifying before posterity tlie system of government which he deemed the safest and the wisest to follow ! We would caution , however , bur readers against expecting too much from , the work we ard now alluding to ; nay , we will even go so far as to say that never was there a more thoroughly disappointing book ; and although the Memoires de Louis XIV . must ever retain an important position as documents towards a complete understanding of the seventeenth century in France , yet examined from a literary point of view they will scarcely repay a perusal . When we take up a book bearing 1 the seductive title Memo ires , we anticipate something quite . different , from the stately dignified garb of history ; we want to be introduced 'behind the scenes , and we believe we shall see the hero coming- up to ms en deshabille , divested of his wig , his badges , his lace , and his embroidered coat . With Louis XIV . it is not so . Louis XIV . could never prevail upon himself to stoop down from his pedestal ; he could never condescend to do the most common-place things , like the vulgar herd of mortals , and we know that even the putting on and taking off ' of his nightshirt was a mystery regulated by the strictest laws of etiquette . This circumstance will at once explain what style of writing we must look for when we open the Memoires now under consideration . Theii , even if we were reading , at all events , the bonafide work of Louis XIV . ; if these nine hundred and odd closely printed pages had originally been the result of royal penmanship , and could bear the inscription Ludovicus mac / nits fecit , but no ; we have scraps of notes by one eollaborateur , fair copies by another ; a few hieroglyphics written by the master himself are expanded first into a journal , and then into a set of memoires ( avec variantes ) , until , what with M . de Persigny , what with M . Pellisson Fontanus , Vundes quarante de V Academie' Fra ? icaise , we hardly know on what shoulders to lay the responsibility of the a"bove Memoires . Truly , the art of collaborating , so extensively practised at the present day , had already reached so inconsiderable a state of perfectiorTwhen the eldest son of the Church was busily employed in prosecuting nis Huguenot subjects , and in laying waste the Palatinate .

    This is not the first time the Memoires de Louis XIV . have been published . About fifty years ; ago Grouvelle , who had at his disposal the papers of General Gronoard , printed , in six octavo volumes , a work to which he gave the pompous title of CEuvres de Louis XIV ., and which included , of course , the Memoires . But fifty years ago editors understood their task far differently from what they do Anno Domini 1860 ; they neither took the trouble of giving a correct text , nor scrupled at altering or suppressing the passages they . could not fully understand . Hence Grouvelle ' s work was crowded ' with mistakes of every description , and utterly valueless . Indeed , the recent researches of M . Cousin about Pascal , and of M- Paillaud respecting Borsard , prove in the most conclusive manner that all the French classics of the seventeenth century should be re-edited ; and Louis XIV . formed , a few months ago , no exception to the rest . M . Dreyss , who has undertaken the task , deserves the greatest credit for the manner in which it is performed ; and the very valuable introduction ( extending over 251 pages ) which comprises more than half of the first volume , is , we think , a marked piece of critical ingenuity . The essential thing was to find out the amanuensis of Louis XIV . to discover the personage whose business it was to collect the king's rough notes , to put them into shapo , and so prepare them for more critioal eyes ; and now an additional difficulty presented itself , for tho journal , which at first is strictly simple and plain , without any artiUces of language or seeking after effect , becomes afterwards of a totally opposite character . Towards the end it is ilorid , pompous , aoademioal , and betrays on the part of the author an undue care for the niceties of mere verbal effect . The hand of Pellisson waa perhaps easily distinguishable in this latter part ; and besides , we know that the vainglorious aoademioian used to boast of the position he occupied as secretary to tho king- ; but as to who -was tho earliest amanuensis no positivo conclusion could bo attained , and the names of JDangenu , Baluze , Charles Terrault , thu abbo Fleury , Conrard , and a fow others are adduood with oqual plausibility . Thq pattina . alma of a Bonodietine could solve this knotty problem , and M . Druyss used to study tho handwriting of about ton or twelve persons before ho was ablo to identify tho y oritablo Simon Pure in a certain M . de Terigny , president att . v inquetes , lecteur die rot , and even tutor to the . Dauphin previous to tnp appointment of Bossuet . 80 muoh for tho authorship of tlio Memoires ; if we now examine the spirit in -which , they are written , we shall find everywhere the inauia for self-gloritioation , that groat , that all-provailiug oharaotoristto of Louis XIV .. taking the plan of tho enlightoned tondornosa which wo so dolight to soo making tho intercourse botwoon a father and hist son . Intensely solfisu au the monarch undoubtedly was , still wo aro bound to tako for granted that ho hud aomo natural affeotiou for tho prinou who was destinocl to biiooood him . But road tho Memoires , and deoido < 4 whether the iniprussion you receivo from them is . not . jjuat ; pro- ;• cluoed by acquaintance with a man who is always studying atti- tudo , and dreading lest ho should bo thought to oompromiHO his own dignity . Ouo of the fragment m whiph seem to us the inoHt interesting is tho one iu tho second volume , beginning page 31 . 0 , and extending' to page 320 ; it contains uome advice on the oautiou with whioh a prince should conduot his love affairs ; and it U ourious to soo Louia XIV ., at tho vory time whon ho was Iiohitating betweou Madame do la Palllon and Mttdivmp de Montospan ,

    writing the following sentence : — " Et dans ce dernier moment ou nous arriverons peut etre plutotque nous nc pensons , Dieu ne nous deniandera pas si nous avons vecu en honnete homme , mais si nous avons garde ses oommandenients . " Here and there , too , we meet with a few acrid remarks which prove that Louis XIV . was not on the best of terms with his brother , the Duke d'Orleans , but the pretensions of Monsieur assume sometimes a grotesque form , and are answered in a manner more grotesque still . Only imagine the infatuation of the Duke asking " que sa femme eut chez la Eeine une chaise a dos !" Could anything be more preposterous , more extraordinary , more symptomatic of those moral convulsions which are so noted in the latter days ? Pancrace ' s fit of despair about la form and la Jig tire of a set is nothing to it . However , his Majesty , ever cautious when his dignity is at stake , very properly replies , ' * ce que je pus fut de lui faire entendre que pour tout ce qui servirait a l ' elever au-dessus de mes autres sujets , je le ferais toujours avecjoie ; mais que je ne crois pas pouvoir lui accorder ce qui semblerait l'approcher de moi , lui faisant y . oir par raison l'egard que je devais avoir a mon rang , la nouveaute de sa pretention , et combien il lui serait inutile d ' y persister . " And thus it was that on one occasion , at least , the dignity of the monarch suffered no detriment . Men were wits in those days , Guy Tatin , for instance , Madame Cornell , and Bussy Babutin . How they must have laughed in their sleeves at such scenes ! How Madame de Caylus must have enjoyed the fun , she , whose caustic spirit Louis XIV . particularly dreaded , and of whom Saint Simon says in his memoirs , " However amusing- she was , the king never felt comfortable in her company . " And since we have been led to speak of Madame de Caylus , let us devote a paragraph or two to the Souvenirs * of that lady , anew edition of which has recently been brought out with all the care , all the elegance which characterize M . Techener ' s publications . Here we have no longer to discuss texts , to examine ntria led' /' ones , to institute a controversy about the wording or the punctuation of a paragraph . Madame de Caylus ' s Souvenirs have been so often reproduced , they have become so thoroughly a classical work that there is not the smallest hesitation possible with respect either to the authenticity of the book or to the way in wnich it was composed . The work is a very small one compared to the Voluminous memoirs of Saint Simon and of Dangeau , but it has its importance , and it is quoted by all the writers who have anything to do with the reign of Louis X-IV . Why is that ? M . Charles Asselineau has very completely described in his interesting preface the merits whieh have securedimmortality to the Souvenirs we are now examining . Madame deCavlus , above all things , is true ; you can see that she does not look through magnifying glasses at the persons or circumstances which she narrates , but she gives her impressions naturally , faithfully , and simply . Another merit , and a very important one , in works of that description , is the quiet wit running on from page to page , wholly different from tihe sharp , generous , pungent satire of Saint Simon , and yet so keen that it tells with unerring effect . A French critic , quoted by M . Asselineau , has made the following remark : — " The anecdotes which Madame de Caylus relates have circulated so much that everyone knows them by heart . Now it is very difficult , through the medium of a translation , to give any idea of observations or reflections the whole point of which . often consists in a peculiarly untranslatable idiomatic expression ; therefore , we shall not attempt to present our readers with any specimens from the Souvenirs . Tho book requires to be read as it has been composed , unfettered by any disquisitions , illustrations , or comments ; it must be enjoyed as you would a picture of Rubens's or a . ' , sonata of Mozart ' s . " The Book , " have we said ? The appellation is almost a misnomer ; the idea contveyed by this word is one of toil , of study , of effort , which is as far remote as possible from the delightful production of Madame do Caylus . The Souvenirs are neither a novel nor a history ; the title , "Memoir , " is ovou incorrect when applied to them ; "Lo title do Momoires , " she says , " quoi que do toutes les logons d ' ecrire la plus simple et la plus vivre , m ' a oepondan . t paru encore trop sorieux pour co quo j ' ai a dire , et pour la nianioro dont je le dis . ' A singular feature in the Souvenirs is that they are not finished ; they end abruptly , liko a conversation which is interrupted , and tho reader finds himself in tho most tantalising position , nay , obliged to tako ' leave of tho fair authoress at tho very moment when sho was becoming particularly ontortaiuing . This is extremely unfortunate , and wo aro much afraid that amidst all tho MSS .-huntiug , which is carried on with so nauoh spirit at the present clay , no ouo will bo luoky enough to alight upon a seoond part of Madame do Caylus ' s Souvenirs—written by Madamo de Out of the numerous anecdotes related here , ono of tho drollest and roosb characteristic ia tho one referring to tho conversion ( or perversion , if our readers prefer it ) of tho lady herself , for sho was originally a Protostaut , Tho King , at tho suggestion of Louvois , had alroady begun that oourso of persecution which , without destroying what was called heresy , ruinod tho prosperity of tho country . Madame tic Maiutonou , carried away by her zeal , took forcible possession of Mademoiselle ) do Mus (/ ay ( auon was tho nuiiclon name of our heroine ) , and brought hur to bt . ( ionnains , where the court ruaidud . " 1 cried very much nt lirht , reimmkH . Madamo do Caylus , " but the next day 1 iouuU tho col « bmtiou of limns bol ' oro Ilw King so pretty that I oonumtod to become a Roman Catholic , provided J , ' «* / " ^/ T ^ * £ ' morning , and never art aw Jtur ,

    Sept. 1, I860.] The Saturday Analyst And...

    Sept . 1 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 769

    * Tfouvonlr* .!<• Miulamo Do (Mylu., Nou...

    * tfouvonlr * . !<• Miulamo do ( Mylu ., Nouvullo o . IHIom , « yo « uno IntroUHullOii « t Uo . uotou . I ' nr Jl . Clmrlos A « Hulliiomi . I' -tnw ., I ' Jirln , loulimioi .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01091860/page/9/