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thin 'S and Mr . Borrow would be of the same opinion if they would adopt his Seas 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 lie might into a basket , and , taking out whatever he finds u ermost , j , hm-Jg it with a sort of burly independence into the face of the nublio If the public likes it , we-can h . ive no possible objection . There is entertainment . to be gained out of Mi-. 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 orig inal 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 , iust as well as in a drawing-room . Perhaps Mrs . Petulengro never was in a drawiii » -room , but she would very much like to have been there , since she admired gentility , and everybody who could speak French . Jasper himselt is a very edifying sort of person , cunning , roguish , full of lies , and not over addicted to honesty , but lively and frank as any one 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 mure frank about the peculiarities of his church than niiests are likely to be . inalbut often The
The style of the work is vigorous and orig , coarse . mind of the writer has been soured by hostile criticism , and he loses , not only all dignity , but even all decency in his recri . ninations . 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 unamiable 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 . JNlr . Borrow has good stuff" in him , and might write clever and interesting books if he could restrain his propensity to get iti 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 it it were less aggressive .
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THE MEMOIRS OF ST . SIMON . The Memoirs of the JLJuke of St . Simon on the Iieign of Louis XIV . and the Regency . Abridged from the French by Bayle St . John . First Series . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . When Louis XIT . resolved to lay siege to Natnur , he led into the field a superb cavalcade of nobles . "Among the musketeers of bis household , " writes Mr . MacauUiy , " 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 which has long since passed away . "" The ' inestimable Memoirs / nevertheless , havo been surprisingly ne g lected in England . EVen now , small critics affect 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 hist century , it would probably have aided in accelerating , as it undoubtedly did in justifying , the Revolution . As it was , Duclos , Marmontel , and JVladame du Defltuit had access to the St . Simon manuscripts ; and evoix Voltaire , after publishing his romantic paraphrase of history in connexion with . Louis 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 , epigrams , and minute personal narrations demonstrated the character of the monarch and of the court he decorated ,
dograded , and enslaved . For nearly thirty years , therefore , the 1 rench 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 largo octavo volumes of about four hundred and fifty Sages 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 . biinon . One literary gentleman has been pleased to describe ( he Duke as a republican associate of Robespierre ; another asks why ho was canonised ; another mistakes him for the author of a now religion .
We are grateful for this publication . It is an abstract or St . Simon ' s narrutivo , referring chiefly to thy latter days of Louis XIV . and to tho Regency , and a collection of his anecdotes , the most varied , the lightest , and the most abundant contained in any set of French memoirs . 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 soklior or a statesman , and calls him a lean and slippered pantaloon , a pitiful old gentleman , a moan and contemptible egotist , a smirking , grimacing , old dancing-master , who patronised Lebrun , could not understand Lcsuuur , Claude dc Lorraine , or Pousain , gave Molierc the smallest pension aiucordud to any poet of his day , wasted tho genius of liacine , and corrupted the morality of France by hid patronage of the most ignoble and loathsome of persons .
Mr . St . John ' s abridgment in a careful reconstruction of the Memoirs upon a reduced ticaile . JSo important matter has been sacrificed ; few stories liavo been omittod . Since the reader wi . l find it easy and pleasant to follow the narrative for himself , we shall best characterize tho book by a few quotations -. —
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May 30 , 1857 . ] - THE LEADER . 521 _
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THIS POLISH OF COURT MANNERS . ' A son of Slontbron , no inore 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 had 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 himselt 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 tlie King had disconcerted him , and promised marvels for the ball which was to follow . He 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 . As soon as he 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 heartilv , and most of us quite loud , so that I do not think any one was ever treated so before . Montbron disappeared immediately afterwards , and did not show himself again for a long time . MADAME PANACHE 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 torinentin < T her . She in turn abused the company at these parties , in order to cause diversion , but 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 sauc s 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 CHARXACE . 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 bodv guard . Having retired to his own house , he often played off many a prank . One of these E 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 hia 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 , shov / ing 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 , Charnace 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 , and perceived he had gone too fur . Returning , he searched diligently for his house , but without being able to find it . The night passed in this exorcise . When the day came he rubbed his eyes , thinking they might have been in fault ; but as he found them as clear as usual , began 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 as 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 ho had left it , and then became quite persuaded he had been tricked by a sorcerer . The day was not , however , very far advanced before he learned the truth through tho banter of his neighbours . In fury he talked of going to law , of demanding justice , but was laughed at everywhere . The King when he heard of it laughed 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 . TUB rOLITB PKINCESSE u ' lIAKCOUUT . Entering tho room in which the ambassadors were to be received and where a largo number of ladies were already collected , she glided behind the Duchesse do Rohan , and told her to pass to the left . The Duchesae do Rohun , much surprised , replied that she was very well placed already . Whereupon , the Princesse d'Jlarcourt , who was tall and strong , made no further ado , but with her two arms seized tho Duchesso do Rohan , tarned her round , and sat down in hor placo . All the ladies were strangely scandalized at this , but none dured say a word , not oven Madame do Ludo , lady in waiting on the Ducltuase do Bourgogno , who , for her part ulso , felt the insolence qf tho act , but dared not speak , being so young . As for the Ducheaso do Rohan , feeling that opposition must lead to nsticiifid , she curtseyed to tho Duchesse and quietly rotlred to another place . M . DK MJX 1 CMB 0 URO- AT A MASKKD BALI .. Soon nfler my arrival at tho ball , I saw a Uguro strangely clad in long flowing muslin , and with a head-dress on which was fixed the horns of a stag , so high that they became entangled in tho chandelier . Of course everybody was much astonished at ao etrungo a sight , and all thought that that mask must be very sure of hia wife to deck himself so . Suddenly the musk turned round and showed us M . do Luxembourg . Tho burst of laughter at thia was scandalous . Good M . do Luxembourg , who never was very remarkable for wit , benignly took ull this laughter as having beuu excited Bimplv by tho singularity of his costume , and to tho questions addressed him , repliod quite ' simply that hia dross hud been arranged by M . lo Prince ; then , turning to tho right and to tho loft , ho admired himself and strutted with pleasure at Uaving boon inaaqucd by M . lo Prince . In a moment more tho ladies arrived , and tho King immediately uftor thorn . Tho laughter commenced anew as loudly as over , and M > do Luxembourg presented himself to tho company with a confidence that was ravishing . His wife hud heard nothing of this masquerading , and , when she saw it lost countenance , brazen as aho was . Everybody stared at hor and hor husband , and sooaiod dying of laughter . M . lo Prince looked at tho scene from behind tho King , « " <> inwardly laughod at his malicious trick . This amusement lasted throughout all the ball , and tho King , Bolf-oontulnod as ho usually was , laughed also ; poopjto woro never tired of admiring an invontlon bo cruelly ridiculous , and apoko bf it for several days . TIIIC INDIOICBTION OK A KING ' t ) SOX . They found Moneoignour half naked ; his servants endeavouring to make him wallc
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 30, 1857, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2195/page/17/
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