Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 19

GARCENAULT (De), first president of the Court of Besancon in 1834. He got the chapter of the cathedral to secure Albert Savarus as counsel in a lawsuit between the chapter and the city. Savarus won the suit.

[Albert Savarus.]

GARNERY, one of two special detectives in May, 1830, authorized by the attorney-general, De Granville, to seize certain letters written to Lucien de Rubempre by Mme. de Serizy, the d.u.c.h.esse de Maufrigneuse and Mlle. Clotilde de Grandlieu. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GASNIER, peasant living near Gren.o.ble; born about 1789. Married and the father of several children whom he loved dearly. Inconsolable at the loss of the eldest. Doctor Bena.s.sis, mayor of the commune, mentioned this parental affection as a rare instance among tillers of the soil. [The Country Doctor.]

Ga.s.sELIN, a Breton born in 1794; servant of the Guenics of Guerande, in 1836, having been in their employ since he was fifteen. A short, stout fellow with black hair, furrowed face; silent and slow. He took care of the garden and stables. In 1832 in the foolish venture of d.u.c.h.esse de Berry, in which Ga.s.selin took part with the Baron du Guenic and his son Calyste, the faithful servant received a sabre cut on the shoulder, while s.h.i.+elding the young man. This action seemed so natural to the family that Ga.s.selin received small thanks. [Beatrix.]

GASTON (Louis), elder natural son of Lady Brandon, born in 1805. Left an orphan in the early years of the Restoration, he was, though still a child, like a father to his younger brother Marie Gaston, whom he placed in college at Tours; after which he himself s.h.i.+pped as cabin-boy on a man-of-war. After being raised to the rank of captain of an American s.h.i.+p and becoming wealthy in India, he died at Calcutta, during the first part of the reign of Louis Philippe, as a result of the failure of the "famous Halmer," and just as he was starting back to France, married and happy. [La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides.]

GASTON (Marie), second natural son of Lady Brandon; born in 1810.

Educated at the college of Tours, which he quitted in 1827. Poet; protege of Daniel d'Arthez, who often gave him food and shelter. In 1831 he met Louise de Chaulieu, the widow of Mac.u.mer, at the home of Mme. d'Espard. He married her in October, 1833, though she was older than he, and he was enc.u.mbered with debts amounting to 30,000 francs.

The couple living quietly at Ville-d'Avray, were happy until a day when the jealous Louise conceived unjustifiable suspicions concerning the fidelity of her husband; on which account she died after they had been married two years. During these two years Gaston wrote at least four plays. One of them written in collaboration with his wife was presented with the greatest success under the names of Nathan and "others." [La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides.] In his early youth Gaston had published, at the expense of his friend Dorlange, a volume of poetry, "Les Perce-neige," the entire edition of which found its way, at three sous the volume, to a second-hand book-shop, whence, one fine day, it inundated the quays from Pont Royal to Pont Marie. [The Member for Arcis.]

GASTON (Madame Louis), an Englishwoman of cold, distant manners; wife of Louis Gaston; probably married him in India where he died as a result of unfortunate business deals. As a widow she came to France with two children, where without resource she became a charge to her brother-in-law who visited and aided her secretly. She lived in Paris on rue de la Ville-Eveque. The visits made by Marie Gaston were spoken of to his wife who became jealous, not knowing their object. Mme.

Louis Gaston was thus innocently the cause of Mme. Marie Gaston's death. [Letters of Two Brides.]

GASTON (Madame Marie), born Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu, in 1805.

At first destined to take the veil; educated at the Carmelite convent of Blois with Renee de Maucombe who became Mme. de l'Estorade. She remained constant in her relations with this faithful friend--at least by letter--who was a prudent and wise adviser. In 1825 Louise married her professor in Spanish, the Baron de Mac.u.mer, whom she lost in 1829.

In 1833 she married the poet Marie Gaston. Both marriages were sterile. In the first she was adored and believed that she loved; in the second she was loved as much as she loved, but her insane jealousy, and her horseback rides from Ville-d'Avray to Verdier's were her undoing, and she died in 1835 of consumption, contracted purposely through despair at the thought that she had been deceived. After leaving the convent she had lived successively at the following places: on Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris, where she saw M. de Bonald; at Chantepleur, an estate in Burgundy, at La Crampade, in Provence, with Mme. de l'Estorade; in Italy; at Ville-d'Avray, where she sleeps her last sleep in a park of her own planning. [Letters of Two Brides.]

GATIENNE, servant of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems, at Bayeux, in 1805. [A Second Home.]

GAUBERT, one of the most ill.u.s.trious generals of the Republic; first husband of a Mlle. de Ronquerolles whom he left a widow at the age of twenty, making her his heir. She married again in 1806, choosing the Comte de Serizy. [A Start in Life.]

GAUBERTIN (Francois), born about 1770; son of the ex-sheriff of Soulanges, Burgundy, before the Revolution. About 1791, after five years' clerks.h.i.+p to the steward of Mlle. Laguerre at Aigues, he succeeded to the stewards.h.i.+p. His father having become public prosecutor in the department, time of the Republic, he was made mayor of Blangy. In 1796 he married the "citizeness" Isaure Mouchon, by whom he had three children: a son, Claude, and two daughters, Jenny--Mme.

Leclercq--and Eliza. He had also a natural son, Bournier, whom he placed in charge of a local newspaper. At the death of Mlle. Laguerre, Gaubertin, after twenty-five years of stewards.h.i.+p, possessed 600,000 francs. He ended by dreaming of acquiring the estate at Aigues; but the Comte de Montcornet purchased it, retained him in charge, caught him one day in a theft and discharged him summarily. Gaubertin received at that time sundry lashes with a whip of which he said nothing, but for which he revenged himself. The old steward became, nevertheless, a person of importance. In 1820 he was mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, and supplied one-third of the Paris wood. Being general agent of this rural industry, he managed the forests, lumber and guards. Gaubertin was related throughout a whole district, like a "boa-constrictor twisted around a gigantic tree"; the church, the magistracy, the munic.i.p.ality, the government--all did his bidding.

Even the peasantry served his interests indirectly. When the general, disgusted by the numberless vexations of his estate, wished to sell the property at Aigues, Gaubertin bought the forests, while his partners, Rigou and Soudry, acquired the vineyards and other grounds.

[The Peasantry.]

GAUBERTIN (Madame), born Isaure Mouchon in 1778. Daughter of a member of the Convention and friend of Gaubertin senior. Wife of Francois Gaubertin. An affected creature of Ville-aux-Fayes who played the great lady mightily. [The Peasantry.]

GAUBERTIN (Claude), son of Francois Gaubertin, G.o.dson of Mlle.

Laguerre, at whose expense he was educated at Paris. The busiest attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. After five years' practice he spoke of selling his office. He probably became judge. [The Peasantry.]

GAUBERTIN (Jenny), elder daughter of Francois Gaubertin. (See Leclercq, Madame.)

GAUBERTIN (Elisa or Elise), second daughter of Francois Gaubertin.

Loved, courted and longed for since 1819 by the sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, M. des Lupeaulx--the nephew. M. Lupin, notary at Soulanges, sought on his part the young girl's hand for his only son Amaury. [The Peasantry.]

GAUBERTIN-VALLAT (Mademoiselle), old maid, sister of Mme. Sibilet, wife of the clerk of the court at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1823. She ran the town's stamp office. [The Peasantry.]

GAUCHER was in 1803 a boy working for Michu. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

GAUDET, second clerk in Desroches' law office in 1824. [A Start in Life.]

GAUDIN, chief of squadron in the mounted grenadiers of the Imperial Guard; made baron of the Empire, with the estate of Wistchnau. Made prisoner by Cossacks at the pa.s.sage of the Beresina, he escaped, going to India where he was lost sight of. However he returned to France about 1830, in bad health, but a multi-millionaire. [The Magic Skin.]

GAUDIN (Madame), wife of foregoing, managed the Hotel Saint-Quentin, rue des Cordiers, Paris, during the Restoration. Among her guests was Raphael de Valentin. Her husband's return in 1830 made her wealthy and a baroness. [The Magic Skin.]

GAUDIN (Pauline), daughter of the foregoing. Was acquainted with, loved, and modestly aided Raphael de Valentin, a poor lodger at Hotel Saint-Quintin. After the return of her father she lived with her parents on rue Saint-Lazare. For a long time her whereabouts were unknown to Raphael who had quitted the hotel abruptly; then he met her again one evening at the Italiens. They fell into each other's arms, declaring their mutual love. Raphael who also had become rich resolved to espouse Pauline; but frightened by the shrinkage of the "magic skin" he fled precipitately and returned to Paris. Pauline hastened after him, only to behold him die upon her breast in a transport of furious, impotent love. [The Magic Skin.]

GAUDISSART (Jean-Francois), father of Felix Gaudissart. [Cesar Birotteau.]

GAUDISSART (Felix), native of Normandy, born about 1792, a "great"

commercial traveler making a specialty of the hat trade. Known to the Finots, having been in the employ of the father of Andoche. Also handled all the "articles of Paris." In 1816 he was arrested on the denunciation of Peyrade--Pere Canquoelle. He had imprudently conversed in the David cafe with a retired officer concerning a conspiracy against the Bourbons that was about to break out. Thus the conspiracy was thwarted and two men were sent to the scaffold. Gaudissart being released by Judge Popinot was ever after grateful to the magistrate and devoted to the interests of his nephew. When he became minister, Anselme Popinot obtained for Gaudissart license for a large theatre on the boulevard, which in 1834 aimed to supply the demand for popular opera. This theatre employed Sylvain Pons, Schmucke, Schwab, Garangeot and Heloise Brisetout, Felix's mistress. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Cousin Pons.] "Gaudissart the Great," then a young man, attended the Birotteau ball. About that time he probably lived on rue des Deux-Ecus, Paris. [Cesar Birotteau.] During the Restoration, a "pretended florist's agent" sent by Judge Popinot to Comte Octave de Bauvan, he bought at exorbitant prices the artificial flowers made by Honorine.

[Honorine.] At Vouvray in 1831 this man, so accustomed to fool others, was himself mystified in rather an amusing manner by a retired dyer, a sort of "country Figaro" named Vernier. A bloodless duel resulted.

After the episode, Gaudissart boasted that the affair had been to his advantage. He was "in this Saint-Simonian period" the lover of Jenny Courand. [Gaudissart the Great.]

GAUDRON (Abbe), an Auvergnat; vicar and then curate of the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, rue Saint-Antoine, Paris, during the Restoration and the Government of July. A peasant filled with faith, square below and above, a "sacerdotal ox" utterly ignorant of the world and of literature. Being confessor of Isidore Baudoyer he endeavored in 1824 to further the promotion of that incapable chief of bureau in the Department of Finance. In the same year he was present at a dinner at the Comte de Bauvan's when were discussed questions relating to woman. [The Government Clerks. Honorine.] In 1826 Abbe Gaudron confessed Mme. Clapart and led her into devout paths; the former Aspasia of the Directory had not confessed for forty years. In February, 1830, the priest obtained the Dauphiness' protection for Oscar Husson, son of Mme. Clapart by her first husband, and that young man was promoted to a sub-lieutenancy in a regiment where he had been serving as subaltern. [A Start in Life.]

GAULT, warden of the Conciergerie in May, 1830, when Jacques Collin and Rubempre were imprisoned there. He was then aged. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GAY, boot-maker in Paris, rue de la Michodiere, in 1821, who furnished the boots for Rubempre which aroused Matifat's suspicion. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

GAZONAL (Sylvestre-Palafox-Castel), one of the most skillful weavers in the Eastern Pyrenees; commandant of the National Guard, September, 1795. On a visit to Paris in 1845 for the settlement of an important lawsuit he sought out his cousin, Leon de Lora, the landscape artist, who in one day, with Bixiou the caricaturist, showed him the under side of the city, opening up to him a whole gallery full of "unconscious humorists"--dancers, actresses, police-agents, etc.

Thanks to his two cicerones, he won his lawsuit and returned home.

[The Unconscious Humorists.]

GENDRIN, caricaturist, tenant of M. Molineux, Cour Batave, in 1818.

According to his landlord, the artist was a profoundly immoral man who drew caricatures against the government, brought bad women home with him and made the hall uninhabitable. [Cesar Birotteau.]

GENDRIN, brother-in-law of Gaubertin the steward of Aigues. He also had married a daughter of Mouchon. Formerly an attorney, then for a long time a judge of the Court of First Instance at Ville-aux-Fayes, he at last became president of the court, through the influence of Comte de Soulanges, under the Restoration. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN, court counselor of a departmental seat in Burgundy, and a distant relative of President Gendrin. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN, only son of President Gendrin; recorder of mortgages in that sub-prefecture in 1823. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN-WATTEBLED (or Vatebled), born about 1733. General supervisor of streams and forests at Soulanges, Burgundy, from the reign of Louis XV. Was still in office in 1823. A nonagenarian he spoke, in his lucid moments, of the jurisdiction of the Marble Table. He reigned over Soulanges before Mme. Soudry's advent. [The Peasantry.]

GENESTAS (Pierre-Joseph), cavalry officer, born in 1779. At first a regimental lad, then a soldier. Sub-lieutenant in 1802; officer of the Legion of Honor after the battle of Moskowa; chief of squadron in 1829. In 1814 he married the widow of his friend Renard, a subaltern.

She died soon after, leaving a child that was legally recognized by Genestas, who entrusted him, then a young man, to the care of Dr.

Bena.s.sis. In December, 1829, Genestas was promoted to be a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment quartered at Poitiers. [The Country Doctor.]

GENESTAS (Madame Judith), Polish Jewess, born in 1795. Married in 1812 after the Sarmatian custom to her lover Renard, a French quartermaster, who was killed in 1813. Judith gave him one son, Adrien, and survived the father one year. _In extremis_ she married Genestas a former lover, who adopted Adrien. [The Country Doctor.]

GENESTAS (Adrien), adopted son of Commandant Genestas, born in 1813 to Judith the Polish Jewess and Renard who was killed before the birth of his son. Adrien was a living picture of his mother--olive complexion, beautiful black eyes of a spirituelle sadness, and a head of hair too heavy for his frail body. When sixteen he seemed but twelve. He had fallen into bad habits, but after living with Dr. Bena.s.sis for eight months, he was cured and became robust. [The Country Doctor.]

GENEVIEVE, an idiotic peasant girl, ugly and comparatively rich.

Friend and companion of the Comtesse de Vandieres, then insane and an inmate of the asylum of Bons-Hommes, near Isle-Adam, during the Restoration. Jilted by a mason, Dallot, who had promised to marry her, Genevieve lost what little sense love had aroused in her. [Farewell.]

GENOVESE, tenor at the Fenice theatre, Venice, in 1820. Born at Bergamo in 1797. Pupil of Veluti. Having long loved La Tinti, he sang outrageously in her presence, so long as she resisted his advances, but regained all his powers after she yielded to him. [Ma.s.similla Doni.] In the winter of 1823-24, at the home of Prince Gandolphini, in Geneva, Genovese sang with his mistress, an exiled Italian prince, and Princess Gandolphini, the famous quartette, "Mi manca la voce."

[Albert Savarus.]

GENTIL, old valet in service of Mme. de Bargeton, during the Restoration. During the summer of 1821, with Albertine and Lucien de Rubempre, he accompanied his mistress to Paris. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

GENTILLET, sold in 1835 an old diligence to Albert Savarus when the latter was leaving Besancon after the visit on the part of Prince Soderini. [Albert Savarus.]

GENTILLET (Madame), maternal grandmother of Felix Grandet. She died in 1806 leaving considerable property. In Grandet's "drawing room" at Saumur was a pastel of Mme. Gentillet, representing her as a shepherdess. [Eugenie Grandet.]