Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 2

ARGAIOLO (Duc d'), a very rich and well-born Italian, the respected though aged husband of her who later became the d.u.c.h.esse de Rhetore, to the perpetual grief of Albert Savarus. Argaiolo died, almost an octogenarian, in 1835. [Albert Savarus.]

ARGAIOLO (d.u.c.h.esse d'), nee Soderini, wife of the Duc d'Argaiolo. She became a widow in 1835, and took as her second husband the Duc de Rhetore. (See d.u.c.h.esse de Rhetore.) [Albert Savarus.]

ARRACHELAINE, surname of the rogue, Ruffard. (See that name.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

ARTHEZ (Daniel d'), one of the most ill.u.s.trious authors of the nineteenth century, and one of those rare men who display "the unity of excellent talent and excellent character." Born about 1794 or 1796.

A Picard gentleman. In 1821, when about twenty-five, he was poverty-stricken and dwelt on the fifth floor of a dismal house in the rue des Quatre-Vents, Paris, where had also resided the ill.u.s.trious surgeon Desplein, in his youth. There he fraternized with: Horace Bianchon, then house-physician at Hotel-Dieu; Leon Giraud, the profound philosopher; Joseph Bridau, the painter who later achieved so much renown; Fulgence Ridal, comic poet of great sprightliness; Meyraux, the eminent physiologist who died young; lastly, Louis Lambert and Michel Chrestien, the Federalist Republican, both of whom were cut off in their prime. To these men of heart and of talent Lucien de Rubempre, the poet, sought to attach himself. He was introduced by Daniel d'Arthez, their recognized leader. This society had taken the name of the "Cenacle." D'Arthez and his friends advised and aided, when in need, Lucien the "Distinguished Provincial at Paris" who ended so tragically. Moreover, with a truly remarkable disinterestedness d'Arthez corrected and revised "The Archer of Charles IX.," written by Lucien, and the work became a superb book, in his hands. Another glimpse of d'Arthez is as the unselfish friend of Marie Gaston, a young poet of his stamp, but "effeminate." D'Arthez was swarthy, with long locks, rather small and bearing some resemblance to Bonaparte. He might be called the rival of Rousseau, "the Aquatic," since he was very temperate, very pure, and drank water only. For a long time he ate at Flicoteaux's in the Latin Quarter. He had grown famous in 1832, besides enjoying an income of thirty thousand francs bequeathed by an uncle who had left him a prey to the most biting poverty so long as the author was unknown. D'Arthez then resided in a pretty house of his own in the rue de Bellefond, where he lived in other respects as formerly, in the rigor of work. He was a deputy sitting on the right and upholding the Royalist platform of Divine Right. When he had acquired a competence, he had a most vulgar and incomprehensible _liaison_ with a woman tolerably pretty, but belonging to a lower society and without either education or breeding. D'Arthez maintained her, nevertheless, carefully concealing her from sight; but, far from being a pleasurable manner of life, it became odious to him. It was at this time that he was invited to the home of Diane de Maufrigneuse, Princesse de Cadignan, who was then thirty-six, but did not look it.

The famous "great coquette" told him her (so-called) "secrets,"

offered herself outright to this man whom she treated as a "famous simpleton," and whom she made her lover. After that day there was no doubt about the relations of the princesse and Daniel d'Arthez. The great author, whose works became very rare, appeared only during some of the winter months at the Chamber of Deputies. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Member for Arcis. The Secrets of a Princess.]

ASIE, one of the pseudonyms of Jacqueline Collin. (See that name.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

ATHALIE, cook for Mme. Schontz in 1836. According to her mistress, she was specially gifted in preparing venison. [The Muse of the Department.]

AUBRION (Marquis d'), a gentleman-in-waiting of the Bedchamber, under Charles X. He was of the house of Aubrion de Buch, whose last head died before 1789. He was silly enough to wed a woman of fas.h.i.+on, though he was already an old man of but twenty thousand francs income, a sum hardly sufficient in Paris. He tried to marry his daughter without a dowry to some man who was intoxicated with n.o.bility. In 1827, to quote Mme. d'Aubrion, this ancient wreck was madly devoted to the d.u.c.h.esse de Chaulieu [Eugenie Grandet.]

AUBRION (Marquise d'), wife of the preceding. Born in 1789. At thirty-eight she was still pretty, and, having always been somewhat aspiring, she endeavored (in 1827), by hook or by crook, to entangle Charles Grandet, lately returned from the Indies. She wished to make a son-in-law out of him, and she succeeded. [Eugenie Grandet.]

AUBRION (Mathilde d') daughter of the Marquis and Marquise d'Aubrion; born in 1808; married to Charles Grandet. (See that name.) [Eugenie Grandet.]

AUBRION (Comte d'), the t.i.tle acquired by Charles Grandet after his marriage to the daughter of the Marquis d'Aubrion. [The Firm of Nucingen.]

AUFFRAY, grocer at Provins, in the period of Louis XV., Louis XVI. and the Revolution. M. Auffray married the first time when eighteen, the second time at sixty-nine. By his first wife he had a rather ugly daughter who married, at sixteen, a landlord of Provins, Rogron by name. Auffray had another daughter, by his second marriage, a charming girl, this time, who married a Breton captain in the Imperial Guard.

Pierrette Lorrain was the daughter of this officer. The old grocer Auffray died at the time of the Empire without having had time enough to make his will. The inheritance was so skillfully manipulated by Rogron, the first son-in-law of the deceased, that almost nothing was left for the goodman's widow, then only about thirty-eight years old.

[Pierrette.]

AUFFRAY (Madame), wife of the preceding. (See Neraud, Mme.) [Pierrette.]

AUFFRAY, a notary of Provins in 1827. Husband of Mme. Guenee's third daughter. Great-grand-nephew of the old grocer, Auffray. Appointed a guardian of Pierrette Lorrain. On account of the ill-treatment to which this young girl was subjected at the home of her guardian, Denis Rogron, she was removed, an invalid, to the home of the notary Auffray, a designated guardian, where she died, although tenderly cared for. [Pierrette.]

AUFFRAY (Madame), born Guenee. Wife of the preceding. The third daughter of Mme. Guenee, born Tiphaine. She exhibited the greatest kindness for Pierrette Lorrain, and nursed her tenderly in her last illness. [Pierrette.]

AUGUSTE, name borne by Boislaurier, as chief of "brigands," in the uprisings of the West under the Republic and under the Empire. [The Seamy Side of History.]

AUGUSTE, _valet de chambre_ of the General Marquis Armand de Montriveau, under the Restoration, at the time when the latter dwelt in the rue de Seine hard by the Chamber of Peers, and was intimate with the d.u.c.h.esse Antoinette de Langeais. [The Thirteen.]

AUGUSTE, notorious a.s.sa.s.sin, executed in the first years of the Restoration. He left a mistress, surnamed Rousse, to whom Jacques Collin had faithfully remitted (in 1819) some twenty odd thousands of francs, on behalf of her lover after his execution. This woman was married in 1821, by Jacques Collin's sister, to the head clerk of a rich, wholesale hardware merchant. Nevertheless, though once more in respectable society, she remained bound, by a secret compact, to the terrible Vautrin and his sister. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

AUGUSTE (Madame), dressmaker of Esther Gobseck, and her creditor in the time of Louis XVIII. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

AUGUSTIN, _valet de chambre_ of M. de Serizy in 1822. [A Start in Life.]

AURELIE, a Parisian courtesan, under Louis Philippe, at the time when Mme. Fabien du Ronceret commenced her conquests. [Beatrix.]

AURELIE (La Pet.i.te), one of the nicknames of Josephine Schiltz, also called Schontz, who became, later, Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. [Beatrix.]

AUVERGNAT (L'), one of the a.s.sumed names of the rogue Selerier, alias Pere Ralleau, alias Rouleur, alias Fil-de-soie. (See Selerier.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

B

BABYLAS, groom or "tiger" of Amedee de Soulas, in 1834, at Besancon.

Was fourteen years old at this time. The son of one of his master's tenants. He earned thirty-six francs a month by his position to support himself, but he was neat and skillful. [Albert Savarus.]

BAPTISTE, _valet de chambre_ to the d.u.c.h.esse de Lenoncourt-Chaulieu in 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BARBANCHU, Bohemian with a c.o.c.ked hat, who was called into Vefour's by some journalists who breakfasted there at the expense of Jerome Thuillier, in 1840, and invited by them to "sponge" off of this urbane man, which he did. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

BARBANTI (The), a Corsican family who brought about the reconciliation of the Piombos and the Portas in 1800. [The Vendetta.]

BARBET, a dynasty of second-hand book-dealers in Paris under the Restoration and Louis Philippe. They were Normans. In 1821 and the years following, one of them ran a little shop on the quay des Grands-Augustins, and purchased Lousteau's books. In 1836, a Barbet, partner in a book-shop with Metivier and Morand, owned a wretched house on the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs and the boulevard du Mont-Parna.s.se, where dwelt the Baron Bourlac with his daughter and grandson. In 1840 the Barbets had become regular usurers dealing in credits with the firm of Cerizet and Company. The same year a Barbet occupied, in a house belonging to Jerome Thuillier, rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer (now rue Royal-Collard), a room on the first flight up and a shop on the ground floor. He was then a "publisher's shark." Barbet junior, a nephew of the foregoing, and editor in the alley des Panoramas, placed on the market at this time a brochure composed by Th. de la Peyrade but signed by Thuillier and having the t.i.tle "Capital and Taxes." [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Man of Business. The Seamy Side of History. The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

BARBETTE, wife of the great Cibot, known as Galope-Chopine. (See Cibot, Barbette.) [Les Chouans.]

BARCHOU DE PENHOEN (Auguste-Theodore-Hilaire), born at Morlaix (Finistere), April 28, 1801, died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, July 29, 1855. A school-mate of Balzac, Jules Dufaure and Louis Lambert, and his neighbors in the college dormitory of Vendome in 1811. Later he was an officer, then a writer of transcendental philosophy, a translator of Fichte, a friend and interpreter of Ballanche. In 1849 he was elected, by his fellow-citizens of Finistere, to the Legislative a.s.sembly where he represented the Legitimists and the Catholics. He protested against the _coup d'etat_ of December 2, 1851 (See "The Story of a Crime," by Victor Hugo). When a child he came under the influence of Pyrrhonism. He once gainsaid the talent of Louis Lambert, his Vendome school-mate. [Louis Lambert.]

BARGETON (De), born between 1761 and 1763. Great-grandson of an Alderman of Bordeau named Mirault, enn.o.bled during the reign of Louis XIII., and whose son, under Louis XIV., now Mirault de Bargeton, was an officer of the Guards de la Porte. He owned a house at Angouleme, in the rue du Minage, where he lived with his wife, Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, to whom he was entirely obedient. On her account, and at her instigation, he fought with one of the habitues of his salon, Stanislas de Chandour, who had circulated in the town a slander on Mme. de Bargeton. Bargeton lodged a bullet in his opponent's neck. He had for a second his father-in-law, M. de Negrepelisse. Following this, M. de Bargeton retired into his estate at Escarbas, near Barbezieux, while his wife, as a result of the duel left Angouleme for Paris. M. de Bargeton had been of good physique, but "injured by youthful excesses." He was commonplace, but a great gourmand. He died of indigestion towards the close of 1821. [Lost Illusions.]

BARGETON (Madame de), nee Marie-Louise-Anais Negrepelisse, wife of the foregoing. Left a widow, she married again, this time the Baron Sixte du Chatelet. (See that name.)

BARILLAUD, known by Frederic Alain whose suspicion he aroused with regard to MoneG.o.d. [The Seamy Side of History.]

BARIMORE (Lady), daughter of Lord Dudley, and apparently the wife of Lord Barimore, although it is a disputed question. Just after 1830, she helped receive at a function of Mlle. des Touches, rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin, where Marsay told about his first love affair.

[Another Study of Woman.]

BARKER (William), one of Vautrin's "incarnations." In 1824 or 1825, under this a.s.sumed name, he posed as one of the creditors of M.

d'Estourny, making him endorse some notes of Cerizet's, the partner of this M. d'Estourny. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BARNHEIM, family in good standing at Bade. On the maternal side, the family of Mme. du Ronceret, nee Schiltz, alias Schontz. [Beatrix.]

BARNIOL, Ph.e.l.lion's son-in-law. Head of an academy (in 1840), rue Saint-Hyacinthe-Saint-Michel (now, rue Le Goff and rue Malebrache). A rather influential man in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Visited the salon of Thuillier. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

BARNIOL (Madame), nee Ph.e.l.lion, wife of the preceding. She had been under-governess in the boarding school of the Mlles. Lagrave, rue Notre-Dame des Champs. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

BARRY (John), a young English huntsman, well known in the district whence the Prince of Loudon brought him to employ him at his own home.

He was with this great lord in 1829, 1830. [Modeste Mignon.]

BARTAS (Adrien de), of Angouleme. In 1821, he and his wife were very devoted callers at the Bargetons. M. de Bartas gave himself up entirely to music, talking about this subject incessantly, and courting invitations to sing with his heavy ba.s.s voice. He posed as the lover of Mme. de Brebion, the wife of his best friend. M. de Brebion became the lover of Mme. de Bartas. [Lost Illusions.]

BARTAS (Madame Josephine de), wife of the preceding, always called Fifine, "for short." [Lost Illusions.]

BASTIENNE, Parisian modiste in 1821. Finot's journal vaunted her hats, for a pecuniary consideration, and derogated those of Virginie, formerly praised. [Lost Illusions.]

BATAILLES (The), belonging to the bourgeoisie of Paris, traders of Marais, neighbors and friends of the Baudoyers and the Saillards in 1824. M. Bataille was a captain in the National Guard, a fact which he allowed no one to ignore. [The Government Clerks.]

BAUDENORD (G.o.defroid de), born in 1800. In 1821 he was one of the kings of fas.h.i.+on, in company with Marsay, Vandenesse, Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de Trailles, Rastignac, the Duc de Maufrigneuse and Manerville.

[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] His n.o.bility and breeding were perhaps not very orthodox. According to Mlle. Emilie de Fontaine, he was of bad figure and stout, having but a single advantage--that of his brown locks. [The Ball at Sceaux.] A cousin, by marriage, of his guardian, the Marquis d'Aiglemont, he was, like him, ruined by the Baron de Nucingen in the Wortschin mine deal. At one time Beaudenord thought of paying court to his pretty cousin, the Marquise d'Aiglemont. In 1827 he wedded Isaure d'Aldrigger and, after having lived with her in a cosy little house on the rue de le Planche, he was obliged to solicit employment of the Minister of Finance, a position which he lost on account of the Revolution of 1830. However, he was reinstated through the influence of Nucingen, in 1836. He now lived modestly with his mother-in-law, his unmarried sister-in-law, Malvina, his wife and four children which she had given him, on the third floor, over the entresol, rue du Mont-Thabor. [The Firm of Nucingen.]