Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 23

GRa.s.sINS (Madame des), born about 1780; wife of foregoing, giving him two children; spent most of her life at Saumur. Her husband's position and sundry physical charms which she was able to preserve till nearly her fortieth year enabled her to s.h.i.+ne somewhat in society. With the Cruchots she often visited the Grandets, and, like the family of the President de Bonfons, she dreamed of mating Eugenie with her son Adolphe. The dissipated life of her husband at Paris and the combination of the Cruchots upset her plans. Nor was she able to do much for her daughter. However, deprived of much of her property and making the best of things, Mme. des Gra.s.sins continued unaided the management of the bank at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]

GRa.s.sINS (Adolphe des), born in 1797, son of M. and Mme. des Gra.s.sins; studied law at Paris where he lived in a lavish way. A caller at the Nucingens where he met Charles Grandet. Returned to Saumur in 1819 and vainly courted Eugenie Grandet. Finally he returned to Paris and rejoined his father whose wild life he imitated. [Eugenie Grandet.]

GRa.s.sOU (Pierre), born at Fougeres, Brittany, in 1795. Son of a Vendean peasant and militant Royalist. Removing at an early age to Paris he began as clerk to a paint-dealer who was from Mayenne and a distant relative of the Orgemonts. A mistaken idea led him toward art.

His Breton stubbornness led him successively to the studios of Servin, Schinner and Sommervieux. He afterwards studied, but fruitlessly, the works of Granet and Drolling; then he completed his art studies with Duval-Lecamus. Gra.s.sou profited nothing by his work with these masters, nor did his acquaintance with Lora or Joseph Bridau a.s.sist him. Though he could understand and admire he lacked the creative faculty and the skill in execution. For this reason Gra.s.sou, usually called Fougeres by his comrades, obtained their warm support and succeeded in getting admission into the Salon of 1829, for his "Toilet of a Condemned Chouan," a very mediocre painting palpably along the lines of Gerard Dow. The work obtained for him from Charles X. the cross of the Legion of Honor. At last his canva.s.ses found purchasers.

Elie Magus gave him an order for pictures after the Flemish school, which he sold to Vervelle as works of Dow or Teniers. At that time Gra.s.sou lived at No. 2 rue de Navarin. He became the son-in-law of Vervelle, in 1832, marrying Virginie Vervelle, the heiress of the family, who brought him a dowry of one hundred thousand francs, as well as country and city property. His determined mediocrity opened the doors of the Academy to him and made him an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1830, and major of a battalion in the National Guard after the riots of May 12. He was adored by the middle cla.s.ses, becoming their accredited artist. Painted portraits of all the members of the Crevel and Thuillier families, and also of the director of the theatre who preceded Gaudissart. Left many frightful and ridiculous daubs, one of which found its way into Topinard's humble home. [Pierre Gra.s.sou. A Bachelor's Establishment. Cousin Betty. The Middle Cla.s.ses. Cousin Pons.]

GRa.s.sOU (Madame Pierre), born Virginie Vervelle; red-haired and homely; sole heiress of wealthy dealers in cork, on rue Boucherat.

Wife of the preceding whom she married in Paris in 1832. There is a portrait of her painted in this same year before her marriage, which at first was a colorless study by Gra.s.sou, but was dexterously retouched by Joseph Bridau. [Pierre Gra.s.sou.]

GRAVELOT brothers, lumber-merchants of Paris, who purchased in 1823 the forests of Aigues, the Burgundy estate of General de Montcornet.

[The Peasantry.]

GRAVIER, paymaster-general of the army during the first Empire, and interested at that time in large Spanish affairs with certain commanding officers. Upon the return of the Bourbons he purchased at twenty thousand francs of La Baudraye the office of tax-receiver for Sancerres, which office he still held about 1836. With the Abbe Duret and others he frequented the home of Mme. Dinah de la Baudraye. He was little, fat and common. His court made little way with the baroness, despite his talent and his worldly-wise ways of a bachelor. He sang ballads, told stories, and displayed pseudo-rare autographs. [The Muse of the Department.]

GRAVIER, of Gren.o.ble; head of a family; father-in-law of a notary; chief of division of the prefecture of Isere in 1829. Knew Genestas and recommended to him Dr. Bena.s.sis, the mayor of the village of which he himself was one of the benefactors, as the one to attend Adrien Genestas-Renard. [The Country Doctor.]

GRENIER, known as Fleur-de-Genet; deserter from the Sixty-ninth demi-brigade; chauffeur executed in 1809. [The Seamy Side of History.]

GRENOUVILLE, proprietor of a large and splendid notion store in Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, about 1840; a customer of the Bijous, embroiderers also in business at Paris. At this time an ardent admirer of Mlle. Olympe Bijou, former mistress of Baron Hulot and Idamore Chardin. He married her and gave an income to her parents. [Cousin Betty.]

GRENOUVILLE (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Olympe Bijou, about 1824. In the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe she lived in Paris near La Courtille, in rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple. Was a pretty but poor embroiderer surrounded by a numerous and poverty-stricken family when Josepha Mirah obtained for her old Baron Hulot and a shop. Having abandoned Hulot for Idamore Chardin, who left her, Olympe married Grenouville and became a well-known tradeswoman. [Cousin Betty.]

GRENVILLE (Arthur-Ormond, Lord), wealthy Englishman; was being treated at Montpellier for lung trouble when the rupture of the treaty of peace of Amiens confined him to Tours. About 1814 he fell in love with the Marquise Victor d'Aiglemont, whom he afterwards met elsewhere.

Posing as a physician he attended her in an illness and succeeded in curing her. He visited her also in Paris, finally dying to save her honor, after suffering his fingers to be crushed in a door--1823. [A Woman of Thirty.]

GREVIN of Arcis, Aube, began life in the same way as his compatriot and intimate friend Malin de Gondreville. In 1787, he was second clerk to Maitre Bordin, attorney of the Chatelet, Paris. Returned to Champagne at the outbreak of the Revolution. There he received the successive protection of Danton, Bonaparte and Gondreville. By virtue of them he became an oracle to the Liberals, was enabled to marry Mlle. Varlet, the only daughter of the best physician of the city, to purchase a notary's practice, and to become wealthy. A level-headed man, Grevin often advised Gondreville, and he directed the mysterious and fict.i.tious abduction--1803 and the years following. Of his union with Mlle. Varlet, who died rather young, one daughter was born, Severine, who became Mme. Phileas Beauvisage. In his old age he devoted a great deal of attention to his children and their brilliant future, especially during the election of May, 1839. [A Start in Life.

The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

GREVIN (Madame), wife of foregoing; born Varlet; daughter of the best doctor of Arcis-sur-Aube; sister of another Varlet, a doctor in the same town; mother of Mme. Severine Phileas Beauvisage. With Mme.

Marion she was more or less implicated in the Gondreville mystery. She died rather young. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

GREVIN, corsair, who served under Admiral de Simeuse in the Indies. In 1816, paralyzed and deaf, he lived with his granddaughter, Mme.

Lardot, a laundress of Alencon, who employed Cesarine and Suzanne and was patronized by the Chevalier de Valois. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

GRIBEAUCOURT (Mademoiselle de), old maid of Saumur and friend of the Cruchots during the Restoration. [Eugenie Grandet.]

GRIFFITH (Miss), born in 1787; Scotch woman, daughter of a minister in straitened circ.u.mstances; under the Restoration she was governess of Louise de Chaulieu, whose love she won by reason of her kindliness and penetration. [Letters of Two Brides.]

GRIGNAULT (Sophie). (See Nathan, Mme. Raoul.)

GRIMBERT, held, in 1819, at Ruffec, Charente, the office of the Royal Couriers. At that time he received from Mlles. Laure and Agathe de Rastignac, a considerable sum of money addressed to their brother Eugene, at the Pension Vauquer, Paris. [Father Goriot.]

GRIMONT, born about 1786; a priest of some capability; cure of Guerande, Brittany. In 1836, a constant visitor at the Guenics, he exerted a tardily acquired influence over Felicite des Touches, whose disappointments in love he fathomed and whom he determined to turn towards a religious life. Her conversion gave Grimont the vicar-generals.h.i.+p of the diocese of Nantes. [Beatrix.]

GRIMPEL, physician at Paris in the Pantheon quarter, time of Louis XVIII. Among his patients was Mme. Vauquer, who sent for him to attend Vautrin when the latter was overcome by a narcotic treacherously administered by Mlle. Michonneau. [Father Goriot.]

GRINDOT, French architect in the first half of the nineteenth century; won the Roman prize in 1814. His talent, which met the approval of the Academy, was heartily recognized by the ma.s.ses of Paris. About the end of 1818 Cesar Birotteau gave him carte-blanche in the remodeling of his apartments on rue Saint-Honore, and invited him to his ball.

Matifat, between the years 1821 and 1822, commissioned him to ornament the suite of Mme. Raoul Nathan on rue de Bondy. The Comte de Serizy employed him likewise in 1822 in the restoration of his chateau of Presles near Beaumont-sur-Oise. About 1829 Grindot embellished a little house on rue Saint-Georges where successively dwelt Suzanne Gaillard and Esther van Gobseck. Time of Louis Philippe, Arthur de Rochefide, and M. and Mme. Fabien du Ronceret gave him contracts. His decline and that of the monarchy coincided. He was no longer in vogue during the July government. On motion of Chaffaroux he received twenty-five thousand francs for the decoration of four rooms of Thuillier's. Lastly Crevel, an imitator and grinder, utilized Grindot on rue des Saussaies, rue du Dauphin and rue Barbet-de-Jouy for his official and secret habitations. [Cesar Birotteau. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Start in Life. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Beatrix. The Middle Cla.s.ses. Cousin Betty.]

GROISON, non-commissioned officer of cavalry in the Imperial Guard; later, during the Restoraton, estate-keeper of Blangy, where he succeeded Vaudoyer at a salary of three hundred francs. Montcornet, mayor of that commune arranged a marriage between the old soldier and the orphan daughter of one of his farmers who brought him three acres of vineyards. [The Peasantry.]

GROS (Antoine-Jean), celebrated painter born in Paris in 1771, drowned himself June, 1835. Was the teacher of Joseph Bridau and, despite his parsimonious habits, supplied materials--about 1818--to the future painter of "The Venetian Senator and the Courtesan" enabling him to obtain five thousand francs from a double government position. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GROSLIER, police commissioner of Arcis-sur-Aube at the beginning of the electoral campaign of 1839. [The Member for Arcis.]

GROSMORT, small boy of Alencon in 1816. Left the town in that year and went to Prebaudet, an estate of Mme. du Bousquier, to tell her of Troisville's arrival. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

GROSS-NARP (Comte de), son-in-law, no doubt fict.i.tious, of a very great lady, invented and represented by Jacqueline Collin to serve the menaced interests of Jacques Collin in Paris about the end of the Restoration. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GROSSTETE (F.), director, with Perret, of a Limoges banking-house, during the Empire and Restoration. His clerk and successor was Pierre Graslin. Retired from business, a married man, wealthy, devoted to horticulture, he spent much of his time in the fields in the outskirts of Limoges. Endowed with a superior intellect, he seemed to understand Veronique Graslin, whose society he sought and whose secrets he tried to fathom. He introduced his G.o.dson, Gregoire Gerard, to her. [The Country Parson.]

GROSSTETE (Madame F.), wife of preceding; a person of some importance in Limoges, time of the Restoration. [The Country Parson.]

GROSSTETE, younger brother of F. Grosstete. Receiver-general at Bourges during the Restoration. He had a large fortune which enabled his daughter Anna to wed a Fontaine about 1823. [The Country Parson.

The Muse of the Department.]

GROZIER (Abbe) was chosen, in the early part of the Restoration, to arbitrate the dispute of two proof-readers--one of whom was Saint-Simon --over Chinese paper. He proved that the Chinese make their paper from bamboo. [Lost Illusions.] He was librarian of the a.r.s.enal at Paris. Was tutor of the Marquis d'Espard. Was learned in the history and manners of China. Taught this knowledge to his pupil. [The Commission in Lunacy.]*

* Abbe Grozier, or Crozier (Jean Baptiste-Gabriel-Alexandre), born March 1, 1743, at Saint-Omer, died December 8, 1823, at Paris; collaborator of the "Literary Year" with Freron and Geoffroy, and author of a "General History of China"--Paris 1777-1784, 12 vols.

GRUGET (Madame Etienne), born in the latter part of the eighteenth century. About 1820, lace-maker at No. 12 rue des Enfants-Rouges, Paris, where she concealed and cared for Gratien Bourignard, the lover of her daughter Ida, who drowned herself. Bourignard was the father of Mme. Jules Desmarets. [The Thirteen.] Becoming a nurse about the end of 1824, Mme. Gruget attended the division-chief, La Billiardiere, in his final sickness. [The Government Clerks.] In 1828 she followed the same profession for ten sous a day, including board. At that time she attended the last illness of Comtesse Flore Philippe de Brambourg, on rue Chaussee-d'Antin, before the invalid was removed to the Dubois hospital. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GRUGET (Ida), daughter of the preceding. About 1820 was a corset-fitter at No. 14 rue de la Corderie-du-Temple, Paris; employed by Mme.

Meynardie. She was also the mistress of Gatien Bourignard.

Pa.s.sionately jealous, she rashly made a scene in the home of Jules Desmarets, her lover's son-in-law. Then she drowned herself, in a fit of despair, and was buried in a little cemetery of a village of Seine-et-Oise. [The Thirteen.]

GUA SAINT-CYR (Madame du), in spite of the improbability aroused on account of her age, pa.s.sed for a time, in 1799, as the mother of Alphonse de Montauran. She had been married and was then a widow; Gua was not her true name. She was the last mistress of Charette and, being still young, took his place with the youthful Alphonse de Montauran. She displayed a savage jealousy for Mlle. de Verneuil. One of the first Vendean sallies of 1799, planned by Mme. du Gua, was unsuccessful and absurd. The old "mare of Charette" caused the coach between Mayenne and Fougeres to be waylaid; but the money stolen was that which was being sent her by her mother. [The Chouans.]

GUA SAINT-CYR (Du), name a.s.sumed in Brittany, in 1799, by Alphonse de Montauran, the Chouan leader. [The Chouans.]

GUA SAINT-CYR (Monsieur and Madame du), son and mother; rightful bearers of the name were murdered, with the courier, in November by the Chouans. [The Chouans.]

GUDIN (Abbe), born about 1759; was one of the Chouan leaders in 1799.

He was a formidable fellow, one of the Jesuits stubborn enough, perhaps devoted enough, to oppose upon French soil the proscriptive edict of 1793. This firebrand of Western conflict fell, slain by the Blues, almost under the eyes of his patriot nephew, the sub-lieutenant, Gudin. [The Chouans.]

GUDIN, nephew of the preceding, and nevertheless a patriot conscript from Fougeres, Brittany, during the campaign of 1799; successively corporal and sub-lieutenant. The former grade was obtained through Hulot. Was the superior of Beau-Pied. Gudin was killed near Fougeres by Marie de Verneuil, who had a.s.sumed the attire of her husband, Alphonse de Montauran. [The Chouans.]

GUENEE (Madame). (See Galardon, Madame.)

GUENIC (Gaudebert-Calyste-Charles, Baron du), born in 1763. Head of a Breton house of very ancient founding, he justified throughout his long life the device upon his coat-of-arms, which read: "Fac!" Without hope of reward he constantly defended, in Vendee and Brittany, his G.o.d and his king by service as private soldier and captain, with Charette, Chatelineau, La Rochejacquelein, Elbee, Bonchamp and the Prince of Loudon. Was one of the commanders of the campaign of 1799 when he bore the name of "L'Intime," and was, with Bauvan, a witness to the marriage _in extremis_ of Alphonse de Montauran and Marie de Verneuil.

Three years later he went to Ireland, where he married Miss f.a.n.n.y O'Brien, of a n.o.ble family of that country. Events of 1814 permitted his return to Guerande, Loire-Inferieure, where his house, though impoverished, wielded great influence. In recognition of his unfaltering devotion to the Royalist cause, M. du Guenic received only the Cross of Saint-Louis. Incapable of protesting, he intrepidly defended his town against the battalions of General Travot in the following year. The final Chouan insurrection, that of 1832, called him to arms once again. Accompanied by Calyste, his only son, and a servant, Ga.s.selin, he returned to Guerande, lived there for some years, despite his numerous wounds, and died suddenly, at the age of seventy-four, in 1837. [The Chouans. Beatrix.]

GUENIC (Baronne du), wife of the preceding; native of Ireland; born f.a.n.n.y O'Brien, about 1793, of aristocratic lineage. Poor and surrounded by wealthy relatives, beautiful and distinguished, she married, in 1813, Baron du Guenic, following him the succeeding year to Guerande and devoting her life and youth to him. She bore one son, Calyste, to whom she was more like an elder sister. She watched closely the two mistresses of the young man, and finally understood Felicite des Touches; but she always was in a tremor on account of Beatrix de Rochefide, even after the marriage of Calyste, which took place in the year of the baron's death. [Beatrix.]

GUENIC (Gaudebert-Calyste-Louis du), probably born in 1815, at Guerande, Loire-Inferieure; only son of the foregoing, by whom he was adored, and to whose dual influence he was subject. He was the physical and moral replica of his mother. His father wished to make him a gentleman of the old school. In 1832 he fought for the heir of the Bourbons. He had other aspirations which he was able to satisfy at the home of an ill.u.s.trious chatelaine of the vicinity, Mlle. Felicite des Touches. The chevalier was much enamored of the celebrated auth.o.r.ess, who had great influence over him, did not accept him and turned him over to Mme. de Rochefide. Beatrix played with the heir of the house of Guenic the same ill-starred comedy carried through by Antoinette de Langeais with regard to Montriveau. Calyste married Mlle. Sabine de Grandlieu, and took the t.i.tle of baron after his father's death. He lived in Paris on Faubourg Saint-Germain, and between 1838 and 1840 was acquainted with Georges de Maufrigneuse, Savinien de Portenduere, the Rhetores, the Lenoncourt-Chaulieus and Mme. de Rochefide--whose lover he finally became. The intervention of the d.u.c.h.esse de Grandlieu put an end to this love affair. [Beatrix.]

GUENIC (Madame Calyste du), born Sabine de Grandlieu; wife of the preceding, whom she married about 1837. Nearly three years later she was in danger of dying upon hearing, at her confinement, that she had a fortunate rival in the person of Beatrix de Rochefide. [Beatrix.]