Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 5

BLONDET (Madame), wife of the preceding; born in 1780; married in 1798. She was intimate with a prefect of Orne, who was the natural father of Emile Blondet. Distant ties bound her to the Troisville family, and it was to them that she sent Emile, her favored son.

Before her death, in 1818, she commended him to her old-time lover and also to the future Madame de Montcornet, with whom he had been reared.

[Jealousies of a Country Town.]

BLONDET (Joseph), elder son of Judge Blondet of Alencon; born in that city about 1799. In 1824 he practiced law and aspired to become a subst.i.tute judge. Meanwhile he succeeded his father, whose post he filled till his death. He was one of the numerous men of ordinary talent. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

BLONDET (Madame Joseph), nee Claire Blandureau, wife of Joseph Blondet, whom she married when he was appointed judge at Alencon. She was the daughter of wealthy linen dealers in the city. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

BLONDET (Emile), born at Alencon about 1800; legally the younger son of Judge Blondet, but really the son of a prefect of Orne. Tenderly loved by his mother, but hated by Judge Blondet, who sent him, in 1818, to study law in Paris. Emile Blondet knew the n.o.ble family of d'Esgrignon in Alencon, and for the youngest daughter of this ill.u.s.trious house he felt an esteem that was really admiration.

[Jealousies of a Country Town.] In 1821 Emile Blondet was a remarkably handsome young fellow. He made his first appearance in the "Debats" by a series of masterly articles which called forth from Lousteau the remark that he was "one of the princes of criticism." [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1824 he contributed to a review edited by Finot, where he collaborated with Lucien de Rubempre and where he was allowed full swing by his chief. Emile Blondet had the most desultory of habits; one day he would be a boon companion, without compunction, with those destined for slaughter on the day following. He was always "broke" financially. In 1829, 1830, Bixiou, Lousteau, Nathan and he were frequenters of Esther's house, rue Saint-Georges. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] A cynic was Blondet, with little regard for glory undefiled. He won a wager that he could upset the poet Ca.n.a.lis, though the latter was full of a.s.surance. He did this by staring fixedly at the poet's curls, his boots, or his coat-tails, while he recited poetry or gesticulated with proper emphasis, fixed in a studied pose.

[Modeste Mignon.] He was acquainted with Mlle. des Touches, being present at her home on one occasion, about 1830, when Henri de Marsay told the story of his first love affair. He took part in the conversation and depicted the "typical woman" to Comte Adam Laginski.

[Another Study of Woman.] In 1832 he was a guest at Mme. d'Espard's, where he met his childish flame, Mme. de Montcornet, also the Princesse de Cadignan, Lady Dudley, d'Arthez, Nathan, Rastignac, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de Trailles, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the two Vandenesses, du Tillet, the Baron Nucingen and the Chevalier d'Espard, brother-in-law of the marquise. [The Secrets of a Princess.]

About 1833 Blondet presented Nathan to Mme. de Montcornet, at whose home the young Countess Felix de Vandenesse made the acquaintance of the poet and was much smitten with him for some time. [A Daughter of Eve.] In 1836 he and Finot and Couture chimed in on the narrative of the rise of Nucingen, told with much zest by Bixiou in a private room of a famous restaurant. [The Firm of Nucingen.] Eight or ten years prior to February, 1848, Emile Blondet, on the brink of suicide, witnessed an entire transition in his affairs. He was chosen a prefect, and he married the wealthy widow of Comte de Montcornet, who offered him her hand when she became free. They had known and loved each other since childhood. [The Peasantry.]

BLONDET (Virginie), wife by second marriage of Emile Blondet; born in 1797; daughter of the Vicomte de Troisville; granddaughter of the Russian Princesse Scherbelloff. She was brought up at Alencon, with her future husband. In 1819 she married the General de Montcornet.

Twenty years later, a widow, she married the friend of her youth, who this long time had been her lover. [Jealousies of a Country Town. The Secrets of a Princess. The Peasantry.] She and Mme. d'Espard tried to convert Lucien de Rubempre to the monarchical side in 1821. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] She was present at Mlle. des Touches', about 1830, when Marsay told about his first love, and she joined in the conversation. [Another Study of Woman.] She received a rather mixed set, from an aristocratic standpoint, but here might be found the stars of finance, art and literature. [The Member for Arcis.] Mme. Felix de Vandenesse saw Nathan the poet for the first time and noticed him particularly at Mme. de Montcornet's, in 1834, 1835. [A Daughter of Eve.] Mme. Emile Blondet, then Madame la Generale de Montcornet, pa.s.sed the summer and autumn of 1823 in Burgundy, at her beautiful estate of Aigues, where she lived a burdened and troubled life among the many and varied types of peasantry. Remarried, and now the wife of a prefect, eight years or so before February, 1848, time of Louis Philippe, she visited her former properties. [The Peasantry.]

BLUTEAU (Pierre), a.s.sumed name of Genestas. [The Country Doctor.]

BOCQUILLON, an acquaintance of Mme. Etienne Gruget. In 1820, rue des Enfants-Rouges, Paris, she mistook for him the stock-broker, Jules Desmarets, who was entering her door. [The Thirteen.]

BOGSECK (Madame van), name bestowed by Jacques Collin on Esther van Gobseck when, in 1825, he gave her, transformed morally and intellectually, to Lucien de Rubempre, in an elegant flat on rue Taitbout. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BOIROUGE, president of the Sancerre Court at the time when the Baronne de la Baudraye held social sway over that city. Through his wife, he was related to the Popinot-Chandiers, to Judge Popinot of Paris, and to Anselme Popinot. He was hereditary owner of a house which he did not need, and which he very gladly leased to the baronne for the purpose of starting a literary society that, however, degenerated very soon into an ordinary clique. Actuated by jealousy, President Boirouge was one of the princ.i.p.als in the defeat of Procureur Clagny for deputy. He was reputed to be unchaste at repartee. [The Muse of the Department.]

BOIROUGE (Madame), nee Popinot-Chandier, wife of President Boirouge; stood well among the middle-cla.s.s of Sancerre. After having been leader in the opposition to Mme. de la Baudraye for nine years, she induced her son Gatien to attend the Baudraye receptions, persuading herself that he would soon make his way. Profiting by the visit of Bianchon to Sancerre, Mme. Boirouge obtained of the famous physician, her relative, a gratuitous consultation by giving him full particulars regarding some pretended nervous trouble of the stomach, in which complaint he recognized a periodic dyspepsia. [The Muse of the Department.]

BOIROUGE (Gatien), son of President Boirouge; born in 1814; the junior "pat.i.to" of Mme. de la Baudraye, who employed him in all sorts of small ways. Gatien Boirouge was made game of by Lousteau, to whom he had confessed his love for that masterful woman. [The Muse of the Department.]

BOISFRANC (De), procureur-general, then first president of a royal court under the Restoration. (See Dubut.)

BOISFRANC (Dubut de), president of the Aides court under the old regime; brother of Dubut de Boisfrelon and of Dubut de Boislaurier.

[The Seamy Side of History.]

BOISFRELON (Dubut de), brother of Dubut de Boisfranc and of Dubut de Boislaurier; at one time councillor in Parliament; born in 1736; died in 1832 in the home of his niece, the Baronne de la Chanterie.

G.o.defroid succeeded him. M. de Boisfrelon had been one of the "Brotherhood of Consolation." He was married, but his wife probably died before him. [The Seamy Side of History.]

BOISLAURIER (Dubut de), junior brother of Dubut de Boisfranc and of Dubut de Boisfrelon. Commander-in-chief of the Western Rebellion in 1808-1809, and designated then by the surname of Augustus. With Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard, he plotted the organization of the "Chauffeurs" of Mortagne. Then, in the trial of the "brigands," he was condemned to death by default. [The Seamy Side of History.]

BOIS-LEVANT, chief of division under the Minister of Finance in 1824, at the time when Xavier Rabourdin and Isidore Baudoyer contested the succession of office in another division, that of F. de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.]

BOLESLAS, Polish servant of the Comte and Comtesse Laginski, in rue de la Pepiniere, Paris, between 1835 and 1842. [The Imaginary Mistress.]

BONAMY (Ida), aunt of Mlle. Antonia Chocardelle. At the time of Louis Philippe, she conducted, on rue Coquenard (since 1848 rue Lamartine), "just a step or two from rue Pigalle," a reading-room given to her niece by Maxime de Trailles. [A Man of Business.]

BONAPARTE (Napoleon), Emperor of the French; born at Ajaccio, August 15, 1768, or 1769, according to varying accounts; died at St. Helena May 5, 1821. As First Consul in 1800 he received at the Tuileries the Corsican, Bartholomeo di Piombo, and disentangled his countryman from the latter's implication in a vendetta. [The Vendetta.] On the evening of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he was met on that ground by Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, who had come post haste from France, and to whom he accorded pardon for the Simeuses and the Hauteserres, compromised in the abduction of Senator Malin de Gondreville. [The Gondreville Mystery.] Napoleon Bonaparte was strongly concerned in the welfare of his lieutenant, Hyacinthe Chabert, during the battle of Eylau. [Colonel Chabert.] In November, 1809, he was to have attended a grand ball given by Senator Malin de Gondreville; but he was detained at the Tuileries by a scene--noised abroad that same evening--between Josephine and himself, a scene which disclosed their impending divorce. [Peace in the House.] He condoned the infamous conduct of the police officer Contenson. [The Seamy Side of History.] In April, 1813, during a dress-parade on the Place du Carrousel, Paris, Napoleon noticed Mlle. de Chatillonest, who had come with her father to see the handsome Colonel d'Aiglemont, and leaning towards Duroc he made a brief remark which made the Grand Marshal smile. [A Woman of Thirty.]

BONAPARTE (Lucien), brother of Napoleon Bonaparte; born in 1775; died in 1840. In June, 1800, he went to the house of Talleyrand, the Foreign Minister, and there announced to him and also to Fouche, Sieyes and Carnot, the victory of his brother at Montebello. [The Gondreville Mystery.] In the month of October of the same year he was encountered by his countryman, Bartholomeo di Piombo, whom he introduced to the First Consul; he also gave his purse to the Corsican and afterwards contributed towards relieving his difficulties. [The Vendetta.]

BONFALOT, or BONVALOT (Madame), an aged relative of F. du Bruel at Paris. La Palferine first met Mme. du Bruel in 1834 on the boulevard, and boldly followed her all the way to Mme. de Bonfalot's, where she was calling. [A Prince of Bohemia.]

BONFONS (Cruchot de), nephew of Cruchot the notary and Abbe Cruchot; born in 1786; president of the Court of First Instance of Saumur in 1819. The Cruchot trio backed by a goodly number of cousins and allied to twenty families in the city, formed a party similar to that of the olden-time Medicis at Florence; and also, like the Medicis, the Cruchots had their Pazzis in the persons of the Gra.s.sins. The prize contested for between the Cruchots and the Gra.s.sins was the hand of the rich heiress, Eugenie Grandet. In 1827, after nine years of suing, the President Cruchot de Bonfons married the young woman, now left an orphan. Previous to this he had been commissioned by her to settle in full, both princ.i.p.al and interest, with the creditors of Charles Grandet's father. Six months after his marriage, Bonfons was elected councillor to the Royal Court of Angers. Then after some years signalized by devoted service he became first president. Finally chosen deputy for Saumur in 1832, he died within a week, leaving his widow in possession of an immense fortune, still further augmented by the bequests of the Abbe and the notary Cruchot. Bonfons was the name of an estate of the magistrate. He married Eugenie only through cupidity. He looked like "a big, rusty nail." [Eugenie Grandet.]

BONFONS (Eugenie Cruchot de), only daughter of M. and Mme. Felix Grandet; born at Saumur in 1796. Strictly reared by a mother gentle and devout, and by a father hard and avaricious. The single bright ray across her life was an absolutely platonic love for her cousin Charles Grandet. But, once away from her, this young man was forgetful of her; and, on his return from the Indies in 1827, a rich man, he married the young daughter of a n.o.bleman. Upon this occurrence, Eugenie Grandet, now an orphan, settled in full with the creditors of Charles' father, and then bestowed her hand upon the President Cruchot de Bonfons, who had paid her court for nine years. At the age of thirty-six she was left a widow without having ceased to be a virgin, following her expressed wish. Sadly she secluded herself in the gloomy home of her childhood at Saumur, where she devoted the rest of her life to works of benevolence and charity. After her father's death, Eugenie was often alluded to, by the Cruchot faction, as Mlle. de Froidfond, from the name of one of her holdings. In 1832 an effort was made to induce Mme. de Bonfons to wed with Marquis de Froidfond, a bankrupt widower of fifty odd years and possessed of numerous progeny. [Eugenie Grandet.]

BONGRAND, born in 1769; first an advocate at Melun, then justice of the peace at Nemours from 1814 to 1837. He was a friend of Doctor Mirouet's and helped educate Ursule Mirouet, protecting her to the best of his ability after the death of the old physician, and aiding in the rest.i.tution of her fortune which Minoret-Levrault had impaired by the theft of the doctor's will. M. Bongrand had wanted to make a match between Ursule Mirouet and his son, but she loved Savinien de Portenduere. The justice of the peace became president of the court at Melun, after the marriage of the young lady with Savinien. [Ursule Mirouet.]

BONGRAND (Eugene), son of Bongrand the justice of the peace. He studied law at Paris under Derville the attorney, this const.i.tuting all his course. He became public prosecutor at Melun after the Revolution of 1830, and general prosecutor in 1837. Failing in his love suit with Ursule Mirouet, he probably married the daughter of M.

Levrault, former mayor of Nemours. [Ursule Mirouet.]

BONNAC, a rather handsome young fellow, who was head clerk for the notary Lupin at Soulanges in 1823. His accomplishments were his only dowry. He was loved in platonic fas.h.i.+on by his employer's wife, Mme.

Lupin, otherwise known as Bebelle, a fat ridiculous female without education. [The Peasantry.]

BONNEBAULT, retired cavalry soldier, the Lovelace of the village of Blangy, Burgundy, and its suburbs in 1823. Bonnebault was the lover of Marie Tonsard who was perfectly foolish about him. He had still other "good friends" and lived at their expense. Their generosity did not suffice for his dissipations, his cafe bills and his unbridled taste for billiards. He dreamed of marrying Aglae Socquard, only daughter of Pere Socquard, proprietor of the "Cafe de la Paix" at Soulanges.

Bonnebault obtained three thousand francs from General de Montcornet by coming to him to confess voluntarily that he had been commissioned to kill him for this price. The revelation, with other things, lead the general to weary of his fierce struggle with the peasantry, and to put up for sale his property at Aigues, which became the prey of Gaubertin, Rigou and Soudry. Bonnebault was squint-eyed and his physical appearance did not belie his depravity. [The Peasantry.]

BONNEBAULT (Mere), grandmother of Bonnebault the veteran. In 1823, at Conches, Burgandy, where she lived, she owned a cow which she did not hesitate to pasture in the fields belonging to General de Montcornet.

The numerous depredations of the old woman, added to convictions for many similar offences, caused the general to decide to confiscate the cow. [The Peasantry.]

BONNET (Abbe), Cure of Montegnac near Limoges from 1814 on. In this capacity, he a.s.sisted at the public confession of his penitent, Mme.

Graslin, in the summer of 1844. Upon leaving the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, he was sent to this village of Montegnac, which he never after wished to leave. Here, sometimes unaided, sometimes with the help of Mme. Graslin, he toiled for a material and moral betterment, bringing about an entire regeneration of a wretched country. It was he who brought the outlawed Tascheron back into the Church, and who accompanied him to the very foot of the scaffold, with a devotion which caused his own very sensitive nature much cringing.

Born in 1788, he had embraced the ecclesiastical calling through choice, and all his studies had been to that end. He belonged to a family of more than easy circ.u.mstancaes. His father was a self-made man, stern and unyielding. Abbe Bonnet had an older brother, and a sister whom he counseled with his mother to marry as soon as possible, in order to release the young woman from the terrible paternal yoke.

[The Country Parson.]

BONNET, older brother of Abbe Bonnet, who enlisted as a private about the beginning of the Empire. He became a general in 1813; fell at Leipsic. [The Country Parson.]

BONNET (Germain), _valet de chambre_ of Ca.n.a.lis in 1829, at the time when the poet went to Havre to contest the hand of Modeste Mignon. A servant full of _finesse_ and irreproachable in appearance, he was of the greatest service to his master. He courted Philoxene Jacmin, chambermaid of Mme. de Chaulieu. Here the pantry imitated the parlor, for the academician's mistress was the great lady herself. [Modest Mignon.]

BONTEMS, a country landowner in the neighborhood of Bayeux, who feathered his nest well during the Revolution, by purchasing government confiscations at his own terms. He was p.r.o.nounced "red cap," and became president of his district. His daughter, Angelique Bontems, married Granville during the Empire; but at this time Bontems was dead. [A Second Home.]

BONTEMS (Madame), wife of the preceding; outwardly pious, inwardly vain; mother of Angelique Bontems, whom she had reared in much the same att.i.tude, and whose marriage with a Granville was, in consequence, so unhappy. [A Second Home.]

BONTEMS (Angelique). (See Granville, Madame de.)

BORAIN (Mademoiselle), the most stylish costumer in Provins, at the time of Charles X. She was commissioned by the Rogrons to make a complete wardrobe for Pierrette Lorrain, when that young girl was sent them from Brittany. [Pierrette.]

BORDEVIN (Madame), Parisian butcher in rue Charlot, at the time when Sylvain Pons dwelt hard by in rue de Normandie. Mme. Bordevin was related to Mme. Sabatier. [Cousin Pons.]

BORDIN, procureur at the Chatelet before the Revolution; then advocate of the Court of First Instance of the Seine, under the Empire. In 1798 he instructed and advised with M. Alain, a creditor of MoneG.o.d's. Both had been clerks at the procureur's. In 1806, the Marquis de Chargeboeuf went to Paris to hunt for Master Bordin, who defended the Simeuses before the Criminal Court of Troyes in the trial regarding the abduction and sequestration of Senator Malin. In 1809 he also defended Henriette Bryond des Tours-Minieres, nee La Chanterie, in the trial docketed as the "Chauffeurs of Mortagne." [The Gondreville Mystery. The Seamy Side of History.] In 1816 Bordin was consulted by Mme. d'Espard regarding her husband. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

During the Restoration a banker at Alencon made quarterly payments of one hundred and fifty livres to the Chevalier de Valois through the Parisian medium of Bordin. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] For ten years Bordin represented the n.o.bility. Derville succeeded him. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

BORDIN (Jerome-Sebastien), was also procureur at the Chatelet, and, in 1806, advocate of the Seine Court. He succeeded Master Guerbet, and sold his practice to Sauvagnest, who disposed of it to Desroches. [A Start in Life.]

BORN (Comte de), brother of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu. In the winter of 1829-1830, he is discovered at the home of his sister, taking part in a conversation in which the advocate Derville related the marital infelicities of M. de Restaud, and the story of his will and his death. The Comte de Born seized the chance to exploit the character of Maxime de Trailles, the lover of Mme. de Restaud. [Gobseck.]

BORNICHE, son-in-law of M. Hochon, the old miser of Issoudun. He died of chagrin at business failures, and at not having received any a.s.sistance from his father or mother. His wife preceded him but a short time to the tomb. They left a son and a daughter, Baruch and Adolphine, who were brought up by their maternal grandfather, with Francois Hochon, another grandchild of the goodman's. Borniche was probably a Calvinist. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BORNICHE (Monsieur and Madame), father and mother of the preceding.

They were still living in 1823, when their son and their daughter-in-law had been deceased some time. In April of this year, old Mme. Borniche and her friend Mme. Hochon, who ruled socially in Issoudun, a.s.sisted at the wedding of La Rabouilleuse with Jean-Jacques Rouget. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]