| | | | It is not a little curious to discover, when we come to think about | the matter, that periods which we are accustomed to look upon as | very far removed from our own times are not so in reality. Thus, | startling though it may be to hear it, it is nevertheless a fact that | there are still living amongst us persons who form a connecting | link between this generation and that of Louis XIV. Madame de | Bawr is one of these. She tells us in her | Souvenirs that she remembers to have heard, in her | childhood, an old lady say that she recollected seeing Madame de | Maintenon getting into her carriage to take a drive with the King, | and saying to the coachman, | Later in | life, when Madame de Bawr chanced to be dining at the Chateau | de Guermande, she heard a lady who was seated near the host, | and who did not appear to be at all aged, say in a confident tone | of voice, | remarked Madame de | Bawr to her neighbour. was the reply, | says Madame de Bawr, | | Any collection of reminiscences ranging over the last hundred | years of the history of France can scarcely fail to be interesting to | everyone, | and to possess peculiar value for the future historian, | as documents whence to derive some of the minor materials for a | work which, as Niebuhr said has yet to be written ~~ namely, the | history of the French Revolution. It is true that Madame de Bawr | concerns herself chiefly with what some would deem trifles; but | even trifles become matters of importance when they serve to | show how the wind blows. Accordingly, her sketches of one | portion of French society under the Directory, slight though they | be, enable us to form a better idea of some of the changes | produced by the Revolution than pages of dissertation would do. | At a period, she tells us, when the highest families in France had | been reduced to ruin by the confiscation of their estates, an | immense number of persons ~~ people of no education ~~ were | leading lives of the utmost luxury in Paris. The enormous sums | which they had gained by supplying the armies of the Republic | seeming to them inexhaustible. Many of these | fournisseurs bought or took leases of the splendid hotels | which had become the property of the nation ~~ hired celebrated | cooks who had been in the service of the royal family ~~ kept | open house and gave balls, the magnificence of which surpassed | everything that had hitherto been seen. As they invited to their | entertainments all whose names they could find out, many ladies, | induced by a curiosity very excusable in young people who had | but just come out of prison, accepted invitations to these balls ~~ | Madame de Bawr herself being present at one which she was told | had cost 30,000 francs. On entering the house, all the ladies were | presented with superb bouquets, and were then shown into a | room where six | were stationed in readiness | to repair any accidents which might happen to the dresses, and to | supply the dancers with fresh gloves, white satin shoes, ribbons, | etcetera. The host and hostess | promenaded up and down the rooms, | receiving the compliments of their guests with a mingled | embarrassment and familiarity which showed how little | accustomed they were to good society ~~ at midnight fireworks | were let off ~~ and then came the supper, set out in a magnificent | room whose walls were tapestried with jonquils, the strong | perfume of which occasioned many ladies to faint. After supper | dancing was resumed, and the whole concluded with a | sumptuous breakfast | | Madame de Bawr says that her acquaintances often used to make | her laugh with their recitals of the manner in which these | nouveaux riches spent their fortunes, and | with their descriptions of the guests they were accustomed to | entertain at their country-houses, where the chief amusement | consisted in playing at a game called | bamboches, in which persons who had never met before | commenced acquaintance by throwing balls of bread, caraffes of | water etcetera. at each other's heads. | Acted charades, which were then | much in vogue, often used to offer an extended field of action to | these bambocheurs, who thought | nothing of pillaging the wardrobe of their hostess, dressing | themselves in her most splendid shawls and laces, and the next | minute tearing them off and trampling them under foot. If it | chanced in the midst of the uproar, that a mirror or valuable piece | of furniture was broken, roars of laughter ensued, in which the | host joined even more heartily than his guests, either by fancying | that it was bon ton to do so, or to show | that his fortune was inexhaustible. Yet of all these persons who | had succeeded in enriching themselves at the expense of the | people, there were scarcely two, at the end of ten years, who had | managed to retain the fortunes they had made. The rest were | ruined, reduced to misery and their very names forgotten. | Some of the most interesting of Madame de Bawr's recollections | are those which relate to the salons of Paris ~~ | reunions which had originated long before in the Hotel de | Rambouillet, and which Madame de Sable afterwards rendered | so celebrated. The pedantry and artificial graces however, which | had distinguished the earlier salons, afterwards gave place to | greater ease of manner and less pretension in conversation; and it | is greatly to be regretted that such an institution, if we may so | call it, should now have to be numbered among the things of the | past. During the years which immediately followed the Reign of | Terror, the flower of French society was to be found in the salons | of several ladies, who made it a practice not to go abroad in the | evening, but to receive visitors. Some remained only a few | minutes, others the whole evening; and, thanks to the tone of | manners which then prevailed, the liveliest discussions, even | when they turned upon political subjects, never degenerated into | disputes amongst the men, whilst the women made it their | business to practice different virtues, not chiefly, perhaps, on | account of their intrinsic worth, but as ornaments of the moral | toilette which rendered them attractive and interesting. Amongst | the salons, with which some of Madame de Bawr's pleasantest | remembrances appear to have been associated, she mentions that | of Madame Suard, whose reunions | would have been perfect if the conversation had not turned too | exclusively on literary subjects. At Madame de Rastoret's, | another of these stay-at-home ladies ~~ and one who seems to | have been a model of grace and amenity ~~ all the most | delightful women, and the most distinguished men in Paris, were | accustomed to assemble. In her salon might be seen Madame | d'Houdetot, the object of Rousseau's unhappy attachment ~~ the | Duchesse de Nouilles, famed alike for her beauty and her talents | ~~ the Abbe de Montesquiou and M. de Tallyrand. In addition to | these salons, there was another which had peculiar charms for | Madame de Bawr ~~ it was that of Gerard, the artist. Every | Wednesday evening, his rooms were the rendezvous of men | eminent in the arts and sciences. Here Rossini would accompany | on the piano Rubini, Pasta, and Tamburini; and when there was | neither music nor reading, interesting discussions would be | carried on, in which Cherubini, Guerin, Talma, Lord Brougham, | Humboldt, and Canova would take part. Of Madame Recamier's | reunions Madame de Bawr speaks with | no little enthusiasm, and of Madame Recamier herself with the | utmost affection. She describes her as a person who, all her life | long, had a wonderful power of attracting around her those who | composed the elite of society; and she | had an immense number of friends who were passionately | attached to her, not only during the early part of her life, when | she possessed beauty and riches, but when she had lost both, | without, however, parting with that perfect manner, that touching | voice, and that simple goodness, which remained with her to the | last. Every day, during many years, M. de Chateaubriand was | accustomed to pay her a visit, remaining with her for two hours, | and this visit, he assured Madame de Bawr, was the solitary | charm of the evening of his life. When he was seized by a | weakness in the legs which prevented him from walking, he used | to be wheeled into Madame Recamier's salon ~~ a thing which | must have cost him some resolution, for all that betrayed his old | age was extremely painful to him. Speaking of Chateaubriand, | Madame de Bawr observes that he was taciturn to such a degree | that many persons have been known to pass several hours in the | same room with him without once hearing the sound of his voice. | When, however, his imagination was excited ~~ as it happened, | for instance, once to be by a picture representing the Acropolis of | Athens ~~ he would burst forth with a strain of eloquence of the | author of Attila. | Several of Madame de Bawr's pages are devoted to recollections | associated with music and the stage. In connexion with the latter, | she says that it would have been comic, if the exciting cause had | not been so tragic, to witness the scenes which took place at the | theatres during the Reign of Terror. The number of revolutionary | pieces in the various repertoires being but few, and the majority | of the old dramas not in harmony with the order of the day, | disturbances constantly ensued, which were not a little alarming | to the actors. Thus on one occasion, when the play of | Brutus was being performed, and Arons has | to say ~~ | | A terrible tumult overpowered the actor's voice. But we will give | the rest in Madame de Bawr's own words ~~ | | Our notice of Madame de Bawr's book would scarcely be | complete without an allusion to the reflections with which it is | interspersed ~~ reflections which, without being at all profound, | show delicate perception, penetration into character, graceful | originality of thought and sound morality. Our space will not | allow us to give more than a single specimen, which we will not | spoil by translation: ~~ | | Amongst the mots which Madame de | Bawr embalms among her souvenirs, several strike us as being | old friends; but here are a few which we do not remember to | have met with before. We give them in the original, for of all | things a mot is the most untranslatable: | ~~ | | It is not in our power to do more than allude to Madame de | Bawr's notices of Napoleon, Madame de Stael, the Abbe Delille, | Madame Le Brun, Talma, Mdlle. Mars, La Place, | Beranger, etcetera; | neither can we enter into any detail of her recollections of Gretry, | Marchesi, Cherubini, Grassini, Bellini, and other names | well-known in the musical world. We cannot, however, resist quoting | one of Madame de Bawr's observations connected with this | branch of her souvenirs, and with it will take our leave of her | interesting little volume: ~~ |