LE PRESIDENT HENAULT ET MADAME DU DEFFAND.* .SUPPOSING that a
man had all this world could afford him, according to the most luxurious ideal of the age in which he lived—wealth, honour, position, influence, long life, troops of friends, even the consolations without the discipline of a fairly • comfortable religious oreed—ho would have such conditions .of life as were possessed by Charles J. F. Henault. Sup- posing that a woman were tied to no bond which she thought :irksome, were able to choose the highest and most brilliant society of the day, were freed from monetary pressure, were constantly gratifying her taste for always having in her life '1' LB P edeident Henault et Madame du Dalian& to Cour du Mont, la Cour de .Louis XV. at as Marie Lerzinaka, Par Lullen. Pew. Patio Cadman Levy. 1891 the most romantic events, and, with no fear of becoming ridiculous to her neighbours, could safely indulge in melo- dramatic scenes and otherwise gratify her self-importance on most occasions ; if she could prolong illusions and coquetry into the eighties and, in a word, reach all that women of her character desire to obtain,—she would have nothing more than had Madame du Defraud. The following question is by no means unpraetical in these days if such life without law was not happiness to those with brains and position, set in a thoroughly concentrated, highly civilised, and distinctly interesting milieu, how can it be even borne by men and women who are tolerated rather than sought after ? For it is not the most brilliant and influential who nowadays would revive the epigrammatic world.
The development of mental ability, as such, stands out from the pages of this monograph by M. Percy, and is recalled by the names with which it bristles. Much of what he has to tell is by no means new. In both French and English, the ground has been covered, as was necessitated by the connection between French and English literature, and by the link between Madame du Deffand and Horace Walpole. It would have been easier to estimate the value of the unpublished con- tributions had the author made more free acknowledgment of that already given to the world; but students of the period will be interested in the novel matter introduced to us, as Sainte-Beuve hoped, by the discovery of the missing memoirs and letters of Henault (1685.1750); and, if what Mademoiselle de Lepinasse thought of Madame du Deffand is not a matter of enormous importance, a very curious bit of human nature is presented in the portrait of the latter by the former which is now drawn from its hiding- place amongst D'Alembert's papers. As the common candle to the electric light, so is ordinary observation to the vivisec- tion of the day of the memoirs and the maxims ; its micro- scopic analysis was expressed in marvellously pithy literary forms, and polished, as a rule, by the unsparing criticism of those unscrupulously engaged in the search for the subtlest motives of their enemies, rivals, and friends. But the portrait of Madame du Deffand by her ci-devant protiigeo is only now published. It is less damaging than the discovery of the lies told needlessly by Madame du Deffand as to the disposition of the property of Henault; for it is not so im- possible to feel a certain respect for a woman who is "incon- siderate, indiscreet, personal, and jealous," as for a human being who behaved as she did on the death of one who had been a friend of hers for fifty years. Voltaire wrote her one of his caustic letters, evidently not altogether un- pleasing, in which he not only repeats his ridicule of the President's conversion, of his verses, of his Queen, but adds :—" Quoi ne pas vous laisser la moindre marque d'amitie dans son testament, aprbs vous avoir dit pendant quarante ans qu'il vous aimait P " The lady only replies that Henault made his will at the time of the Upinasse episode, and rebukes Voltaire a little for his depreciation of Henault. She remarks later to her man of business, "j'ai ern pouvoir sans blesser la bonne foi supprimer cinq cu six mills livres de rente qui sent ignorees." " Sans blesser la bonne foi," there is every reason to suppose that this is the precise amount left her by Henault, and always paid to her by him. She de- liberately chose falsely to charge him with what might to another woman have seemed extraordinary ingratitude and want of faith. But, even when we are watching with some curiosity the sharp contrasts of work and idleness exhibited in another intensely self-conscious and observant century, the mere details of a worthless woman's duplicity would be to us of little value without connecting them once more with the thoughts they suggest. To-day there are persons in all ranks of society whose brains are far too active for the employment permitted to them, such brains having been stimulated by a cultivation that is in itself an end. Unlike the cultivation of gardens used for the production of what is good for food and pleasant to the eyes, their cultivation is that of tho gravel walk, rolled and smoothed that it may look civilised, There is no life and no growth. in it. Thus Madame du Deffand wrote to Horace Walpole : " L'ennui a etc et sera toujours cause de toutes mes fautes." A harsher word than " fault " might be written ; but Madame du Deffand never troubled herself with inquiring into the distinctions between her sins, as, indeed, she shows when endeavouring at one time to accommodate her ideas to those of the ecclesiastics willing to accept any reasonable offer in the way of repentance,—and declaring that she intended to give up neither the rouge for her cheeks nor her President. But if readers wish to understand thoroughly the absolute un- scrupulousness of a woman who is always bored because she is remarkably clever and entirely selfish, let them recall the story of this really brilliantly gifted being. It is scarcely possible to pity her when in her old age, living with many acquaintances and few or no friends, she seems for the first time to acquire power to throw herself out of herself, though only into another form of egotism. Horace Walpole revenged the brutality with which she had treated others, and inflicted on her all the miseries of unrequited devotion. In her old age she crawled on hands and knees after him, so to speak, and at last, after submitting herself to almost inconceivable humiliations from his pen, meekly accepted as a favour that after her death he would have her pet, Ton-ton,' cared for. ' Ton-ton,' indeed, lived at Strawberry Hill to a good and fat old age. By-the- way, there is a slip of the pen when our English Sir Robert Walpole figures as " Sir Richard," and to our previous know- ledge of the Walpoles not much is added by M. Perey's monograph.
As for the "President," have we left enough space for the consideration of the new light thrown upon his times by the letters and papers given P Such will chiefly be useful to those who compare them with the Saint-Simon portraits, as M. Perey remarks :—" Il est done intereasant de controler les assertions de l'impetueux due par celles d'un homme infiniment plus impartial et plus modere, chez lequel l'interet personnel est rarement en jeu, dent lee vues jnstes et fines ne sont pas obscurcies par des prejugee." Henault's own style in prose is clear and interesting, though Voltaire pinned him to his place as a social force and pretty verse-writer in the words never forgiven :— " Henault fameux par vos soupers, Et par votre Chronologio, Par des vers au bon coin frappes," &c.
Henault's character, on the whole, is one which merited the confidence placed in it by the unhappy young Queen, and his portraits of her and of her surroundings, his criticism of men and of measures, his correspondence with interesting men and women, are not only real contributions to the story of the times, bat readable as literature. He was one of those men who could turn their pens to anything. Did a grande dame desire to send a witty epistle; did Parliament or Royalty wish to approach each other and save their mutual dignities ; were addresses to be drawn up by various parties and suitable replies framed, it was to Henault each and all turned, and he had the secret and always rather unsafe amusement of answer- ing what lie himself had composed. In one case be did this for the King, the Duke of Orleans, M. d'Armenoville, and M. des Mesmes. He had a very serious side, but he was not always in public taken so seriously as his private influence deserved, and he lertt character to this view by the delight he took in the humorous side of more solemn matters. Let us take an example of his raconteur style. He is describing the death of the Cardinal Dubois :—
"Jo ne puis omettre un trait dont son confesseur nous vint faire confidence, c'est tine franche espieg,rlerie que la simplicit3 de ce bon religieux rendait encore plus ridicule, et qui m'aurait fait • Tire dans d'autre circonstance. Apres l'avoir confess6 co Pere lui proposa de recevoir le viatique. Le Cardinal n'en voulut rien faire. Le moine ne so contenta pas. Enfin, pour lui fermer la bouche, to Cardinal lui dit Vous ne savez pas, Pere, qu'il y a un egrmonial pour faire recevoir to viatique aux cardinaux, allez vous informer de ce quo c'est, et puis apres now verrons.' Le bon homme sortait avec empressement at dans la bonne foi pour s'instruire a vous de co ceremonial dont it jurait qu'il n'avait jamais oui parlor, et it avait Bien raison."
In spite of many faults of character and of life, it is abundantly clear that if the President drew upon him- aelf some of the woes of popularity, he also amply earned his description of "a good heart and good head." Voltaire declared that Henault's brain softened from the moment of his " conversion " during a dangerous illness, but others have spoken of it with the sincerest respect, and the old age of the President, with all its weaknesses, was happier far than that of the woman with whom his name and fortunes were for some time linked. Yet such love as both had to give was in either ease bestowed upon others, and in her old age she maintained her connection with him because of the usefulness of respectability which bored her into disliking him. Altogether, this is an interesting study of character, and it is worth taking up, for those at least who have a taste for mOnwires. It cannot be added to the list of the books suitable for the schoolroom, but the educated reader will find it a clever and interesting study of the period with which it deals.
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