The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

MAY 23, 1857. :iEi . ttratitrt. The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on the Reign of Louis XI V. and the Regency. Abridged from the French by Baylo St. John. First Series. In Two Volumes. London) Chapman and Hall. Sr. SIMON is an author oftener quoted than read in England. His works are voluminous, and they have been freely used by all the writers who wished to make a case against the old French monarchy. Allowing him the great merit which must always be conceded to authenticity, and to the privilege of access to direct sources of information, still we have been always convinced that St. Simon, us a writer of memoirs, is overrated. lie did not write with a classical style, and few passages of masterly delineation can be selected from his numerous tomes. He was often too trivial even for a gossip, and he was prosy as a story teller. He had none of the airy delicate fancy which so charmingly embroiders the graceful prose of some of the best French memoir writers. To philosophy, or the sagacious thinking of a man of the world, he had little pretensions. No gleaming rants came from his tongue or pen; no spirited apostrophes ever show that there was a genuine human heart under his court suit ; no pathetic unction, or stream of 'French sentiment, gives emotion to his cumbrous and repeatedly involved prose. Sully's memoirs arc grave and magisterially dignified, with the tone of high history stamped upon their pages. The style of the life of Cardinal de Betz shows unflagging spirit and the force of audacious genius ; out St. Simon's performances—garrulous and pon derous—are frequently overborne by triviali ties. These are great defects, but consider able merits more than counterbalance them. Undoubtedly, St. Simon has as good claims to being accepted for an authentic witness as any diarist that we can remember. Ile was not, like Horace Walpole, a capricious being, played upon by vanity, personal animosity, and party feeling; and yet much of that pro fusion of detail which is so justly valued in Walpole is displayed iu St. Simon to the greatest degree. If he had not the poetry of a sentimentalist, neither had he the malice of a satirist. He had too great an awe of the Court Chamberlain ever to become a censorious critic, and he had that wholesome and reverent prejudice in favour of Le Grand Monarque that an English tradesman has for social " respec tability." He was neither a wit nor a thinker, but a thoroughly conventional courtier of the ordinary type of his time. He was neither below nor above his company ; he was of the Court as well as in it, and we have seen cases where this distinction has been overlooked. The reality of his memoirs is, after all, their highest value. Yet we must be cautious how, as some authors have done, we place entire credence in the picture given by St. Simon of the Court and Monarchy of France. The lady who has had no partners will give a sombre account of the most brilliant ball; the coughed-down orator will never dilate with fervour on the oratorical powers of a Disraeli or a Gladstone. St. Simon did not shine in the army, and in his days the camp was thronged to excess with all the gallants of the joyous land of France. There were, it is vain to deny it, a romantic passion, a chivalry, a personal heroism, a wor ship of the sex, and an admiration for all that was vivid, passionate, and soaring in that gor geous mob of heroes, men of genius, and women of dazzling grace who surrounded Louis XIV. The genius of France as it was then pei sonified, its high society distracted with ambition and love of pleasure, the vivacity of its intellect and the polish of its manners, are to be inferred from St. Simon's pages, but they are not stamped ou his style nor in grained in his records. The picture is cloudy ; several bright hues of the original were not even perceived by the artist; his descriptions do not rise to the first rank of portraiture, in which the intensity of time individual expression must be seized. St Simon was but a small man, though a great Court chronicler. His knowledge, as far as it went, THE PRESS. can be relied on; but without dwelling further on his detects, we may say that we cannot accede to his being treated as a great classic, and we think that he has been overrated as an authority. Mr. Bole St. John has abridged a large portion of the St. Simon memoirs, and put them into an English dress, and to many persons they will be quite new. It is scarcely a quarter of a century since a full edition of these memoirs was published at Paris. There is some exaggeration in the translator's state ment : It was not until 1829 that anything like a complete edition of the memoirs was given to the public. The work at once made a great sensation, and the caution that had directed its long suppression was to a certain extent justified. Never did the Bourbon family receive such a blow. At a glance the public had presented to them that Court which had hitherto been regarded as the most brilliant ever seen in France—its tinsel and gilding stripped from it, its tatters and rags displayed it. all their wretchedness. The success of the work was immense. Since the publication of Scott's novels, says M. Sainte- Bence, no book had been more widely welcomed. This success has gone on increasing for years. Every French literary man, I had almost said every French student, reads St. Simon. The Bourbons received many greater blows than the publication of these memoirs; but that they were much read and quoted on their first complete publication is true. Three edi tions of the memoirs are now going through the French press, and if printed at full length the whole of St. Sinion's works would occupy about two dozen octavo volumes ! Their full ness of detail is one of their greatest merits ; and, as we cannot judge of Walpole's merits as a letter-writer merely by Pinkerton's " Wal poliana," or as "Mr. Pepys " would be grie vously shorn in abridgment, so this abbrevia tion can scarcely convey an adequate idea of St. Simon's voluminous gossiping. But, on the whole, Mr. Bayle St. John has executed his portion of the work with great skill, and he has contrived to preserve much of the original spirit of his author. We shall choose some extracts which faith fully characterise the sort of matter to be found passim in these curious memoirs. We shall commence with the account of the mar riage of the Due do Bourgogne to the Princess of Savoy. It must be premised that the illus trious couple were not permitted to live together for two years after the ceremony here recorded : The day passed wearily. The King and Queen of England came about seven o'clock in the evening, and some time afterwards supper was served. Upon rising from the table, the Prineesse was shown to her bed, none but ladies being allowed to remain in the chamber. Her chemise was given her by the Queen of England through the Duchesse de Lode. The Due de Bourgogne undressed in another room, in the midst of all the Court, and seated upon a folding•chair. The King of England gave him his shirt, which was pre• sented by the Due de Beauvilliers. As soon as the Duchesse de Bourgogne was in bed, the Dun de Bourgogne entered, and placed himself at her side, in the presence of all the Court. Immediately afterwards everybody went away from the nuptial chamber, except Monseigneur, the ladies of the Prineesse, and the Duc de Beauvilliers, who remained at the pillow by the side of his pupil, with the Duchesse de Lode on the other side. Monseigneur stopped a quarter of an hour talking with the newlyniarried couple, then he made his son get up, after having told him to kiss the Princesse, in spite of the opposition of the Duchesse de Lude. As it proved, too, her opposition was not wrong. The King sand he did not wish that his grand• son should kiss the end of the Princesse's finger until they were completely on the footing of man and wife. Monsieur le Duc de Bourgogne after this redressed himself in the antechamber, and went to his own bed as usual. The little Due de Berry, spirited and resolute, did not approve of the docility of his brother, and declared that he would have remained in bed. Court ceremonies have changed much since those days. Our shores will soon be visited by a Russian Prince, and we are amused with reading in these volumes of the eccentricity of Peter the Great. St. Simon writes:— The Czar, Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, had at this time already commenced his voyages; he was in Holland, learning siiip•building. Although incognito, he wished to be recognised, but after his own fashion ; and was annoyed that, being so near to England, no embassy ,was sent to him from that country, which he wished to ally himself with for commercial reasons. At last an embassy arrived ; he delayed for some time to give it an audience, but in the end fixed the day and hour at which he would see it. The reception, however, was to take place on board a large Dutch vessel that he was going to examine. There were two ambassadors ; they thonght the meeting-place rather an odd one, but were obliged to go there. WLen they arrived on board, the Cur gent word that lie was in the " top," and that it was there be would see Urn. The ambassadors, whose feet 507 to rope•ladders,!ried to eseu4e them- selves from mounting; but it was all in vain. The Czar would receive them in the " top " or not at all. At last they were complied to ascend, and the meeting took place on that narrow place high up in the air. The Czar re ceived them there with as much majesty as though he had been upon his throne, listened to their harangue, replied very graciously, and then laughed at the fear painted upon their faces, and good-humouredly gave them to understand that he had punished then' thus fur arriving so late. St. Simon is not a picturesque writer. The glitter and bizarre effects of Court life are not brilliantly described, but hero and there ho gives us some close, sharp, and various sketches of it. Thus, when the Due de Chartres was to be married, an " apartment " was held by the Court, of which we get the following p►c ture : That evening an " Apartment " was held at the palace, as was customary three times a week during the winter ; the other three evenings being set apart for comedy, and the Sunday being free. An Apartment, as it was called, was an assemblage of all the Court in the grand saloon, from seven o'clock in the evening until ten, when the King sat down to table; and, after ten, in one of the saloons at the end of the grand gallery towards the tribune of the chapel. In the first place there was some music : then tables were !laced all about for all kinds of gambling; there was a lansquenet, at which Monsieur and Monseigneur always played ; also a billiard-table: in a word, every one was free to play with every oue, and allowed to ask for fresh tables it' all the others were occupied. Beyond the billiards was a refreshment-room. All was perfectly lighted. At the outset the King went to the "apartments " very often and played, but lately he had ceased to do so. He spent the evening with Madame de Msintenon, working with dif ferent Ministers one after the other. But still he wished his courtiers to attend assiduously. This evening, directly after the music had finished, the King sent fur Monseigneur and Monsieur, who were already playing at lansquena ; Madame, who scarcely looked at a party of hombre at which she had seated herself ; the Due de Chartres, who, with a rueful visage, was play ing at chess; and Mademoiselle 41e Blois, who had scarcely begun to appear in society, but who this evening was ex traordinarily decked out, and who, as yet, knew nothing and suspected nothing ; and therefore, being naturally very timid, and horribly afraid of the King, believed her self sent for in order to be reprimanded, and trembled so that Madame de Maintenon took her upon her knees, where she held her, but was scarcely able to reassure her. The fact of these royal persons being sent for by the King, at once made people think that a marriage was in contem plation. In a few minutes they returned, and then the announcement was made public. I arrived at that mo ment. I found everybody in clusters, and great astonish ment expressed upon every face. Madame was walking in the gallery with Chiltranthiers—her favourite, and worthy of being so. She took lung strides, her handker chief in her hand, weeping without constraint, speaking pretty loudly, gesticulating, and looking like Ceres after the rape of her daughter Pmserpine, seeking her in fury, and demanding her back from Jupiter. Every one re spectfully made way to let her pass. Monsieur, who had returned to lansquenel, seemed overwhelmed with shame, and his son appeared in despair; and the bride elect was marvellously embarrassed and sal. Though very young, and likely to be dazzled by such a marriage, she under stood what was passing, and feared the consequences. The accounts of battles arc r.ot well executed by St. Simon. His pen wanted force and poetry required for such writing ; but there is great fairness in many of his descriptions, and a desire to avoid exaggeration. It is difficult for a Frenchman to write an account of the Battle of Blenheim, or Hochstedt. St. Simon thus narrates the first defects of Tallard's strategy : The Elector of Bavaria had joined his forces to ours, and had already done us some service. On the 12th of August he led his men into the plain of Hochstedt, where, during the previous year, he had gained a victory over the Imperialists. In this plain he was joined by our troops, who took up positions right and left of him, under the command of Tallard and Marsin. The Elector himself had command of all. Soon after their arrival at Hochstedt, they received intelligence that Prince Eugene, with the Imperialist forces, and the Duke of Marlborough with the English, were coming to meet them. Our generals had, however, all the day before them to choose their ground, and to make their dispositions. I c would have been diffi cult to succeed worse, both with the one and the other. A. brook, by no means of a miry kind, ran parallel to our army, snd in front of it a spring, which formed a long and large quagmire, nearly separated the two lines of Marshal Tallard. It was a strange situation for a general to take up who is master of a vast plain, and it became, as will be seen, a very sad one. He is thoroughly just to Marlborough, and w•o hope that passages like the following will not be overlooked by those who seem anxious to vilify that great man : The number of prisoners that fell to the enemy in this battle was infinite. The Duke of Marlborough took charge of the most distinguished, until he could carry them away to England to grace his triumph there. He treated then► all, even the humblest, with the utmost attention, consi deration, and politeness, and with a inodesty that did him even more honour than his victory. Those that came under the charge of Prince Louis of Haden were much less kindly treated.