# Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/P

P
PACCARD, released convict, in Jacques Collin's clutches, well known as a thief and drunkard. He was Prudence Servien's lover, and both were employed by Esther van Gobseck at the same time, Paccard being a footman; lived with a carriage-maker on rue de Provence, in 1829. After stealing seven hundred and fifty thousand francs, which had been left by Esther van Gobseck, he was obliged to give up seven hundred and thirty thousand of them. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PACCARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, in the ​power of Jacqueline Collin. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PALMA, Parisian banker of the Poissoniere suburbs; had, during the regime of the Restoration and of July, great fame as a financier. He was "private counsel for the Keller establishment." Birotteau, the perfumer, at the time of his financial troubles, vainly asked him for help. (The Firm of Nucingen, Cesar Birotteau) With Werbrust as a partner he dealt in discounts as shrewdly as did Gobseck and Bidault, and thus was in a position to help Lucien de Rubempre. (Gobseck, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) He was also M. Werbrust's associate in the muslin, calico and oil-cloth establishment at No. 5 rue du Sentier, when Maximilien was so friendly with the Fontaines. (The Ball at Sceaux)
PAMIERS (Vidame de), "oracle of Faubourg Saint-Germain at the time of the Restoration," a member of the family council dealing with Antoinette de Langeais, who was accused of compromising herself with Montriveau. Past-commander of the Order of Malta, prominent in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, old and confidential friend of the Baronne de Maulincour. Pamiers reared the young Baron Auguste de Maulincour, defending him with all his power against Bourignard's hatred. (The Thirteen) As a former intimate friend of the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the vidame introduced the Vicomte d'Esgrignon—Victurnien—to Diane de Maufrigneuse. An intimate friendship between the young man and the future Princess de Cadignan was the result. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
PANNIER, merchant and banker after 1794; treasurer of the "brigands"; connected with the uprising of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. Having been condemned to twenty years of hard labor, Pannier was branded and placed in the galleys. Appointed lieutenant-general under Louis XVIII., he governed a royal castle. He died without children. (The Seamy Side of History) ​
PARADIS, born in 1830; Maxime de Trailles' servant-boy or "tiger"; quick and bold; made a tour, during the election period in the spring of 1839, through the Arcis-sur-Aube district, with his master, meeting Goulard, the sub-prefect, Poupart, the tavern-keeper, and the Maufrigneuses and Mollots of Cinq-Cygne. (The Member for Arcis)
PARQUOI (Francois), one of the Chouans, for whom Abbe Gudin held a funeral mass in the heart of the forest, not far from Fougeres, in the autumn of 1799. Francois Parquoi died, as did Nicolas Laferte, Joseph Brouet and Sulpice Coupiau, of injuries received at the battle of La Pelerine and at the siege of Fougeres. (The Chouans)
PASCAL, porter of the Thuilliers in the Place de la Madeleine house; acted also as beadle at La Madeleine church. (The Middle Classes)
PASCAL (Abbe), chaplain at Limoges prison in 1829; gentle old man. He tried vainly to obtain a confession from Jean-Francois Tascheron, who had been imprisoned for robbery followed by murder. (The Country Parson)
PASTELOT, priest in 1845, in the Saint-Francois church in the Marais, on the street now called rue Charlot; watched over the dead body of Sylvain Pons. (Cousin Pons)
PASTUREAU (Jean Francois), in 1829, owner of an estate in Isere, the value of which was said to have been impaired by the passing by of Doctor Benassis' patients. (The Country Doctor)
PATRAT (Maitre), notary at Fougeres in 1799, an acquaintance of D'Orgemont, the banker, and introduced to Marie de Verneuil by the old miser. (The Chouans)
PATRIOTE, a monkey, which Marie de Verneuil, its owner, had taught to counterfeit Danton. The craftiness of this animal reminded Marie of Corentin. (The Chouans)
PAULINE, for a long time Julie d'Aiglemont's waiting-maid. (A Woman of Thirty)
PAULMIER, employed under the Restoration in the Ministry ​of Finance in Isidore Baudoyer's bureau of Flamet de la Billardiere's division. Paulmier was a bachelor, but quarreled continually with his married colleague, Chazelles. (The Government Clerks)
PAZ (Thaddee), Polish descendant of a distinguished Florentine family, the Pazzi, one of whose members had become a refugee in Poland. Living contemporaneously with his fellow-citizen and friend, the Comte Adam Mitgislas Laginski, like him Thaddee Paz fought for his country, later on following him into exile in Paris, during the reign of Louis Philippe. Bearing up bravely in his poverty, he was willing to become steward to the count, and he made an able manager of the Laginski mansion. He gave up this position, when, having become enamored of Clementine Laginska, he saw that he could no longer control his passion by means of a pretended mistress, Marguerite Turquet, the horsewoman. Paz (pronounced Pac), who had willingly assumed the title of captain, had seen the Steinbocks married. His departure from France was only feigned, and he once more saw the Comtesse Laginska, during the winter of 1842. At Rusticoli he took her away from La Palferine, who was on the point of carrying her away. (The Imaginary Mistress, Cousin Betty)
PECHINA (La), nick-name of Genevieve Niseron.
PEDEROTTI (Signor), father of Madame Maurice de l'Hostal. He was a Genoa banker; gave his only daughter a dowry of a million; married her to the French consul, and left her, on dying six months later in January, 1831, a fortune made in grain and amounting to two millions. Pederotti had been made count by the King of Sardinia, but, as he left no male heir, the title became extinct. (Honorine)
PELLETIER, one of Benassis' patients in Isere, who died in 1829, was buried on the same day as the last "cretin," which had been kept on account of popular superstition. Pelletier left a wife, who saw Genestas, and several children, of whom the eldest, Jacques, was born about 1807. (The Country Doctor) ​
PEN-HOEL (Jacqueline de), of a very old Breton family, lived at Guerande, where she was born about 1780. Sister-in-law of the Kergarouets of Nantes, the patrons of Major Brigaut, who, despite the displeasure of the people, did not themselves hesitate to assume the name of Pen-Hoel. Jacqueline protected the daughters of her younger sister, the Vicomtesse de Kergarouet. She was especially attracted to her eldest niece, Charlotte, to whom she intended to give a dowry, as she desired the girl to marry Calyste du Guenic, who was in love with Felicite des Touches. (Beatrix)
PEROUX (Abbe), brother of Madame Julliard; vicar of Provins during the Restoration. (Pierrette)
PERRACHE, small hunchback, shoemaker by trade, and, in 1840, porter in a house belonging to Corentin on rue Honore-Chevalier, Paris. (The Middle Classes)
PERRACHE (Madame), wife of the preceding, often visited Madame Cardinal, niece of Toupillier, one of Corentin's renters. (The Middle Classes)
PERRET, with his partner, Grosstete, preceded Pierre Graslin in a banking-house at Limoges, in the early part of the nineteenth century. (The Country Parson)
PERRET (Madame), wife of the preceding, an old woman in 1829, disturbed herself, as did every one in Limoges, over the assassination committed by Jean-Francois Tascheron. (The Country Parson)
PERROTET, in 1819, laborer on Felix Grandet's farm in the suburbs of Saumur. (Eugenie Grandet)
PETIT-CLAUD, son of a very poor tailor of L'Houmeau, a suburb of Angouleme, where he pursued his studies in the town lyceum, becoming acquainted at the same time with Lucien de Rubempre. He studied law at Poitiers. On going back to the chief city of La Charente, he became clerk to Maitre Olivet, an attorney whom he succeeded. Now began Petit-Claud's period of revenge for the insults which his poverty and homeliness had brought on. He met ​Cointet, the printer, and went into his employ, although at the same time he feigned allegiance to the younger Sechard, also a printer. This conduct paved the way for his accession to the magistracy. He was in turn deputy and king's procureur. Petit-Claud did not leave Angouleme, but made a profitable marriage in 1822 with Mademoiselle Francoise de la Haye, natural daughter of Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches. (Lost Illusions)
PETIT-CLAUD (Madame), wife of the preceding, natural daughter of Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches; born Francoise de la Haye, given into the keeping of old Madame Cointet; married through the instrumentality of Madame Cointet's son, the printer, known as Cointet the Great. Madame Petit-Claud, though insignificant and forward, was provided with a very substantial dowry. (Lost Illusions)
PEYRADE, born about 1758 in Provence, Comtat, in a large family of poor people who eked out a scant subsistence on a small estate called Canquoelle. Peyrade, paternal uncle of Theodose de la Peyrade, was of noble birth, but kept the fact secret. He went from Avignon to Paris in 1776, where he entered the police force two years later. Lenoir thought well of him. Peyrade's success in life was impaired only by his immoralities; otherwise it would have been much more brilliant and lasting. He had a genius for spying, also much executive ability. Fouche employed him and Corentin in connection with the affair of Gondreville's imaginary abduction. A kind of police ministry was given to him in Holland. Louis XVIII. counseled with him and gave him employment, but Charles X. held aloof from this shrewd employe. Peyrade lived in poverty on rue des Moineaux with an adored daughter, Lydie, the child of La Beaumesnil of the Comedie-Francaise. Certain events brought him into the notice of Nucingen, who employed him in the search for Esther Gobseck, at the same time warning him against the courtesan's followers. The police department, having been told of this arrangement by the so-called Abbe Carlos ​Herrera, would not permit him to enter into the employ of a private individual. Despite the protection of his friend, Corentin, and the talent as a policeman, which he had shown under the assumed names of Canquoelle and Saint-Germain, especially in connection with F. Gaudissart's seizure, Peyrade failed in his struggle with Jacques Collin. His excellent transformation into a nabob defender of Madame Theodore Gaillard made the former convict so angry that, during the last years of the Restoration, he took revenge on him by making away with him. Peyrade's daughter was abducted and he died from the effects of poison. (The Gondreville Mystery, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PEYRADE (Lydie). (See La Peyrade, Madame Theodose de.)
PHELLION, born in 1780, husband of a La Perche woman, who bore him three children, two of whom were sons, Felix and Marie-Theodore, and one a daughter, who became Madame Burniol; clerk in the Ministry of Finance, Xavier Rabourdin's bureau, division of Flamet de la Billardiere, a position which he held until the close of 1824. He upheld Rabourdin, who, in turn, often defended him. While living on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques near the Sourds-Muets, he taught history, literature and elementary ethics to the students of Mesdemoiselles La Grave. The Revolution of July did not affect him; even his retirement from service did not cause him to give up the home in which he remained for at least thirty years. He bought for eighteen thousand francs a small house on Feuillantines lane, now rue des Feuillantines, which he occupied, after he had improved it, in a serious Bourgeois manner. Phellion was a major in the National Guard. For the most part he still had the same friends, meeting and visiting frequently Baudoyer, Dutocq, Fleury, Godard, Laudigeois, Rabourdin, Madame Poiret the elder, and especially the Colleville, Thuillier and Minard families. His leisure time was occupied with politics and art. At the ​Odeon he was on a committee of classical reading. His political influence and vote were sought by Theodose de la Peyrade in the interest of Jerome Thuillier's candidacy for the General Council; for Phellion favored another candidate, Horace Bianchon, relative of the highly-honored J.-J. Popinot. (The Government Clerks, The Middle Classes)
PHELLION (Madame), wife of the preceding; belonged to a family who lived in a western province. Her family being so large that the income of more than nine thousand francs, pension and rentals, was insufficient, she continued, under Louis Philippe, to give lessons in harmony to Mesdemoiselles La Grave, as in the Restoration, with the strictness observed in her every-day life.
PHELLION (Felix), eldest son of the preceding couple, born in 1817; professor of mathematics in a Royal college at Paris, then a member of the Academy of Sciences, and chevalier of the Legion of Honor. By his remarkable works and his discovery of a star, he was thus made famous before he was twenty-five years old, and married, after this fame had come to him, Celeste-Louise-Caroline-Brigette Colleville, the sister of one of his pupils and a woman for whom his love was so strong that he gave up Voltairism for Catholicism. (The Middle Classes)
PHELLION (Madame Felix), wife of the preceding; born Celeste-Louise-Caroline-Brigitte Colleville. Although M. and Madame Colleville's daughter, she was reared almost entirely by the Thuilliers. Indeed, M. L.-J. Thuillier, who had been one of Madame Flavie Colleville's lovers, passed for Celeste's father. M., Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier were all determined to give her their Christian names and to make up a large dowry for her. Olivier Vinet, Godeschal, Theodose de la Peyrade, all wished to marry Mademoiselle Colleville. Nevertheless, although she was a devoted Christian, she loved Felix Phellion, the Voltairean, and married him after his conversion to Catholicism. (The Middle Classes)
PHELLION (Marie-Theodore), Felix Phellion's younger brother, ​in 1840 pupil at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees. (The Middle Classes)
PHILIPPART (Messieurs), owners of a porcelain manufactory at Limoges, in which was employed Jean-Francois Tascheron, the murderer of Pingret and Jeanne Malassis. (The Country Parson)
PHILIPPE, employed in Madame Marie Gaston's family; formerly an attendant of the Princesse de Vauremont; later became the Duc Henri de Chaulieu's servant; finally entered Marie Gaston's household, where he was employed after his wife's decease. (Letters of Two Brides, The Member for Arcis)
PICHARD (Mademoiselle), house-keeper of Niseron, vicar of Blangy in Bourgogne. Prior to 1789 she brought her niece, Mademoiselle Arsene Pichard, to his house. (The Peasantry)
PICHARD (Arsene), niece of the preceding. (See Rigou, Madame Gregoire.) (The Peasantry)
PICOT (Nepomucene), astronomer and mathematician, friend of Biot after 1807, author of a "Treatise on Differential Logarithms," and especially of a "Theory of Perpetual Motion," four volumes, quarto, with engravings, Paris, 1825; lived, in 1840, No. 9 rue du Val-de-Grace. Being very near-sighted and erratic, the prey of his thieving servant, Madame Lambert, his family thought that he needed a protector. Being instructor of Felix Phellion, with whom he took a trip to England, Picot made known his pupil's great ability, which the boy had modestly kept secret, at the home of the Thuilliers, Place de la Madeleine, before an audience composed of the Collevilles, Minards and Phellions. Celeste Colleville's future was thus determined. As Picot was decorated late in life, his marriage to a wealthy and eccentric Englishwoman of forty was correspondingly late. After passing through a successful operation for a cancer, he returned "a new man," to the home of the Thuilliers. He was led through gratitude to leave to the Felix Phellions the wealth brought him by Madame Picot. (The Middle Classes) ​
PICQUOISEAU (Comtesse), widow of a colonel. She and Madame de Vaumerland boarded with one of Madame Vauquer's rivals, according to Madame de l'Ambermesnil. (Father Goriot)
PIUS VII. (Barnabas Chiaramonti), lived from 1740 till 1823; pope. Having been asked by letter in 1806, if a woman might go decollete to the ball or to the theatre, without endangering her welfare, he answered his correspondent, Madame Angelique de Granville, in a manner befitting the gentle Fenelon. (A Second Home)
PIEDEFER (Abraham), descendant of a middle class Calvinist family of Sancerre, whose ancestors in the sixteenth century were skilled workmen, and subsequently woolen-drapers; failed in business during the reign of Louis XVI.; died about 1786, leaving two sons, Moise and Silas, in poverty. (The Muse of the Department)
PIEDEFER (Moise), elder son of the preceding, profited by the Revolution in imitating his forefathers; tore down abbeys and churches; married the only daughter of a Convention member who had been guillotined, and by her had a child, Dinah, later Madame Milaud de la Baudraye; compromised his fortune by his agricultural speculations; died in 1819. (The Muse of the Department)
PIEDEFER (Silas), son of Abraham Piedefer, and younger brother of the preceding; did not receive, as did Moise Piedefer, his part of the small paternal fortune; went to the Indies; died, about 1837, in New York, with a fortune of twelve hundred thousand francs. This money was inherited by his niece, Madame de la Baudraye, but was seized by her husband. (The Muse of the Department)
PIEDEFER (Madame Moise), sister-in-law of the preceding, unaffable and excessively pious; pensioned by her son-in-law; lived successively in Sancerre and at Paris with her daughter, Madame de la Baudraye, whom she managed to separate from Etienne Lousteau. (The Muse of the Department) ​
PIERQUIN, born about 1786, successor to his father as notary in Douai; distant cousin of the Molina-Claes of rue de Paris, through the Pierquins of Antwerp; self-interested and positive by nature; aspired to the hand of Marguerite Claes, eldest daughter of Balthazar, who afterwards became Madame Emmanuel de Solis; finally married Felicie, a younger sister of his first choice, in the second year of Charles X.'s reign. (The Quest of the Absolute)
PIERQUIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Felicie Claes, found, as a young girl, a second mother in her elder sister, Marguerite. (The Quest of the Absolute)
PIERQUIN, brother-in-law of the preceding; physician who attended the Claes at Douai. (The Quest of the Absolute)
PIERROT, assumed name of Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard. (The Seamy Side of History)
PIERROTIN, born in 1781. After having served in the cavalry, he left the service in 1815 to succeed his father as manager of a stage-line between Paris and Isle-Adam—an undertaking which, though only moderately successful, finally flourished. One morning in the autumn of 1822, he received as passengers, at the Lion d'Argent, some people, either famous or of rising fame, the Comte Hugret de Serizy, Leon de Lora and Joseph Bridau, and took them to Presles, a place near Beaumont. Having become "coach-proprietor of Oise," in 1838 he married his daughter, Georgette, to Oscar Husson, a high officer, who, upon retiring, had been appointed to a collectorship in Beaumont, and who, like the Canalises and the Moreaus, had for a long time been one of Pierrotin's customers. (A Start in Life)
PEITRO, Corsican servant of the Bartolomeo di Piombos, kinsmen of Madame Luigi Porta. (The Vendetta)
PIGEAU, during the Restoration, at one time head-carrier and afterwards owner of a small house, which he had built with his own hands and on a very economical basis, at Nanterre (between Paris and Saint-Germain-in-Laye). (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) ​
PIGEAU (Madame), wife of the preceding; belonged to a family of wine merchants. After her husband's death, about the end of the Restoration, she inherited a little property, which caused her much unhappiness, in consequence of her avarice and distrust. Madame Pigeau was planning to remove from Nanterre to Saint-Germain with a view to living there on her annuity, when she was murdered with her servant and her dogs, by Theodore Calvi, in the winter of 1828-29. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PIGERON, of Auxerre, was murdered, it is said, by his wife; be that as it may, the autopsy, entrusted to Vermut, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, proved the use of poison. (The Peasantry)
PIGOULT, was head clerk in the office where Malin de Gondreville and Grevin studied pettifogging; was, about 1806, first justice of the peace at Arcis, and then president of the tribunal of the same town, at the time of the lawsuit in connection with the abduction of Malin, when he and Grevin were the prosecuting attorneys. (The Gondreville Mystery) In the neighborhood of 1839, Pigoult was still living, having his home in the ward. At that time he made public recognition of Pantaleon, Marquis de Sallenauve, and supposed father of Charles Dorlange, Comte de Sallenauve, thus serving the interests, or rather the ambitions, of deputy. (The Member for Arcis)
PIGOULT, son of the preceding, acquired the hat manufactory of Phileas Beauvisage, made a failure of the undertaking, and committed suicide; but appeared to have had a natural, though sudden, death. (The Member for Arcis)
PIGOULT (Achille), son of the preceding and grandson of the next preceding, born in 1801. A man of unattractive personality, but of great intelligence, he supplanted Grevin, and, in 1819, was the busiest notary of Arcis. Gondreville's influence, and his intimacy with Beauvisage and Giguet, were the causes of his taking a prominent part in the political contests of that period; he opposed Simon Giguet's candidacy, ​and successfully supported the Comte de Sallenauve. The introduction of the Marquis Pantaleon de Sallenauve to old Pigoult was brought about through Achille Pigoult, and assured a triumph for the sculptor, Sallenauve-Dorlange. (The Member for Arcis)
PILLERAULT (Claude-Joseph), a very upright Parisian trader, proprietor of the Cloche d'Or, a hardware establishment on the Quai de la Ferraille; made a modest fortune, and retired from business in 1814. After losing, one after another, his wife, his son, and an adopted child, Pillerault devoted his life to his niece, Constance-Barbe-Josephine, of whom he was guardian and only relative. Pillerault lived on the rue des Bourdonnais, in 1818, occupying a small apartment let to him by Camusot of the Cocon d'Or. During that period, Pillerault was remarkable for the intelligence, energy and courage displayed in connection with the unfortunate Birotteaus, who were falling into bad repute. He found out Claparon, and terrified Molineux, both enemies of the Birotteaus. Politics and the Cafe David, situated between the rue de la Monnaie and the rue Saint-Honore, consumed the leisure hours of Pillerault, who was a stoical and staunch Republican; he was exceedingly considerate of Madame Vaillant, his house-keeper, and treated Manuel, Foy, Perier, Lafayette and Courier as gods. (Cesar Birotteau) Pillerault lived to a very advanced age. The Anselme Popinots, his grand-nephew and grand-niece, paid him a visit in 1844. Poulain cured the old man of an illness when he was more than eighty years of age; he then owned an establishment (rue de Normandie, in the Marais), managed by the Cibots, and counting among its occupants the Chapoulot family, Schmucke and Sylvain Pons. (Cousin Pons)
PILLERAULT (Constance-Barbe-Josephine). (See Birotteau, Madame Cesar.)
PIMENTEL (Marquis and Marquise de), enjoyed extended influence during the Restoration, not only with the society element of Paris, but especially in the department of Charente, where they spent their summers. They were reputed to be ​the wealthiest land-owners around Angouleme, were on intimate terms with their peers, the Rastignacs, together with whom they composed the shining lights of the Bargeton circle. (Lost Illusions)
PINAUD (Jacques), a "poor linen-merchant," the name under which M. d'Orgemont, a wealthy broker of Fougeres, tried to conceal his identity from the Chouans, in 1799, to avoid being a victim of their robbery. (The Chouans)
PINGRET, uncle of Monsieur and Madame des Vauneaulx; a miser, who lived in an isolated house in the Faubourg Saint-Etienne, near Limoges; robbed and murdered, with his servant Jeanne Malassis, one night in March, 1829, by Jean-Francois Tascheron. (The Country Parson)
PINSON, long a famous Parisian restaurant-keeper of the rue de l'Ancienne-Comedie, at whose establishment Theodose de la Peyrade, reduced, in the time of Louis Philippe, to the uttermost depths of poverty, dined, at the expense of Cerizet and Dutocq, at a cost of forty-seven francs; there also these three men concluded a compact to further their mutual interests. (The Middle Classes)
PIOMBO (Baron Bartolomeo di), born in 1738, a fellow-countryman and friend of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose mother he had protected during the Corsican troubles. After a terrible vendetta, carried out in Corsica against all the Portas except one, he had to leave his country, and went in great poverty to Paris with his family. Through the intercession of Lucien Bonaparte, he saw the First Consul (October, 1800) and obtained property, titles and employment. Piombo was not without gratitude; the friend of Daru, Drouot, and Carnot, he gave evidence of devotion to his benefactor until the latter's death. The return of the Bourbons did not deprive him entirely of the resources that he had acquired. For his Corsican property Bartolomeo received of Madame Letitia Bonaparte a sum which allowed him to purchase and occupy the Portenduere mansion. The marriage of his adored daughter, Ginevra, who, against her ​father's will, became the wife of the last of the Portas, was a source of vexation and grief to Piombo, that nothing could diminish. (The Vendetta)
PIOMBO (Baronne Elisa di), born in 1745, wife of the preceding and mother of Madame Porta, was unable to obtain from Bartolomeo the pardon of Ginevra, whom he would not see after her marriage. (The Vendetta)
PIOMBO (Ginevra di). (See Porta, Madame Luigi.)
PIOMBO (Gregorio di), brother of the preceding, and son of Bartolomeo and Elisa di Piombo; died in his infancy, a victim of the Portas, in the vendetta against the Piombos. (The Vendetta)
PIQUETARD (Agathe). (See Hulot d'Ervy, Baronne Hector.)
PIQUOIZEAU, porter of Frederic de Nucingen, when Rodolphe Castanier was cashier at the baron's bank. (Melmoth Reconciled)
PLAISIR, an "illustrious hair-dresser" of Paris; in September, 1816, on the rue Taitbout, he waited on Caroline Crochard de Bellefeuille, at that time mistress of the Comte de Granville. (A Second Home)
PLANCHETTE, an eminent professor of mechanics, consulted by Raphael de Valentin on the subject of the wonderful piece of shagreen that the young man had in his possession; he took him to Spieghalter, the mechanician, and to Baron Japhet, the chemist, who tried in vain to stretch this skin. The failure of science in this effort was a cause of amazement to Planchette and Japhet. "They were like Christians come from the tomb without finding a God in heaven." Planchette was a tall, thin man, and a sort of poet always in deep contemplation. (The Magic Skin)
PLANTIN, a Parisian publicist, was, in 1834, editor of a review, and aspired to the position of master of requests in the Council of State, when Blondet recommended him to Raoul Nathan, who was starting a great newspaper. (A Daughter of Eve) ​
PLISSOUD, like Brunet, court-crier at Soulanges (Bourgogne), and afterwards Brunet's unfortunate competitor. He belonged, during the Restoration, to the "second" society of his village, witnessed his exclusion from the "first" by reason of the misconduct of his wife, who was born Euphemie Wattebled. Being a gambler and a drinker, Plissoud did not save any money; for, though he was appointed to many offices, they were all lacking in lucrativeness; he was insurance agent, as well as agent for a society that insured against the chances for conscription. Being an enemy of Soudry's party, Maitre Plissoud might readily have served, especially for pecuniary considerations, the interests of Montcornet, proprietor at Aigues. (The Peasantry)
PLISSOUD (Madame Euphemie), wife of the preceding and daughter of Wattebled; ruled the "second" society of Soulanges, as Madame Soudry did the first, and though married to Plissoud, lived with Lupin as if she were his wife. (The Peasantry)
POIDEVIN, was, in the month of November, 1806, second clerk of Maitre Bordin, a Paris attorney. (A Start in Life)
POINCET, an old and unfortunate public scribe, and interpreter at the Palais de Justice of Paris; about 1815, he went with Christemio to see Henri de Marsay, in order to translate the words of the messenger of Paquita Valdes. (The Thirteen)
POIREL (Abbe), a priest of Tours; advanced to the canonry at the time that Monsieur Troubert and Mademoiselle Gamard persecuted Abbe Francois Birotteau. (The Vicar of Tours)
POIRET, the elder, born at Troyes. He was the son of a clerk and of a woman whose wicked ways were notorious and who died in a hospital. Going to Paris with a younger brother, they became clerks in the Department of Finance under Robert Lindet; there he met Antoine, the office boy; he left the department, in 1816, with a retiring pension, and was replaced by Saillard. (The Government Clerks) ​Afflicted with cretinism he remained a bachelor because of the horror inspired by the memory of his mother's immoral life; he was a confirmed idemiste, repeating, with slight variation, the words of those with whom he was conversing. Poiret established himself on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, at Madame Vauquer's private boarding-house; he occupied the second story at the widow's house, became intimate with Christine-Michelle Michonneau and married her, when Horace Bianchon demanded the exclusion of this young woman from the house for denouncing Jacques Collin (1819). (Father Goriot) Poiret often afterwards met M. Clapart, an old comrade whom he had found again on the rue de la Cerisaie; had apartments on the rue des Poules and lost his health. (A Start in Life, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) He died during the reign of Louis Philippe. (The Middle Classes)
POIRET (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Christine-Michelle Michonneau, in 1779, doubtless had a stormy youth. Pretending to have been persecuted by the heirs of a rich old man for whom she had cared, Christine-Michelle Michonneau went, during the Restoration, to board with Madame Vauquer, the third floor of the house on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; made Poiret her squire; made a deal with Bibi-Lupin—Gondureau—to betray Jacques Collin, one of Madame Vauquer's guests. Having thus sated her cupidity and her bitter feelings, Mademoiselle Michonneau was forced to leave the house on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, at the formal demand of Bianchon, another of the guests. (Father Goriot) Accompanied by Poiret, whom she afterwards married, she moved to the rue des Poules and rented furnished rooms. Being summoned before the examining magistrate Camusot (May, 1830), she recognized Jacques Collin in the pseudo Abbe Carlos Herrera. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) Ten years later, Madame Poiret, now a widow, was living on a corner of the rue des Postes, and numbered Cerizet among her lodgers. (The Middle Classes)
POIRET, the younger, brother of Poiret the elder, and brother-in-law of the preceding, born in 1771; had the same start, the ​same instincts, and the same weakness of intellect as the elder; ran the same career, overwhelmed with work under Lindet; remained at the Treasury as copying clerk ten years longer than Poiret the elder, was also book-keeper for two merchants, one of whom was Camusot of the Cocon d'Or; he lived on the rue du Martroi; dined regularly at the Veau qui Tette, on the Place du Chatelet; bought his hats of Tournan, on rue Saint-Martin; and, a victim of J.-J. Bixiou's practical jokes, he wound up by being business clerk in the office of Xavier Rabourdin. Being retired on January 1, 1825, Poiret the younger counted on living at Madame Vauquer's boarding-house. (The Government Clerks)
POLISSARD, appraiser of the wood of the Ronquerolles estate in 1821; at this time, probably on the recommendation of Gaubertin, he employed as agent for the wood-merchant, Vaudoyer, a peasant of Ronquerolles, who had shortly before been discharged from the post of forest-keeper of Blangy (Bourgogne). (The Peasantry)
POLLET, book-publisher in Paris, in 1821; a rival of Doguereau; published "Leonide ou La Vieille de Suresnes," a romance by Victor Ducange; had business relations with Porchon and Vidal; was at their establishment, when Lucien de Rubempre presented to them his "Archer de Charles IX." (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
POMBRETON (Marquis de), a genuine anomaly; lieutenant of the black musketeers under the old regime, friend of the Chevalier de Valois, who prided himself on having lent him for assistance in leaving the country, twelve hundred pistoles. Pombreton returned this loan afterwards, almost beyond a question of doubt, but the fact of the case always remained unknown, for M. de Valois, an unusually successful gamester, was interested in spreading a report of the return of this loan, to shadow the resources that he derived from the gaming table; and so five years later, about 1821, Etienne Lousteau declared that the Pombreton succession and the Maubreuil affair ​were among the most profitable "stereotypes" of journalism. Finally, Le Courrier de l'Orne of M. du Bousquier published, about 1830, these lines: "A certificate for an income of a thousand francs a year will be awarded to the person who can show the existence of a M. de Pombreton before, during, or after the emigration." (Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Jealousies of a Country Town)
POMPONNE (La). (See Toupinet, Madame.)
PONS (Sylvain), born about 1785; son of the old age of Monsieur and Madame Pons, who, before 1789, founded the famous Parisian house for the embroidery of uniforms that was bought, in 1815, by M. Rivet, first cousin of the first Madame Camusot of the Cocon d'Or, sole heir of the famous Pons brothers, embroiderers to the Court; under the Empire, he won the Prix de Rome for musical composition, returned to Paris about 1810, and was for many years famous for his romances and melodies which were full of delicacy and good taste. From his stay in Italy, Pons brought back the tastes of the bibliomaniac and a love for works of art. His passion for collecting consumed almost his entire patrimony. Pons became Sauvageot's rival. Monistrol and Elie Magus felt a hidden but envious appreciation of the artistic treasures ingeniously and economically collected by the musician. Being ignorant of the rare value of his museum, he went from house to house, giving private lessons in harmony. This lack of knowledge proved his ruin afterwards, for he became all the more fond of paintings, stones and furniture, as lyric glory was denied him, and his ugliness, coupled with his supposed poverty, kept him from getting married. The pleasures of a gourmand replaced those of the lover; he likewise found some consolation for his isolation in his friendship with Schmucke. Pons suffered from his taste for high living; he grew old, like a parasitic plant, outside the circle of his family, only tolerated by his distant cousins, the Camusot de Marvilles, and their connections, Cardot, Berthier and ​Popinot. In 1834, at the awarding of the prize to the young ladies of a boarding-school, he met the pianist Schmucke, a teacher as well as himself, and in the strong intimacy that grew up between them, he found some compensation for the blighted hopes of his existence. Sylvain Pons was director of the orchestra at the theatre of which Felix Gaudissart was manager during the monarchy of July. He had Schmucke admitted there, with whom he passed several happy years, in a house, on the rue de Normandie, belonging to C.-J. Pillerault. The bitterness of Madeleine Vivet and Amelie Camusot de Marville, and the covetousness of Madame Cibot, the door-keeper, and Fraisier, Magus, Poulain and Remonencq were perhaps the indirect causes of the case of hepatitis of which Pons died (in April, 1845), appointing Schmucke his residuary legatee before Maitre Leopold Hannequin, who had been hastily summoned by Heloise Brisetout. Pons was on the point of being employed to compose a piece of ballet music, entitled "Les Mohicans." This work most likely fell to his successor, Garangeot. (Cousin Pons)
POPINOT, alderman of Sancerre in the eighteenth century; father of Jean-Jules Popinot and Madame Ragon (born Popinot). He was the officer whose portrait, painted by Latour, adorned the walls of Madame Ragon's parlor, during the Restoration, at her home in the Quartier Saint-Sulpice, Paris. (Cesar Birotteau)
POPINOT (Jean-Jules), son of the preceding, brother of Madame Ragon, and husband of Mademoiselle Bianchon—of Sancerre—embraced the profession of law, but did not attain promptly the rank which his powers and integrity deserved. Jean-Jules Popinot remained for a long time a judge of a lower court in Paris. He took a deep interest in the fate of the young orphan Anselme Popinot, his nephew, and a clerk of Cesar Birotteau; and was invited with Madame Jean-Jules Popinot to the perfumer's famous ball, on Sunday, December 17, 1818. Nearly eighteen months later, Jean-Jules Popinot once more saw Anselme, who was set up as a ​druggist on the rue des Cinq-Diamants, and met Felix Gaudissart, the commercial-traveler, and tried to excuse certain imprudent utterances of his on the political situation, that had been reported by Canquoelle-Peyrade, the police-agent. (Cesar Birotteau) Three years later he lost his wife, who had brought him, for dowry, an income of six thousand francs, representing exactly twice his personal assets. Living from this time at the rue de Fouarre, Popinot was able to give free rein to the exercise of charity, a virtue that had become a passion with him. At the urgent instance of Octave de Bauvan, Jean-Jules Popinot, in order to aid Honorine, the Count's wife, sent her a pretended commission-merchant, probably Felix Gaudissart, offering a more than generous price for the flowers she made. (Honorine) Jean-Jules Popinot eventually established a sort of benevolent agency. Lavienne, his servant, and Horace Bianchon, his wife's nephew aided him. He relieved Madame Toupinet, a poor woman on the rue du Petit-Banquier, from want (1828). Madame d'Espard's request for a guardian for her husband served to divert Popinot from his role of Saint Vincent de Paul; a man of rare delicacy hidden beneath a rough and uncultured exterior, he immediately discovered the injustice of the wrongs alleged by the marchioness, and recognized the real victim in M. d'Espard, when he cross-questioned him at No. 22 rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, in an apartment, the good management of which he seemed to envy, though the rooms were simply furnished, and in striking contrast with the splendor of which he had been a witness, at the home of the marchioness in the Faubourg Saint-Honore. A delay caused by a cold in the head, and especially the influence of Madame d'Espard's intrigues, removed Popinot from the cause, in which Camusot was substituted. (The Commission in Lunacy) We have varying accounts of Jean-Jules Popinot's last years. Madame de la Chanterie's circle mourned the death of the judge in 1833 (The Seamy Side of History) and Phellion in 1840. J.-J. Popinot probably died at No. 22 rue de la Montagne-Saint-Genevieve, in the apartment that he had already coveted, being a counselor ​to the court, municipal counselor of Paris, and a member of the General Council of the Seine. (The Middle Classes)
POPINOT (Anselme), a poor orphan, and nephew of the preceding and of Madame Ragon (born Popinot), who took charge of him in his infancy. Small of stature, red-haired, and lame, he gladly became clerk to Cesar Birotteau, the Paris perfumer of the Reine des Roses, the successor of Ragon, with whom he did a great deal of work, in order to be able to show appreciation for the favor shown a part of his family, that was well-nigh ruined as a result of some bad investments (the Wortschin mines, 1818-19). Anselme Popinot, being secretly in love with Cesarine Birotteau, his employer's daughter—the feeling being reciprocated, moreover—brought about, so far as his means allowed, the rehabilitation of Cesar, thanks to the profits of his drug business, established on the rue des Cinq-Diamants, between 1819 and 1820. The beginning of his great fortune and of his domestic happiness dated from this time. (Cesar Birotteau) After Birotteau's death, about 1822, Popinot married Mademoiselle Birotteau, by whom he had three children, two sons and a daughter. The consequences of the Revolution of 1830 brought Anselme Popinot in the way of power and honors; he was twice deputy after the beginning of Louis Philippe's reign, and was also minister of commerce. (Gaudissart the Great) Anselme Popinot, twice secretary of state, had finally been made a count, and a peer of France. He owned a mansion on the rue Basse du Rempart. In 1834 he rewarded Felix Gaudissart for services formerly rendered on the rue des Cinq-Diamants, and entrusted to him the management of a boulevard theatre, where the opera, the drama, the fairy spectacle, and the ballet took turn and turn. (Cousin Pons) Four years later the Comte Popinot, again minister of commerce and agriculture, a lover of the arts and one who gladly acted the part of the refined Maecenas, bought for two thousand francs a copy of Steinbock's "Groupe de Samson" and stipulated that the mould should be destroyed that there might be only two copies, his own and the one belonging to Mademoiselle Hortense Hulot, the artist's fiancee. ​When Wenceslas married Mademoiselle Hulot, Popinot and Eugene de Rastignac were the Pole's witnesses. (Cousin Betty)
POPINOT (Madame Anselme), wife of the preceding, born Cesarine Birotteau, in 1801. Beautiful and attractive though, at one time, almost promised to Alexandre Crottat, she married, about 1822, Anselme Popinot, whom she loved and by whom she was loved. (Cesar Biroteau) After her marriage, though in the midst of splendor, she remained the simple, open, and even artless character that she was in the modest days of her youth. The transformation of the dancer Claudine du Bruel, the whilom Tullia of the Royal Academy of Music, to a moral bourgeois matron, surprised Madame Anselme, who became intimate with her. (A Prince of Bohemia) The Comtesse Popinot rendered aid, in a delicate way, in 1841, to Adeline Hulot d'Ervy. Her influence with that of Mesdames de Rastignac, de Navarreins, d'Espard, de Grandlieu, de Carigliano, de Lenoncourt, and de la Bastie, procured Adeline's appointment as salaried inspector of charities. (Cousin Betty) Three years later when one of her three children married Mademoiselle Camusot de Marville, Madame Popinot, although she appeared at the most exclusive social gatherings, imitated modest Anselme, and, unlike Amelie Camusot, received Pons, a tenant of her maternal great-uncle, C.-J. Pillerault. (Cousin Pons)
POPINOT (Vicomte), the eldest of the three children of the preceding couple, married, in 1845, Cecile Camusot de Marville. (Cousin Pons) During the course of the year 1846, he questioned Victorin Hulot about the remarkable second marriage of Baron Hector Hulot d'Ervy, which was solemnized on the first of February of that year. (Cousin Betty)
POPINOT (Vicomtesse), wife of the preceding; born Cecile Camusot in 1821, before the name Marville was added to Camusot through the acquisition of a Norman estate. Red-haired and insignificant looking, but very pretentious, she ​persecuted her distant kinsman Pons, from whom she afterwards inherited; from lack of sufficient fortune she failed of more than one marriage, and was treated with scorn by the wealthy Frederic Brunner, especially because of her being an only daughter and the spoiled child. (Cousin Pons)
POPINOT-CHANDIER (Madame and Mademoiselle), mother and daughter; of the family of Madame Boirouge; hailing from Sancerre; frequent visitors of Madame de la Baudraye, whose superiority of manner they ridiculed in genuine bourgeois fashion. (The Muse of the Department)
PORCHON. (See Vidal.)
PORRABERIL (Euphemie). (See San-Real, Marquise de.)
PORRIQUET, an elderly student of the classics, was teacher of Raphael de Valentin, whom he had as a pupil in the sixth class, in the third class, and in rhetoric. Retired from the university without a pension after the Revolution of July, on suspicion of Carlism, seventy years of age, without means, and with a nephew whose expenses he was paying at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, he went to solicit the aid of his dear "foster-child," to obtain the position of principal of a provincial school, and suffered rough treatment at the hands of the carus alumnus, every act of whose shortened Valentin's existence. (The Magic Skin)
PORTA (Luigi), born in 1793, strikingly like his sister Nina. He was the last member that remained, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of the Corsican family of Porta, by reason of a bloody vendetta between his kinspeople and the Piombos. Luigi Porta alone was saved, by Elisa Vanni, according to Giacomo; he lived at Genoa, where he enlisted, and found himself, when quite young, in the affair of the Beresina. Under the Restoration he was already an officer of high rank; he put an end to his military career and was hunted by the authorities at the same time as Labedoyere. Luiga Porta found Paris a safe place of refuge. Servin, the Bonapartist painter, who had opened a studio of drawing, where he taught his art to young ladies, concealed the officer. ​One of his pupils, Ginevra di Piombo, discovered the outlaw's hiding-place, aided him, fell in love with him, made him fall in love with her, and married him, despite the opposition of her father, Bartolomeo di Piombo. Luigi Porta chose as a witness, when he was married, his former comrade, Louis Vergniaud, also known to Hyacinthe Chabert. He lived from hand to mouth by doing secretary's work, lost his wife, and, crushed by poverty, went to tell the Piombos of her death. He died almost immediately after her (1820). (The Vendetta)
PORTA (Madame Luigi), wife of the preceding, born Ginevra di Piombo about 1790; shared, in Corsica as in Paris, the stormy life of her father and mother, whose adored child she was. In Servin's, the painter's studio, where with her talent she shone above the whole class, Ginevra knew Mesdames Tiphaine and Camusot de Marville, at that time Mesdemoiselles Roguin and Thirion. Defended by Laure alone, she endured the cruelly planned persecution of Amelie Thirion, a Royalist, and an envious woman, especially when the favorite drawing pupil discovered and aided Luigi Porta, whom she married shortly afterwards, against the will of Bartolomeo di Piombo. Madame Porta lived most wretchedly; she resorted to Magus to dispose of copies of paintings at a meagre price; brought a son into the world, Barthelemy; could not nurse him, lost him, and died of grief and exhaustion in the year 1820. (The Vendetta)
PORTAIL (Du), name assumed by Corentin, when as "prefect of secret police of diplomacy and political affairs," he lived on the rue Honore-Chevalier, in the reign of Louis Philippe. (The Government Clerks)
PORTENDUERE (Comte Luc-Savinien de), grandson of Admiral de Portenduere, born about 1788, represented the elder branch of the Portendueres, of whom Madame de Portenduere and her son Savinien represented the younger branch. Under the Restoration, being the husband of a rich wife, the father of three children and member for Isere, he lived, according to the season of the year, in the chateau ​of Portenduere or the Portenduere mansion, which were situated, the one in Dauphine, and the other in Paris, and extended no aid to the Vicomte Savinien, though he was harassed by his creditors. (Ursule Mirouet)
PORTENDUERE (Madame de,) born Kergarouet, a Breton, proud of her noble descent and of her race. She married a post-captain, nephew of the famous Admiral de Portenduere, the rival of the Suffrens, the Kergarouets, and the Simeuses; bore him a son, Savinien; she survived her husband; was on intimate terms with the Rouvres, her country neighbors; for, having but little means, she lived, during the Restoration, in the little village of Nemours, on the rue des Bourgeois, where Denis Minoret was domiciled. Savinien's prodigal dissipation and the long opposition to his marriage to Ursule Mirouet saddened, or at least distrubed, Madame de Portenduere's last days. (Ursule Mirouet)
PORTENDUERE (Vicomte Savinien de), son of preceding, born in 1806; cousin of the Comte de Portenduere, who was descended from the famous admiral of this name, and great nephew of Vice-Admiral Kergarouet. During the Restoration he left the little town of Nemours and his mother's society to go and try the life in Paris, where, in spite of his relationship with the Fontaines, he fell in love with Emilie de Fontaine, who did not reciprocate his love, but married first Admiral de Kergarouet, and afterwards the Marquis de Vandenesse. (The Ball at Sceaux) Savinien also became enamored of Leontine de Serizy; was on intimate terms with Marsay, Rastignac, Rubempre, Maxime de Trailles, Blondet and Finot; soon lost a considerable sum of money, and, laden with debts, became a boarder at Sainte-Pelagie; he then received Marsay, Rastignac and Rubempre, the latter wishing to relieve his distress, much to the amusement of Florine, afterwards Madame Nathan. (Secrets from a Courtesan's Life) Urged by Ursule Mirouet, his ward, Denis Minoret, who was one of Savinien's neighbors at Nemours, raised the sum necessary to liquidate young Portenduere's debt, and freed him of its burden. The ​viscount enlisted in the marine service, and retired with the rank and insignia of an ensign, two years after the Revolution of July, and five years before being able to marry Ursule Mirouet. (Ursule Mirouet) The Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Portenduere made a charming couple, recalling two other happy families of Paris, the Langinskis and the Ernest de la Basties. In 1840 they lived on the Rue Saint-Peres, became the intimate friends of the Calyste du Guenics, and shared their box at the Italiens. (Beatrix)
PORTENDUERE (Vicomtesse Savinien de), wife of the preceding, born in 1814. The orphan daughter of an unfortunate artist, Joseph Mirouet, the military musician, and Dinah Grollman, a German; natural granddaughter of Valentine Mirouet, the famous harpsichordist, and consequently niece of the rich Dr. Denis Minoret; she was adopted by the last named, and became his ward, so much the more adored as, in appearance and character, she recalled Madame Denis Minoret, deceased. Ursule's girlhood and youth, passed at Nemours, were marked alternately by joy and bitterness. Her guardian's servants, as well as his intimate friends, overwhelmed her with indications of interest. A distinguished performer, the future viscountess received lessons in harmony from Schmucke, the pianist, who was summoned from Paris. Being of a religious nature, she converted Denis Minoret, who was an adherent of Voltaire's teachings; but the influence she acquired over him called forth against the young girl the fierce animosity of Minoret-Levrault, Massin, Cremiere, Dionis and Goupil, who, foreseeing that she would be the doctor's residuary legatee, abused her, slandered her, and persecuted her most cruelly. Ursule was also scornfully treated by Madame de Portenduere, with whose son, Savinien, she was in love. Later, the relenting of Minoret-Levrault and Goupil, shown in various ways, and her marriage to the Vicomte de Portenduere, at last approved by his mother, offered Ursule some consolation for the loss of Denis Minoret. (Ursule Mirouet) Paris adopted her, and made much of her; she made a glorious success in society as a singer. (Another Study of Woman) Amid her own great happiness, the ​viscountess showed herself the devoted friend, in 1840, of Madame Calyste du Guenic, just after her confinement, who was almost dying of grief over the treachery of her husband. (Beatrix)
POSTEL was pupil and clerk of Chardon the druggist of L'Houmeau, a suburb of Angouleme; succeeded Chardon after his death; was kind to his former patron's unfortunate family; desired, but without success, to marry Eve, who was afterwards Madame David Sechard, and became the husband of Leonie Marron, by whom he had several sickly children. (Lost Illusions)
POSTEL (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Leonie Marron, daughter of Doctor Marron, a practitioner in Marsac (Charente); through jealousy she was disagreeable to the beautiful Madame Sechard; through cupidity she fawned upon the Abbe Marron, from whom she hoped to inherit. (Lost Illusions)
POTASSE, sobriquet of the Protez family, manufacturers of chemicals, as associates of Cochin; known by Minard, Phellion, Thuiller and Colleville, types of Parisians of the middle class, about 1840. (The Middle Classes)
POTEL, former officer of the Imperial forces, retired, during the Restoration, to Issoudun, with Captain Renard; he took sides with Maxence Gilet against the officers, Mignonnet and Carpentier, declared enemies of the chief of the "Knights of Idlesse." (A Bachelor's Establishment)
POULAIN (Madame), born in 1778. She married a trousers-maker, who died in very reduced circumstances; for from the sale of his business she received only about eleven hundred francs for income. She lived then, for twenty years, on work which some fellow-countrymen of the late Poulain gave to her, and the meagre profits of which afforded her the opportunity of starting in a professional career her son, the future physician, whom she dreamed of seeing gain a rich marriage settlement. Madame Poulain, though deprived of an education, was very tactful, and she was in the habit of ​retiring when patients came to consult her son. This she did when Madame Cibot called at the office on rue d'Orleans, late in 1844 or early in 1845. (Cousin Pons)
POULAIN (Doctor), born about 1805, friendless and without fortune; strove in vain to gain the patronage of the Paris "four hundred" after 1835. He kept constantly near him his mother, widow of a trousers-maker. As a poor neighborhood physician he afterwards lived with his mother on rue d'Orleans at the Marais. He became acquainted with Madame Cibot, door-keeper at a house on rue de Normandie, the proprietor of which, C.-J. Pillerault, uncle of the Popinots and ordinarily under Horace Bianchon's treatment, he cured. By Madame Cibot, Poulain was called also to attend Pons in a case of inflammation of the liver. Aided by his friend Fraisier, he arranged matters to suit the Camusots de Marville, the rightful heirs of the musician. Such a service had its reward. In 1845, following the death of Pons, and that of his residuary legatee, Schmucke, soon after, Poulain was given an appointment in the Quinze-Vingts hospital as head physician of this great infirmary. (Cousin Pons)
POUPART, or Poupard, from Arcis-sur-Aube, husband of Gothard's sister; one of the heroes of the Simeuse affair; proprietor of the Mulet tavern. Being devoted to the interest of the Cadignans, the Cinq-Cygnes and the Hauterserres, in 1839, during the electoral campaign, he gave lodging to Maxime de Trailles, a government envoy, and to Paradis, the count's servant. (The Member for Arcis)
POUTIN, colonel of the Second lancers, an acquaintance of Marechal Cottin, minister of war in 1841, to whom he told that many years before this one of his men at Severne, having stolen money to buy his mistress a shawl, repented of his deed and ate broken glass so as to escape dishonor. The Prince of Wissembourg told this story to Hulot d'Ervy, while upbraiding him for his dishonesty. (Cousin Betty)
PRELARD (Madame), born in 1808, pretty, at first mistress of the assassin Auguste, who was executed. She remained constantly ​in the clutches of Jacques Collin, and was married by Jacqueline Collin, aunt of the pseudo-Herrera, to the head of a Paris hardware-house on Quai aux Fleurs, the Bouclier d'Achille. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PREVOST (Madame), well-known florist, whose store still remains in the Palais-Royal. Early in 1830, Frederic de Nucingen bought a ten louis bouquet there for Esther van Gobseck. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
PRIEUR (Madame), laundress at Angouleme, for whom Mademoiselle Chardon, afterwards Madame David Sechard, worked. (Lost Illusions)
PRON (Monsieur and Madame), both teachers. M. Pron taught rhetoric in 1840 at a college in Paris directed by priests. Madame Pron, born Barniol, and therefore sister-in-law of Madame Barniol-Phellion, succeeded Mesdemoiselles La Grave, about the same time, as director of their young ladies' boarding-school. M. and Madame Pron lived in the Quartier Saint-Jacques, and frequently visited the Thuilliers. (The Middle Classes)
PROTEZ AND CHIFFREVILLE, manufactured chemicals; sold a hundred thousand francs' worth to the inventor, Balthazar Claes, about 1812. (The Quest of the Absolute) On account of their friendly relations with Cochin, of the Treasury, all the Protezes and the Chiffrevilles were invited to the celebrated ball given by Cesar Birotteau, Sunday, December 17, 1818, on rue Saint Honore. (Cesar Birotteau)
PROUST, clerk to Maitre Bordin, a Paris attorney, in November, 1806; this fact became known a few years later by Godeschal, Oscar Husson and Marest, when they reviewed the books of the attorneys who had been employed in Bordin's office. (A Start in Life)
PROVENCAL (Le), born in 1777, undoubtedly in the vicinity of Arles. A common soldier during the wars at the close of the eighteenth century, he took part in the expedition of General Desaix into upper Egypt. Having been taken prisoner by the Maugrabins he escaped only to lose ​himself in the desert, where he found nothing to eat but dates. Reduced to the dangerous friendship of a female panther, he tamed her, singularly enough, first by his thoughtless caresses, afterwards by premeditation. He ironically named her Mignonne, as he had previously called Virginie, one of his mistresses. Le Provencal finally killed his pet, not without regret, having been moved to great terror by the wild animal's fierce love. About the same time the soldier was discoverd by some of his own company. Thirty years afterwards, an aged ruin of the Imperial wars, his right leg gone, he was one day visiting the menagerie of Martin the trainer, and recalled his adventure for the delectation of the young spectator. (A Passion in the Desert)
* ↑ Under the title of "Lydie" a portion of the life of Peyrade's daughter was used in a play presented at the Theatre des Nations, now Theatre de Paris, but the author did not publish his play.
* ↑ Maubreuil died at the end of the Second Empire.
* ↑ M. Alphonse de Launay has derived from the life of Sylvain Pons a drama that was presented at the Cluny theatre, Paris, about 1873.
* ↑ In 1838, the little theatre Pantheon, destroyed in 1846, gave a vaudeville play, by M. Eugene Cormon, entitled "Cesar Birotteau," of which Madame Anselme Popinot was one of the heroines.