New-York tribune., 1922-07-30

But it is about another town sh....
Pezenas, that I want 10 write. p6znmoaose
where the tricentensry Of Moliero ,,a, ,s,S,
be celebrated, belongs in the catoosn. s.u
Of attractive places. With its ancso.3s
unchanged streets, It's old arigtocrs4,.;'r'
houses, it preserves the aspec, 20 oe'ic
little Versailles. Indeed, il was =, -. q
way the Versailles of Languedoc 4ae Us
meeting place Of the States Genarat ~
the province and at different tinss e.I oI
center Of the nobility Of the regjo. VDe
The smiling land which surround. :,
was doubtless even loveljer in the 80 ~
Of Moliere, before the succegs ~
vneyasds had enriched it economic.ilis,
and taken from it some Of its nrise:1.1.
beauty. The "Mercure de- France FSs'te \!
1902 spoke Of this fertile county,
The most beautiful country in -
world, and D'Assoucy. Who lived .bess
six good months" in each year caJas
IT with some exaggeratlon the Iass
Of Cockaigne." It is simpler and aa,. .
truthful to say that the little town ~
Pezenas is one of the most or,g;-., ~
ano attractive Of tbs Aidi. and thst =
-, IN addition, The Second covntrvo ~ ~
Molicrc. u
IN the days when Moliere'z mad RE.
panie8 took him there. the arcior,
chateau Of Hontmorency, razed \.
Cardinal RichelieU, was alread,
runs, nigh on hill and still very u,
posing. Lower down stood the 81
Of the States General. rsmodslad .a'acs
eighteenth century and don7inatod ~
very old belfrv, whose cornieu3' ,,nieu ~
once pointed to the sky from The -
hall. Not far from there. Cell ''Ta ,sa
barber, had his modest and nsrrs.,.
shop soon to be adorned viii t-''s
memorial slab. Moliere would 49,.
nize it, for it has not changed. VIZ.
he took his way there to sit in Ln ~.
legendary arm chair and listen n. 49,
gay discourse Of the nat;vec :.
passed, probably. through an old zrd
narrow street A. which cannot bsys
changed greatly since-the stree. -
the fair, where, in shops even nora
tiny than that Of the barber var;o.a
Of merchandise is still displayed
Pezenas had even then its COLLEGE ~
Oratorians, founded BY Henri w. wbeys
MassllIon tWnose works. though never
read except by seminaristg. are forr5
IN every book stall of the Paris ouays1
was later to teacn. It had its tvo
curlositles: a quay without water and
meadow without grass. The oUsy
was lined with beautiful hotels" The
field seems to have belonged IN
monastery of Tempiars; now shaded
oy magnlhcent trees, It is the public
promenade of the town. do Won
RENE mber Sherwood Anderson. or PsnI
hosenfeld, or you, Sinclair Lewis, the
lovely promenade on the edge Of the
fields outside tba
OF Provlns, past the spot where the
English armies made a breach fr. :,.s
hundred years ago?)
Moliere knew all these as he tnsw
the little handball court where more
than once he played the Ecu DE-
paume.' He knew the Hotel d'AIfonca
Where, on November 2, 1866. he PLAYED
before the Prince de Cont. and The
public "Hotel OF the Silver Bowl ,
where, it IS said. he mislaid the manu-
script of lie Medecin volant," which
was found and previously conserved
by domestic OF the hotel.
Half mile from the town. sur.
rounded by trees on the banks of the
Herault, rose the country seat Of the
Montmorency. The Prince de Cont
lived there when he came 20 preside
over the States General of Languedoc.
There he held a court in petto, whose
queen, provincial Montespan. was
the beautiful Nine. de Calvimont.
Like all Of his family. Armand Louis
de Bourbon, Prince de Cont and
brother Of the great Conde, was mod
erately brute. II was there that. in
December, 1854, he killed his secretary,
hitting him (accidently) too hard over
the head with a pair of tcngs fresh
Irem the fire. The secretary (the poet
Sarrazin, who figures in novel Of
Nine. de Soudery under the name Of
Amilcar) having thus by the will Of the
Lord abandoned the service Of the
great man, the post was offered to
Moliere. But the latter preferred his
career as dramatist and the compars
tive calm of his illuminating enemies
in Paris. Posterity has thus far not
quarreled with the decision.
Meanwhile the publication Of books
proceeds in such proportions SIS TO be-
wilder the poor literary reporter by an
embarras de richesse. Choice of them
for mere mention is almost as diff
cult as choice for review. There is, for
example, LIE Seigneur Inconnu," By Mr..
De Lewis -MirepoiX, who displayed in his
"Baiser de lAntechrist" a taste for
the type of novel meandering over q
wide field in space and time and re-
volving about an enigma suddenly re-
solved at the close of the story by
dramatic coup. His latest novel has
the Romanesque quality dear to maiden
ladies: the poor lad of unknown orr
gin, his talent as fighter and money
maker, the beautiful and high-born
heroine and the revelation of his own
high birth. The game is old, but MI
De Levis-Mirepoix plays it with finesss
and admirable conviction.