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Of Madame de Montespan, ousted from the royal favour by Madame deMaintenon, who "married into the family where she had beengoverness," there survives one bookish relic of interest. This is'OEuvres Diverses par un auteur de sept ans,' in quarto, redmorocco, printed on vellum, and with the arms of the mother of thelittle Duc du Maine (1678). When Madame de Maintenon was stillplaying mother to the children of the king and of Madame deMontespan, she printed those "works" of her eldest pupil.

These ladies were only bibliophiles by accident, and were devoted,in the first place, to pleasure, piety, or ambition. With theComtesse de Verrue, whose epitaph will be found on an earlier page,we come to a genuine and even fanatical collector. Madame de Verrue(1670-1736) got every kind of diversion out of life, and when sheceased to be young and fair, she turned to the joys of "shopping."In early years, "pleine de coeur, elle le donna sans comptes." Inlater life, she purchased, or obtained on credit, everything thatcaught her fancy, also sans comptes. "My aunt," says the Duc deLuynes, "was always buying, and never baulked her fancy." Pictures,books, coins, jewels, engravings, gems (over 8,000), tapestries, andfurniture were all alike precious to Madame de Verrue. Her snuff-boxes defied computation; she had them in gold, in tortoise-shell,in porcelain, in lacquer, and in jasper, and she enjoyed thedelicate fragrance of sixty different sorts of snuff. Withoutapplauding the smoking of cigarettes in drawing-rooms, we may admitthat it is less repulsive than steady applications to tobacco inMadame de Verrue's favourite manner.

The Countess had a noble library, for old tastes survived in hercommodious heart, and new tastes she anticipated. She possessed'The Romance of the Rose,' and 'Villon,' in editions of Galliot duPre (1529-1533) undeterred by the satire of Boileau. She hadexamples of the 'Pleiade,' though they were not again admired inFrance till 1830. She was also in the most modern fashion of to-day, for she had the beautiful quarto of La Fontaine's 'Contes,' andBouchier's illustrated Moliere (large paper). And, what I envy hermore, she had Perrault's 'Fairy Tales,' in blue morocco--the bluerose of the folklorist who is also a book-hunter. It must also beconfessed that Madame de Verrue had a large number of books such asare usually kept under lock and key, books which her heirs did notcare to expose at the sale of her library. Once I myself (moichetif) owned a novel in blue morocco, which had been in thecollection of Madame de Verrue. In her old age this exemplary womaninvented a peculiarly comfortable arm-chair, which, like her novels,was covered with citron and violet morocco; the nails were ofsilver. If Madame de Verrue has met the Baroness Bernstein, theirconversation in the Elysian Fields must be of the most gallant andinteresting description.

Another literary lady of pleasure, Madame de Pompadour, can only bespoken of with modified approval. Her great fault was that she didnot check the decadence of taste and sense in the art ofbookbinding. In her time came in the habit of binding books (ifbinding it can be called) with flat backs, without the nerves andsinews that are of the very essence of book-covers. Without theseno binding can be permanent, none can secure the lasting existenceof a volume. It is very deeply to be deplored that by far the mostaccomplished living English artist in bookbinding has reverted tothis old and most dangerous heresy. The most original and gracefultooling is of much less real value than permanence, and a book boundwith a flat back, without nerfs, might practically as well not bebound at all. The practice was the herald of the French and mayopen the way for the English Revolution. Of what avail were theingenious mosaics of Derome to stem the tide of change, when thebooks whose sides they adorned were not really BOUND at all? Madamede Pompadour's books were of all sorts, from the inevitable works ofdevotions to devotions of another sort, and the 'Hours' of ErycinaRidens. One of her treasures had singular fortunes, a copy of'Daphnis and Chloe,' with the Regent's illustrations, and those ofCochin and Eisen (Paris, quarto, 1757, red morocco). The covers areadorned with billing and cooing doves, with the arrows of Eros, withburning hearts, and sheep and shepherds. Eighteen years ago thisvolume was bought for 10 francs in a village in Hungary. Abookseller gave 8 pounds for it in Paris. M. Bauchart paid for it150 pounds; and as it has left his shelves, probably he too made nobad bargain. Madame de Pompadour's 'Apology for Herodotus' (LaHaye, 1735) has also its legend. It belonged to M. Paillet, whocoveted a glorified copy of the 'Pastissier Francois,' in M.Bauchart's collection. M Paillet swopped it, with a number ofothers, for the 'Pastissier:'

J'avais 'L'ApologiePour Herodote,' en reliure ancienne, amourDe livre provenant de chez la PompadourIl me le soutira! {21}

Of Marie Antoinette, with whom our lady book-lovers of the oldregime must close, there survive many books. She had a library inthe Tuileries, as well as at le petit Trianon. Of all her great andvaried collections, none is now so valued as her little book ofprayers, which was her consolation in the worst of all her evildays, in the Temple and the Conciergerie. The book is 'Office de laDivine Providence' (Paris, 1757, green morocco). On the fly-leafthe Queen wrote, some hours before her death, these touching lines:"Ce 16 Octobre, a 4 h. 0.5 du matin. Mon Dieu! ayez pitie de moi!Mes yeux n'ont plus de larmes pour prier pour vous, mes pauvresenfants. Adieu, adieu!--MARIE ANTOINETTE."

There can be no sadder relic of a greater sorrow, and the lastconsolation of the Queen did not escape the French popular geniusfor cruelty and insult. The arms on the covers of the prayer-bookhave been cut out by some fanatic of Equality and Fraternity.

Footnotes:

{1} See illustrations, pp. 114, 115.--In this Project GutenbergeText none of the illustrations are included. However, thereferences to them are included.--DP

{2} "Slate" is a professional term for a severe criticism. Clearlythe word is originally "slat," a narrow board of wood, with which aperson might be beaten.

{3} Histoire des Intrigues Amoureuses de Moliere, et de celles desa femme. (A la Sphere.) A Francfort, chez Frederic Arnaud,MDCXCVII. This anonymous tract has actually been attributed toRacine. The copy referred to is marked with a large N in red, withan eagle's head.

{4} The Lady of the Lake, 1810.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1806.

"To Mrs. Robert Laidlaw, Peel. From the Author."

{5} Dictys Cretensis. Apud Lambertum Roulland. Lut. Paris.,1680. In red morocco, with the arms of Colbert.

{6} L. Annaei Senecae Opera Omnia. Lug. Bat., apud Elzevirios.1649. With book-plate of the Duke of Sussex.

{7} Stratonis Epigrammata. Altenburgi, 1764. Straton bound up inone volume with Epictetus! From the Beckford library.

{8} Opera Helii Eobani Hessi. Yellow morocco, with the first armsof De Thou. Includes a poem addressed "LANGE, decus meum."Quantity of penultimate "Eobanus" taken for granted, metri gratia.

{9} La Journee du Chretien. Coutances, 1831. With inscription,"Leon Gambetta. Rue St. Honore. Janvier 1, 1848."

{10} Villoison's Homer. Venice, 1788. With Tessier's ticket andSchlegel's book-plate.

{11} Les Essais de Michel, Seigneur de Montaigne. "Pour Francoisle Febvre de Lyon, 1695." With autograph of Gul. Drummond, andcipresso e palma.

{12} "The little old foxed Moliere," once the property of WilliamPott, unknown to fame.

{13} That there ever were such editors is much disputed. The storymay be a fiction of the age of the Ptolemies.

{14} Or, more easily, in Maury's Religions de la Grece.

{15} See Essay on 'Lady Book-Lovers.'

{16} See Essay on 'Lady Book-Lovers.'

{17} For a specimen of Madame Pompadour's binding see overleaf.She had another Rabelais in calf, lately to be seen in a shop inPall Mall.

{18} Mr. Payne does not give the date of the edition from which hecopies the cut. Apparently it is of the fifteenth century.

{19} Reproduced in The Library, p. 94.

{20} Country papers, please copy. Poets at a distance will kindlyaccept this intimation.

{21} Bibliotheque d'un Bibliophile. Lille, 1885.

End

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