Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 20

GEORGES, confidential valet of Baron de Nucingen, at Paris, time of Charles X. Knew of his aged master's love affairs and aided or thwarted him at will. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GERARD (Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron), celebrated painter--1770-1837 --procured for Joseph Bridau in 1818 two copies of Louis XVIII.'s portrait which were worth to the beginner, then very poor, a thousand francs, a tidy sum for the Bridau family. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] The Parisian salon of Gerard, much sought after, had a rival at Chaussee-d'Antin in that of Mlle. de Touches. [Beatrix.]

GERARD, adjutant-general of the Seventy-second demi-brigade, commanded by Hulot. A careful education had developed a superior intellect in Gerard. He was a staunch Republican. Killed by the Chouan, Pille-Miche, at Vivetiere, December 1799. [The Chouans.]

GERARD (Gregoire), born in 1802, probably in Limousin. Protestant of somewhat uncouth exterior, son of a journeyman carpenter who died when rather young; G.o.dson of F. Grossetete. From the age of twelve the banker had encouraged him in the study of the exact sciences for which he had natural apt.i.tude. Studied at Ecole Polytechnique from nineteen to twenty-one; then entered as a pupil of engineering in the National School of Roads and Bridges, from which he emerged in 1826 and stood the examinations for ordinary engineer two years later. He was cool-headed and warm-hearted. He became disgusted with his profession when he ascertained its many limitations, and he plunged into the July (1830) Revolution. He was probably on the point of adopting the Saint-Simonian doctrine, when M. Grossetete prevailed upon him to take charge of some important works on the estate of Mme. Pierre Graslin in Haute-Vienne. Gerard wrought wonders aided by Fresquin and other capable men. He became mayor of Montegnac in 1838. Mme. Graslin died about 1844. Gerard followed out her final wishes, and lived with her children, a.s.suming guardianship of Francis Graslin. Three months later, again furthering the desires of the deceased, Gerard married a native girl, Denise Tascheron, the sister of a man who had been executed in 1829. [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame Gregoire), wife of foregoing, born Denise Tascheron, of Montegnac, Limousin; youngest child of a rather large family. She lavished her sisterly affection on her brother, the condemned Tasheron, visiting him in prison and softening his savage nature. With the aid of another brother, Louis-Marie, she made away with certain compromising clues of her eldest brother's crime, and restored the stolen money, afterwards she emigrated to America, where she became wealthy. Becoming homesick she returned to Montegnac, fifteen years later, where she recognized Francis Graslin, her brother's natural son, and became a second mother to him when she married the engineer, Gerard. This marriage of a Protestant with a Catholic took place in 1844. "In grace, modesty, piety and beauty, Mme. Gerard resembled the heroine of 'Edinburgh Prison.'" [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame), widow, poor but honest, mother of several grown-up daughters; kept a furnished hotel on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, about the end of the Restoration. Being under obligations to Suzanne du Val-n.o.ble--Mme. Theodore Gaillard--she sheltered her when the courtesan was driven away from a fine apartment on rue Saint-Georges, following the ruin and flight of her lover, Jacques Falleix, the stockbroker.

Mme. Gerard was not related to the other Gerards mentioned above.

[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GIARDINI, Neapolitan cook somewhat aged. He and his wife ran a restaurant in rue Froidmanteau, Paris, in 1830-31. He had established, so he said, three restaurants in Italy: at Naples, Parma and Rome. In the first years of Louis Philippe's reign, his peculiar cookery was the fare of Paolo Gambara. In 1837 this crank on the subject of special dishes had fallen to the calling of broken food huckster on rue Froidmanteau. [Gambara.]

GIBOULARD (Gatienne), a very pretty daughter of a wealthy carpenter of Auxerre; vainly desired, about 1823, by Sarcus for wife, but his father, Sarcus the Rich, would not consent. Later the social set of Mme. Soudry, the leading one of a neighboring village, dreamed for a moment of avenging themselves on the people of Aigues by winning over Gatienne Giboulard. She could have embroiled M. and Mme. Montcornet, and perhaps even compromised Abbe Brossette. [The Peasantry.]

GIGELMI, Italian orchestra conductor, living in Paris with the Gambaras. After the Revolution of 1830, he dined at Giardini's on rue Froidmanteau. [Gambara.]

GIGONNET. (See Bidault.)

GIGUET (Colonel), native probably of Arcis-sur-Aube, where he lived after retirement. One of Mme. Marion's brothers. One of the most highly esteemed officers of the Grand Army. Had a fine sense of honor; was for eleven years merely captain of artillery; chief of battalion in 1813; major in 1814. On account of devotion to Napoleon he refused to serve the Bourbons after the first abdication; and he gave such proofs of his fidelity in 1815, that he would have been exiled had it not been for the Comte de Gondreville, who obtained for him retirement on half-pay with the rank of colonel. About 1806 he married one of the daughters of a wealthy Hamburg banker, who gave him three children and died in 1814. Between 1818 and 1825 Giguet lost the two younger children, a son named Simon alone surviving. A Bonapartist and Liberal, the colonel was, during the Restoration, president of the committee at Arcis, where he came in touch with Grevin, Beauvisage and Varlet, notables of the same stamp. He abandoned active politics after his ideas triumphed, and, during the reign of Louis Philippe, he became a noted horticulturist, the creator of the famous Giguet rose.

Nevertheless the colonel continued to be the G.o.d of his sister's very influential salon where he appeared at the time of the legislative elections of 1839. In the first part of May of that year the little old man, wonderfully preserved, presided over an electoral convention at Frappart's, the candidates in the field being his own son, Simon Giguet, Phileas Beauvisage, and Sallenauve-Dorlange. [The Member for Arcis.]

GIGUET (Colonel), brother of the preceding and of Mme. Marion; was brigadier of gendarmes at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1803; promoted to a lieutenancy in 1806. As brigadier Giguet was one of the most experienced men in the service. The commandant of Troyes mentioned him especially to the two Parisian detectives, Peyrade and Corentin, entrusted with watching the actions of the Simeuses and the Hauteserres which resulted in the ruin of these young Royalists on account of the pretended seizure of Gondreville. However, an adroit manoeuvre on the part of Francois Michu at first prevented Brigadier Giguet from seizing these conspirators whom he had tracked to earth.

After his promotion to lieutenant he succeeded in arresting them. He finally became colonel of the gendarmes of Troyes, whither Mme.

Marion, then Mlle. Giguet, went with him. He died before his brother and sister, and made her his heir. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

GIGUET (Simon), born during the first Empire, the oldest and only surviving child of Colonel Giguet of the artillery. In 1814 he lost his mother, the daughter of a rich Hamburg banker, and in 1826 his maternal grandfather who left him an income of two thousand francs, the German having favored others of the large family. He did not hope for any further inheritance save that of his father's sister, Mme.

Marion, which had been augmented by the legacy of Colonel Giguet of the gendarmes. Thus it was that, after studying law with the subprefect Antonin Goulard, Simon Giguet, deprived of a fortune which at first seemed a.s.sured to him, became a simple attorney in the little town of Arcis, where attorneys are of little service. His aunt's and his father's position fired him with ambition for a political career.

Giguet ogled at the same time for the hand and dowry of Cecile Beauvisage. Of mediocre ability; upheld the Left Centre, but failed of election in May, 1839, when he presented himself as candidate for Arcis-sur-Aube. [The Member for Arcis.]

GILET (Maxence), born in 1789. He pa.s.sed at Issoudun for the natural son of Lousteau, the sub-delegate. Others thought him the son of Dr.

Rouget, a friend and rival of Lousteau. In short "fortunately for the child both claimed him"; though he belonged to neither. His true father was found to be a "charming officer of dragoons in the garrison at Bourges." His mother, the wife of a poor drunken cobbler of Issoudun, had the marvelous beauty of a Transteverin. Her husband was aware of his wife's actions and profited by them: through interested motives, Lousteau and Rouget were allowed to believe whatever they wished about the child's paternity, for which reason both contributed to the education of Maxence, usually known as Max. In 1806, at the age of seventeen, Max enlisted in a regiment going to Spain. In 1809 he was left for dead in Portugal in an English battery; taken by the English and conveyed to the Spanish prison-hulks at Cabrera. There he remained from 1810 to 1814. When he returned to Issoudun his father and his mother had both died in the hospital. On the return of Bonaparte, Max served as captain in the Imperial Guard. During the second Restoration he returned to Issoudun and became leader of the "Knights of Idlesse" which were addicted to nocturnal escapades more or less agreeable to the inhabitants of the town. "Max played at Issoudun a part almost identical with that of Smith in 'The Fair Maid of Perth'; he was the champion of Bonapartism and opposition. They relied upon him, as the citizens of Perth had relied upon Smith on great occasions." A possible Caesar Borgia on more extensive ground, Gilet lived very comfortably, although without a personal income. And that is why Max with certain inherited qualities and defects rashly went to live with his supposed natural father, Jean-Jacques Rouget, a rich and witless old bachelor who was under the thumb of a superb servant-mistress, Flore Brazier, known as La Rabouilleuse. After 1816 Gilet lorded it over the household; the handsome chap had won the heart of Mlle. Brazier. Surrounded by a sort of staff, Maxence contested the important inheritance of Rouget, maintaining his ground with marvelous skill against the two lawful heirs, Agathe and Joseph Bridau; and he would have appropriated it but for the intervention of a third heir, Philippe Bridau. Max was killed in a duel by Philippe Bridau in the early part of December, 1822. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GILLE, once printer to the Emperor; owner of script letters which Jerome-Nicolas Sechard made use of in 1819, claiming for them that they were the ancestors of the English type of Didot. [Lost Illusions.]

GINA, character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," autobiographical novel by Albert Savarus; a sort of "ferocious" Sormano. Represented as a young Sicilian girl, fourteen years old, in the services of the Gandolphinis, political refugees at Gersau, Switzerland, in 1823. So devoted as to pretend dumbness on occasion, and to wound more or less seriously the hero of the romance, Rodolphe, who had secretly entered the Gandolphini home. [Albert Savarus.]

GINETTA (La), young Corsican girl. Very small and slender, but no less clever. Mistress of Theodore Calvi, and an accomplice in the double crime committed by her lover, towards the end of the Restoration, when she was able on account of her small size to creep down an open chimney at the widow Pigeau's, and thus to open the house door for Theodore who robbed and murdered the two inmates, the widow and the servant. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GIRARD, banker and discounter at Paris during the Restoration; perhaps also somewhat of a p.a.w.nbroker; an acquaintance of Esther Gobseck's.

Like Palma, Werbrust and Gigonnet, he held a number of notes signed by Maxime de Trailles; and Gobseck who knew it used them against the count, then the lover of Mme. de Restaud, when Trailles went to the usurer in rue des Gres and besought a.s.sistance in vain. [Gobseck.]

GIRARD (Mother), who ran a little restaurant at Paris in rue de Tournon, prior to 1838, had a successor with whom G.o.defroid promised to board when he was inspecting the left bank of the Seine, and trying to aid the Bourlac-Mergis. [The Seamy Side of History.]

GIRARDET, attorney at Besancon, between 1830 and 1840. A talkative fellow and adherent of Albert Savarus, he followed, probably in the latter's interest, the beginning of the Watteville suit. When Savarus left Besancon suddenly, Girardet tried to straighten out his colleague's affairs, and advanced him five thousand francs. [Albert Savarus.]

GIRAUD (Leon), was at Paris in 1821 member of the Cenacle of rue des Quatre-Vents, presided over by Daniel d'Arthez. He represented the philosophical element. His "doctrines" predicted the end of Christianity and of the family. In 1821 he was also in charge of a "grave and dignified" opposition journal. He became the head of a moral and political school, whose "sincerity atoned for its errors."

[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] About the same time Giraud frequented the home of the mother of his friend Joseph Bridau, and was going there at the time when the painter's elder brother, the Bonapartist Philippe, got into trouble. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

The Revolution of July opened the political career of Leon Giraud who became master of requests in 1832, and afterwards councillor of state.

In 1845 Giraud was a member of the Chamber, sitting in the Left Centre. [The Secrets of a Princess. The Unconscious Humorists.]

GIREL, of Troyes. According to Michu, Girel, a Royalist like himself, during the first Revolution, played the Jacobin in the interest of his fortune. From 1803 to 1806, at any rate, he was in correspondence with the Strasbourg house of Breintmayer, which dealt with the Simeuse twins when they were tracked by Bonaparte's police. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

GIRODET (Anne-Louis), celebrated painter, born at Montargis, in 1767, died at Paris in 1824. Under the Empire he was on friendly terms with his colleague, Theodore de Sommervieux. One day in the latter's studio he greatly admired a portrait of Augustine Guillaume and an interior, which he advised him, but in vain not to exhibit at the Salon, thinking the two works too true to nature to be appreciated by the public. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]

GIROUD (Abbe), confessor of Rosalie de Watteville at Besancon between 1830 and 1840. [Albert Savarus.]

GIROUDEAU, born about 1774. Uncle of Andoche Finot; began as simple soldier in the army of Sambre and Meuse; five years master-at-arms in the First Hussars--army of Italy; charged at Eylau with Colonel Chabert. He pa.s.sed into the dragoons of the Imperial Guard, where he was captain in 1815. The Restoration interrupted his military career.

Finot, manager of various Parisian papers and reviews, put him in charge of the cash and accounts of a little journal devoted to dramatic news, which he ran from 1821 to 1822. Giroudeau was also editor, and his duty it was to wage the warfare; beyond that he lived a gay life. Although on the wrong side of forty and afflicted with catarrh he had for mistress Florentine Cabirolle of the Gaite. He went with the high-livers--among others with his former mess-mate Philippe Bridau, at whose wedding with Flore Brazier he was present in 1824. In November, 1825, Frederic Marest gave a grand breakfast to Desroches'

clerks at the Rocher de Cancale, to which Giroudeau was invited. All spent the evening with Florentine Cabirolle who entertained them royally but involuntarily got Oscar Husson into trouble. Ex-Captain Giroudeau bore firearms during the "three glorious days," re-entered the service after the accession of citizen royalty and soon became colonel then general, 1834-35. At this time he was enabled to satisfy a legitimate resentment against his former friend, Bridau, and block his advancement. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Start in Life. A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GIVRY, one of several names of the second son of the Duc de Chaulieu, who became by his marriage with Madeleine de Mortsauf a Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. [Letters of Two Brides. The Lily of the Valley. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GOBAIN (Madame Marie), formerly cook to a bishop; lived during the Restoration in Paris on rue Saint-Maur, Popinot quarter, under very peculiar circ.u.mstances. She was in the service of Octave de Bauvan.

Was the maid and housekeeper of Comtesse Honorine when the latter left home and became a maker of artificial flowers. Mme. Gobain had been secretly engaged by M. de Bauvan, who through her was enabled to keep watch over his wife. Gobain displayed the greatest loyalty. At one time the comtesse took the servant's name. [Honorine.]

GOBENHEIM, brother-in-law of Francois and Adolphe Keller, whose name he added to his own. About 1819 in Paris he was at first made receiver in the Cesar Birotteau bankruptcy, but was later replaced by Camusot.

[Cesar Birotteau.] Under Louis Philippe, Gobenheim, as broker for the Paris prosecuting office, invested the very considerable savings of Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. [Beatrix.]

GOBENHEIM, nephew of Gobenheim-Keller of Paris; young banker of Havre in 1829; visited the Mignons, but not as a suitor for the heiress'

hand. [Modeste Mignon.]

GOBET (Madame), in 1829 at Havre made shoes for Mme. and Mlle. Mignon.

Was scolded by the latter for lack of style. [Modeste Mignon.]

GOBSECK (Jean-Esther Van), usurer, born in 1740 at Antwerp of a Jewess and a Dutchman. Began as a cabin-boy. Was only ten years of age when his mother sent him off to the Dutch possessions in India. There and in America he met distinguished people, also several corsairs; traveled all over the world and tried many trades. The pa.s.sion for money took entire hold of him. Finally he came to Paris which became the centre of his operations, and established himself on rue des Gres.

There Gobseck, like a spider in his web, crushed the pride of Maxime de Trailles and brought tears to the eyes of Mme. de Restaud and Jean-Joachim Goriot--1819. About this same time Ferdinand du Tillet sought out the money-lender to make some deals with him, and spoke of him as "Gobseck the Great, master of Palma, Gigonnet, Werbrust, Keller and Nucingen." Gobseck went every evening to the Themis cafe to play dominoes with his friend Bidault-Gigonnet. In December, 1824, he was found there by Elisabeth Baudoyer, whom he promised to aid; indeed, supported by Mitral, he was able to influence Lupeaulx to put in Isidore Baudoyer as chief of division succeeding La Billardiere. In 1830, Gobseck, then an octogenarian, died in his wretched hole on rue des Gres though he was enormously wealthy. Derville received his last wishes. He had obtained a wife for the lawyer and entrusted him with several confidences. Fifteen years after the Dutchman's death, he was spoken of on the boulevard as the "Last of the Romans"--among the old-fashioned money-lenders like Gigonnet, Chaboisseau, and Samanon, against whom Lora and Bixiou set the modern Vauvinet. [Gobseck. Father Goriot. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks. The Unconscious Humorists.]

GOBSECK (Sarah Van), called "La Belle Hollandaise." A peculiarity of this family--as well as the Maranas--that the female side always kept the family name. Thus Sarah Van Gobseck was the grand-niece of Jean-Esther Van Gobseck. This prost.i.tute, mother of Esther, who was also a courtesan, was a typical daughter of Paris. She caused the bankruptcy of Roguin, Birotteau's attorney, and was herself ruined by Maxime de Trailles whom she adored and maintained when he was a page to Napoleon. She died in a house on Palais-Royal, the victim of a love-mad captain, December, 1818. The affair created a stir. Juan and Francis Diard had something to say about it. Esther's name lived after her.

The Paris of the boulevards from 1824 to 1839 often mentioned her prodigal and stormy career. [Gobseck. Cesar Birotteau. The Maranas.

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Member for Arcis.]

GOBSECK (Esther Van), born in 1805 of Jewish origin; daughter of the preceding and great-grand-niece of Jean. For a long time in Paris she followed her mother's calling, and having begun it early in life she knew its varied phases. Was nick-named "La Torpille." Was for some time one of the "rats" of the Royal Academy of Music, and numbered among her protectors, Lupeaulx. In 1823 her reduced circ.u.mstances almost forced her to leave Paris for Issoudun, where, for a machiavellian purpose, Philippe Bridau would have made her the mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget. The affair did not materialize. She went to Mme. Meynardie's house where she remained till about the end of 1823. One evening, while pa.s.sing the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre, she chanced to meet Lucien de Rubempre, and they loved each other at first sight. Their pa.s.sion led into many vicissitudes. The poet and the ex-prost.i.tute were rash enough to attend an Opera ball together in the winter of 1824. Unmasked and insulted Esther fled to rue de Langlade, where she lived in dire poverty. The dangerous, powerful and mysterious protector of Rubempre, Jacques Collin, followed her there, lectured her and shaped her future life, making her a Catholic, educating her carefully and finally installing her with Lucien on rue Taitbout, under the surveillance of Jacqueline Collin, Paccard and Prudence Servien. She could go out only at night. Nevertheless, the Baron de Nucingen discovered her and fell madly in love with her.

Jacques Collin profited by the episode; Esther received the banker's attentions, to the enrichment of Lucien. In 1830 she owned a house on rue Saint-Georges which had belonged previously to several celebrated courtesans; there she received Mme. du Val-n.o.ble, Tullia and Florentine--two dancers, f.a.n.n.y Beaupre and Florine--two actresses. Her new position resulted in police intervention on the part of Louchard, Contenson, Peyrade and Corentin. On May 13, 1830, unable longer to endure Nucingen, La Torpille swallowed a Javanese poison. She died without knowing that she had fallen heir to seven millions left by her great-grand-uncle. [Gobseck. The Firm of Nucingen. A Bachelor's Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

G.o.dAIN, born in 1796, in Burgundy, near Soulanges, Blangy and Ville-aux-Fayes; nephew of one of the masons who built Mme. Soudry's house. A shiftless farm laborer, exempt from military duty on account of smallness of stature; was at first the lover, then the husband, of Catherine Tonsard, whom he married about 1823. [The Peasantry.]

G.o.dAIN (Madame Catherine), the eldest of the legitimate daughters of Tonsard, landlord of the Grand-I-Vert, situated between Conches and Ville-aux-Fayes in Burgundy. Of coa.r.s.e beauty and by nature depraved; a hanger-on at the Tivoli-Socquard, and a devoted sister to Nicolas Tonsard for whom she tried to obtain Genevieve Niseron. Courted by Charles, valet at Aigues. Feared by Amaury Lupin. Married G.o.dain one of her lovers, giving a dowry of a thousand francs cunningly obtained from Mme. Montcornet. [The Peasantry.]

G.o.dARD (Joseph), born in 1798, probably at Paris; related slightly to the Baudoyers through Mitral. Stunted and puny; fifer in the National Guard; "crank" collector of curios; a virtuous bachelor living with his sister, a florist on rue Richelieu. Between 1824 and 1825 a possible a.s.sistant in the Department of Finance in the bureau managed by Isidore Baudoyer, whose son-in-law he dreamed of becoming. An easy mark for Bixiou's practical jokes. With Dutocq he was an unwavering adherent of the Baudoyers and their relatives the Saillards. [The Government Clerks. The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

G.o.dARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the foregoing, and lived on rue Richelieu, Pais, where in 1824 she ran a florist's shop. Mlle. G.o.dard employed Zelie Lorain who became later the wife of Minard. She received him and Dutocq. [The Government Clerks.]

G.o.dARD (Manon), serving-woman of Mme. de la Chanterie; arrested in 1809, between Alencon and Mortagne, implicated in the Chauffeurs trial which ended in the capital punishment of Mme. des Tours-Minieres, daughter of Mme. de la Chanterie. Manon G.o.dard was sentenced by default to twenty-two years imprisonment, and gave herself up in order not to abandon her mistress. A long time after the baroness was set free, time of Louis Philippe, Manon was still living with her, on rue Chanoinesse, in the house which sheltered Alain, Montauran and G.o.defroid. [The Seamy Side of History.]

G.o.dDET, retired surgeon-major of the Third regiment of the line; the leading physician of Issoudun in 1823. His son was one of the "Knights of Idlesse." G.o.ddet junior pretended to pay court to Mme. Fichet, in order to reach her daughter who had the best dowry in Issoudun. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]