Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 41

RAVENOUILLET (Lucienne), daughter of the preceding couple, was in 1845 a pupil in the Paris Conservatory of Music. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

REGNAULD (Baron) (1754-1829), celebrated artist, member of the Inst.i.tute. Joseph Bridau, when fourteen, was a frequent visitor at his studio, in 1812-1813. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

REGNAULT, former chief clerk to Maitre Roguin, a Paris notary; came to Vendome in 1816 and purchased there a notaryship. He was called by Madame de Merret to her death-bed, and was made her executor. In this position, some years later, he urged Doctor Bianchon to respect one of the last wishes of the deceased by discontinuing his promenades in the Grande Breteche garden, as she had wished this property to remain entirely unused for half a century. Maitre Regnault married a wealthy cousin of Vendome. Regnault was tall and slender, with sloping forehead, small pointed head and wan complexion. He frequently used the expression, "One moment." [La Grande Breteche.]

REGNIER (Claude-Antoine), Duc de Ma.s.sa, born in 1746, died 1814; an advocate, and afterwards deputy to the Const.i.tuency; was high justice --justice of the peace--during the celebrated trial of the Simeuses and Hauteserres, accused of the abduction of Senator Malin. He noticed the talent displayed by Granville for the defendants, and a little later, having met him at Archchancelor Cambaceres's house, he took the young barrister into his own carriage, setting him down on the Quai des Augustins, at the young man's door, after giving him some practical advice and a.s.suring him of his protection. [The Gondreville Mystery. A Second Home.]

REMONENCQ, an Auvergnat, dealer in old iron, established on rue de Normandie, in the house in which Pons and Schmucke lived, and where the Cibots were porters. Remonencq, who had come to Paris with the intention of being a porter, ran errands between 1825 and 1831 for the dealers in curiosities on Boulevard Beaumarchais and the coppersmiths on rue de Lappe, then opened in this same quarter a small shop for odds and ends. He lived there in sordid economy. He had been in Sylvain Pons's house, and had fully recognized the great value of the aged collector's treasures. His greed urged him to crime, and he instigated Madame Cibot in her theft at the Pons house. After receiving his share of the property, he poisoned the husband of the portress, in order to marry the widow, with whom he established a curiosity shop in an excellent building on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. About 1846 he unwittingly poisoned himself with a gla.s.s of vitriol, which he had placed near his wife. [Cousin Pons.]

REMONENCQ (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, "a kind of idiot with a vacant stare, dressed like a j.a.panese idol." She was her brother's house-keeper. [Cousin Pons.]

REMONENCQ (Madame), born in 1796, at one time a beautiful oyster-woman of the "Cadran Bleu" in Paris; married for love the porter-tailor, Cibot, in 1828, and lived with him in the porter's lodge of a house on rue de Normandie, belonging to Claude-Joseph Pillerault. In this house the musicians, Pons and Schmucke, lived. She busied herself for some time with the management of the house and the cooking for these two celibates. At first she was faithful, but finally, moved by Remonencq, and encouraged by Fontaine, the necromancer, she robbed the ill-fated Pons. Her husband having been poisoned, without her knowledge, by Remonencq, she married the second-hand dealer, now a dealer in curiosities, and proprietor of the beautiful shop on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. She survived her second husband. [Cousin Pons.]

REMY (Jean), peasant of Arcis-sur-Aube, against whom a neighbor lost a lawsuit concerning a boundary line. This neighbor, who was given to drink, used strong language in speaking against Jean Remy in a session of the electors who had organized in the interest of Dorlange-Sallenauve, a candidate, in the month of April, 1839. If we may believe this neighbor, Jean Remy was a wife-beater, and had a daughter who had obtained, through the influence of a deputy, and apparently without any claim, an excellent tobacco-stand on rue Mouffetard. [The Member for Arcis.]

RENARD, former captain in the Imperial army, withdrew to Issoudun during the Restoration; one of the officers in the Faubourg de Rome, who were hostile to the "pekins" and partisans of Maxence (Max) Gilet.

Renard and Commandant Potel were seconds for Maxence in his duel with Philippe Bridau--a duel which resulted in the former's death. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

RENARD, regimental quartermaster in the cavalry, 1812. Although educated as a notary he became an under officer. He had the face of a girl and was considered a "wheedler." He saved the life of his friend, Genestas, several times, but enticed away from him a Polish Jewess, whom he loved, married in Sarmatian fashion, and left enceinte. When fatally wounded in the battle against the Russians, just before the battle of Lutzen, in his last hours, to Genestas, he acknowledged having betrayed the Jewess, and begged this gentleman to marry her and claim the child, which would soon be born. This was done by the innocent officer. Renard was the son of a Parisian wholesale grocer, a "toothless shark," who would not listen to anything concerning the quartermaster's offspring. [The Country Doctor.]

RENARD (Madame). (See Genestas, Madame.)

RENARD (Adrien). (See Genestas, Adrien.)

RENE, the only servant to M. du Bousquier of Alencon, in 1816; a silly Breton servant, who, although very greedy, was perfectly reliable.

[Jealousies of a Country Town.]

RESTAUD (Comte de), a man whose sad life was first brought to the notice of Barchou de Penhoen, a school-mate of Dufaure and Lambert; born about 1780; husband of Anastasie Goriot, by whom he was ruined; died in December, 1824, while trying to adjust matters favorably for his eldest son, Ernest, the only one of Madame de Restaud's three children whom he recognized as his own. To this end he had pretended that, having been very extravagant, he was greatly in debt to Gobseck.

He a.s.sured his son by another letter of the real condition of his estate. M. de Restaud, was similar in appearance to the Duc de Richelieu, and had the proud manners of the statesman of the aristocratic faubourg. [Gobseck. Father Goriot.]

RESTAUD (Comtesse Anastasie de), wife of the preceding; elder daughter of the vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; a beautiful brunette of queenly bearing and manners. Like the fair and gentle Madame de Nucingen, her sister, she showed herself severe and ungrateful towards the kindliest and weakest of fathers. She had three children, two boys and a girl; Ernest, the eldest, being the only legitimate one. She ruined herself for Trailles, her lover's benefit, selling her jewels to Gobseck and endangering her children's future. As soon as her husband had breathed his last, in a moment anxiously awaited, she took from under his pillow and burned the papers which she believed contrary to her own interests and those of her two natural children.

It thus followed that Gobseck, the fict.i.tious creditor, gained a claim on all of the remaining property. [Gobseck. Father Goriot.]

RESTAUD (Ernest de), eldest child of the preceding, and their only legitimate one, as the other two were natural children of Maxime de Trailles. In 1824, while yet a child, he received from his dying father instruction to hand to Derville, the attorney, a sealed package which contained his will; but Madame de Restaud, by means of her maternal authority, kept Ernest from carrying out his promise. On attaining his majority, after his fortune had been restored to him by his father's fict.i.tious creditor, Gobseck, he married Camille de Grandlieu, who reciprocated his love for her. As a result of this marriage Ernest de Restaud became connected with the Legitimists, while his brother Felix, who had almost attained the position of minister under Louis Philippe, followed the opposite party. [Gobseck.

The Member for Arcis.]

RESTAUD (Madame Ernest de), born Camille de Grandlieu in 1813, daughter of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu. During the first years of Louis Philippe's reign, while very young, she fell in love with and married Ernest de Restaud, who was then a minor. [Gobseck. The Member for Arcis.]

RESTAUD (Felix-Georges de), one of the younger children of the Comte and Comtesse de Restaud; probably a natural son of Maxime de Trailles.

In 1839, Felix de Restaud was chief secretary to his cousin Eugene de Rastignac, minister of public works. [Gobseck. The Member for Arcis.]

RESTAUD (Pauline de), legal daughter of the Comte and Comtesse de Restaud, but probably the natural daughter of Maxime de Trailles. We know nothing of her life. [Gobseck.]

REYBERT (De), captain in the Seventh regiment of artillery under the Empire; born in the Messin country. During the Restoration he lived in Presles, Seine-et-Oise, with his wife and daughter, on only six hundred francs pension. As a neighbor of Moreau, manager of the Comte de Serizy's estate, he detected the steward in some extortions, and sending his wife to the count, denounced the guilty man. He was chosen as Moreau's successor. Reybert married his daughter, without furnishing her a dowry, to the wealthy farmer Leger. [A Start in Life.]

REYBERT (Madame de), born Corroy, in Messin, wife of the preceding, and like him of n.o.ble family. Her face was pitted by small-pox until it looked like a skimmer; her figure was tall and spare; her eyes were bright and clear; she was straight as a stick; she was a strict Puritan, and subscribed to the Courrier Francais. She paid a visit to the Comte de Serizy, and unfolded to him Moreau's extortions, thus obtaining for her husband the stewardship of Presles. [A Start in Life.]

RHETORE (Duc Alphonse de), eldest son of the Duc and d.u.c.h.ess de Chaulieu, he became an amba.s.sador in the diplomatic service. For many years during the Restoration he kept Claudine Chaffaroux, called Tullia, the star dancing-girl at the Opera, who married Bruel in 1824.

He became acquainted with Lucien de Rubempre, both in his own circle of acquaintance and in the world of gallantry, and entertained him one evening in his box at a first performance at the Ambigu in 1821. He reproached his guest for having wounded Chatelet and Madame de Bargeton by his newspaper satire, and at the same time, while addressing him continually as Chardon, he counseled the young man to become a Royalist, in order that Louis XVIII. might restore to him the t.i.tle and name of Rubempres, his maternal ancestors. The Duc de Rhetore, however, disliked Lucien de Rubempre, and a little later at a performance in the Italiens, he traduced him to Madame de Serizy, who was really in love with the poet. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.

Letters of Two Brides.] In 1835, he married the d.u.c.h.esse d'Argaiolo, born the Princesse Soderini, a woman of great beauty and fortune.

[Albert Savarus.] In 1839, he had a duel with Dorlange-Sallenauve, having provoked the latter, by speaking in a loud voice, which he knew could be easily understood, and slandering Marie Gaston, second husband of Dorlange's sister, Louise de Chaulieu. Dorlange was wounded. [The Member for Arcis.]

RHETORE (d.u.c.h.ess de), born Francesca Soderini in 1802; a very beautiful and wealthy Florentine; married, when very young, by her father, to the Duc d'Argaiolo, who was also very rich and much older than herself. In Switzerland or Italy she became acquainted with Albert Savarus, when, as a result of political events, she and her husband were proscribed and deprived of their property. The d.u.c.h.esse d'Argaiolo and Albert Savarus loved platonically, and Francesca-like she promised her hand to her Francois whenever she should become a widow. In 1835, having been widowed for some time, and, as a result of Rosalie de Watteville's plots, believing herself forgotten and betrayed by Savarus, from whom she had received no news, she gave her hand to the Duc de Rhetore, the ex-amba.s.sador. The marriage took place in the month of May at Florence and was celebrated with much pomp. The d.u.c.h.esse d'Argaiolo is pictured under the name of the Princesse Gandolphini in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published in 1834 by the Revue de l'Est. Under Louis Philippe, the d.u.c.h.esse de Rhetore became acquainted with Mademoiselle de Watteville at a charity entertainment.

On their second meeting, which took place at the Opera ball, Mademoiselle de Watteville revealed her own ill-doings and vindicated Savarus. [Albert Savarus.]

RICHARD (Veuve), a Nemours woman from whom Ursule Mirouet, afterwards Vicomtesse de Portenduere, after the death of Doctor Minoret, her guardian, purchased a house to occupy. [Ursule Mirouet.]

RIDAL (Fulgence), dramatic author; member of the Cenacle, which held its sessions at D'Arthez's home on rue des Quatre-Vents, during the Restoration. He disparaged Leon Giraud's beliefs, went under a Rabelaisian guise, careless, lazy and skeptical, also inclined to be melancholy and happy at the same time; nick-named by his friends the "Regimental Dog." Fulgence Ridal and Joseph Bridau, with other members of the Cenacle, were present at an evening party given by Madame Veuve Bridau, in 1819, to celebrate the return of her son Philippe from Texas. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1845, having been a vaudevillist, he was given the direction of a theatre in a.s.sociation with Lousteau. He had influencial government friends. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

RIFFE, copying-clerk in the Financial Bureau, who had charge of the "personnel." [The Government Clerks.]

RIFOOEL. (See Vissard, Chevalier du.)

RIGANSON, called Biffon, also Chanoine, const.i.tuted with La Biffe, his mistress, one of the most important couples in his cla.s.s of society.

When a convict he met Jacques Collin, called Vautrin, and in May, 1830, saw him once more at the Conciergerie, at the time of the judical investigation succeeding Esther Gobseck's death. Riganson was short of stature, fat, and with livid skin, and an eye black and sunken. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

RIGOU (Gregoire), born in 1756; at one time a Benedictine friar. Under the Republic he married a.r.s.ene Pichard, only heir of the rich Cure Niseron. He became a money-lender; filled the office of mayor of Blangy, Bourgogne, up to 1821, when he was succeeded by Montcornet. On the arrival of the general in the country Rigou endeavored to be friendly with him, but having been quickly slighted, he became one of the Montcornets' most dangerous enemies, along with Gaubertin, mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, and Soudry, mayor of Soulanges. This triumvirate succeeded in arousing the peasants against the owner of Aigues, and the local citizens having become more or less opposed to him, the general sold his property, and it fell to the three a.s.sociates. Rigou was selfish, avaricious but pleasure-loving; he looked like a condor.

His name was often the subject of a pun, and he was called Grigou (G.

Rigou--a miserly man). "Deep as a monk, silent as a Benedictine, crafty as a priest, this man would have been a Tiberius in Rome, a Richelieu under Louis XIII. or a Fouche under the Convention." [The Peasantry.]

RIGOU (Madame), born a.r.s.ene Pichard, wife of the preceding, niece of a maid named Pichard, who was house-keeper for Cure Niseron under the Revolution, and whom she succeeded as house-keeper. She inherited, together with her aunt, some money from a wealthy priest. She was known while young by the name of La Belle a.r.s.ene. She had great influence over the cure, although she could neither read nor write.

After her marriage with Rigou, she became the old Benedictine's slave.

She lost her Rubens-like freshness, her magical figure, her beautiful teeth and the l.u.s.tre of her eyes when she gave birth to her daughter, who eventually became the wife of Soudry (fils). Madame Rigou quietly bore the continued infidelity of her husband, who always had pretty maids in his household. [The Peasantry.]

RIVAUDOULT D'ARSCHOOT, of the Dulmen branch of a noted family of Galicia or Russie-Rouge; heirs, through their grandfather, to this family, and also, in default of the direct heirs, successors to the t.i.tles. [The Thirteen.]

RIVET (Achille), maker of lace and embroidery on rue des Mauvaises-Paroles, in the old Langeais house, built by the ill.u.s.trious family at the time when the greatest lords were cl.u.s.tered around the Louvre. In 1815 he succeeded the Pons Brothers, embroiderers to the Court, and was judge in the tribunal of commerce. He employed Lisbeth Fischer, and, despite their quarrel, rendered this spinster some service. Achille Rivet worshiped Louis Philippe, who was to him the "n.o.ble representative of the cla.s.s out of which he constructed his dynasty." He loved the Poles less, at the time they were preventing European equilibrium. He was willing to aid Cousin Betty in the revenge against Wenceslas, which she once contemplated, as a result of her jealousy. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]

ROBERT, a Paris restaurant-keeper, near Frascati. Early in 1822 he furnished a banquet lasting nine hours, at the time of the founding of the Royalist journal, the "Reveil." Theodore Gaillard and Hector Merlin, founders of the paper, Nathan and Lucien de Rubempre, Martainville, Auger, Destains and many authors who "were responsible for monarchy and religion," were present. "We have enjoyed an excellent monarchical and religious feast!" said one of the best known romanticists as he stood on the threshold. This sentence became famous and appeared the next morning in the "Miroir." Its repet.i.tion was wrongly attributed to Rubempre, although it had been reported by a book-seller who had been invited to the repast. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

ROCHEFIDE (Marquis Arthur de), one of the later n.o.bility; married through his father's instrumentality, in 1828, Beatrix de Casteran, a descendant of the more ancient n.o.bility. His father thought that by doing this his son would obtain an appointment to the peerage, an honor which he himself had vainly sought. The Comtesse de Montcornet was interested in this marriage. Arthur de Rochefide served in the Royal Guards. He was a handsome man, but not especially worthy. He spent much of his time at his toilet, and it was known that he wore a corset. He was everybody's friend, as he joined in with the opinions and extravagances of everybody. His favorite amus.e.m.e.nt was horse-racing, and he supported a journal devoted to the subject of horses. Having been deserted by his wife, he mourned without becoming the object of ridicule, and pa.s.sed for a "jolly, good fellow." Made rich by the death of his father and of his elder sister, who was the wife of D'Ajuda-Pinto, he inherited, among other things, a splendid mansion on rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honore. He slept and ate there only occasionally and was very happy at not having the marital obligations and expense customary with married men. At heart he was so well satisfied at having been deserted by his wife, that he said to his friends, "I was born lucky." For a long time he supported Madame Schontz, and then they lived together maritally. She reared his legitimate son as carefully as though he were her own child. After 1840 she married Du Ronceret, and Arthur de Rochefide was rejoined by his wife. He soon communicated to her a peculiar disease, which Madame Schontz, angered at having been abandoned, had given to him, as well as to Baron Calyste du Guenic. [Beatrix.] In 1838, Rochefide was present at the house-warming given by Josepha in her mansion on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]

ROCHEFIDE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, younger daughter of the Marquis de Casteran; born Beatrix-Maximilienne-Rose de Casteran, about 1808, in the Casteran Castle, department of Orne. After being reared there she became the wife of the Marquis of Rochefide in 1828.

She was fair of skin, but a flighty vain coquette, without heart or brains--a second Madame d'Espard, except for her lack of intelligence.

About 1832 she left her husband to flee into Italy with the musician, Gennaro Conti, whom she took from her friend, Mademoiselle des Touches. Finally she allowed Calyste du Guenic to pay her court. She had met him also at her friend's house, and at first resisted the young man. Afterwards, when he was married, she abandoned herself to him. This liaison filled Madame du Guenic with despair, but was ended after 1840 by the crafty manoeuvres of the Abbe Brossette. Madame de Rochefide then rejoined her husband in the elegant mansion on rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honore, but not until she had retired with him to Nogent-sur-Marne, to care for her health which had been injured during the resumption of marital relations. Before this reconciliation she lived in Paris on rue de Chartres-du-Roule, near Monceau Park. The Marquise de Rochefide had, by her husband, a son, who was for some time under the care of Madame Schontz. [Beatrix. The Secrets of a Princess.] In 1834, in the presence of Madame Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with the poet Nathan, the Marquise Charles de Vandenesse, sister-in-law of Madame Felix, Lady Dudley, Mademoiselle des Touches, the Marquise d'Espard, Madame Moina de Saint Hereen and Madame de Rochefide expressed their ideas on love and marriage. "Love is heaven," said Lady Dudley. "It is h.e.l.l!" cried Mademoiselle des Touches. "But it is a h.e.l.l where there is love," replied Madame de Rochefide. "There is often more pleasure in suffering than in happiness; remember the martyrs!" [A Daughter of Eve.] The history of Sarrasine was told her about 1830. The marquise was acquainted with the Lantys, and at their house saw the strange Zambinella.

[Sarrasine.] One afternon, in the year 1836 or 1837, in her house on rue des Chartres, Madame de Rochefide heard the story of the "Prince of Bohemia" told by Nathan. After this narrative she became wild over La Palferine. [A Prince of Bohemia.]

ROCHEGUDE (Marquis de), an old man in 1821, possessing an income of six hundred thousand francs, offered a brougham at this time to Coralie, who was proud of having refused it, being "an artist, and not a prost.i.tute." [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] This Rochegude was apparently a Rochefide. The change of names and confusion of families was corrected eventually by law.

RODOLPHE, natural son of an intelligent and charming Parisian and of a Barbancon gentleman who died before he was able to arrange satisfactorily for his sweetheart. Rodolphe was a fict.i.tious character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus in the "Revue de l'Est"

in 1834, where, under this a.s.sumed name, he recounted his own adventures. [Albert Savarus.]

ROGER, general, minister and director of personnel in the War Department in 1841. For thirty years a comrade of Baron Hulot. At this time he enlightened his friend on the administrative situation, which was seriously endangered at the time he asked for an appointment for his sub-chief, Marneffe. This advancement was not merited, but became possible through the dismissal of Coquet, the chief of bureau. [Cousin Betty.]

ROGRON, Provins tavern-keeper in the last half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He was at first a carter, and married the daughter of M. Auffray, a Provins grocer, by his first wife. When his father-in-law died, Rogron bought his house from the widow for a song, retired from business and lived there with his wife.

He possessed about two thousand francs in rentals, obtained from twenty-seven pieces of land and the interest on the twenty thousand francs raised by the sale of his tavern. Having become in his old age a selfish, avaricious drunkard and shrewd as a Swiss tavern-keeper, he reared coa.r.s.ely and without affection the two children, Sylvie and Jerome-Denis, whom he had by his wife. He died, in 1822, a widower.

[Pierrette.]

ROGRON (Madame), wife of the preceding; daughter, by his first wife, of M. Auffray, a Provins grocer; paternal aunt of Madame Lorrain, the mother of Pierrette; born in 1743; very homely; married at the age of sixteen; left her husband a widower. [Pierrette.]