Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 44

SCHILTZ married a Barnheim (of Baden), and had by her a daughter, Josephine, afterwards Madame Fabien du Ronceret; was an "intrepid officer, a chief among those bold Alsatian partisans who almost saved the Emperor in the campaign of France." He died at Metz, despoiled and ruined. [Beatrix.]

SCHILTZ (Josephine), otherwise known as Madame Schontz. (See Ronceret, Madame Fabien du.)

SCHINNER (Mademoiselle), mother of Hippolyte Schinner, the painter, and daughter of an Alsatian farmer; being seduced by a coa.r.s.e but wealthy man, she refused the money offered as compensation for refusing to legitimize their liaison, and consoled herself in the joys of maternity, the duties whereof she fulfilled with the most perfect devotion. At the time of her son's marriage she was living in Paris, and shared with him an apartment situated near the artist's studio, and not far from the Madeleine, on the rue des Champs-Elysees. [The Purse.]

SCHINNER (Hippolyte), a painter, natural son of the preceding; of Alsatian origin, and recognized by his mother only; a pupil of Gros, in whose studio he formed a close intimacy with Joseph Bridau. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] He was married during the reign of Louis XVIII.; he was at that time a knight of the Legion of Honor, and was already a celebrated character. While working in Paris, near the Madeleine, in a house belonging to Molineux, he met the other occupants, Madame and Mademoiselle Leseigneur de Rouville, and seems to have imitated with respect to them the delicate conduct of their benefactor and friend, Kergarouet; was touched by the cordiality extended to him by the baroness in spite of his poverty; he loved Adelaide de Rouville, and the pa.s.sion being reciprocated, he married her. [The Purse.] Being a.s.sociated with Pierre Gra.s.sou, he gave him excellent advice, which this indifferent artist was scarceley able to profit by. [Pierre Gra.s.sou.] In 1822, the Comte de Serizy employed Schinner to decorate the chateau of Presles; Joseph Bridau, who was trying his hand, completed the master's work, and even, in a pa.s.sing fit of levity, appropriated his name. [A Start in Life.] Schinner was mentioned in the autobiographical novel of Albert Savarus, "L'Ambitieux par Amour." [Albert Savarus.] He was the friend of Xavier Rabourdin. [The Government Clerks.] He drew vignettes for the works of Ca.n.a.lis. [Modeste Mignon.] To him we owe the remarkable ceilings of Adam Laginski's house situated on the rue de la Pepiniere. [The Imaginary Mistress.] About 1845, Hippolyte Schinner lived not far from the rue de Berlin, near Leon de Lora, to whom he had been first instructor. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

SCHINNER (Madame), wife of Hippolyte Schinner, born Adelaide Leseigneur de Rouville, daughter of the Baron and Baronne de Rouville, her father being a naval officer; lived during the Restoration in Paris with her mother, boarding at a house situated on the rue de Surene and belonging to Molineux. Bereft of her father, the future Madame Schinner would then have found it difficult to await the slow adjustment of her father's pension, had not their old friend, Admiral de Kergarouet, come in his un.o.btrusive way to the a.s.sistance of herself and her mother. About the same time she nursed their neighbor, Hippolyte Schinner, who was suffering from the effects of a fall, and conceived for him a love that was returned; the gift of a little embroidered purse on the part of the young woman brought about the marriage. [The Purse.]

SCHMUCKE (Wilhelm), a German Catholic, and a man of great musical talent; open-hearted, absent-minded, kind, sincere, of simple manners, of gentle and upright bearing. Originally he was precentor to the Margrave of Ans.p.a.ch; he had known Hoffman, the eccentric writer of Berlin, in whose memory he afterwards had a cat named Murr. Schmucke then went to Paris; in 1835-36, he lived there in a small apartment on the Quai Conti, at the corner of the rue de Nevers.[*] Previous to this, in the Quartier du Marais, he gave lessons in harmony, that were much appreciated, to the daughters of the Granvilles, afterwards Mesdames de Vandenesse and du Tillet; at a later period the former lady asked him to endorse some notes of hand for Raoul Nathan's benefit. [A Daughter of Eve.] Schmucke was also instructor of Lydie Peyrade before her marriage with Theodose de la Peyrade. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life]; but those whom he regarded as his favorite pupils were Mesdames de Vandenesse and du Tillet, and the future Vicomtesse de Portenduere, Mademoiselle Mirouet of Nemours, the three "Saint-Cecilias" who combined to pay him an annuity. [Ursule Mirouet.]

The former precentor, now of ugly and aged appearance, readily obtained a welcome with the princ.i.p.als of boarding-schools for young ladies. At a distribution of prizes he was brought in contact with Sylvain Pons for whom he immediately felt an affection that proved to be mutual (1834).

Their intimacy brought them under the same roof, rue de Normandie, as tenants of C.-J. Pillerault (1836). Schmucke lived for nine years in perfect happiness. Gaudissart, having become manager of a theatre, employed him in his orchestra, entrusted him with the work of making copies of the music, and employed him to play the piano and various instruments that were not used in the boulevard theatres: the viol d'amore, English horn, violoncello, harp, castanets, bells, saxhorns, etc. Pons made him his residuary legatee (April, 1845); but the innocent German was not strong enough to contend with Maitre Fraisier, agent of the Camusot de Marvilles, who were ignored in this will. In spite of Topinard, to whom, in despair at the death of his friend, he went to demand hospitality, in the Bordin district, Schmucke allowed himself to be swindled, and was soon carried off by apoplexy. [Cousin Pons.]

[*] Perhaps the former lodging place of Napoleon Bonaparte.

SCHONTZ (Madame), name borne by Mademoiselle Schiltz, afterwards Madame Fabien du Ronceret. (See this last name.)

SCHWAB (Wilhelm), born at Strasbourg in the early part of the nineteenth century, of the German family of Kehl, had Frederic (Fritz) Brunner as his friend, whose follies he shared, whose poverty he relieved, and with whom he went to Paris; there they went to the Hotel du Rhin, rue du Mail, kept by Johann Graff, father of Emilie, and brother of the famous tailor, Wolfgang Graff. Schwab kept books for this rival of Humann and Staub. Several years later he played the flute at the theatre at which Sylvain Pons directed the orchestra.

During an intermission at the first brilliant performance of "La Fiancee du Diable," presented in the fall of 1844, Schwab invited Pons through Schmucke to his approaching wedding; he married Mademoiselle Emilie Graff--a love-match--and joined in business with Frederic Brunner, who was a banker and enriched by the inheritance of his father's property. [Cousin Pons.]

SCHWAB (Madame Wilhelm), wife of the preceding; born Mademoiselle Emilie Graff; an accomplished beauty, niece of Wolfgang Graff, the wealthy tailor, who provided her with dowry. [Cousin Pons.]

SCIO (Madame), a prominent singer of the Theatre Feydeau in 1798, was very beautiful in "Les Peruviens," a comic opera by Mongenod, produced with very indifferent success. [The Seamy Side of History.]

SCOEVOLA (Mucius). Under this a.s.sumed name was concealed, during the Terror, a man who had been huntsman to the Prince de Conti, to whom he owed his fortune. A plasterer, and proprietor of a small house in Paris, on about the highest point of the Faubourg Saint-Martin,[*]

near the rue d'Allemagne, he affected an exaggerated civism, which masked an unfailing fidelity to the Bourbons, and he in some mysterious way afforded protection to Sisters Marthe and Agathe (Mesdemoiselles de Beauseant and de Langeais), nuns who had escaped from the Abbey of Ch.e.l.les, and were, with Abbe de Marolles, taking refuge under his roof. [An Episode under the Terror.]

[*] His parish was the Saint-Laurent church, which for a while during the Revolution had the name of Temple of Fidelity.

SECHARD (Jerome-Nicolas), born in 1743. After having been a workman in a printer's shop of Angouleme situated on the Place du Murier, though very illiterate, he became its owner at the beginning of the Revolution; was acquainted at that time with the Marquis de Maucombe, married a woman that was provided with a certain competency, but soon lost her, after having by her a son, David. In the reign of Louis XVIII., fearing the compet.i.tion of Cointet, J.-N. Sechard retired from active life, selling his business to his son, whom he intentionally deceived in the trade, and moved to Marsac, near Angouleme, where he raised grapes, and drank to excess. During all the latter part of his life, Sechard mercilessly aggravated the commercial difficulties which his son David was struggling against. The old miser died about 1829, leaving property of some value. [Lost Illusions.]

SECHARD (David), only son of the preceding, school-mate and friend of Lucien de Rubempre, learned the art of printing from the Didots of Paris. On one occasion, upon his return to his native soil, he gave many evidences of his kindness and delicacy; having purchased his father's printing shop, he allowed himself to be deliberately cheated and duped by him; employed as proof-reader Lucien de Rubempre, whose sister, Eve Chardon, he adored with a pa.s.sion that was fully reciprocated; he married her in spite of the poverty of both parties, for his business was on the decline. The expense involved, the compet.i.tion of the Cointets, and especially his experiments as inventor in the hope of finding the secret of a particular way of making paper, reduced him to very straitened circ.u.mstances. Indeed, everything combined to destroy Sechard; the cunning and power of the Cointet house, the spying of the ungrateful Cerizet, formerly his apprentice, the disorderly life of Lucien de Rubempre, and the jealous greed of his father. A victim of the wiles of Cointet, Sechard abandoned his discovery, resigned himself to his fate, inherited from his father, and cheered by the devotion of the Kolbs, dwelt in Marsac, where Derville, led by Corentin, hunted him out with a view to gaining information as to the origin of Lucien de Rubempre's million. [Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

SECHARD (Madame David), wife of the preceding, born Eve Chardon in 1804, daughter of a druggist of L'Houmeau (a suburb of Angouleme), and a member of the house of Rubempre; worked first at the house of Madame Prieur, a laundress, for the consideration of fifteen sous a day; manifested great devotion to her brother Lucien, and on marrying David Sechard, in 1821, transferred her devotion to him; having undertaken to manage the printing shop, she competed with Cerizet, Cointet, and Pet.i.t-Claud, and almost succeeded in softening Jerome-Nicolas Sechard.

Madame Sechard shared with her husband the inheritance of old J.-N.

Sechard, and was then the modest chatelaine of La Verberie, at Marsac.

By her husband she had at least one child, named Lucien. Madame Sechard was tall and of dark complexion, with blue eyes. [Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

SECHARD (Lucien), son of the preceding couple. [Lost Illusions.]

SEGAUD, solicitor at Angouleme, was successor to Pet.i.t-Claud, a magistrate about 1824. [Lost Illusions.]

SELERIER, called the Auvergnat, Pere Ralleau, Le Rouleur, and especially Fil-de Soie, belonged to the aristocracy of the galleys, and was a member of the group of "Ten Thousand," whose chief was Jacques Collin; the latter, however, suspected him of having sold him to the police, about 1819, when Bibi-Lupin arrested him at the Vauquer boarding-house. [Father Goriot.] In his business Selerier always avoided bloodshed. He was of philosophical turn, very selfish, incapable of love, and ignorant of the meaning of friendship. In May, 1830, when being a prisoner at the Conciergerie, and about to be condemned to fifteen years of forced labor, he saw and recognized Jacques Collin, the pseudo-Carlos Herrera, himself incriminated.

[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

SENONCHES (Jacques de), a n.o.ble of Angouleme, a great huntsman, stiff and haughty, a sort of wild boar; lived on very good terms with his wife's lover, Francois du Hautoy, and attended Madame de Bargeton's receptions. [Lost Illusions.]

SENONCHES (Madame Jacques de), wife of the preceding, bore the given name of Zephirine, which was abbreviated to Zizine. By Francois du Hautoy, her adored lover, she had a daughter, Francoise de la Haye, who was presented as her ward, and who became Madame Pet.i.t-Claud.

[Lost Illusions.]

SEPHERD (Carl), name a.s.sumed by Charles Grandet in the Indies, the United States, Africa, etc., while he was in the slave-trading business. [Eugenie Grandet.]

SERIZY, or Serisy (Comte Hugret de), born in 1765, descended in direct line from the famous President Hugret, enn.o.bled under Francois I. The motto of this family was "I, semper melius eris," so that the final _s_ of _melius_, the word _eris_, and the _I_ of the beginning, represented the name (Serizy) of the estate that had been made a county. A son of a first president of Parliament (who died in 1794), Serizy was himself, as early as 1787, a member of the Grand Council; he did not emigrate during the Revolution, but remained in his estate of Serizy, near Arpajon; became a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and afterwards of the Council of State. The Empire made him a count and a senator. Hugret de Serizy was married, in 1806, to Leontine de Ronquerolles, the widow of General Gaubert. This union made him the brother-in-law of the Marquis de Ronquerolles, and the Marquis du Rouvre. Every honor was alloted to him in course; chamberlain under the Empire, he afterwards became vice-president of the Council of State, peer of France, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Privy Council. The glorious career of Serizy, who was an unusually industrious person, did not offer compensation for his domestic misfortunes. Hard work and protracted vigils soon aged the high functionary, who was ever unable to win his wife's heart; but he loved her and sheltered her none the less constantly. It was chiefly to avenge her for the indiscretion of the volatile young Oscar Husson, Moreau's G.o.dson, that he discharged the not overhonest steward of Presles. [A Start in Life.] The system of government that succeeded the Empire increased Serizy's influence and renown; he was an intimate friend of the Bauvans and the Grandvilles. [A Bachelor's Establishment. Honorine. Modeste Mignon.] His weakness in matters concerning his wife was such that he a.s.sisted her in person, when, in May, 1830, she hastened to the Conciergerie in the hope of saving her lover, Lucien de Rubempre, and entered the cell where the young man had just committed suicide. Serizy even consented to be executor of the poet's will. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

SERIZY (Comtesse de), wife of the preceding, born Leontine de Ronquerolles about 1784, sister of the Marquis du Ronquerolles; married, as her first husband, General Gaubert, one of the most ill.u.s.trious soldiers of the Republic; married a second time, when quite young, but could never entertain any feeling stronger than respect for M. de Serizy, her second husband, by whom, however, she had a son, an officer, who was killed during the reign of Louis Philippe. [A Start in Life.] Worldly and brilliant, and a worthy rival of Mesdames de Beauseant, de Langeais, de Maufrigneuse, de Carigliano, and d'Espard, Leontine de Serizy had several lovers, among them being Auguste de Maulincour, Victor d'Aiglemont and Lucien de Rubempre. [The Thirteen. Ursule Mirouet. A Woman of Thirty.] This last liaison was a very stormy one. Lucien acquired considerable influence over Madame de Serizy, and made use of it to reach the Marquise d'Espard, by effecting an annulment of the decree which she had obtained against her husband, the Marquis d'Espard, placing him under guardianship. And so it was that, during Rubempre's imprisonment and after his suicide, she suffered the bitterest anguish. Leontine de Serizy almost broke the bars of the Conciergerie, insulted Camusot, the examining magistrate, and seemed to be beside herself. The intervention of Jacques Collin saved her and cured her, when three famous physicians, Messieurs Bianchon, Desplein, and Sinard declared themselves powerless to relieve her. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] During the winter the Comtesse de Serizy lived on the Chaussee-d'Antin; during the summer at Serizy, her favorite residence, or still more at Presles, and sometimes near Nemours in Le Rouvre, the seat of the family of that name. Being a neighbor, in Paris, of Felicite des Touches, she was a frequent visitor of that emulator of George Sand, and was at her house when Marsay related the story of his first love-affair, taking part herself in the conversation. [Another Study of Woman.] Being a maternal aunt of Clementine du Rouvre, Madame de Serizy gave her a handsome dowry when she married Laginski; with her brother Ronquerolles, at his home on the rue de la Pepiniere, she met Thaddee Paz, the Pole's comrade. [The Imaginary Mistress.]

SERIZY (Vicomte de), only son of the preceding couple, graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1825, and entered the cavalry regiment of the Garde Royale, by favor, as sub-lieutenant, under command of the Duc de Maufrigneuse; at this time Oscar Husson, nephew of Cardot, entered the same regiment as a private. [A Start in Life.] In October, 1829, Serizy, being an officer in the company of the guards stationed at Havre, was instructed to inform M. de Verneuil, proprietor of some well-stocked Norman "preserves," that Madame could not partic.i.p.ate in the chase that he had organized. Having become enamored of Diane de Maufrigneuse, the viscount found her at Verneuil's house; she received his attentions, as a means of avenging herself on Leontine de Serizy, then mistress of Lucien de Rubempre. [Modeste Mignon.] Being advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of a cavalry regiment, he was severely wounded at the disastrous battle of Macta, in Africa (June 26, 1835), and died at Toulon as a result of his wounds. [The Imaginary Mistress. A Start in Life.]

SERVAIS, the only good gilder in Paris, according to Elie Magus, whose advice he heeded; he had the good sense to use English gold, which is far better than the French. Like the book-binder, Thouvenin, he was in love with his own work. [Cousin Pons.]

SERVIEN (Prudence), born, in 1806, at Valenciennes, daughter of very poor weavers, was employed, from the age of seven years, in a spinning-mill; corrupted early by her life in the work-room, she was a mother at the age of thirteen; having had to testify in the Court of a.s.sizes against Jean-Francois Durut, she made of him a formidable enemy, and fell into the power of Jacques Collin, who promised to shelter her from the resentment of the convict. She was at one time a ballet-girl, and afterwards served as Esther van Gobseck's chamber-maid, under the names of Eugenie and Europe; was the mistress of Paccard, whom she very probably married afterwards; aided Vautrin in fooling Nucingen and getting money from him. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

SERVIN, born about 1775, a distinguished painter, made a love-match with the daughter of a penniless general; in 1815 was manager of a studio in Paris, which was frequented by Mademoiselle Laure, and Mesdemoiselles Mathilde-Melanie Roguin, Amelie Thirion and Ginevra di Piombo, the last three of whom were afterwards, respectively, Mesdames Tiphaine, Camusot de Marville, and Porta. Servin at that time was concealing an exile who was sought by the police, namely Luigi Porta, who married the master's favorite pupil, Mademoiselle Ginevra di Piombo. [The Vendetta.]

SERVIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, remembering that the romance of Porta and Ginevra's love had been the cause of all his pupils'

leaving her husband's studio, refused to shelter Mademoiselle de Piombo when driven from her father's home. [The Vendetta.]

SEVERAC (De), born in 1764, a country gentleman, mayor of a village in the canton of Angouleme, and the author of an article on silkworms, was received at Madame de Bargeton's in 1821. A widower, without children, and doubtless very rich, but not knowing the ways of the world, one evening on the rue du Minage, he found as ready listeners only the poor but aristocratic Madame du Brossard and her daughter Camille, a young woman of twenty-seven years. [Lost Illusions.]

SIBILET, clerk of the court at Ville-aux-Fayes (Bourgogne), distant cousin of Francois Gaubertin, married a Mademoiselle Gaubertin-Vallat, and had by that marriage six children. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET (Adolphe), eldest of the six children of the preceding, born about 1793; was, at first, clerk to a notary, then an unimportant employe in the land-registry office; and then, in the latter part of the year 1817, succeeded his cousin, Francois Gaubertin, in the administration of Aigues, General de Montcornet's estate, in Bourgogne. Sibilet had married Mademoiselle Adeline Sarcus (of the poor branch), who bore him two children in three years; his selfish interest and his personal obligations led him to gratify the ill-feeling of his predecessor, by being disloyal to Montcornet. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET (Madame Adolphe), wife of the preceding, born Adeline Sarcus, only daughter of a justice of the peace, rich with beauty as her sole fortune, she was reared by her mother, in the little village of Soulanges (Bourgogne), with all possible care. Not having been able to marry Amaury Lupin (son of Lupin the notary), with whom she was in love, in despair she allowed herself, three years after her mother's death, to be married, by her father, to the disagreeable and repulsive Adolphe Sibilet. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET, son of the court clerk, and police commissioner at Ville-aux Fayes. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET (Mademoiselle), daughter of the court clerk, afterwards Madame Herve. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET, son of the court clerk, first clerk of Maitre Corbinet, notary at Ville-aux-Fayes, to whom he was the appointed successor.

[The Peasantry.]

SIBILET, son of the court clerk, and clerk in the Department of Public Lands, presumptive successor of the registrar of doc.u.ments at Ville-aux-Fayes. [The Peasantry.]

SIBILET (Mademoiselle), daughter of the court clerk, born about 1807, postmistress at Ville-aux Fayes; betrothed to Captain Corbinet, brother of the notary. [The Peasantry.]

SIBUELLE, a wealthy contractor of somewhat tarnished reputation during the Directory and the Consulate, gave his daughter in marriage to Malin de Gondreville, and through the credit of his son-in-law became, with Marion, co-receiver-general of the department of Aube. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

SIBUELLE (Mademoiselle), only daughter of the preceding, became Madame Malin de Gondreville. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

SEYES (Emmanuel-Joseph), born in 1748 at Frejus, died in Paris in 1836, was successively vicar-general of Chartres, deputy to the States-General and the Convention, member of the Committee of Public Safety, member of the Five Hundred, member of the Directory, consul, and senator; famous also as a publicist. In June, 1800, he might have been found in the Office of Foreign Relations, in the rue du Bac, where he took part with Talleyrand and Fouche, in a secret council, in which the subject of overthrowing Bonaparte, then First Consul, was discussed. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

SIGNOL (Henriette), a beautiful girl; of a good family of farmers, in the employ of Basine Clerget, a laundress at Angouleme; was the mistress of Cerizet, whom she loved and trusted; served as a tool against David Sechard, the printer. [Lost Illusions.]

SIMEUSE (Admiral de), father of Jean de Simeuse, was one of the most eminent French seamen of the eighteenth century. [Beatrix. The Gondreville Mystery. Jealousies of a Country Town.]

SIMEUSE (Marquis Jean de), whose name, "Cy meurs" or "Si meurs," was the motto of the family crest, was descended from a n.o.ble family of Bourgogne, who were formerly owners of a Lorrain fief called Ximeuse, corrupted to Simeuse. M. de Simeuse counted a number of ill.u.s.trious men among his ancestors; he married Berthe de Cinq-Cygne; he was father of twins, Paul-Marie and Marie-Paul. He was guillotined at Troyes during the Terror; Michu's father-in-law presided over the Revolutionary tribunal that pa.s.sed the death-sentence. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

SIMEUSE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, born Berthe de Cinq-Cygne, was executed at Troyes at the same time with her husband.