Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 49

VANDENESSE (Marquis de), a gentleman of Tours; had by his wife four children: Charles, who married Emilie de Fontaine, widow of Kergarouet; Felix, who married Marie-Angelique de Granville; and two daughters, the elder of whom was married to her cousin, the Marquis de Listomere. The Vandenesse motto was: "Ne se vend." [The Lily of the Valley.]

VANDENESSE (Marquise de), born Listomere, wife of the preceding; tall, slender, emaciated, selfish and fond of cards; "insolent, like all the Listomeres, with whom insolence always counts as a part of the dowry."

She was the mother of four children, whom she reared harshly, keeping them at a distance, especially her son Felix. She had something of a weakness for her son Charles, the elder. [The Lily of the Valley.]

VANDENESSE (Marquis Charles de), son of the preceding, born towards the close of the eighteenth century; shone as a diplomatist under the Bourbons; during this period was the lover of Madame Julie d'Aiglemont, wife of General d'Aiglemont; by her he had some natural children. With Desroches as his attorney, Vandenesse entered into a suit with his younger brother, Comte Felix, in regard to some financial matters. He married the wealthy widow of Kergarouet, born Emilie de Fontaine. [A Woman of Thirty. A Start in Life. A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Marquise Charles de), born Emilie de Fontaine about 1802; the youngest of the Comte de Fontaine's daughters; having been overindulged as a child, her insolent bearing, a distinctive trait of character, was made manifest at the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau, to which she accompanied her parents. [Cesar Birotteau.] She refused Paul de Manerville, and a number of other excellent offers, before marrying her mother's uncle, Admiral Comte de Kergarouet. This marriage, which she regretted later, was resolved upon during a game of cards with the Bishop of Persepolis, as a result of the anger which she felt on learning that M. Longueville, on whom she had centred her affections, was only a merchant. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Madame de Kergarouet scorned her nephew by marriage, Savinien de Portenduere, who courted her. [Ursule Mirouet.] Having become a widow, she married the Marquis de Vandenesse. A little later she endeavored to overthrow her sister-in-law, the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Comte Felix de), brother-in-law of the preceding, born late in the eighteenth century, bore the t.i.tle of vicomte until the death of his father; suffered much in childhood and youth, first in his home life, then as a pupil in a boarding-school at Tours and in the Oratorien college at Pontlevoy. He was unhappy also at the Lepitre school in Paris, and during his holidays spent on the Ile Saint-Louis with one of the Listomeres, a kinswoman. Felix de Vandenesse at last found happiness at Frapesle, a castle near Clochegourde. It was then that his platonic liaison with Madame de Mortsauf began--a union which occupied an important place in his life. He was, moreover, the lover of Lady Arabelle Dudley, who called him familiarly Amedee, p.r.o.nounced "my dee." Madame de Mortsauf, having died, he was subjected to the secret hatred of her daughter Madeleine, later Madame de Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. About this time began his career in public life. During the "Hundred Days" Louis XVIII. entrusted to him a mission in Vendee. The King received him into favor, and finally employed him as private secretary. He was also appointed master of pet.i.tions in the State Council. Vandenesse frequently visited the Lenoncourts. He excited admiration, mingled with envy, in the mind of Lucien de Rubempre, who had recently arrived in Paris. Acting for the King, he helped Cesar Birotteau. He was acquainted with the Prince de Talleyrand, and asked of him information about Mac.u.mer, for Louise de Chaulieu. [The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Cesar Birotteau. Letters of Two Brides.] After his father's death, Felix de Vandenesse a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of count, and probably won a suit in regard to a land-sale against his brother, the marquis, who had been badly served by a rascally clerk of Maitre Desroches, Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] At this time, Comte Felix de Vandenesse began a very close relationship with Natalie de Manerville. She herself broke this off as a result of the detailed description that he gave her of the love which he had formerly felt for Madame de Mortsauf. [The Marriage Settlement.] The year following, he married Angelique-Marie de Granville, elder daughter of the celebrated magistrate of that name, and began to keep house on rue du Rocher, where he had a house, furnished with the best of taste. At first he was not able to gain his wife's affection, as his known profligacy and his patronizing manners filled her with fear. She did not go with him to the evening entertainment given by Madame d'Espard, where he found himself with his elder brother, and where many gossiping tongues directed their speech against Diane de Cadignan, despite the presence of her lover, Arthez. Felix de Vandenesse went with his wife to a rout at the home of Mademoiselle des Touches, where Marsay told the story of his first love. The Comte and Comtesse de Vandenesse, who, under Louis Philippe, still frequented the houses of the Cadignans and the Montcornets, came very near having serious trouble. Madame de Vandenesse, had foolishly fallen in love with Raoul Nathan, but was kept from harm by her husband's skilful management.

[The Secrets of a Princess. Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Comtesse Felix de), wife of the preceding; born Angelique-Marie de Granville in 1808; a brunette like her father. In bearing the cruel treatment of her prejudiced mother, in the Marais house, where she spent her youth, the Comtesse Felix was consoled by the tender affection of a younger sister, Marie-Eugenie, later Madame F. du Tillet. The lessons in harmony given them by Wilhelm Schmucke afforded them some diversion. Married about 1828, and dowered handsomely, to the detriment of Marie-Eugenie, she underwent, when about twenty-five years old, a critical experience. Although mother of at least one child, becoming suddenly of a romantic turn of mind, she narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a worldly conspiracy formed against her by Lady Dudley and by Mesdames Charles de Vandenesse and de Manerville. Marie, moved by the strength of her pa.s.sion for the writer, Raoul Nathan, and wishing to save him from financial trouble, appealed to the good offices of Madame de Nucingen and to the devotion of Schmucke. The proof furnished to her by her husband of the debasing relations and the extreme Bohemian life of Raoul, kept Madame Felix de Vandenesse from falling. [A Second Home. A Daughter of Eve.]

Afterwards, her adventure, the dangers which she had run, and her rupture with the poet, were all recounted by M. de Clagny, in the presence of Madame de la Baudraye, Lousteau's mistress. [The Muse of the Department.]

VANDENESSE (Alfred de), son of the Marquis Charles de Vandenesse, a c.o.xcomb who, under the reign of Louis Philippe, at the Faubourg Saint-Germain, compromised the reputation of the Comtesse de Saint-Hereen, despite the presence of her mother, Madame d'Aiglemont, the former mistress of the marquis. [A Woman of Thirty.]

VANDIERES (General, Comte de), old, feeble and childish, when, with his wife and a large number of soldiers, November 29, 1812, he started on a raft to cross the Beresina. When the boat struck the other bank the shock threw the count into the river. His head was severed from his body by a cake of ice, and went down the river like a cannon-ball.

[Farewell.]

VANDIERES (Comtesse Stephanie de), wife of the preceding, niece of the alienist Doctor Fanjat; mistress of Major de Sucy, who afterwards was a general. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia, she shared with her husband all the dangers, and managed to cross the Beresina with her lover's aid, although she was unable to rejoin him. She wandered for a long time in northern or eastern Europe. Having become insane, she could say nothing but the word "Farewell"! She was found later at Strasbourg by the grenadier, Fleuriot. Having been taken to the Bons-Hommes near the Isle-Adam, she was attended by Fanjat. She there had as a companion an idiot by the name of Genevieve. In September, 1819, Stephanie again saw Philippe de Sucy, but did not recognize him. She died not far from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, January, 1820, soon after the reproduction of the scene on the Beresina, arranged by her lover. Her sudden return of reason killed her. [Farewell.]

VANIERE, gardener to Raphael de Valentin; obtained from the well, into which his frightened employer had thrown it, the wonderful piece of s.h.a.green, which no weight, no reagent, and no pounding could either stretch or injure, and which none of the best known scientists could explain. [The Magic Skin.]

VANNEAULX (Monsieur and Madame des), small renters at Limoges, living with their two children on rue des Cloches towards the end of Charles X.'s reign. They inherited in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand francs from Pingret, of whom Madame des Vanneaulx was the only niece.

This was after their uncle's murderer, J.-F. Tascheron, having been urged by the Cure Bonnet, restored a large portion of the money stolen in Faubourg Saint-Etienne. M. and Madame des Vanneaulx, who had accused the murderer of "indelicacy," changed their opinion entirely when he made this rest.i.tution. [The Country Parson.]

VANNI (Elisa), a Corsican woman who, according to one Giacomo, rescued a child, Luigi Porta, from the fearful vendetta of Bartolomeo di Piombo. [The Vendetta.]

VANNIER, patriot, conscript of Fougeres, Bretagne, during the autumn of 1799 received an order to convey marching orders to the National Guard of his city--a body of men who were destined to aid the Seventy-second demi-brigade in its engagements with the Chouans. [The Chouans.]

VARESE (Emilio Memmi, Prince of), of the Cane-Memmis, born in 1797, a member of the greater n.o.bility, descendant of the ancient Roman family of Memmius, received the name of Prince of Varese on the death of Facino Cane, his relative. During the time of Austrian rule in Venice, Memmi lived there in poverty and obscurity. In the early part of the Restoration he was on friendly terms with Marco Vendramini, his fellow-countryman. His poverty would not permit of his keeping more than one servant, the gondolier, Carmagnola. For Ma.s.similla Doni, wife of the Duke Cataneo, he felt a pa.s.sion, which was returned, and which for a long time remained platonic, despite its ardor. He was unfaithful to her at one time, not being able to resist the unforeseen attractions of Clarina Tinti, a lodger in the Memmi palace, and unrivaled prima donna at the Fenice. Finally, conquering his timidity, and breaking with the "ideal," he rendered Ma.s.similla Cataneo a mother, and married her when she became a widow. Varese lived in Paris under the reign of Louis Philippe, and, having been enriched by his marriage, one evening at the Champs-Elysees, aided certain dest.i.tute artists, the Gambaras, who were obliged to sing in the open air. He asked for the story of their misfortunes, and Marianina told it to him without bitterness. [Ma.s.similla Doni. Gambara.]

VARESE (Princess of), wife of the preceding, born Ma.s.similla Doni, about 1800, of an ancient and wealthy Florentine family of the n.o.bility; married, at first, the Duke Cataneo, a repulsive man who lived in Venice at the time of Louis XVIII. She was an enthusiastic attendant of the Fenice theatre during the winter when "Moses" and the "Semiramide" were given by a company, in which were found Clarina Tinti, Genovese and Carthagenova. Ma.s.similla conceived a violent but at first a platonic love for Emilio Memmi, Prince of Varese, married him after Cataneo's death, following him to Paris, during the time of Louis Philippe, where she met with him the Gambaras and helped them in their poverty. [Ma.s.similla Doni. Gambara.]

VARLET, an Arcis physician, early in the nineteenth century, at the time of the political and local quarrels of the Gondrevilles, Cinq-Cygnes, Simeuses, Michus, and Hauteserres; had a daughter who afterwards became Madame Grevin. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

VARLET, son of the preceding, brother-in-law of Grevin; like his father, later a physician. [The Member for Arcis.]

Va.s.sAL, in 1822 at Paris, third clerk of Maitre Desroches, an advocate, by whom were employed also Marest, Husson and G.o.deschal. [A Start in Life.]

VATEL, formerly an army child, then corporal of the Voltigeurs, became, during the Restoration, one of the three guards of Montcornet's estate in Aigues, Bourgogne, under head-keeper Michaud; he detected Mere Tonsard in her trespa.s.sing. He was a valuable servant; gay as a lark, rather loose in his conduct with women, without any religious principles, and brave unto rashness. [The Peasantry.]

VATINELLE (Madame), a pretty and rather loose woman of Mantes, courted at the same time by Maitre Fraisier and the king's attorney, Olivier Vinet; she was "kind" to the former, thereby causing his ruin; the attorney soon found a means of compelling Fraisier, who was representing both sides in a lawsuit, to sell his practice and leave town. [Cousin Pons.]

VAUCh.e.l.lES (De), maintained relations of close friendship, about 1835, at Besancon, with Amedee de Soulas, his fellow-countryman, and Chavoncourt, the younger, a former collegemate. Vauch.e.l.les was of equally high birth with Soulas, and was also equally poor. He sought the hand of Mademoiselle Victoire, Chavoncourt's eldest sister, on whom a G.o.dmother aunt had agreed to settle an estate yielding an income of seven thousand francs, and a hundred thousand francs in cash, in the marriage contract. To Rosalie de Watteville's satisfaction, he opposed Albert Savarus, the rival of the elder Chavoncourt, in his candidacy for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

[Albert Savarus.]

VAUDOYER, a peasant of Ronquerolles, Bourgogne, appointed forest-keeper of Blangy, but discharged about 1821, in favor of Groison, by Montcornet, at that time mayor of the commune; supported G. Rigou and F. Gaubertin as against the new owner of Aigues. [The Peasantry.]

VAUDREMONT (Comtesse de), born in 1787; being a wealthy widow of twenty-two years in 1809, she was considered the most beautiful Parisian of the day, and was known as the "Queen of Fashion." In the month of November of the same year, she attended the great ball given by the Malin de Gondrevilles, who were disappointed at the Emperor's failure to appear on that occasion. Being the mistress of the Comte de Soulanges and Martial de la Roche-Hugon, Madame de Vaudremont had received from the former a ring taken from his wife's jewel-casket; she made a present of it to Martial, who happening to be wearing it on the evening of the Gondreville ball, gave it to Madame de Soulanges, without once suspecting that he was restoring it to its lawful owner.

Madame de Vaudremont's death followed shortly after this incident, which brought about the reconciliation of the Soulanges couple, urged by the d.u.c.h.esse de Lansac; the countess perished in the famous fire that broke out at the Austrian emba.s.sy during the party given on the occasion of the wedding of the Emperor and the Arch-d.u.c.h.ess Marie-Louise. [Domestic Peace.] The emba.s.sy was located on the part of the rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin (at that time rue du Mont-Blanc) comprised between the rue de la Victoire and the rue Saint-Lazare.

VAUMERLAND (Baronne de), a friend of Madame de l'Ambermesnil's, boarded with one of Madame Vauquer's rivals in the Marais, and intended, as soon as her term expired, to become a patron of the establishment on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; at least, so Madame de l'Ambermesnil declared. [Father Goriot.]

VAUQUELIN (Nicolas-Louis), a famous chemist, and a member of the Inst.i.tute; born at Saint-Andre d'Hebertot, Calvadts, in 1763, died in 1829; son of a peasant; praised by Fourcroy; in turn, pharmacist in Paris, mine-inspector, professor at the School of Pharmacy, the School of Medicine, the Jardin des Plantes, and the College de France. He gave Cesar Birotteau the formula for a cosmetic for the hands, that the perfumer called "la double pate des Sultanes," and, being consulted by him on the subject of "cephalic oil," he denied the possibility of restoring a suit of hair. Nicolas Vauquelin was invited to the perfumer's great ball, given on December 17, 1818. In recognition of the good advice received from the scientist, Cesar Birotteau offered him a proof, before the time of printing, on China paper, of Muller's engraving of the Dresden Virgin, which proof had been found in Germany after two years of searching, and cost fifteen hundred francs. [Cesar Birotteau.]

VAUQUER (Madame), a widow, born Conflans about 1767. She claimed to have lost a brilliant position through a series of misfortunes, which, by the way, she never detailed specifically. For a long time she kept a bourgeois boarding-house on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve (now rue Tournefort), near the rue de l'Arbalete. In 1819-1820, Madame Vauquer, a short, stout, languid woman, but rather well preserved in spite of being a little faded, had Horace Bianchon as table-boarder, and furnished with board and lodging the following: on the first floor of her house, Madame Couture and Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer; on the second floor, Poiret, the elder, and Jacques Collin; on the third, Christine-Mich.e.l.le Michonneau--afterwards Madame Poiret,--Joachim Goriot; whom she looked upon as a possible husband for herself, and Eugene de Rastignac. She was deserted by her various boarders shortly after the arrest of Jacques Collin. [Father Goriot.]

VAUREMONT (Princesse de), one of the most prominent figures of the eighteenth century; grandmother of Madame Marie Gaston, who adored her; she died in 1817, the year of Madame de Stael's death, in a mansion belonging to the Chaulieus and situated near the Boulevard des Invalides. Madame de Vauremont, at the time of her death, was occupying a suite of apartments in which she was shortly afterwards succeeded by Louise de Chaulieu (Madame Marie Gaston). Talleyrand, an intimate friend of the princess was executor of her will. [Letters of Two Brides.]

VAUTHIER, commonly called Vieux-Chene, former servant of the famous Longuy; hostler at the Ecu de France, Mortagne, in 1809; was implicated in the affair of the Chauffeurs, and condemned to twenty years of penal servitude, but was afterwards pardoned by the Emperor.

During the Restoration he was murdered in the streets of Paris by an obscure and devoted countryman of the Chevalier du Vissard. [The Seamy Side of History.]

VAUTHIER (Madame), originally, in 1809, kitchen-girl in the household of the Prince de Wissembourg, on the rue Louis-le-Grand; then cook to Barbet, the publisher, owner of a lodging-house on the Boulevard Montparna.s.se; still later, about 1833, she managed this establishment for him, serving the same time as door-keeper in the house mentioned.

At that time Madame Vauthier employed Nepomucene and Felicite for the house-work; as lodgers she had Bourlac, Vanda and Auguste Mergi, and G.o.defroid. [The Seamy Side of History.]

VAUTRIN,[*] the most famous of Jacques Collin's a.s.sumed names.

[*] On March 14, 1840, a Parisian theatre, the Porte-Saint-Martin, presented a play in which the famous convict was a princ.i.p.al character. Although Frederic Lemaitre took the leading role, the play was presented only once. In April, 1868, however, the Ambigu-Comique revived it, with Frederic Lemaitre again in the leading role.

VAUVINET, born about 1817, a money-lender of Paris, was of the elegant modern type, altogether different from Chaboisseau-Gobseck; he made the Boulevard des Italiens the centre of his operations; was a creditor of the Baron Hulot, first in the sum of seventy thousand francs; and then in an additional sum of forty thousand, really lent by Nucingen. [Cousin Betty.] In 1845, Leon de Lora and J.-J. Bixiou called S.-P. Gazonal's attention to him. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

VAVa.s.sEUR, clerk in the Treasury Department, during the Empire, in Clergeot's division. He was succeeded by E.-L.-L.-E.-Cochin. [The Government Clerks.]

VEDIE (La), born in 1756, a homely spinster, her face being pitted with small-pox; a relative of La Cognette, a distinguished cook; on the recommendation of Flore Brazier and Maxence Gilet, she was employed as cook by J.-J. Rouget, after the death of a curate, whom she had served long, and who died without leaving her anything. She was to receive a pension of three hundred livres a year, after ten years of competent, faithful and loyal service. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

VENDRAMINI (Marco), whose name is also p.r.o.nounced Vendramin;[*]

probably a descendant of the last Doge of Venice; brother of Bianca Sagredo, born Vendramini; a Venetian patriot; an intimate friend of Memmi-Cane, Prince of Varese. In the intoxication caused by opium, his great resource about 1820, Marco Vendramini dreamed that his dear city, then under Austrian dominion, was free and powerful once more.

He talked with Memmi of the Venice of his dreams, and of the famous Procurator Florain, now in the modern Greek, now in their native tongue; sometimes as they walked together, sometimes before La Vulpato and the Cataneos, during a presentation of "Semiramide," "Il Barbiere," or "Moses," as interpreted by La Tinti and Genovese.

Vendramini died from excessive use of opium, at quite an early age, during the reign of Louis XVIII., and was greatly mourned by his friends. [Facino Cane. Ma.s.similla Doni.]

[*] The palace in Venice formerly owned by the d.u.c.h.esse de Berri and the Comte de Chambord, in which Wagner, the musician, died, is even now called the Vendramin Palace. It is on the Grand-Ca.n.a.l, quite near the Justiniani Palace (now the Hotel de-l'Europe.)

VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign with Hyacinthe Chabert and Luigi Porta, was quartermaster of hussars when he left the service. During the Restoration he was, in turn, cow-keeper on the rue du Pet.i.t-Banquier, keeper of a livery-stable, and cabman. As cow-keeper, Vergniaud, having a wife and three sons, being in debt to Grados, and giving too generously to Chabert, ended in insolvency; even then he aided Luigi Porta, again in trouble, and was his witness when that Corsican married Mademoiselle di Piombo. Louis Vergniaud, being a party to the conspiracies against Louis XVIII., was imprisoned for his share in these crimes. [Colonel Chabert. The Vendetta.]

VERMANTON, a cynic philosopher, and a habitue of Madame Schontz's salon, between 1835 and 1840, when she was keeping house with Arthur de Rochefide. [Beatrix.]

VERMICHEL, common nick-name of Vert (Michel-Jean-Jerome.)

VERMUT, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, during the Restoration; brother-in-law of Sarcus, the Soulanges justice of the peace, who had married his eldest sister. Though quite a distinguished chemist, Vermut was the object of the pleasantries and contemptuous remarks of the Soudry salon, especially at the hands of the Gourdons. Despite the slight esteem "of the first society of Soulanges," Vermut gave evidence of ability, when he disturbed Madame Pigeron by finding traces of poison in the body of her dead husband. [The Peasantry.]

VERMUT (Madame), wife of the preceding; life and soul of the salon of Madame Soudry, who, however, declared that she was "bad form," and reproached her for flirting with Gourdon, author of "La Bilboqueide."

[The Peasantry.]

VERNAL (Abbe), one of the four Vendean leaders, in 1799, when Montauran was opposing Hulot, the other three being Chatillon, Suzannet, and the Comte de Fontaine. [The Chouans.]

VERNET (Joseph), born in 1714, died in 1789, a famous French artist; patronized the Cat and Racket, a drapery establishment on the rue Saint-Denis, of which M. Guillaume, father-in-law of Sommervieux, was proprietor. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]