Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 6

BORNICHE (Baruch), grandson of the preceding, and of M. and Mme.

Hochon. Born in 1800. Early left an orphan, he and his sister were reared by his grandfather on the maternal side. He had been one of the accomplices of Maxence Gilet, and took part in the nocturnal raids of the "Knights of Idlesse." When his conduct became known to his grandfather, in 1822, the latter lost no time in removing him from Issoudun, sending him to MoneG.o.d's office, Paris, to study law. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BORNICHE (Adolphine), sister of Baruch Borniche; born in 1804. Brought up almost a recluse in the frigid, dreary house of her grandfather, Hochon, she spent most of her time peering through the windows, in the hope of discovering some of the terrible things which--as Dame Rumor had it--occurred in the home of Jean-Jacques Rouget, next door. She likewise awaited with some impatience the arrival of Joseph Bridau in Issoudun, wishing to inspire some sentiment in him, and taking the liveliest interest in the painter, on account of the monstrosities which were attributed to him because of his being an artist. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BOUCARD, head-clerk of the attorney Derville in 1818, at the time when Colonel Chabert sought to recover his rights with his wife who had been remarried to Comte Ferraud. [Colonel Chabert.]

BOUCHER, Besancon merchant in 1834, who was the first client of Albert Savarus in that city. He a.s.sumed financial control of the "Revue de l'Est," founded by the lawyer. M. Boucher was related by marriage to one of the ablest editors of great theological works. [Albert Savarus.]

BOUCHER (Alfred), eldest son of the preceding. Born in 1812. A youth, eager for literary fame, whom Albert Savarus put on the staff of his "Revue de l'Est," giving him his themes and subjects. Alfred Boucher conceived a strong admiration for the managing editor, who treated him as a friend. The first number of the "Revue" contained a "Meditation"

by Alfred. This Alfred Boucher believed he was exploiting Savarus, whereas the contrary was the case. [Albert Savarus.]

BOUFFE (Marie), alias Vignol, actor born in Paris, September 4, 1800.

He appeared about 1822 at the Panorama-Dramatique theatre, on the Boulevard du Temple, Paris, playing the part of the Alcade in a three-act imbroglio by Raoul Nathan and Du Bruel ent.i.tled "L'Alcade dans l'embarras." At the first night performance he announced that the authors were Raoul and Cursy. Although very young at the time, this artist made his first great success in this role, and revealed his talent for depicting an old man. The critique of Lucien de Rubempre established his position. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

BOUGIVAL (La). (See Cabirolle, Madame.)

BOUGNIOL (Mesdemoiselles), proprietors of an inn at Guerande (Loire-Inferieure), at the time of Louis Philippe. They had as guests some artist friends of Felicite des Touches--Camille Maupin--who had come from Paris to see her. [Beatrix.]

BOURBONNE (De), wealthy resident of Tours, time of Louis XVIII. and Charles X. An uncle of Octave de Camps. In 1824 he visited Paris to ascertain the cause of the ruin of his nephew and sole heir, which ruin was generally credited to dissipations with Mme. Firmiani. M. de Bourbonne, a retired musketeer in easy circ.u.mstances, was well connected. He had entry into the Faubourg Saint-Germain through the Listomeres, the Lenoncourts and the Vandenesses. He caused himself to be presented at Mme. Firmiani's as M. de Rouxellay, the name of his estate. The advice of Bourbonne, which was marked by much perspicacity, if followed, would have extricated Francois Birotteau from Troubert's clutches; for the uncle of M. de Camps fathomed the plottings of the future Bishop of Troyes. Bourbonne saw a great deal more than did the Listomeres of Tours. [Madame Firmiani. The Vicar of Tours.]

BOURDET (Benjamin), old soldier of the Empire, formerly serving under Philippe Bridau's command. He lived quietly in the suburbs of Vatan, in touch with Fario. In 1822 he placed himself at the entire disposal of the Spaniard, and also of the officer who previously had put him under obligations. Secretly he served them in their hatred of and plots against Maxence Gilet. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BOURGEAT, foundling of Saint-Flour. Parisian water-carrier about the end of the eighteenth century. The friend and protector of the young Desplein, the future famous surgeon. He lived in rue Quatre-Vents in an humble house rendered doubly famous by the sojourn of Desplein and by that of Daniel d'Arthez. A fervent Churchman of unswerving faith.

The future famous savant (Desplein) watched by his bedside at the last and closed his eyes. [The Atheist's Ma.s.s.]

BOURGET, uncle of the Chaussard brothers. An old man who became implicated in the trial of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. He died during the taking of the testimony, while making some confessions. His wife, also apprehended, appeared before the court and was sentenced to twenty-two years' imprisonment. [The Seamy Side of History.]

BOURGNEUFS (The), a family ruined by the De Camps and living in poverty and seclusion at Saint-Germain en Laye, during the early part of the nineteenth centruy. This family consisted of: the aged father, who ran a lottery-office; the mother, almost always sick; and two delightful daughters, who took care of the home and attended to the correspondence. The Bourgneufs were rescued from their troubles by Octave de Camps who, prompted by Mme. Firmiani, and at the cost of his entire property, restored to them the fortune made away with by his father. [Madame Firmiani.]

BOURGNIER (Du). (See Bousquier, Du.)

BOURIGNARD (Gratien-Henri-Victor-Jean-Joseph), father of Mme. Jules Desmarets. One of the "Thirteen" and the former chief of the Order of the Devorants under the t.i.tle of Ferragus XXIII. He had been a laborer, but afterwards was a contractor of buildings. His daughter was born to an abandoned woman. About 1807 he was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor, but he managed to escape during a journey of the chain-gang from Paris to Toulon, and he returned to Paris. In 1820 he lived there under diverse names and disguises, lodging successively on rue des Vieux Augustins (now rue d'Argout), corner of rue Soly (an insignificant street which disappeared when the Hotel des Postes was rebuilt); then at number seven rue Joquelet; finally at Mme. E.

Gruget's, number twelve rue des Enfants-Rouges (now part of the rue des Archives running from rue Pastourelle to rue Portefoin), changing lodgings at this time to evade the investigations of Auguste de Maulincour. Stunned by the death of his daughter, whom he adored and with whom he held secret interviews to prevent her becoming amenable to the law, he pa.s.sed his last days in an indifferent, almost idiotic way, idly watching match games at bowling on the Place de l'Observatoire; the ground between the Luxembourg and the Boulevard de Montparna.s.se was the scene of these games. One of the a.s.sumed names of Bourignard was the Comte de Funcal. In 1815, Bourignard, alias Ferragus, a.s.sisted Henri de Marsay, another member of the "Thirteen,"

in his raid on Hotel San-Real, where dwelt Paquita Valdes. [The Thirteen.]

BOURLAC (Bernard-Jean-Baptiste-Macloud, Baron de), former procureur-general of the Royal Court of Rouen, grand officer of the Legion of Honor. Born in 1771. He fell in love with and married the daughter of the Pole, Tarlowski, a colonel in the French Imperial Guard.

By her he had a daughter, Vanda, who became the Baronne de Mergi. A widower and reserved by nature, he came to Paris in 1829 to take care of Vanda, who was seized by a strange and very dangerous malady. After having lived in the Quartier du Roule in 1838, with his daughter and grandson, he dwelt for several years, in very straitened circ.u.mstances, in a tumble-down house on the Boulevard du Montparna.s.se, where G.o.defroid, a recent initiate into the "Brotherhood of the Consolation"

and under the direction of Mme. de la Chanterie and her a.s.sociates, came to his relief. Afterwards it was discovered that the Baron de Bourlac was none other than the terrible magistrate who had p.r.o.nounced judgment on this n.o.ble woman and her daughter during the trial of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. Nevertheless, the aiding of the family was not abated in the least. Vanda was cured, thanks to a foreign physician, Halpersohn, procured by G.o.defroid. M. de Bourlac was enabled to publish his great work on the "Spirit of Modern Law." At Sorbonne a chair of comparative legislation was created for him. At last he obtained forgiveness from Mme. de la Chanterie, at whose feet he flung himself. [The Seamy Side of History.] In 1817 the Baron de Bourlac, then procureur-general, and superior of Soudry the younger, royal procureur, helped, with the a.s.sistance also of the latter, to secure for Sibilet the position of estate-keeper to the General de Montcornet at Aigues. [The Peasantry.]

BOURNIER, natural son of Gaubertin and of Mme. Socquard, the wife of the cafe manager of Soulanges. His existence was unknown to Mme.

Gaubertin. He was sent to Paris where, under Leclercq, he learned the printer's trade and finally became a foreman. Gaubertin then brought him to Ville-aux-Fayes where he established a printing office and a paper known as "Le Courrier de l'Avonne", entirely devoted to the interests of the triumvirate, Rigou, Gaubertin and Soudry. [The Peasantry.]

BOSQUIER (Du), or Croisier (Du), or Bourguier (Du), a descendant of an old Alencon family. Born about 1760. He had been commissary agent in the army from 1793 to 1799; had done business with Ouvrard, and kept a running account with Barras, Bernadotte and Fouche. He was at that time one of the great folk of finance. Discharged by Bonaparte in 1800, he withdrew to his natal town. After selling the Beauseant house, which he owned, for the benefit of his creditors, he had remaining an income of not more than twelve hundred francs. About 1816 he married Mlle. Cormon, a spinster who had been courted also by the Chevalier de Valois and Athanase Granson. This marriage set him on his feet again financially. He took the lead in the party of the opposition, established a Liberal paper called "Le Courrier de l'Orne," and was elected Receiver-General of the Exchequer, after the Revolution of 1830. He waged bitter war on the white flag Royalists, his hatred of them causing him secretly to condone the excesses of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, until the latter involved him in an affair, when Bousquier had him arrested, thinking thus to dispose of him summarily. The affair was smoothed over only by tremendous pressure.

But the young n.o.bleman provoked Du Bousquier into a duel where the latter dangerously wounded him. Afterwards Bousquier gave him in marriage the hand of his niece, Mlle. Duval, dowered with three millions. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] Probably he was the father of Flavie Minoret, the daughter of a celebrated Opera danseuse. But he never acknowledged this child, and she was dowered by Princesse Galathionne and married Colleville. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

BOSQUIER (Madame du), born Cormon (Rose-Marie-Victoire) in 1773. She was a very wealthy heiress, living with her maternal uncle, the Abbe de Sponde, in an old house of Alencon (rue du Val-n.o.ble), and receiving, in 1816, the aristocracy of the town, with which she was related through marriage. Courted simultaneously by Athanase Granson, the Chevalier de Valois and Du Bousquier, she gave her hand to the old commissariat, whose athletic figure and _pa.s.se_ libertinism had impressed her vaguely. But her secret desires were utterly dashed by him; she confessed later that she couldn't endure the idea of dying a maid. Mme. du Bousquier was very devout. She was descended from the stewards of the ancient Ducs d'Alencon. In this same year of 1816, she hoped in vain to wed a Troisville, but he was already married. She found it difficult to brook the state of hostility declared between M.

du Bousquier and the Esgrignons. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

BOUTIN, at one time sergeant in the cavalry regiment of which Chabert was colonel. He lived at Stuttgart in 1814, exhibiting white bears very well trained by him. In this city he encountered his former ranking officer, shorn of all his possessions, and just emerging from an insane asylum. Boutin aided him as best he could and took it upon himself to go to Paris and inform Mme. Chabert of her husband's whereabouts. But Boutin fell on the field of Waterloo, and could hardly have accomplished his mission. [Colonel Chabert.]

BOUVARD (Doctor), physician of Paris, born about 1758. A friend of Dr.

Minoret, with whom he had some lively tilts about Mesmer. He had adopted that system, while Minoret gainsaid the truth thereof. These discussions ended in an estrangement, for some time, between the two cronies. Finally, in 1829, Bouvard wrote Minoret asking him to come to Paris to a.s.sist in some conclusive tests of magnetism. As a result of these tests, Dr. Minoret, materialist and atheist that he was, became a devout Spiritualist and Catholic. In 1829 Dr. Bouvard lived on rue Ferou. [Ursule Mirouet.] He had been as a father to Dr. Lebrun, physician of the Conciergerie in 1830, who, according to his own avowal, owed to him his position, since he often drew from his master his own ideas regarding nervous energy. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BOUYONNET, a lawyer at Mantes, under Louis Philippe, who, urged by his confreres and stimulated by the public prosecutor, "showed up"

Fraisier, another lawyer in the town, who had been retained in a suit for both parties at once. The result of this denunciation was to make Fraisier sell his office and leave Mantes. [Cousin Pons.]

BRAMBOURG (Comte de), t.i.tle of Philippe Bridau to which his brother Joseph succeeded. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The Unconscious Humorists.]

BRANDON (Lady Marie-Augusta), mother of Louis and Marie Gaston, children born out of wedlock. Together with the Vicomtesse de Beauseant she a.s.sisted, in company with Colonel Franchessini, probably her lover, at the famous ball on the morning following which the duped mistress of D'Ajuda-Pinto secretly left Paris. [The Member for Arcis.]

In 1820, while living with her two children in seclusion at La Grenadiere, in the neighborhood of Tours, she saw Felix de Vandenesse, at the time when Mme. de Mortsauf died, and charged him with a pressing message to Lady Arabelle Dudley. [The Lily of the Valley.]

She died, aged thirty-six, during the Restoration, in the house at La Grenadiere, and was buried in the Saint-Cyr Cemetery. Her husband, Lord Brandon, who had abandoned her, lived in London, Brandon Square, Hyde Park, at this time. In Touraine Lady Brandon was known only by the a.s.sumed name of Mme. Willemsens. [La Grenadiere.]

BRASCHON, upholsterer and cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, famous under the Restoration. He did a considerable amount of work for Cesar Birotteau and figured among the creditors in his bankruptcy.

[Cesar Birotteau. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BRAULARD, born in 1782. The head _claquer_ at the theatre of the Panorama-Dramatique, and then at the Gymnase, about 1822. The lover of Mlle. Millot. At this time he lived in rue Faubourg du Temple, in a rather comfortable flat where he gave fine dinners to actresses, managing editors and authors--among others, Adele Dupuis, Finot, Ducange and Frederic du Pet.i.t-Mere. He was credited with having gained an income of twenty thousand francs by discounting authors' and other complimentary tickets. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] When chief _claquer_, about 1843, he had in his following Chardin, alias Idamore [Cousin Betty], and commanded his "Romans" at the Boulevard theatre, which presented operas, spectaculars and ballets at popular prices, and was run by Felix Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]

BRAZIER, this family included the following: A peasant of Vatan (Indre), the paternal uncle and guardian of Mlle. Flore Brazier, known as "La Rabouilleuse." In 1799 he placed her in the house of Dr. Rouget on very satisfactory conditions for himself, Brazier. Rendered comparatively rich by the doctor, he died two years before the latter, in 1805, from a fall received on leaving an inn where he spent his time after becoming well-to-do. His wife, who was a very harsh aunt of Flore's. Lastly the brother and brother-in-law of this girl's guardians, the real father of "La Rabouilleuse," who died in 1799, a demented widower, in the hospital of Bourges. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BRAZIER (Flore). (See Bridau, Madame Philippe.)

BREAUTEY (Comtesse de), a venerable woman of Provins, who maintained the only aristocratic salon in that city, in 1827-1828. [Pierrette.]

BREBIAN (Alexandre de), member of the Angouleme aristocracy in 1821.

He frequented the Bargeton receptions. An artist like his friend Bartas, he also was daft over drawing and would ruin every alb.u.m in the department with his grotesque productions. He posed as Mme. de Bartas' lover, since Bartas paid court to Mme. de Brebian. [Lost Illusions.]

BREBIAN (Charlotte de), wife of the preceding. Currently called "Lolotte." [Lost Illusions.]

BREINTMAYER, a banking house of Strasbourg, entrusted by Michu in 1803 with the transmission of funds to the De Simeuses, young officers of the army of Conde. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

BREZACS (The), Auvergnats, dealers in general merchandise and the furnishings of chateaux during the Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration. They had business dealings with Pierre Graslin, Jean-Baptiste Sauviat and Martin Falleix. [The Country Parson. The Government Clerks.]

BRIDAU, father of Philippe and Joseph Bridau; one of the secretaries of Roland, Minister of the Interior in 1792, and the right arm of succeeding ministers. He was attached fanatically to Napoleon, who could appreciate him, and who made him chief of division in 1804. He died in 1808, at the moment when he had been promised the offices of director general and councillor of state with the t.i.tle of comte. He first met Agathe Rouget, whom he made his wife, at the home of the grocer Descoings, the man whom he tried to save from the scaffold. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BRIDAU (Agathe Rouget, Madame), wife of the preceding; born in 1773.

Legal daughter of Dr. Rouget of Issoudun, but possibly the natural daughter of Sub-delegate Lousteau. The doctor did not waste any affection upon her, and lost no time in sending her to Paris, where she was reared by her uncle, the grocer Descoings. She died at the close of 1828. Of her two sons, Philippe and Joseph, Mme. Bridau always preferred the elder, though he caused her nothing but grief. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BRIDAU (Philippe), elder son of Bridau and Agathe Rouget. Born in 1796. Placed in the Saint-Cyr school in 1813, he remained but six months, leaving it to become under-lieutenant of the cavalry. On account of a skirmish of the advance guard he was made full lieutenant, during the French campaign, then captain after the battle of La Fere-Champenoise, where Napoleon made him artillery officer. He was decorated at Montereau. After witnessing the farewell at Fontainebleu, he came back to his mother in July, 1814, being then hardly nineteen. He did not wish to serve the Bourbons. In March, 1815, Philippe Bridau rejoined the Emperor at Lyons, accompanying him to the Tuileries. He was promised a captaincy in a squadron of dragoons of the Guard, and made officer of the Legion of Honor at Waterloo. Reduced to half-pay, during the Restoration, he nevertheless preserved his rank and officer's cross. He rejoined General Lallemand in Texas, returning from America in October, 1819, thoroughly degenerated. He ran an opposition newspaper in Paris in 1820-1821. He led a most dissolute life; was the lover of Mariette G.o.deschal; and attended all the parties of Tullia, Florentine, Florine, Coralie, Matifat and Camusot. Not content with using the income of his brother Joseph, he stole a coffer entrusted to him, and despoiled of her last savings Mme. Descoings, who died of grief. Involved in a military plot in 1822, he was sent to Issoudun, under the surveillance of the police. There he created a disturbance in the "bachelor's establishment" of his uncle, Jean-Jacques Rouget; killed in a duel Maxence Gilet, the lover of Flore Brazier; brought about the girl's marriage with his uncle; and married her himself when she became a widow in 1824. When Charles X. succeeded to the throne, Philippe Bridau re-entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the Duc de Maufrigneuse's regiment. In 1827 he pa.s.sed with this grade into a regiment of cavalry of the Royal Guard, and was made Comte de Brambourg from the name of an estate which he had purchased. He was promised further the office of commander in the Legion of Honor, as well as in the Order of Saint-Louis. After having consciously caused the death of his wife, Flore Brazier, he tried to marry Amelie de Soulanges, who belonged to a great family. But his manoeuvres were frustrated by Bixiou. The Revolution of 1830 resulted in the loss to Philippe Bridau of a portion of the fortune which he had obtained from his uncle by his marriage. Once more he entered military service, under the July Government, which made him a colonel. In 1839 he fell in an engagement with the Arabs in Africa. [A Bachelor's Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BRIDAU (Joseph), painter; younger brother of Philippe Bridau; born in 1799. He studied with Gros, and made his first exhibit at the Salon of 1823. He received great stimulus from his fellow-members of the "Cenacle," in rue Quatre-Vents, also from his master, from Gerard and from Mlle. des Touches. Moreover he was a hard-worker and an artist of genius. He was decorated in 1827, and about 1839, through the interest of the Comte de Serizy, for whose home he had formerly done some work, he married the only daughter of a retired farmer, now a millionaire.

On the death of his brother Philippe, he inherited his house in rue de Berlin, his estate of Brambourg, and his t.i.tle of comte. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Start in Life.]

Joseph Bridau made some vignettes for the works of Ca.n.a.lis. [Modeste Mignon.] He was intimate with Hippolyte Schinner, whom he had known at Gros' studio. [The Purse.] Shortly after 1830, he was present at an "at home" at Mlle. des Touches, when Henri de Marsay told about his first love affair. [Another Study of Woman.] In 1832 he rushed in to see Pierre Gra.s.sou, borrowed five hundred francs of him, and told him to "cater to his talent" and even to plunge into literature since he was nothing more than a poor painter. At this same time, Joseph Bridau painted the dining-hall in the D'Arthez chateau. [Pierre Gra.s.sou.] He was a friend of Marie Gaston, and was attendant at his marriage with Louise de Chaulieu, widow of Mac.u.mer, in 1833. [Letters of Two Brides.] He also a.s.sisted at the wedding of Steinbock with Hortense Hulot, and in 1838, at the instigation of Stidmann, clubbed in with Leon de Lora to raise four thousand francs for the Pole, who was imprisoned for debt. He had made the portrait of Josepha Mirah.

[Cousin Betty.] In 1839, at Mme. Montcornet's, Joseph Bridau praised the talent and character displayed by Dorlange, the sculptor. [The Member for Arcis.]

BRIDAU (Flore Brazier, Madame Philippe), born in 1787 at Vatan Indre, known as "La Rabouilleuse," on account of her uncle having put her to work, when a child, at stirring up (to "rabouiller") the streamlets, so that he might find crayfishes. She was noticed on account of her great beauty by Dr. Rouget of Issoudun, and taken to his home in 1799.

Jean-Jacques Rouget, the doctor's son become much enamored of her, but obtained favor only through his money. On her part she was smitten with Maxence Gilet, whom she entertained in the house of the old bachelor at the latter's expense. But everything was changed by the arrival of Philippe Bridau at Issoudun. Gilet was killed in a duel, and Rouget married La Rabouilleuse in 1823. Left a widow soon after, she married the soldier. She died in Paris in 1828, abandoned by her husband, in the greatest distress, a prey to innumerable terrible complaints, the products of the dissolute life into which Philippe Bridau had designedly thrown her. She dwelt then on rue du Houssay, on the fifth floor. She left here for the Dubois Hospital in Faubourg Saint-Denis. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

BRIDAU (Madame Joseph), only daughter of Leger, an old farmer, afterwards a multi-millionaire at Beaumont-sur-Oise; married to the painter Joseph Bridau about 1839. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]