Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 8

CADIGNAN (Prince de), a powerful lord of the former regime, father of the Duc de Maufrigneuse, father-in-law of the Duc de Navarreins.

Ruined by the Revolution, he had regained his properties and income on the accession of the Bourbons. But he was a spendthrift and devoured everything. He also ruined his wife. He died at an advanced age some time before the Revolution of July. [The Secrets of a Princess.] At the end of 1829, the Prince de Cadignan, then Grand Huntsman to Charles X., rode in a great chase where were also found, amid a very aristocratic throng, the Duc d'Herouville, organizer of the jaunt, Ca.n.a.lis and Ernest de la Briere, all three of whom were suitors for the hand of Modeste Mignon. [Modeste Mignon.]

CADIGNAN (Prince and Princesse de), son and daughter-in-law of the preceding. (See Maufrigneuse, Duc and d.u.c.h.esse de.)

CADINE (Jenny), actress at the Gymnase theatre, times of Charles X.

and Louis Philippe. The most frolicsome of women, the only rival of Dejazet. Born in 1814. Discovered, trained and "protected" from thirteen years old on, by Baron Hulot. Intimate friend of Josepha Mirah. [Cousin Betty.] Between 1835 and 1840, while maintained by Couture, she lived on rue Blanche in a delightful little ground-floor flat with its own garden. Fabien du Ronceret and Mme. Schontz succeeded her here. [Beatrix.] In 1845 she was Ma.s.sol's mistress and lived on rue de la Victoire. At this time, she apparently led astray in short order Palafox Gazonal, who had been taken to her home by Bixiou and Leon de Lora. [The Unconscious Humorists.] About this time she was the victim of a jewelry theft. After the arrest of the thieves her property was returned by Saint-Esteve--Vautrin--who was then chief of the special service. [The Member for Arcis.]

CADOT (Mademoiselle), old servant-mistress of Judge Blondet at Alencon, during the Restoration. She pampered her master, and, like him, preferred the elder of the magistrate's two sons. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

CALVI (Theodore), alias Madeleine. Born in 1803. A Corsican condemned to the galleys for life on account of eleven murders committed by the time he was eighteen. A member of the same gang with Vautrin from 1819 to 1820. Escaped with him. Having a.s.sa.s.sinated the widow Pigeau of Nanterre, in May, 1830, he was rearrested and this time sentenced to death. The plotting of Vautrin, who bore for him an unnatural affection, saved his life; the sentence was commuted. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

CAMBON, lumber merchant, a deputy mayor to Bena.s.sis, in 1829, in a community near Gren.o.ble, and a devoted a.s.sistant in the work of regeneration undertaken by the doctor. [The Country Doctor.]

CAMBREMER (Pierre), fisherman of Croisic on the Lower-Loire, time of Louis Philippe, who, for the honor of a jeopardized name, had cast his only son into the sea and afterwards remained desolate and a widower on a cliff near by, in expiation of his crime induced by paternal justice. [A Seaside Tragedy. Beatrix.]

CAMBREMER (Joseph), younger brother of Pierre Cambremer, father of Pierrette, called Perotte. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

CAMBREMER (Jacques), only son of Pierre Cambremer and Jacquette Brouin. Spoiled by his parents, his mother especially, he became a rascal of the worst type. Jacques Cambremer evaded justice only by reason of the fact that his father gagged him and cast him into the sea. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

CAMBREMER (Madame), born Jacquette Brouin, wife of Pierre Cambremer and mother of Jacques. She was of Guerande; was educated; could write "like a clerk"; taught her son to read and this brought about his ruin. She was usually spoken of as the beautiful Brouin. She died a few days after Jacques. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

CAMBREMER (Pierrette), known as Perotte; daughter of Joseph Cambremer; niece of Pierre and his G.o.ddaughter. Every morning the sweet and charming creature came to bring her uncle the bread and water upon which he subsisted. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

CAMERISTUS, celebrated physician of Paris under Louis Philippe; the Ballanche of medicine and one of the defenders of the abstract doctrines of Van Helmont; chief of the "Vitalists" opposed to Brisset who headed the "Organists." He as well as Brisset was called in consultation regarding a very serious malady afflicting Raphael de Valentin. [The Magic Skin.]

CAMPS (Octave de), lover then husband of Mme. Firmiani. She made him restore the entire fortune of a family named Bourgneuf, ruined in a lawsuit by Octave's father, thus reducing him to the necessity of making a living by teaching mathematics. He was only twenty-two years old when he met Mme. Firmiani. He married her first at Gretna Green.

The marriage at Paris took place in 1824 or 1825. Before marriage, Octave de Camps lived on rue de l'Observance. He was a descendant of the famous Abbe de Camps, so well known among bookmen and savants.

[Madame Firmiani.] Octave de Camps reappears as an ironmaster, during the reign of Louis Philippe. At this time he rarely resided at Paris.

[The Member for Arcis.]

CAMPS (Madame Octave de), nee Cadignan; niece of the old Prince de Cadignan; cousin of the Duc de Maufrigneuse. In 1813, at the age of sixteen, she married M. Firmiani, receiver-general in the department of Montenotte. M. Firmiani died in Greece about 1822, and she became Mme. de Camps in 1824 or 1825. At this time she dwelt on rue du Bac and had entree into the home of Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the oracle of Faubourg Saint-Germain. An accomplished and excellent lady, loved even by her rivals, the d.u.c.h.esse de Maufrigneuse, her cousin, Mme. de Mac.u.mer--Louise de Chaulieu--and the Marquise d'Espard.

[Madame Firmiani.] She welcomed and protected Mme. Xavier Rabourdin.

[The Government Clerks.] At the close of 1824 she gave a ball where Charles de Vandenesse made the acquaintance of Mme. d'Aiglemont whose lover he became. [A Woman of Thirty.] In 1834 Mme. Octave de Camps tried to check the slanders going the rounds at the expense of Mme.

Felix de Vandenesse, who had compromised herself somewhat on account of the poet Nathan; and Mme. de Camps gave the young woman some good advice. [A Daughter of Eve.] On another occasion she gave exceedingly good counsel to Mme. de l'Estorade, who was afraid of being smitten with Sallenauve. [The Member for Arcis.] Mme. Firmiani, "that was,"

shared her time between Paris and the furnaces of M. de Camps; but she gave the latter much the preference--at least so said one of her intimate friends, Mme. de l'Estorade. [The Member for Arcis.]

CAMUSET, one of Bourignard's a.s.sumed names.

CAMUSOT, silk-merchant, rue des Bourdonnais, Paris, under the Restoration. Born in 1765. Son-in-law and successor of Cardot, whose eldest daughter he had married. At that time he was a widower, his first wife being a Demoiselle Pons, sole heiress of the celebrated Pons family, embroiderers to the Court during the Empire. About 1834 Camusot retired from business, and became a member of the Manufacturers' Council, deputy, peer of France and baron. He had four children. In 1821-1822 he maintained Coralie, who became so violently enamored of Lucien de Rubempre. Although she abandoned him for Lucien, he promised the poet, after the actress' death, that he would purchase for her a permanent plot in the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment. Cousin Pons.] Later he was intimate with f.a.n.n.y Beaupre for some time. [The Muse of the Department.] He and his wife were present at Cesar Birotteau's big ball in December, 1818; he was also chosen commissary-judge of the perfumer's bankruptcy, instead of Gobenheim-Keller, who was first designated. [Cesar Birotteau.] He had dealings with the Guillaumes, clothing merchants, rue Saint-Denis. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]

CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE, son of Camusot the silk-merchant by his first marriage. Born about 1794. During Louis Philippe's reign he took the name of a Norman estate and green, Marville, in order to distinguish between himself and a half-brother. In 1824, then a judge at Alencon, he helped render an alibi decision in favor of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, who really was guilty. [Cousin Pons. Jealousies of a Country Town.] He was judge at Paris in 1828, and was appointed to replace Popinot in the court which was to render a decision concerning the appeal for interdiction presented by Mme. d'Espard against her husband. [The Commission in Lunacy.] In May, 1830, in the capacity of judge of instruction, he prepared a report tending to the liberation of Lucien de Rubempre, accused of a.s.sa.s.sinating Esther Gobseck. But the suicide of the poet rendered the proposed measure useless, besides upsetting, momentarily, the ambitious projects of the magistrate. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Camusot de Marville had been president of the Court of Nantes. In 1844 he was president of the Royal Court of Paris and commander of the Legion of Honor. At this time he lived in a house on rue de Hanovre, purchased by him in 1834, where he received the musician Pons, a cousin of his. The President de Marville was elected deputy in 1846. [Cousin Pons.]

CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE (Madame), born Thirion, Marie-Cecile-Amelie, in 1798. Daughter of an usher of the Cabinet of Louis XVIII. Wife of the magistrate. In 1814 she frequented the studio of the painter Servin, who had a cla.s.s for young ladies. This studio contained two factions; Mlle. Thirion headed the party of the n.o.bility, though of ordinary birth, and persecuted Ginevra di Piombo, of the Bonapartist party.

[The Vendetta.] In 1818 she was invited to accompany her father and mother to the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau. It was about the time her marriage with Camusot de Marville was being considered. [Cesar Birotteau.] This wedding took place in 1819, and immediately the imperious young woman gained the upper hand with the judge, making him follow her own will absolutely and in the interests of her boundless ambition. It was she who brought about the discharge of young d'Esgrignon in 1824, and the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre in 1830.

Through her, the Marquis d'Espard failed of interdiction. However, Mme. de Marville had no influence over her father-in-law, the senior Camusot, whom she bored dreadfully and importuned excessively. She caused, also, by her evil treatment, the death of Sylvain Pons "the poor relation," inheriting with her husband his fine collection of curios. [Jealousies of a Country Town. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.

Cousin Pons.]

CAMUSOT (Charles), son of the preceding couple. He died young, at a time when his parents had neither land nor t.i.tle of Marville, and when they were in almost straitened circ.u.mstances. [Cousin Pons.]

CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE (Cecile). (See Popinot, Vicomtesse.)

Ca.n.a.lIS (Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de), poet--chief of the "Angelic" school--deputy minister, peer of France, member of the French Academy, commander of the Legion of Honor. Born at Ca.n.a.lis, Correze, in 1800. About 1821 he became the lover of Mme. de Chaulieu, who was constantly aiding him to high positions, but who, at the same time, was always very exacting. Not long after, Ca.n.a.lis is seen at the opera in Mme. d'Espard's box, being presented to Lucien de Rubempre.

From 1824 he was the fashionable poet. [Letters of Two Brides. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1829 he lived at number 29 rue Paradis-Poissoniere (now simply rue Paradis) and was master of requests in the Council of State. This is the time when he was in correspondence with Modeste Mignon and wished to espouse that rich heiress. [Modeste Mignon.] Shortly after 1830, now a great man, he was present at Mlle. des Touches', when Henri de Marsay told of his first love affair. Ca.n.a.lis took part in the conversation and uttered a most vigorous tirade against Napoleon. [The Magic Skin. Another Study of Woman.] In 1838 he married the daughter of Moreau (de l'Oise), who brought him a very large dowry. [A Start in Life.] In October, 1840, he and Mme. de Rochefide were present at a performance at the Varietes theatre, where that dangerous woman was encountered again after a lapse of three years by Calyste du Guenic. [Beatrix.] In 1845 Ca.n.a.lis was pointed out in the Chamber of Deputies by Leon de Lora to Palafox Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.] In 1845, he consented to act as second to Sallenauve in his duel with Maxime de Trailles. [The Member for Arcis.]

Ca.n.a.lIS (Baronne Melchior de), wife of the preceding and daughter of M. and Mme. Moreau (de l'Oise). About the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe, she being then recently married, she made a journey to Seine-et-Oise. She went first to Beaumont and Presles. Mme. de Ca.n.a.lis with her daughter and the Academician, occupied Pierrotin's stage-coach. [A Start in Life.]

CANE (Marco-Facino), known as Pere Canet, a blind old man, an inmate of the Hospital des Quinze-Vingts, who during the Restoration followed the vocation of musician, at Paris. He played the clarionet at a ball of the working-people of rue de Charenton, on the occasion of the wedding of Mme. Vaillant's sister. He said he was a Venetian, Prince de Varese, a descendant of the _condottiere_ Facino Cane, whose conquests fell into the hands of the Duke of Milan. He told strange stories regarding his patrician youth. He died in 1820, more than an octogenarian. He was the last of the Canes on the senior branch, and he transmitted the t.i.tle of Prince de Varese to a relative, Emilio Memmi. [Facino Cane. Ma.s.similla Doni.]

CANTE-CROIX (Marquis de), under-lieutenant in one of the regiments which tarried at Angouleme from November, 1807, to March, 1808, while on its way to Spain. He was a Colonel at Wagram on July 6, 1809, although only twenty-six years old, when a shot crushed over his heart the picture of Mme. de Bargeton, whom he loved. [Lost Illusions.]

CANTINET, an old gla.s.s-dealer, and beadle of Saint-Francois church, Marais, Paris, in 1845; dwelt on rue d'Orleans. A drunken idler.

[Cousin Pons.]

CANTINET (Madame), wife of preceding; renter of seats in Saint-Francois. Last nurse of Sylvain Pons, and a tool to the interests of Fraisier and Poulain. [Cousin Pons.]

CANTINET, Junior, would have been made beadle of Saint-Francois, where his father and mother were employed, but he preferred the theatre. He was connected with the Cirque-Olympique in 1845. He caused his mother sorrow, by a dissolute life and by forcible inroads on the maternal purse. [Cousin Pons.]

CAPRAJA, a n.o.ble Venetian, a recognized dilettante, living only by and through music. Nicknamed "Il Fanatico." Known by the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess Cataneo and their friends. [Ma.s.similla Doni.]

CARABINE, a.s.sumed name of Seraphine Sinet, which name see.

CARBONNEAU, physician whom the Comte de Mortsauf spoke of consulting about his wife, in 1820, instead of Dr. Origet, whom he fancied to be unsatisfactory. [The Lily of the Valley.]

CARCADO (Madame de), founder of a Parisian benevolent society, for which Mme. de la Baudraye was appointed collector, in March, 1843, on the request of some priests, friends of Mme. Piedefer. This choice resulted, noteworthily, in the re-entrance into society of the "muse,"

who had been beguiled and compromised by her relations with Lousteau.

[The Muse of the Department.]

CARDANET (Madame de), grandmother of Mme. de Senonches. [Lost Illusions.]

CARDINAL (Madame), Parisian fish-vender, daughter of one Toupillier, a carrier. Widow of a well-known marketman. Niece of Toupillier the pauper of Saint-Sulpice, from whom in 1840, with Cerizet's a.s.sistance, she tried to capture the hidden treasure. This woman had three sisters, four brothers, and three uncles, who would have shared with her the pauper's bequest. The scheming of Mme. Cardinal and Cerizet was frustrated by M. du Portail--Corentin. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

CARDINAL (Olympe). (See Cerizet, Madame.)

CARDOT (Jean-Jerome-Severin), born in 1755. Head-clerk in an old silk-house, the "Golden Coc.o.o.n," rue des Bourdonnais. He bought the establishment in 1793, at the "maximum" moment, and in ten years had made a large fortune, thanks to the dowry of one hundred thousand francs brought him by his wife; she was a Demoiselle Husson, and gave him four children. Of these, the elder daughter married Camusot, who succeeded his father-in-law; the second, Marianne, married Protez, of the firm of Protez & Chiffreville; the elder son became a notary; the younger son, Joseph, took an interest in Matifat's drug business.

Cardot was the "protector" of the actress, Florentine, whom he discovered and started. In 1822 he lived at Belleville in one of the first houses above Courtille; he had then been a widower for six years. He was an uncle of Oscar Husson, and had taken some interest in and helped the dolt, until an incident occurred that changed everything: the old man discovered the young fellow asleep one morning, on one of Florentine's divans, after an orgy wherein he had squandered the money entrusted to him by his employer, Desroches the attorney. [A Start in Life. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment.] Cardot had dealings with the Guillaumes, clothiers, rue Saint-Denis. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.] He and his entire family were invited to the great ball given by Cesar Birotteau, December 17, 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]

CARDOT, elder son of the preceding. Parisian notary, successor of Sorbier. Born in 1794. Married to a Demoiselle Chiffreville, of a family of celebrated chemists. Three children were born to them: a son who in 1836 was fourth clerk in his father's business, and should have succeeded him, but dreamed instead of literary fame; Felicie, who married Berthier; and another daughter, born in 1824. The notary Cardot maintained Malaga, during the reign of Louis Philippe. [The Muse of the Department. A Man of Business. Jealousies of a Country Town.] He was attorney for Pierre Gra.s.sou, who deposited his savings with him every quarter. [Pierre Gra.s.sou.] He was also notary to the Thuilliers, and, in 1840, had presented in their drawing-rooms, on rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, G.o.deschal an aspirant for the hand of Celeste Colleville. After living on Place du Chatelet, Cardot become one of the tenants of the house purchased by the Thuilliers, near the Madeleine. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.] In 1844 he was mayor and deputy of Paris. [Cousin Pons.]

CARDOT (Madame) nee Chiffreville, wife of Cardot the notary. Very devoted, but a "wooden" woman, a "veritable penitential brush." About 1840 she lived on Place du Chatelet, Paris, with her husband. At this time, the notary's wife took her daughter Felicie to rue des Martyrs, to the home of Etienne Lousteau, whom she had planned to have for a son-in-law, but whom she finally threw over on account of the journalist's dissipated ways. [The Muse of the Department.]

CARDOT (Felicie or Felicite). (See Berthier, Madame.)

CARIGLIANO (Marechal, Duc de), one of the ill.u.s.trious soldiers of the Empire; husband of a Demoiselle Malin de Gondreville, whom he worshipped, obeyed and stood in awe of, but who deceived him. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.] In 1819, Marechal de Carigliano gave a ball where Eugene de Rastignac was presented by his cousin, the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, at the time he entered the world of fashion.

[Father Goriot.] During the Restoration he owned a beautiful house near the Elysee-Bourbon, which he sold to M. de Lanty. [Sarrasine.]

CARIGLIANO (d.u.c.h.esse de), wife of the preceding, daughter of Senator Malin de Gondreville. At the end of the Empire, when thirty-six years of age, she was the mistress of the young Colonel d'Aiglemont, and of Sommervieux, the painter, almost at the same time; the latter had recently wedded Augustine Guillaume. The d.u.c.h.esse de Carigliano received a visit from Mme. de Sommervieux, and gave her very ingenious advice concerning the method of conquering her husband, and binding him forever to her by her coquetry. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.] In 1821-1822 she had an opera-box near Mme. d'Espard. Sixte du Chatelet came to her to make his acknowledgments on the evening when Lucien de Rubempre, a newcomer in Paris, cut such a sorry figure at the theatre in company with Mme. de Bargeton. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] It was the d.u.c.h.esse de Carigliano who, after a great effort, found a wife suited to General de Montcornet, in the person of Mlle. de Troisville. [The Peasantry.] Mme. de Carigliano, although a Napoleonic d.u.c.h.esse, was none the less devoted to the House of the Bourbons, being attached especially to the d.u.c.h.esse de Berry.

Becoming imbued also with a high degree of piety, she visited nearly every year a retreat of the Ursulines of Arcis-sur-Aube. In 1839 Sallenauve's friends counted on the d.u.c.h.esse's support to elect him deputy. [The Member for Arcis.]

CARMAGNOLA (Giambattista), an old Venetian gondolier, entirely devoted to Emilio Memmi, in 1820. [Ma.s.similla Doni.]