Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z. Anatole Cerfberr
de Mancini, had it not been for the peculiar incidents which brought about her marriage with the French officer, Francois Diard. [The Maranas.]
ARGAIOLO (Duc d'), a very rich and well-born Italian, the respected though aged husband of her who later became the Duchesse de Rhetore, to the perpetual grief of Albert Savarus. Argaiolo died, almost an octogenarian, in 1835. [Albert Savarus.]
ARGAIOLO (Duchesse d'), nee Soderini, wife of the Duc d'Argaiolo. She became a widow in 1835, and took as her second husband the Duc de Rhetore. (See Duchesse de Rhetore.) [Albert Savarus.]
ARRACHELAINE, surname of the rogue, Ruffard. (See that name.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
ARTHEZ (Daniel d'), one of the most illustrious authors of the nineteenth century, and one of those rare men who display "the unity of excellent talent and excellent character." Born about 1794 or 1796. A Picard gentleman. In 1821, when about twenty-five, he was poverty-stricken and dwelt on the fifth floor of a dismal house in the rue des Quatre-Vents, Paris, where had also resided the illustrious surgeon Desplein, in his youth. There he fraternized with: Horace Bianchon, then house-physician at Hotel-Dieu; Leon Giraud, the profound philosopher; Joseph Bridau, the painter who later achieved so much renown; Fulgence Ridal, comic poet of great sprightliness; Meyraux, the eminent physiologist who died young; lastly, Louis Lambert and Michel Chrestien, the Federalist Republican, both of whom were cut off in their prime. To these men of heart and of talent Lucien de Rubempre, the poet, sought to attach himself. He was introduced by Daniel d'Arthez, their recognized leader. This society had taken the name of the "Cenacle." D'Arthez and his friends advised and aided, when in need, Lucien the "Distinguished Provincial at Paris" who ended so tragically. Moreover, with a truly remarkable disinterestedness d'Arthez corrected and revised "The Archer of Charles IX.," written by Lucien, and the work became a superb book, in his hands. Another glimpse of d'Arthez is as the unselfish friend of Marie Gaston, a young poet of his stamp, but "effeminate." D'Arthez was swarthy, with long locks, rather small and bearing some resemblance to Bonaparte. He might be called the rival of Rousseau, "the Aquatic," since he was very temperate, very pure, and drank water only. For a long time he ate at Flicoteaux's in the Latin Quarter. He had grown famous in 1832, besides enjoying an income of thirty thousand francs bequeathed by an uncle who had left him a prey to the most biting poverty so long as the author was unknown. D'Arthez then resided in a pretty house of his own in the rue de Bellefond, where he lived in other respects as formerly, in the rigor of work. He was a deputy sitting on the right and upholding the Royalist platform of Divine Right. When he had acquired a competence, he had a most vulgar and incomprehensible liaison with a woman tolerably pretty, but belonging to a lower society and without either education or breeding. D'Arthez maintained her, nevertheless, carefully concealing her from sight; but, far from being a pleasurable manner of life, it became odious to him. It was at this time that he was invited to the home of Diane de Maufrigneuse, Princesse de Cadignan, who was then thirty-six, but did not look it. The famous "great coquette" told him her (so-called) "secrets," offered herself outright to this man whom she treated as a "famous simpleton," and whom she made her lover. After that day there was no doubt about the relations of the princesse and Daniel d'Arthez. The great author, whose works became very rare, appeared only during some of the winter months at the Chamber of Deputies. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Member for Arcis. The Secrets of a Princess.]
ASIE, one of the pseudonyms of Jacqueline Collin. (See that name.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
ATHALIE, cook for Mme. Schontz in 1836. According to her mistress, she was specially gifted in preparing venison. [The Muse of the Department.]
AUBRION (Marquis d'), a gentleman-in-waiting of the Bedchamber, under Charles X. He was of the house of Aubrion de Buch, whose last head died before 1789. He was silly enough to wed a woman of fashion, though he was already an old man of but twenty thousand francs income, a sum hardly sufficient in Paris. He tried to marry his daughter without a dowry to some man who was intoxicated with nobility. In 1827, to quote Mme. d'Aubrion, this ancient wreck was madly devoted to the Duchesse de Chaulieu [Eugenie Grandet.]
AUBRION (Marquise d'), wife of the preceding. Born in 1789. At thirty-eight she was still pretty, and, having always been somewhat aspiring, she endeavored (in 1827), by hook or by crook, to entangle Charles Grandet, lately returned from the Indies. She wished to make a son-in-law out of him, and she succeeded. [Eugenie Grandet.]
AUBRION (Mathilde d') daughter of the Marquis and Marquise d'Aubrion; born in 1808; married to Charles Grandet. (See that name.) [Eugenie Grandet.]
AUBRION (Comte d'), the title acquired by Charles Grandet after his marriage to the daughter of the Marquis d'Aubrion. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
AUFFRAY, grocer at Provins, in the period of Louis XV., Louis XVI. and the Revolution. M. Auffray married the first time when eighteen, the second time at sixty-nine. By his first wife he had a rather ugly daughter who married, at sixteen, a landlord of Provins, Rogron by name. Auffray had another daughter, by his second marriage, a charming girl, this time, who married a Breton captain in the Imperial Guard. Pierrette Lorrain was the daughter of this officer. The old grocer Auffray died at the time of the Empire without having had time enough to make his will. The inheritance was so skillfully manipulated by Rogron, the first son-in-law of the deceased, that almost nothing was left for the goodman's widow, then only about thirty-eight years old. [Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY (Madame), wife of the preceding. (See Neraud, Mme.) [Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY, a notary of Provins in 1827. Husband of Mme. Guenee's third daughter. Great-grand-nephew of the old grocer, Auffray. Appointed a guardian of Pierrette Lorrain. On account of the ill-treatment to which this young girl was subjected at the home of her guardian, Denis Rogron, she was removed, an invalid, to the home of the notary Auffray, a designated guardian, where she died, although tenderly cared for. [Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY (Madame), born Guenee. Wife of the preceding. The third daughter of Mme. Guenee, born Tiphaine. She exhibited the greatest kindness for Pierrette Lorrain, and nursed her tenderly in her last illness. [Pierrette.]
AUGUSTE, name borne by Boislaurier, as chief of "brigands," in the uprisings of the West under the Republic and under the Empire. [The Seamy Side of History.]
AUGUSTE, valet de chambre of the General Marquis Armand de Montriveau, under the Restoration, at the time when the latter dwelt in the rue de Seine hard by the Chamber of Peers, and was intimate with the Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais. [The Thirteen.]
AUGUSTE, notorious assassin, executed in the first years of the Restoration. He left a mistress, surnamed Rousse, to whom Jacques Collin had faithfully remitted (in 1819) some twenty odd thousands of francs, on behalf of her lover after his execution. This woman was married in 1821, by Jacques Collin's sister, to the head clerk of a rich, wholesale hardware merchant. Nevertheless, though once more in respectable society, she remained bound, by a secret compact, to the terrible Vautrin and his sister. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
AUGUSTE (Madame), dressmaker of Esther Gobseck, and her creditor in the time of Louis XVIII. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
AUGUSTIN, valet de chambre of M. de Serizy in 1822. [A Start in Life.]
AURELIE, a Parisian courtesan, under Louis Philippe, at the time when Mme. Fabien du Ronceret commenced her conquests. [Beatrix.]
AURELIE (La Petite), one of the nicknames of Josephine Schiltz, also called Schontz, who became, later, Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. [Beatrix.]
AUVERGNAT (L'), one of the assumed names of the rogue Selerier, alias Pere Ralleau, alias Rouleur, alias Fil-de-soie. (See Selerier.) [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
B
BABYLAS, groom or "tiger" of Amedee de Soulas, in 1834, at Besancon. Was fourteen years old at this time. The son of one of his master's tenants. He earned thirty-six francs a month by his position to support