Of Madame de Montespan, ousted from the royal favour by Madame de Maintenon, who "married into the family where she had been governess," there survives one bookish relic of interest. This is 'OEuvres Diverses par un auteur de sept ans,' in quarto, red morocco, printed on vellum, and with the arms of the mother of the little Duc du Maine (1678). When Madame de Maintenon was still playing mother to the children of the king and of Madame de Montespan, she printed those "works" of her eldest pupil.
These ladies were only bibliophiles by accident, and were devoted, in the first place, to pleasure, piety, or ambition. With the Comtesse de Verrue, whose epitaph will be found on an earlier page, we come to a genuine and even fanatical collector. Madame de Verrue (1670-1736) got every kind of diversion out of life, and when she ceased to be young and fair, she turned to the joys of "shopping."In early years, "pleine de coeur, elle le donna sans comptes." In later life, she purchased, or obtained on credit, everything that caught her fancy, also sans comptes. "My aunt," says the Duc de Luynes, "was always buying, and never baulked her fancy." Pictures, books, coins, jewels, engravings, gems (over 8,000), tapestries, and furniture were all alike precious to Madame de Verrue. Her snuff-boxes defied computation; she had them in gold, in tortoise-shell, in porcelain, in lacquer, and in jasper, and she enjoyed the delicate fragrance of sixty different sorts of snuff. Without applauding the smoking of cigarettes in drawing-rooms, we may admit that it is less repulsive than steady applications to tobacco in Madame de Verrue's favourite manner.
The Countess had a noble library, for old tastes survived in her commodious heart, and new tastes she anticipated. She possessed 'The Romance of the Rose,' and 'Villon,' in editions of Galliot du Pre (1529-1533) undeterred by the satire of Boileau. She had examples of the 'Pleiade,' though they were not again admired in France till 1830. She was also in the most modern fashion of to-day, for she had the beautiful quarto of La Fontaine's 'Contes,' and Bouchier's illustrated Moliere (large paper). And, what I envy her more, she had Perrault's 'Fairy Tales,' in blue morocco--the blue rose of the folklorist who is also a book-hunter. It must also be confessed that Madame de Verrue had a large number of books such as are usually kept under lock and key, books which her heirs did not care to expose at the sale of her library. Once I myself (moi chetif) owned a novel in blue morocco, which had been in the collection of Madame de Verrue. In her old age this exemplary woman invented a peculiarly comfortable arm-chair, which, like her novels, was covered with citron and violet morocco; the nails were of silver. If Madame de Verrue has met the Baroness Bernstein, their conversation in the Elysian Fields must be of the most gallant and interesting description.
Another literary lady of pleasure, Madame de Pompadour, can only be spoken of with modified approval. Her great fault was that she did not check the decadence of taste and sense in the art of bookbinding. In her time came in the habit of binding books (if binding it can be called) with flat backs, without the nerves and sinews that are of the very essence of book-covers. Without these no binding can be permanent, none can secure the lasting existence of a volume. It is very deeply to be deplored that by far the most accomplished living English artist in bookbinding has reverted to this old and most dangerous heresy. The most original and graceful tooling is of much less real value than permanence, and a book bound with a flat back, without nerfs, might practically as well not be bound at all. The practice was the herald of the French and may open the way for the English Revolution. Of what avail were the ingenious mosaics of Derome to stem the tide of change, when the books whose sides they adorned were not really BOUND at all? Madame de Pompadour's books were of all sorts, from the inevitable works of devotions to devotions of another sort, and the 'Hours' of Erycina Ridens. One of her treasures had singular fortunes, a copy of 'Daphnis and Chloe,' with the Regent's illustrations, and those of Cochin and Eisen (Paris, quarto, 1757, red morocco). The covers are adorned with billing and cooing doves, with the arrows of Eros, with burning hearts, and sheep and shepherds. Eighteen years ago this volume was bought for 10 francs in a village in Hungary. Abookseller gave 8 pounds for it in Paris. M. Bauchart paid for it 150 pounds; and as it has left his shelves, probably he too made no bad bargain. Madame de Pompadour's 'Apology for Herodotus' (La Haye, 1735) has also its legend. It belonged to M. Paillet, who coveted a glorified copy of the 'Pastissier Francois,' in M.
Bauchart's collection. M Paillet swopped it, with a number of others, for the 'Pastissier:'
J'avais 'L'Apologie Pour Herodote,' en reliure ancienne, amour De livre provenant de chez la Pompadour Il me le soutira!
Of Marie Antoinette, with whom our lady book-lovers of the old regime must close, there survive many books. She had a library in the Tuileries, as well as at le petit Trianon. Of all her great and varied collections, none is now so valued as her little book of prayers, which was her consolation in the worst of all her evil days, in the Temple and the Conciergerie. The book is 'Office de la Divine Providence' (Paris, 1757, green morocco). On the fly-leaf the Queen wrote, some hours before her death, these touching lines:
"Ce 16 Octobre, a 4 h. 0.5 du matin. Mon Dieu! ayez pitie de moi!
Mes yeux n'ont plus de larmes pour prier pour vous, mes pauvres enfants. Adieu, adieu!--MARIE ANTOINETTE."There can be no sadder relic of a greater sorrow, and the last consolation of the Queen did not escape the French popular genius for cruelty and insult. The arms on the covers of the prayer-book have been cut out by some fanatic of Equality and Fraternity.
