Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 14

DAURIAT, editor and bookman of Paris, on Palais-Royale, Galleries de Bois during the Restoration. He purchased for three thousand francs a collection of sonnets "Marguerites" from Lucien de Rubempre, who had scored a book of Nathan's. But he did not publish the sonnets until a long time afterwards, and with a success that the author declared to be posthumous. Dauriat's shop was the rendezvous of writers and politicians of note at this time. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Dauriat, who was Ca.n.a.lis'

publisher, was asked in 1829 by Modeste Mignon for personal information concerning the poet, to which he made a rather ironical reply. In speaking of celebrated authors Dauriat was wont to say, "I have made Ca.n.a.lis. I have made Nathan." [Modeste Mignon.]

DAVID (Madame), woman living in the outskirts of Brives, who died of fright on account of the Chauffeurs, time of the Directory. [The Country Parson.]

DELBECQ, secretary and steward of Comte Ferraud during the Restoration. Retired attorney. A capable, ambitious man in the service of the countess, whom he aided to rid herself of Colonel Chabert when that officer claimed his former wife. [Colonel Chabert.]

DENISART, name a.s.sumed by Cerizet.

DERVILLE, attorney at Paris, rue Vivienne, from 1819 to 1840. Born in 1794, the seventh child of an insignificant bourgeois of Noyon. In 1816 he was only second clerk and dwelt on rue des Gres, having for a neighbor the well-known usurer Gobseck, who later advanced him one hundred and fifty thousand francs at 15 per cent., with which he purchased the practice of his patron, a man of pleasure now somewhat short of funds. Through Gobseck he met his future wife, Jenny Malvaut; through the same man he learned the Restaud secrets. In the winter of 1829-1830 he told of their troubles to the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu.

Derville had re-established the fortune of the feminine representative of the Grandlieu's younger branch, at the time of the Bourbon's re-entry, and therefore was on a friendly footing at her home.

[Gobseck.] He had been a clerk at Bordin's. [A Start in Life. The Gondreville Mystery.] He was attorney for Colonel Chabert who sought his conjugal rights with Comtesse Ferraud. He became keenly interested in the old officer, aiding him and being greatly grieved when, some years later, he found him plunged into idiocy in the Bicetre hospital.

[Colonel Chabert.] Derville was also attorney for Comte de Serizy, Mme. de Nucingen and the Ducs de Grandlieu and de Chaulieu, whose entire confidence he possessed. In 1830, under the name of Saint-Denis, he and Corentin inquired of the Sechards at Angouleme concerning the real resources of Lucien de Rubempre. [Father Goriot. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

DERVILLE (Madame), born Jenny Malvaut; wife of Derville the attorney; young Parisian girl, though born in the country. In 1826 she lived alone, but maintaining a virtuous life, supported by her work. She was on the fifth floor of a gloomy house on rue Montmartre, where Gobseck had called to collect a note signed by her. He pointed her out to Derville, who married her without a dowry. Later she inherited from an uncle, a farmer who had become wealthy, seventy thousand francs with which she aided her husband to cancel his debt with Gobseck.

[Gobseck.] Being anxious for an invitation to the ball given by Birotteau, she paid a rather unexpected visit to the perfumer's wife.

She made much of the latter and of Mlle. Birotteau, and was invited with her husband to the festivities. It appears that some years before her marriage she had worked as dressmaker for the Birotteaus. [Cesar Birotteau.]

DESCOINGS (Monsieur and Madame), father-in-law and mother-in-law of Dr. Rouget of Issoudun. Dealers in wool, acting as selling agents for owners, and buying agents for fleece merchants of Berry. They also bought state lands. Rich and miserly. Died during the Republic within two years of each other and before 1799. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

DESCOINGS, son of the preceding; younger brother of Mme. Rouget, the doctor's wife; grocer at Paris, on rue Saint-Honore, not far from Robespierre's quarters. Descoings had married for love the widow of Bixiou, his predecessor. She was twelve years his senior but well preserved and "plump as a thrush after harvest." Accused of foreclosing, he was sent to the scaffold, in company with Andre Chenier, on the seventh Thermidor of year 2, July 25, 1794. The death of the grocer caused a greater sensation than did that of the poet.

Cesar Birotteau moved the plant of the perfumery "Queen of Roses" into Descoings' shop around 1800. The successor of the executed man managed his business badly; the inventor of the the "Eau Carminative" went bankrupt. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

DESCOINGS (Madame), born in 1744; widow of two husbands, Bixiou and Descoings, the latter succeeding the former in the grocer shop on rue Saint-Honore, Paris. Grandmother of Jean-Jacques Bixiou, the cartoonist. After the death of M. Bridau, chief of division in the Department of the Interior, Mme. Descoings, now a widow, came in 1819 to live with her niece, the widow Bridau, nee Agathe Rouget, bringing to the common fund an income of six thousand francs. An excellent woman, known in her day as "the pretty grocer." She ran the household, but had likewise a decided mania for lottery, and always for the same numbers; she "nursed a trey." She ended by ruining her niece who had blindly entrusted her interests to her, but Mme. Descoings repaid for her foolish doings by an absolute devotion,--all the while continuing to place her money on the evasive combinations. One day her h.o.a.rdings were stolen from her mattress by Philippe Bridau. On this account she was unable to renew her lottery tickets. Then it was that the famous trey turned up. Madame Descoings died of grief, December 31, 1821. Had it not been for the theft she would have become a millionaire. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

DESFONDRILLES, subst.i.tute judge at Provins during the Restoration; made president of the court of that town, time of Louis Philippe. An old fellow more archaeologist than judge, who found delight in the petty squabbles under his eyes. He forsook Tiphaine's party for the Liberals headed by lawyer Vinet. [Pierrette.]

DESLANDES, surgeon of Azay-le-Rideau in 1817. Called in to bleed Mme.

de Mortsauf, whose life was saved by this operation. [The Lily of the Valley.]

DESMARETS (Jules), Parisian stock-broker under the Restoration.

Hardworking and upright, being reared in sternness and poverty. When only a clerk he fell in love with a charming young girl met at his patron's home, and he married her despite the irregularity connected with her birth. With the money he obtained by his wife's mother he was able to purchase the position of the stock-broker for whom he had clerked; and for several years he was very happy in a mutual love and a liberal competence--an income of two hundred and fifty thousand francs. In 1820 he and his wife lived in a large mansion on rue Menars. In the early years of his wedded life he killed in a duel --though unknown to his wife--a man who had vilified Mme. Desmarets.

The flawless happiness which abode with this well-mated couple was cut short by the death of the wife, mortally wounded by a doubt, held for a moment only by her husband, concerning her faithfulness. Desmarets, bereaved, sold his place to Martin Falleix's brother and left Paris in despair. [The Thirteen.] M. and Mme. Desmarets were invited to the famous ball given by Cesar Birotteau in 1818. After the bankruptcy of the perfumer, the broker kindly gave him useful tips about placing funds laboriously sc.r.a.ped together towards the complete reimbursing of the creditors. [Cesar Birotteau.]

DESMARETS (Madame Jules), wife of the preceding; natural daughter of Bourignard alias Ferragus, and of a married woman who pa.s.sed for her G.o.dmother. She had no civil status, but when she married Jules Desmarets her name, Clemence, and her age were publicly announced.

Despite herself, Mme. Desmarets was loved by a young officer of the Royal Guard, Auguste de Maulincour. Mme. Desmaret's secret visits to her father, a man of mystery, unknown to her husband, caused the downfall of their absolute happiness. Desmarets thought himself deceived, and she died on account of his suspicions, in 1820 or 1821.

The remains of Clemence were placed at first in Pere Lachaise, but afterwards were disinterred, incinerated and sent to Jules Desmarets by Bourignard, a.s.sisted by twelve friends who thus thought to dull the edge of the keenest of conjugal sorrows. [The Thirteen.] M. and Mme.

Desmarets were often alluded to as M. and Mme. Jules. At the ball given by Cesar Birotteau, Mme. Desmarets shone as the most beautiful woman, according to the perfumer's wife herself. [Cesar Birotteau.]

DESMARETS, Parisian notary during the Restoration; elder brother of the broker, Jules Desmarets. The notary was set up in business by his younger brother and grew rich rapidly. He received his brother's will.

He accompanied him to Mme. Desmarets' funeral. [The Thirteen.]

DESPLEIN, famous surgeon of Paris, born about the middle of the eighteenth century. Sprung of a poor provincial family, he spent a youth full of suffering, being enabled to pa.s.s his examinations only through a.s.sistance rendered him by his neighbor in poverty, Bourgeat the water-carrier. For two years he lived with him on the sixth floor of a wretched house on rue des Quatre-Vents, where later was established the "Cenacle" with Daniel d'Arthez as host--on which account the house came to be spoken of as the "bowl for great men."

Desplein, evicted by his landlord whom he could not pay, lodged next with his friend the Auvergnat in the Court de Rohan, Pa.s.sage du Commerce. Afterwards, when an "intern" at Hotel-Dieu, he remembered the good deeds of Bourgeat, nursed him as a devoted son, and, in the time of the Empire, established in honor of this simple man who professed religious sentiments a quarterly ma.s.s at Saint-Sulpice, at which he piously a.s.sisted, though himself an outspoken atheist. [The Atheist's Ma.s.s.] In 1806 Desplein had predicted speedy death for an old fellow then fifty-six years old, but who was still alive in 1846.

[Cousin Pons.] The surgeon was present at the death caused by despair of M. Chardon, an old military doctor. [Lost Illusions.] Desplein attended the last hours of Mme. Jules Desmarets, who died in 1820 or 1821; also of the chief of division, Flamet de la Billardiere, who died in 1824. [The Thirteen. The Government Clerks.] In March, 1828, at Provins, he performed an operation of trepanning on Pierrette Lorrain. [Pierrette.] In the same year he undertook a bold operation upon Mme. Philippe Bridau whose abuse of strong drink had induced a "magnificent malady" that he believed had disappeared. This operation was reported in the "Gazette des Hopitaux;" but the patient died. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] In 1829 Desplein was summoned on behalf of Vanda de Mergi, daughter of Baron de Bourlac. [The Seamy Side of History.] In the latter part of the same year he operated successfully upon Mme. Mignon for blindness. In February, 1830, on account of the foregoing, he was a witness at Modeste Mignon's wedding with Ernest de la Briere. [Modeste Mignon.] In the beginning of the same yaer, 1830, he was called by Corentin to visit Baron de Nucingen, love-sick for Esther Gobseck; and Mme. de Serizy ill on account of the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] He and his a.s.sistant, Bianchon, waited on Mme. de Bauvan, who was on the verge of death at the close of 1830 and beginning of 1831. [Honorine.] Desplein had an only daughter whose marriage in 1829 was arranged with the Prince of Loudon.

DESROCHES, clerk of the Minister of the Interior under the Empire; friend of Bridau Senior, who had procured him the position. He was also on friendly terms with the chief's widow, at whose home he met, nearly every evening, his colleagues Du Bruel and Claparon. A dry, crusty man, who would never become sub-chief, despite his ability. He earned only one thousand eight hundred francs by running a department for stamped paper. Retired after the second return of Louis XVIII., he talked of entering as chief of bureau into an insurance company with a graduated salary. In 1821, despite his scarcely tender disposition, Desroches undertook with much discretion and confidence to extricate Philippe Bridau out of a predicament--the latter having made a "loan"

on the cash-box of the newspaper for which he was working; he brought about his resignation without any scandal. Desroches was a man of good "judgment." He remained to the last a friend of the widow Bridau after the death of MM. du Bruel and Claparon. He was a persistent fisherman.

[A Bachelor's Establishment.]

DESROCHES (Madame), wife of the preceding. A widow, in 1826, she sought the hand of Mlle. Matifat for her son, Desroches the attorney.

[The Firm of Nucingen.]

DESROCHES, son of the two foregoing; born about 1795, reared strictly by a very harsh father. He went into Derville's office as fourth clerk in 1818, and on the following year pa.s.sed to the second clerks.h.i.+p. He saw Colonel Chabert at Derville's. In 1821 or 1822 he purchased a lawyer's office with bare t.i.tle on rue de Bethizy. He was shrewd and quick and therefore was not long in finding a clientele composed of litterateurs, artists, actresses, famous lorettes and elegant Bohemians. He was counsellor for Agathe and Joseph Bridau, and also gave excellent advice to Philippe Bridau who was setting out for Issoudun about 1822. [A Bachelor's Establishment. Colonel Chabert. A Start in Life.] Desroches was advocate for Charles de Vandenesse, pleading against his brother Felix; for the Marquise d'Espard, seeking interdiction against her husband; and for the Secretary-General Chardin des Lupeaulx, with whom he counseled astutely. [A Woman of Thirty. The Commission in Lunacy. The Government Clerks.] Lucien de Rubempre consulted Desroches about the seizure of the furniture of Coralie, his mistress, in 1822. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

Vautrin appreciated the attorney; he said that the latter would be able to "recover" the Rubempre property, to improve it and make it capable of yielding Lucien an income of thirty thousand francs, which would probably have allowed him to wed Clotilde de Grandlieu. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In 1826 Desroches made a short-lived attempt to marry Malvina d'Aldrigger. [The Firm of Nucingen.] About 1840 he related, at Mlle. Turquet's--Malaga's--home, then maintained by Cardot the notary, and in the presence of Bixiou, Lousteau and Nathan, who were invited by the tabellion, the tricks employed by Cerizet to obtain the face value of a note out of Maxime de Trailles. [A Man of Business.] Indeed, Desroches was Cerizet's lawyer when the latter had a quarrel with Theodose de la Peyrade in 1840. He also looked after the interests of the contractor, Sauvaignou, at the same time. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.] Desroches' office was probably located for a time on rue de Buci. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

DESROYS, clerk with the Minister of Finance in Baudoyer's bureau, under the Restoration. The son of a Conventionalist who had not favored the King's death. A Republican; friend of Michel Chrestien. He did not a.s.sociate with any of his colleagues, but kept his manner of life so concealed that none knew where he lived. In December, 1824, he was discharged because of his opinions concerning the denunciation of Dutocq. [The Government Clerks.]

DESROZIERS, musician; prize-winner at Rome; died in that city through typhoid fever in 1836. Friend of the sculptor Dorlange, to whom he recounted the story of Zambinella, the death of Sarrasine and the marriage of the Count of Lanty. Desroziers gave music lessons to Marianina, daughter of the count. The musician employed his friend, who was momentarily in need of money, to undertake a copy of a statue of Adonis, which reproduced Zambinella's features. This copy he sold to M. de Lanty. [The Member for Arcis.]

DESROZIERS, printer at Moulins, department of the Allier. After 1830 he published a small volume containing the works of "Jan Diaz, son of a Spanish prisoner, and born in 1807 at Bourges." This volume had an introductory sketch on Jan Diaz by M. de Clagny. [The Muse of the Department.]

DEY (Comtesse de), born about 1755. Widow of a lieutenant-general retired to Carentan, department of the Manche, where she died suddenly in November, 1793, through a shock to her maternal sensibilities. [The Conscript.]

DEY (Auguste, Comte de), only son of Mme. de Dey. Made lieutenant of the dragoons when only eighteen, and followed the princes in emigration as a point of honor. He was idolized by his mother, who had remained in France in order to preserve his fortune for him. He partic.i.p.ated in the Granville expedition. Imprisoned as a result of this affair, he wrote Mme. de Dey that he would arrive at her home, disguised and a fugitive, within three days' time. But he was shot in the Morbihan at the exact moment when his mother expired from the shock of having received instead of her son the conscript Julien Jussieu. [The Conscript.]

DIARD (Pierre-Francois), born in the suburbs of Nice; the son of a merchant-provost; quartermaster of the Sixth regiment of the line, in 1808, then chief of battalion in the Imperial Guard; retired with this rank on account of a rather severe wound received in Germany; afterwards an administrator and business man; excessive gambler.

Husband of Juana Mancini who had been the mistress of Captain Montefiore, Diard's most intimate friend. In 1823, at Bordeaux, Diard killed and robbed Montefiore, whom he met by accident. Upon his return home he confessed his crime to his wife who vainly besought him to commit suicide; and she herself finally blew out his brains with a pistol shot. [The Maranas.]

DIARD (Maria-Juana-Pepita), daughter of La Marana, a Venetian courtesan, and a young Italian n.o.bleman, Mancini, who acknowledged her. Wife of Pierre-Francois Diard whom she accepted on her mother's request, after having given herself to Montefiore who did not wish to marry her. Juana had been reared very strictly in the Spanish home of Perez de Lagounia, at Tarragone, and she bore her father's name. She was the descendant of a long line of courtesans, a feminine branch that had never made legal marriages. The blood of her ancestors was in her veins; she showed this involuntarily by the way in which she yielded to Montefiore. Although she did not love her husband, yet she remained entirely faithful to him, and she killed him for honor's sake. She had two children. [The Maranas.]

DIARD (Juan), first child of Mme. Diard. Born seven months after his mother's marriage, and perhaps the son of Montefiore. He was the image of Juana, who secretly petted him extravagantly, although she pretended to like her younger son the better. By a "species of admirable flattery" Diard had made Juan his choice. [The Maranas.]

DIARD (Francisque), second son of M. and Mme. Diard, born in Paris. A counterpart of his father, and the favorite--only outwardly--of his mother. [The Maranas.]

DIAZ (Jan), a.s.sumed name of Mme. Dinah de la Baudraye.

DIODATI, owner of a villa on Lake Geneva in 1823-1824.--Character in a novel called "L'Ambitieux par Amour" published by Albert Savarus in the "Revue de l'Est" in 1834. [Albert Savarus.]

DIONIS, notary at Nemours from about 1813 till the early part of the reign of Louis Philippe. He was a Cremiere-Dionis, but was always known by the latter name. A shrewd, double-faced individual, who was secretly a partner with Ma.s.sin-Levrault the money-lender. He concerned himself with the inheritance left by Dr. Minoret, giving advice to the three legatees of the old physician. After the Revolution of 1830, he was elected mayor of Nemours, instead of M. Levrault, and about 1837 he became deputy. He was then received at court b.a.l.l.s, in company with his wife, and Mme. Dionis was "enthroned" in the village because of her "ways of the throne." The couple had at least one daughter.

[Ursule Mirouet.] Dionis breakfasted familiarly with Rastignac, Minister of Public Works, from 1839 to 1845. [The Member for Arcis.]

DOGUEREAU, publisher on rue de Coq, Paris, in 1821, having been established since the first of the century; retired professor of rhetoric. Lucien de Rubempre offered him his romance, "The Archer of Charles IX.," but the publisher would not give him more than four hundred francs for it, so the trade was not concluded. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

DOISY, porter of the Lepitre Inst.i.tution, quarter du Marais, Paris, about 1814, at the time when Felix de Vandenesse came there to complete his course of study. This young man contracted a debt of one hundred francs on Doisy's account, which resulted in a very severe reprimand from his mother. [The Lily of the Valley.]

DOMINIS (Abbe de), priest of Tours during the Restoration; preceptor of Jacques de Mortsauf. [The Lily of the Valley.]

DOMMANGET, an accoucheur-physician, famous in Paris at the time of Louis Philippe. In 1840 he was called in to visit Mme. Calyste du Guenic, whom he had accouched, and who had taken a dangerous relapse on learning of her husband's infidelity. She was nursing her son at this time. On being taken into her confidence, Dommanget treated and cured her ailment by purely moral methods. [Beatrix.]

DONI (Ma.s.similla). (See Varese, Princesse de.)

DORLANGE (Charles), first name of Sallenauve, which name see.

DORSONVAL (Madame), bourgeoise of Saumur, acquainted with M. and Mme.

de Gra.s.sins at the time of the Restoration. [Eugenie Grandet.]

DOUBLON (Victor-Ange-Hermenegilde), bailiff at Angouleme during the Restoration. He acted against David Sechard on behalf of the Cointet brothers. [Lost Illusions.]

DUBERGHE, wine-merchant of Bordeaux from whom Nucingen purchased in 1815, before the battle of Waterloo, 150,000 bottles of wine, averaging thirty sous to the bottle. The financier sold them for six francs each to the allied armies, from 1817 to 1819. [The Firm of Nucingen.]