Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 32

MARION. (See Kolb, Madame.)

MARIOTTE, of Auxerre, a rival of the wealthy Gaubertin in contracting for the forest lands of that portion of Bourgogne in which Aigues, the large estate of Montcornet, was situated. [The Peasantry.]

MARIOTTE (Madame), of Auxerre, mother of the preceding, in 1823, had Mademoiselle Courtecuisse in her service. [The Peasantry.]

MARIUS, the cognomen, become hereditary, of a native of Toulouse, who established himself as a Parisian hair-dresser and was thus nick-named by the Chevalier de Parny, one of his patrons, in the early part of the nineteenth century. He handed down this name of Marius as a kind of permanent property to his successors. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

MARMUS (Madame), wife of a savant, who was an officer in the Legion of Honor and a member of the Inst.i.tute. They lived together on rue Duguay-Trouin in Paris, and were (in 1840) on intimate terms with Zelie Minard. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

MARMUS, husband of the preceding and noted for his absent-mindedness.

[The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

MARNEFFE (Jean-Paul-Stanislas), born in 1794, employed in the War Department. In 1833, while a mere clerk living on twelve hundred francs a year, he married Mademoiselle Valerie Fortin. Having become as unprincipled as a convict, under the patronage of Baron Hulot, his wife's paramour, he left rue du Doyenne to install himself in luxury in the Saint-Germain section, and later became head-clerk, a.s.sistant chief, and chief of the bureau, chevalier, then officer of the Legion of Honor. Jean-Paul-Stanislas Marneffe, decayed physically as well as morally, died in May, 1842. [Cousin Betty.]

MARNEFFE[*] (Madame). (See Crevel, Madame Celestin.)

[*] In 1849, at Paris, Clairville produced upon the stage of the Gymnase-Dramatique, the episodes in the life of Madame Marneffe, somewhat modified, under the double t.i.tle, "Madame Marneffe, or the Prodigal Father" (a vaudeville drama in five acts).

MARNEFFE (Stanislas), legal son of the preceding couple, suffered from scrofula, much neglected by his parents. [Cousin Betty.]

MAROLLES (Abbe de), an old priest, who lived towards the close of the eighteenth century. Having escaped in September, 1792, from the ma.s.sacre of the Carmelite convent, now a small chapel on rue de Vaugirard, he concealed himself in the upper Saint-Martin district, near the German Highway. He had under his protection, at this time, two nuns, who were in as great danger as he, Sister Marthe and Sister Agathe. On January 22, 1793, and on January 21, 1794, the Abbe de Marolles, in their presence, said ma.s.ses for the repose of Louis XVI.'s soul, having been asked to do so by the executioner of the "martyr-king," whose presence at ma.s.s the Abbe knew nothing of until January 25, 1794, when he was so informed at the corner of rue des Frondeurs by Citizen Ragou. [An Episode under the Terror.]

MARONIS (Abbe de), a priest of great genius, who would have been another Borgia, had he worn the tiara. He was Henri de Marsay's teacher, and made of him a complete skeptic, in a period when the churches were closed. The Abbe de Maronis died a bishop in 1812. [The Thirteen.]

MARRON, under the Restoration, a physician at Marsac, Charente; nephew of the Cure Marron. He married his daughter to Postel, a pharmacist of Augouleme. He was intimate with the family of David Sechard. [Lost Illusions. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

MARSAY (De), immoral old gentleman. To oblige Lord Dudley he married one of the former's mistresses and recognized their son as his own.

For this favor he received a hundred thousand francs per year for life, money which he soon threw away in evil company. He confided the child to his old sister, Mademoiselle de Marsay, and died, as he had lived, away from his wife. [The Thirteen.]

MARSAY (Madame de). (See Vordac, Marquise de.)

MARSAY (Mademoiselle de), sister-in-law of the preceding, took care of her son, Henri, and treated him so well that she was greatly mourned by him when she died advanced in years. [The Thirteen.]

MARSAY (Henri de), born between 1792 and 1796, son of Lord Dudley and the celebrated Marquise de Vordac, who was first united in marriage to the elder De Marsay. This gentleman adopted the boy, thus becoming, according to law, his father. The young Henri was reared by Mademoiselle de Marsay and the Abbe de Maronis. He was on intimate terms, in 1815, with Paul de Manerville, and was already one of the all powerful Thirteen, with Bourignard, Montriveau and Ronquerolles.

At that time he found on rue Saint-Lazare a girl from Lesbosen, Paquita Valdes, whom he wished to make his mistress. He met at the same time his own natural sister, Madame de San-Real, of whom he became the rival for Paquita's love. At first Marsay had been the lover of the d.u.c.h.esse Charlotte, then of Arabelle Dudley, whose children were his very image. He was also known to be intimate with Delphine de Nucingen up to 1819, then with Diane de Cadignan. In his position as member of the Thirteen Henri was in Montriveau's party when Antoinette de Langeais was stolen from the Carmelites. He bought Coralie for sixty thousand francs. He pa.s.sed the whole of his time during the Restoration in the company of young men and women. He was the companion and counselor of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, Savinien de Portenduere and above all of Paul de Manerville, whose course he vainly tried to direct after an ill-appointed marriage, and to whom he announced, as soon as possible, his own union. Marsay aided Lucien de Rubempre and served for him, with Rastignac, as second in a duel with Michel Chrestien. The Chaulieu and Fontaine women feared or admired Henri de Marsay--a man who was slighted by M. de Ca.n.a.lis, the much toasted poet. The Revolution of July, 1830, made Marsay a man of no little importance. He, however, was content to tell over his old love affairs gravely in the home of Felicite des Touches. As prime minister from 1832 to 1833, he was an habitue of the Princesse de Cadignan's Legitimist salon, where he served as a screen for the last Vendean insurrection. There, indeed, Marsay brought to light the secrets, already old, of Malin's kidnapping. Marsay died in 1834, a physical wreck, having but a short time before, when Nathan was courting Marie de Vandenesse, taken part in the intrigue, although he was disgusted with the author. [The Thirteen. The Unconscious Humorists. Another Study of Woman. The Lily of the Valley. Father Goriot. Jealousies of a Country Town. Ursule Mirouet. A Marriage Settlement. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Ball at Sceaux. Modeste Mignon. The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]

MARTAINVILLE (Alphonse-Louis-Dieudonne), publicist and dramatic writer, born at Cadiz, in 1776, of French parents, died August 27, 1830. He was an extreme Royalist and, as such, in 1821 and 1822, threw away his advice and support on Lucien de Rubempre, then a convert to Liberalism. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

MARTENER, well-educated old man who lived in Provins under the Restoration. He explained to the archaeologist, Desfondrilles, who consulted him, the reason why Europe, disdaining the waters of Provins, sought Spa, where the waters were less efficacious, according to French medical advice. [Pierrette.]

MARTENER, son of the preceding; physician at Provins in 1827, capable man, simple and gentle. He married Madame Guenee's second daughter.

When consulted one day by Mademoiselle Habert, he spoke against the marriage of virgins at forty, and thus filled Sylvie Rogron with despair. He protected and cared for Pierrette Lorrain, the victim of this same old maid. [Pierrette.]

MARTENER (Madame), wife of the preceding, second daughter of Madame Guenee, and sister of Madame Auffray. Having taken pity on Pierrette Lorrain in her sickness, she gave to her, in 1828, the pleasures of music, playing the compositions of Weber, Beethoven or Herold.

[Pierrette.]

MARTENER, son of the preceding couple, protege of Vinet the elder, honest and thick-headed. He was, in 1839, examining magistrate at Arcis-sur-Aube and caucused, during the election season in the spring of this same year, with the officers, Michu, Goulard, O. Vinet and Marest. [The Member for Arcis.]

MARTHA was for a long time the faithful chambermaid of Josephine Claes; she died in old age between 1828 and 1830. [The Quest for the Absolute.]

MARTHE (Sister), a Gray sister of Auvergne; from 1809 to 1816 instructed Veronique Sauviat--Madame Graslin--in reading, writing, sacred history, the Old and the New Testaments, the Catechism, the elements of arithmetic. [The Country Parson.]

MARTHE (Sister), born Beauseant, in 1730, a nun in the Abbey of Ch.e.l.les, fled with Sister Agathe (nee Langeais) and the Abbe de Marolles to a poor lodging in the upper Saint-Martin district. On January 22, 1793, she went to a pastry-cook near Saint Laurent to get the wafers necessary for a ma.s.s for the repose of Louis XVI.'s soul.

At this ceremony she was present, as was also the man who had executed the King. The following year, January 21, 1794, this same ceremony was repeated exactly. She pa.s.sed these two years of the Terror under Mucius Scoevola's protection. [An Episode under the Terror.]

MARTHE (Sister), in the convent of the Carmelites at Blois, knew two young women, Mesdames de l'Estorade and Gaston. [Letters of Two Brides.]

MARTIN, a woman of a Dauphine village, of which Doctor Bena.s.sis was mayor, kept the hospital children for three francs and a bar of soap each month. She was, possibly, the first person in the country seen by Genestas-Bluteau, and also the first to impart knowledge to him. [The Country Doctor.]

MARTINEAU, name of two brothers employed by M. de Mortsauf in connection with his farms in Touraine. The elder was at first a farm-hand, then a steward; the younger, a warden. [The Lily of the Valley.]

MARTINEAU, son of one of the two Martineau brothers. [The Lily of the Valley.]

MARTY (Jean-Baptiste), actor of melodrama, employe or manager of the Gaite, before and after the Paris fire of 1836; born in 1779, celebrated during the Restoration; in 1819 and 1820 he played in "Mont-Sauvage," a play warmly applauded by Madame Vauquer. This woman was accompanied to the theatre on the Boulevard du Crime, by her rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve lodger, Jacques Collin, called also Vautrin, on the evening before his arrest. [Father Goriot.] Marty died, at an advanced age, in 1868, a chevalier in the Legion of Honor, after having been for many years mayor of Charenton.

MARVILLE (De). (See Camusot.)

MARY, an Englishwoman in the family of Louis de l'Estorade during the Restoration and under Louis Philippe. [Letters of Two Brides. The Member for Arcis.]

Ma.s.sIN-LEVRAULT, junior, son of a poor locksmith of Montargis, grand-nephew of Doctor Denis Minoret, as a result of his marriage with a Levrault-Minoret; father of three girls, Pamela, Aline, and Madame Goupil. He bought the office of clerk to the justice of peace in Nemours, January, 1815, and lived at first with his family in the good graces of Doctor Minoret, through whom his sister became postmistress at Nemours. Ma.s.sin-Levrault, junior, was one of the indirect persecutors of Ursule de Portenduere. He became a minic.i.p.al councilor after July, 1830, began to lend money to the laboring people at exorbitant rates of interest, and finally developed into a confirmed usurer. [Ursule Mirouet.]

Ma.s.sIN-LEVRAULT (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Levrault-Minoret in 1793, grand-niece of Doctor Denis Minoret on the maternal side; her father was a victim of the campaign in France. She strove in every way possible to win the affections of her wealthy uncle, and was one of Ursule de Portenduere's persecutors. [Ursule Mirouet.]

Ma.s.sOL, native of Carca.s.sonne, licentiate in law and editor of the "Gazette des Tribunaux" in May, 1830. Without knowing their relations.h.i.+p he brought together Jacqueline and Jacques Collin, a boarder at the Concierge, and, acting under Granville's orders, in his journal attributed Lucien de Rubembre's suicidal death to the rupture of a tumor. A Republican, through the lack of the particle _de_ before his name, and very ambitious, he was, in 1834, the a.s.sociate of Raoul Nathan in the publication of a large journal, and sought to make a tool of the poet-founder of this paper. In company with Stidmann, Steinbock and Claude Vignon, Ma.s.sol was a witness of the second marriage of Valerie Marneffe. In 1845, having become a councilor of state and president of a section, he supported Jenny Cadine. He was then charged with the administrative lawsuit of S.-P. Gozonal. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Magic Skin. A Daughter of Eve. Cousin Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.]

Ma.s.sON, friend of Maitre Desroches, an attorney, to whom, upon the latter's advice, Lucien de Rubempre hastened, when Coralie's furniture was attached, in 1821. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

Ma.s.sON (Publicola), born in 1795, the best known chiropodist in Paris, a radical Republican of the Marat type, even resembled the latter physically; counted Leon de Lora among his customers. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

MATHIAS, born in 1753. He started as third clerk to a Bordeaux notary, Chesneau, whom he succeeded. He married, but lost his wife in 1826. He had one son on the bench, and a married daughter. He was a good example of the old-fas.h.i.+oned country magistrate, and gave out his enlightened opinions to two generations of Manervilles. [A Marriage Settlement.]

MATHILDE (La Grande), on terms of friends.h.i.+p with Jenny Courand in Paris, under the reign of Louis Philippe. [Gaudissart the Great.]

MATHURINE, a cook, spiritual and upright, first in the employ of the Bishop of Nancy, but later given a place on rue Vaneau, Paris, with Valerie Marneffe, by Lisbeth, a relative of the former on her mother's side. [Cousin Betty.]

MATIFAT, a wealthy druggist on rue des Lombards, Paris, at the beginning of the nineteenth century; kept the "Reine des Roses," which later was handled by Ragon and Birotteau; typical member of the middle cla.s.ses, narrow in views and pleased with himself, vulgar in language and, perhaps, in action. He married and had a daughter, whom he took, with his wife, to the celebrated ball tendered by Cesar Birotteau on rue Saint-Honore, Sunday, December 17, 1818. As a friend of the Collevilles, Thuilliers and Saillards, Matifat obtained for them invitations from Cesar Birotteau. In 1821 he supported on rue de Bondy an actress, who was shortly transferred from the Panorama to the Gymnase-Dramatique. Although called Florine, her true name was Sophie Grignault, and she became subsequently Madame Nathan. J.-J. Bixiou and Madame Desroches visited Matifat frequently during the year 1826, sometimes on rue du Cherche-Midi, sometimes in the suburbs of Paris.

Having become a widower, Matifat remarried under Louis Philippe, and retired from business. He was a silent partner in the theatre directed by Gaudissart. [Cesar Birotteau. A Bachelor's Establishment. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. The Firm of Nucingen.

Cousin Pons.]

MATIFAT (Madame), first wife of the preceding, a woman who wore a turban and gaudy colors. She shone, under the Restoration, in bourgeois circles and died probably during the reign of Louis Philippe. [Cesar Birotteau. The Firm of Nucingen.]

MATIFAT (Mademoiselle), daughter of the preceding couple, attended the Birotteau ball, was sought in marriage by Adolphe Cochin and Maitre Desroches; married General Baron Gouraud, a poor man much her elder, bringing to him a dowry of fifty thousand crowns and expectations of an estate on rue du Cherche-Midi and a house at Luzarches. [Cesar Birotteau. The Firm of Nucingen. Pierrette.]

MAUCOMBE (Comte de), of a Provencal family already celebrated under King Rene. During the Revolution he "clothed himself in the humble garments of a provincial proof-reader," in the printing office of Jerome-Nicolas Sechard at Angouleme. He had a number of children: Renee, who became Madame de l'Estorade; Jean, and Marianina, a natural daughter, claimed by Lanty. He was a deputy by the close of 1826, sitting between the Centre and the Right. [Lost Illusions. Letters of Two Brides.]

MAUCOMBE (Jean de), son of the preceding, gave up his portion of the family inheritance to his older sister, Madame de l'Estorade, born Renee de Maucombe. [Letters of Two Brides.]

MAUFRIGNEUSE (Duc de), born in 1778, son of the Prince de Cadignan, who died an octogenarian towards the close of the Restoration, leaving then as eldest of the house the Prince de Cadignan. The prince was in love with Madame d'Uxelles, but married her daughter, Diane, in 1814, and afterwards lived unhappily with her. He supported Marie G.o.deschal; was a cavalry colonel during the reigns of Louis XVIII. and Charles X.; had under his command Philippe Bridau, the Vicomte de Serizy, Oscar Husson. He was on intimate terms with Messieurs de Grandlieu and d'Espard. [The Secrets of a Princess. A Start in Life. A Bachelor's Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]