Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  MASSON, 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.

  MASSON (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-fashioned country magistrate, and gave out his enlightened opinions to two generations of Manervilles. A Marriage Settlement.

  MATHILDE (La Grande), on terms of friendship 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 classes, 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 Godeschal; 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.

  MAUFRIGNEUSE (Duchesse de), wife of the preceding, born Diane d’Uxelles in 1796, married in 1815. She was in turn the mistress of Marsay, Miguel d’Ajuda-Pinto, Victurnien d’Esgrignon, Maxime de Trailles, Eugene de Rastignac, Armand de Montriveau, Marquis de Ronquerolles, Prince Galathionne, the Duc de Rhetore, a Grandlieu, Lucien de Rubempre, and Daniel d’Arthez. She lived at various times in the following places: Anzy, near Sancerre; Paris, on rue Saint-Honore in the suburbs and on rue Miromesnil; Cinq-Cygne in Champagne; Geneva and the borders of Leman. She inspired a foolish platonic affection in Michel Chrestien, and kept at a distance the Duc d’Herouville, who courted her towards the end of the Restoration by sarcasm and brilliant repartee. Her first and last love affairs were especially well known. For her the Marquis Miguel d’Ajudo-Pinto gave up Berthe de Rochefide, his wife, avenging thus a former mistress, Claire de Beauseant. Her liaison with Victurnien d’Esgrignon became the most stormy of romances. Madame de Maufrigneuse, disguised as a man and possessed of a passport, bearing the name of Felix de Vandenesse, succeeded in rescuing from the Court of Assizes the young man who had compromised himself in yielding to the foolish extravagance of his mistress. The duchesse received even her tradesmen in an angelic way, and became their prey. She scattered fortunes to the four winds, and her indiscretions led to the sale of Anzy in a manner advantageous to Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye. Some years later she made a vain attempt to rescue Lucien de Rubempre, against whom a criminal charge was pending. The Restoration and the Kingdom of 1830 gave to her life a different lustre. Having fallen heir to the worldly sceptre of Mesdames de Langeais and de Beauseant, both of whom she knew socially, she became intimate with the Marquise d’Espard, a lady with whom in 1822 she disputed the right to rule the “fragile kingdom of fashion.” She visited frequently the Chaulieus, whom she met at a famous hunt near Havre. In July, 1830, reduced to poor circumstances, abandoned by her husband, who had then become the Prince de Cadignan, and assisted by her relatives, Mesdames d’Uxelles and de Navarreins, Diane operated as it were a kind of retreat, occupied herself with her son Georges, and strengthening herself by the memory of Chrestien, also by constantly visiting Madame d’Espard, she succeeded, without completely foregoing society, in making captive the celebrated deputy of the Right, a man of wealth and maturity, Daniel Arthez himself. In her own home and in that of Felicite des Touches she heard, between 1832 and 1835, anecdotes of Marsay. The Princess de Cadignan had portraits of her numerous lovers. She had also one of the Madame whom she had attended, and upon meeting him, showed it to Marsay, minister of Louis Philippe. She owned also a picture of Charles X. which was thus inscribed, “Given by the King.” After the marriage of her son to a Cinq-Cygne, she visited often at the estate of that name, and was there in 1839, during the regular election. The Secrets of a Princess. Modeste Mignon. Jealousies of a Country town. The Muse of the Department. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Letters of Two Brides. Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.

  MAUFRIGNEUSE (Georges de), son of the preceding, born in 1814, had successively in his service Toby and Marin, took the title of duke towards the close of the Restoration, was in the last Vendean uprising. Through his mother’s instrumentality, who paved the way for the match in 1833, he married Mademoiselle Berthe de Cinq-Cygne in 1838, and became heir to the estate of the same name the following year during the regular election. The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville Mystery. Beatrix. The Member for Arcis.

  MAUFRIGNEUSE (Berthe de), wife of the preceding, daughter of Adrien and Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, married in 1838, although she had been very nearly engaged in 1833; she lived with all her family on their property at Aube during the spring of 1839. Beatrix. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.

  MAUGREDIE, celebrated Pyrrhonic physician, being called into consultation, he gave his judgment on the very serious case of Raphael de Valentin. The Magic Skin.

  MAUL
INCOUR* (Baronne de), born Rieux, an eighteenth century woman who “did not lose her head” during the Revolution; intimate friend of the Vidame de Pamiers. At the beginning of the Restoration she spent half of her time in the suburbs of Saint-Germain, where she managed to educate her grandson, Auguste Carbonnon de Maulincour, and the remainder on her estates at Bordeaux, where she demanded the hand of Natalie Evangelista in marriage for her grand-nephew, Paul de Manerville. Of the family of this girl she had an unfavorable, but just opinion. The Baronne de Maulincour died a short time before her grandson of the chagrin which she felt on account of this young man’s unhappy experiences. A Marriage Settlement. The Thirteen.

  * Some Maulincourts had, during the last century, a place of residence on Chausee de Minimes, in the Marais, of which Elie Magus subsequently became proprietor.

  MAULINCOUR (Auguste Carbonnon de), born in 1797, grandson of the preceding, by whom he was reared; moulded by the Vidame de Pamiers, whom he left but rarely; lived on the rue de Bourbon in Paris; had a short existence, under Louis XVIII., which was full of brilliance and misfortune. Having embraced a military career he was decorated, becoming major in a cavalry regiment of the Royal Guard, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel of a company of body-guards. He vainly courted Madame de Langeais, fell in love with Clemence Desmarets, followed her, compromised her, and persecuted her. By his indiscretions he drew upon himself the violent enmity of Gratien Bourignard, father of Madame Desmarets. In this exciting struggle Maulincour, having neglected the warnings that many self-imposed accidents had brought upon him, also a duel with the Marquis de Ronquerolles, was fatally poisoned and soon after followed the old baroness, his grandmother, to Pere-Lachaise. The Thirteen.

  MAUNY (Baron de), was killed during the Restoration, or after 1830, in the suburbs of Versailles, by Victor (the Parisian), who struck him with a hatchet. The murderer finally took refuge at Aiglemont in the family of his future mistress, Helene. A Woman of Thirty.

  MAUPIN (Camille). (See Touches, Felicite des.)

  MAURICE, valet, employed by the Comte and Comtess de Restaud, during the Restoration. His master believed his servant to be faithful to his interests, but the valet, on the contrary, was true to those of the wife who opposed her husband in everything. Father Goriot. Gobseck.

  MEDAL (Robert), celebrated and talented actor, who was on the Parisian stage in the last years of Louis Philippe, at the time when Sylvain Pons directed the orchestra in Gaudissart’s theatre. Cousin Pons.

  MELIN, inn-keeper or “cabaretier” in the west of France, furnished lodging in 1809 to the Royalists who were afterwards condemned by Mergi, and himself received five years of confinement. The Seamy Side of History.

  MELMOTH (John), an Irishman of pronounced English characteristics, a Satanical character, who made a strange agreement with Rodolphe Castanier, Nucingen’s faithless cashier, whereby they were to make a reciprocal exchange of personalities; in 1821, he died in the odor of holiness, on rue Ferou, Paris. Melmoth Reconciled.

  MEMMI (Emilio). (See Varese, Prince de.)

  MENE-A-BIEN, cognomen of Coupiau.

  MERGI (De), magistrate during the Empire and the Restoration, whose activity was rewarded by both governments, inasmuch as he always struck the members of the party out of power. In 1809 the court over which he presided was charged with the cases of the “Chauffeurs of Mortagne.” Mergi showed great hatred in his dealings with Madame de la Chanterie. The Seamy Side of History.

  MERGI (De), son of the preceding, married Vanda de Bourlac. The Seamy Side of History.

  MERGI (Baronne Vanda de), born Bourlac, of Polish origin on her mother’s side, belonged to the family of Tarlowski, married the son of Mergi, the celebrated magistrate, and having survived him, was condemned to poverty and sickness; was aided in Paris by Godefroid, a messenger from Madame de la Chanterie, and attended by her father and Doctors Bianchon, Desplein, Haudry and Moise Halpersohn, the last of whom finally saved her. The Seamy Side of History.

  MERGI (Auguste de), during the last half of Louis Philippe’s reign was in turn a collegian, university student and humble clerk in the Palais at Paris; looked after the needs of his mother, Vanda de Mergi, with sincerest devotion. For her sake he stole four thousand francs from Moise Halpersohn, but remained unpunished, thanks to one of the Brothers of Consolation, who boarded with Madame de la Chanterie. The Seamy Side of History.

  MERKSTUS, banker at Douai, under the Restoration had a bill of exchange for ten thousand francs signed by Balthazar Claes, and, in 1819, presented it to the latter for collection. The Quest of the Absolute.

  MERLE, captain in the Seventy-second demi-brigade; jolly and careless. Killed at La Vivetiere in December, 1799, by Pille-Miche (Cibot). The Chouans.

  MERLIN, of Douai, belonged to the convention, of which he was, for two years, one of the five directors; attorney-general in the court of appeal; in September, 1805, rejected the appeal of the Simeuses, of the Hauteserres, and of Michu, men who had been condemned for kidnapping Senator Malin. The Gondreville Mystery.

  MERLIN (Hector), came to Paris from Limoges, expecting to become a journalist; a Royalist; during the two years in which Lucien de Rubempre made his literary and political beginning, Merlin was especially noted. At that time he was Suzanne du Val-Noble’s lover, and a polemical writer for a paper of the Right-Centre; he also brought honor to Andoche Finot’s little gazette by his contributions. As a journalist he was dangerous, and could, if necessary, fill the chair of the editor-in-chief. In March, 1822, with Theodore Gaillard, he established the “Reveil,” another kind of “Drapeau Blanc.” Merlin had an unattractive face, lighted by two pale-blue eyes, which were fearfully sharp; his voice had in it something of the mewing of a cat, something of the hyena’s asthmatic gasping. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  MERLIN DE LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle), of a noble family of Tours (1826); Francois Birotteau’s friend. The Vicar of Tours.

  MERRET (De), gentleman of Picardie, proprietor of the Grande Breteche, near Vendome, under the Empire; had the room walled up, where he knew the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia, lover of his wife, was in hiding. He died in 1816 at Paris as a result of excesses. La Grande Breteche.

  MERRET (Madame Josephine de), wife of the preceding, mistress of Bagos de Feredia, whom she saw perish almost under her eyes, after she had refused to give him up to her husband. She died in the same year as Merret, at La Grande Breteche, as a result of the excitement she had undergone. The story of Madame de Merret was the subject of a vaudeville production given at the Gymnase-Dramatique under the title of “Valentine.” La Grande Breteche.

  METIVIER, paper merchant on rue Serpente in Paris, under the Restoration; correspondent of David Sechard, friend of Gobseck and of Bidault, accompanying them frequently to the cafe Themis, between rue Dauphine and the Quai des Augustins. Having two daughters, and an income of a hundred thousand francs, he withdrew from business. Lost Illusions. The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.

  METIVIER, nephew and successor of the preceding, one of whose daughters he married. He was interested in the book business, in connection with Morand and Barbet; took advantage of Bourlac in 1838; lived on rue Saint-Dominique d’Enfer, in the Thuillier house in 1840; engaged in usurious transactions with Jeanne-Marie-Brigitte, Cerizet, Dutocq, discounters of various kinds and titles. The Seamy Side of History. The Middle Classes.

  MEYNARDIE (Madame), at Paris, under the Restoration, in all probability, had an establishment or shop in which Ida Gruget was employed; undoubtedly controlled a house of ill-fame, in which Esther van Gobseck was a boarder. The Thirteen. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  MEYRAUX, medical doctor; a scholarly young Parisian, with whom Louis Lambert associated, November, 1819. Until his death in 1832 Meyraux was a member of the rue des Quatre-Vents Cenacle, over which Daniel d’Arthez presided. Louis Lambert. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  MICHAUD (Justin), an old chief quartermaster to the cuirassiers of the Imperial Guard, chevalier of the Legion of
Honor. He married one of the Montcornet maids, Olympe Charel, and became, under the Restoration, head warden of the Montcornet estates at Blangy in Bourgogne. Unknown to himself he was secretly beloved by Genevieve Niseron. His military frankness and loyal devotion succumbed before an intrigue formed against him by Sibilet, steward of Aigues, and by the Rigous, Soudrys, Gaubertins, Fourchons and Tonsards. On account of the complicity of Courtecuisse and Vaudoyer the bullet fired by Francois Tonsard, in 1823, overcame the vigilance of Michaud. The Peasantry.

  MICHAUD (Madame Justin), born Olympe Charel, a virtuous and pretty farmer’s daughter of Le Perche; wife of the preceding; chambermaid of Madame de Montcornet — born Troisville — before her marriage and induction to Aigues in Bourgogne. Her marriage to Justin Michaud was the outcome of mutual love. She had in her employ Cornevin, Juliette and Gounod; sheltered Genevieve Niseron, whose strange disposition she seemed to understand. For her husband, who was thoroughly hated in the Canton of Blangy, she often trembled, and on the same night that Michaud was murdered she died from over-anxiety, soon after giving birth to a child which did not survive her. The Peasantry.

  MICHEL, writer at Socquard’s cafe and coffee-house keeper at Soulanges in 1823. He also looked after his patron’s vineyard and garden. The Peasantry.