He carried this sincerity into his religion. D’Argenson may sneer at him as a petit dévot, but his piety was at any rate perfectly genuine. It was the fruit, partly of a careful religious education, and partly of the influence of the Abbé de Rancé. For the monastery of La Trappe was only fifteen miles from La Ferté-Vidame and Saint-Simon often visited it as a child in company with his father. When he came to man’s estate he regarded his father’s friend with that deep and whole-hearted admiration which was one of the finer traits of his character. Every year during the Abbé’s life-time—he died in 1700—Saint-Simon went into retreat at the monastery during Passion-week, and he often consulted the Abbé on matters of conscience. From the Abbé he learnt to look with disfavour on Jansenism, but, as he came to judge more for himself, he was impressed by the noble lives of “Les Messieurs de Port-Royal,” and he declared that recent centuries had produced nothing more saintly, more pure, more learned, more practical, and more elevated, than that famous society. With the Jesuits he was on good terms all his life, and his portrait of Père La Chaise is kindly and appreciative. But in his later volumes he often speaks of them in a hostile spirit, and though he was outwardly on good terms with Père Tellier he cordially disliked him, and his portrait of him is one of the most unflattering in his gallery. In questions of ecclesiastical policy he was, as might be expected from one who was a patriot before he was a Churchman and who did not pretend to theological learning, a convinced Gallican. It was as such, and not as an upholder of Jansenism, that he was strongly opposed to the bull Unigenitus.
We have seen that Saint-Simon began to make notes for his Memoirs in July, 1694. Probably these took more or less the form of a diary and consisted of personal impressions, information that he had picked up from various sources, and so forth. Then in 1729 his friend the Duc de Luynes procured for him the journal which the Duke’s grandfather, the Marquis de Dangeau, had kept with extraordinary regularity and accuracy from 1684 down to his death in 1720. Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau, had come to the Court of Louis XIV with no particular advantages of birth, or wealth, or interest. But by his readiness to oblige, his adaptability, and his honesty he made himself indispensable. Among his accomplishments was that of writing vers de société with great facility, which procured his election to the Académie française at the age of thirty. But his chief passport to favour and fortune was his skill and success, coupled with perfect probity, in all kinds of card-games. This is Mme de Sévigné’s account of a game of reversi at Versailles in 1676, in which the King, the Queen, Mme de Montespan, Mme de Soubise, Dangeau, and others took part:
Je voyais jouer Dangeau; et j’admirais combien nous sommes sots auprès de lui. Il ne songe qu’à son affaire, et gagne où les autres perdent; il ne néglige rien, il profite de tout, il n’est point distrait: en un mot, sa bonne conduite défie la fortune; aussi les deux cent mille francs en dix jours, les cent mille écus en un mois, tout cela se met sur le livre de sa recette.
Dangeau’s memoirs are little more than a Court journal, in which he seldom allows himself a comment. But the regularity with which it is noted up day by day, the accuracy of its information, and the multitude of small details in which it abounds, make it a useful and valuable authority, as Sainte-Beuve has shewn in the five causeries which he devoted to it[1]. A couple of citations from the year 1688, complete for the day to which they refer, will give an idea of its character:
Lundi, 26 [janvier] à Versailles. Le roi alla tirer; Monseigneur courut le loup; le soir, il y eut appartement.—Le roi dit qu’il vouloit recommencer à Marly de courre le cerf à cheval. Depuis sa maladie il ne l’avoit couru qu’en calèche. On dit que M. de Noirmoustier, qui est aveugle, va épouser la veuve de feu M. de Brémont qui est fort riche.
Lundi, 1er mars, à Versailles. Le roi dîna à son petit couvert, et alla tirer. Monseigneur courut le loup, qui le mena fort loin d’ici; il n’arriva qu’à onze heures du soir.—Il y eut comédie.—Après souper M. le Duc donna bal en masque chez lui, où Monseigneur demeura jusqu’à la fin, malgré la fatigue de la journée; les officiers de la garde prétendent qu’il a fait plus de quarante lieues aujourd’hui.
It is but fair to add that the average entry for the day is rather longer than this, and not so wholly devoid of interest. Saint-Simon is superb in his contempt:
La bassesse d’un humble courtisan, le culte du maître et de tout ce qui est ou sent la faveur, la prodigalité des plus fades et des plus misérables louanges, l’encens éternel et suffoquant jusque des actions du Roi les plus indifférentes, la terreur et la fadeur suprême qui ne l’abandonnent nulle part pour ne blesser personne, excuser fort, principalement dans les généraux et les autres personnes du goût du Roi, de Mme de Maintenon, des ministres, toutes ces choses éclatent dans toutes les pages, dont il est rare que chaque journée en remplisse plus d’une, et dégoûtent merveilleusement.
But Saint-Simon recognised that this commonplace and uncritical Journal, with its accurate chronology and its orderly arrangement, could be of great service to anyone who wished to write true memoirs[2]. Accordingly he had a copy made of the work and during the years 1729-1738 busied himself with adding notes. Some of these were of considerable length, such as the original draft of the tableau or long digression on the character of Louis XIV and his reign, and an elaborate portrait of Louvois, which was not inserted in the Memoirs. About the year 1739 he began to arrange his materials which consisted of the Journal with the notes, other notes which he had accumulated during the last forty-five years, portraits, detailed descriptions, and various essays on the history and genealogy of certain families. He was now able to begin writing out his Memoirs in full. In 1740 he was dealing with the events of 1701. In 1741 or 1742 he had reached the year 1709. By September, 1745, he had come to the end of the reign of Louis XIV, and the tableau in its final form was written between that date and March, 1746. The whole work, which ends with the death of the Regent, was completed in 1751.
On Saint-Simon’s death his Memoirs with his other papers were claimed by his creditors, but the Government took possession of them, and they were read in manuscript by various persons, including Mme du Deffand, who recognised their remarkable merit. Extracts were printed by the Abbé de Voisnenon, and incomplete editions appeared in 1788, 1791, and 1818. But it was not till 1829-1830 that the first authentic and complete edition was published in 21 volumes by General de Saint-Simon. It was, however, badly edited and in 1856-1858, the manuscript having been sold by the General to MM. Hachette for 100,000 francs, Chéruel published a new edition in 20 volumes. This was followed by another edition under the same editorship, with the assistance of Ad. Régnier fils (23 vols. 1873-1886). Neither of these editions was furnished with notes, and before the later one was completed M. de Boislisle had begun to edit for the same firm a noble annotated edition, which is now in progress. The first volume appeared in 1879 and it has now reached the thirtieth. The twenty-eighth contains the famous tableau of the reign of Louis XIV, and the twenty-ninth (1918) consists of an index to all the previous volumes.