[441] De Bussy-Rabutin, Madame de Sévigné, the Marshal de Villeroy, and the Duke de Richelieu, all describe in their writings the misery they felt on not seeing the king.
[442] This seems to be an ironical allusion to the idolatrous worship the courtiers felt, or at least pretended to feel, for Louis XIV., whom they considered “the image of the Divinity on earth.”
[443] Pascal expresses a similar thought in his Pensées, vi. 19, and so do other authors. The commentators mention as known court-wits the Count de Grammont, the Duke de Roquelaure, the Duke de Lauzun, the Count de Bussy-Rabutin, and others.
[444] M. de Bontemps and the Marquis de Dangeau, both of whom we have already mentioned (see page [210], note 437, and page [156], note 311), seem to be meant.
[445] The commentators give the names of several personages, all already mentioned before, such as the Count dʼAubigné, the Chancellor Boucherat, the Archbishop of Rheims, Le Tellier, and others.
[446] All the “Keys” say that M. de Pomponne (1618-1699) is meant by Aristides; but he was still in disgrace when this paragraph was published (1689), and remained so for two years longer.
[447] Straton is undoubtedly the Duke de Lauzun, and his brother-in-law, the Duke de Saint-Simon, admits it. Lauzun had been a great favourite of the king, and had nearly married Louis XIV.ʼs cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, but he was disgraced, imprisoned for ten years, partly reinstated in the kingʼs favour, banished again from the court, and finally sent with an army of French auxiliaries to assist James II. in Ireland, where he was present at the battle of the Boyne. The Duke died in 1723, at the age of ninety.
[448] The first and last paragraphs of this chapter are an epitome of the whole.
[449] Nearly all commentators suppose that Theagenes is Phillippe de Vendôme (1655-1727), grand prieur de Malte, a grandson of Henry IV. and Gabrielle dʼEstrées, and one of the most profligate men of his age; but it is more likely that La Bruyère wished to reprove his former pupil, the Duke de Bourbon, who at the time this paragraph appeared (1691) was but twenty-three years old, and addicted to very bad company.
[450] This seems to be an allusion to Louis XIV., who never felt the loss of any of his ministers or officers. The latter part of the above paragraph probably refers to the successors of Turenne, Condé, and Colbert, who had all been dead some time before the year 1689, when it first appeared.