[629] An allusion to some members of the clergy and legal profession who frequented fashionable society.
[630] According to the Abbé de Chaulieu, Arténice is Catherine Turgot, the wife of Gilles dʼAligres, Seigneur de Boislandry, who, after a scandalous lawsuit, separated from her one year before this “Fragment” appeared (1694). She was then only twenty-one, and became, it is said, the mistress of de Chaulieu; afterwards she married again a certain M. de Chevilly, a captain of the royal guards. Her friend, Mademoiselle de la Force, is supposed to have been Elvira.
[631] An allusion to the President de Harlay. See page [237], note 470.
[632] This paragraph and the preceding one seem to refer to Pellisson. See page [333], note 608.
[633] A grain is the 576th part of an ounce, which is the 16th part of a pound.
[634] The original has honnête homme (see page [43], note 121) for “gentleman,” homme de bien for “honest man” (see page [49], note 137), and habile homme for “clever man.”
[635] For “ombre” see page [172], note 345.
[636] A portrait of La Fontaine (see page [335], § 19), who was still alive when this paragraph appeared (1691).
[637] This is a sketch of Pierre Corneille (see page [9], note 45, and page [18], note 61), and Augustus, Pompey, Nicomedes, and Heraclius are the names of some of his tragedies.
[638] Theodas is Santeul (1630-1697), one of the most elegant of the modern Latin poets, whose character, immediately recognised by all his contemporaries, seems to have been the compound of folly and sense La Bruyère made it out to be; he is said to have died in consequence of having drunk a glass of wine and snuff given to him by the Duke de Bourbon, the father of our authorʼs pupil.