[689] Theotimus stands for M. Sachot, who was vicar of Saint-Gervais at the time La Bruyère wrote, and used to shrive all the fashionable people, but gradually was supplanted by Bourdaloue, who also succeeded him in his vicarage. The fashion of not bleeding during a fever still exists, and rightly so.
[690] The “Keys” speak of a certain lawyer, Cambout or Cabout, who belonged to the household of the Condés, and of a flute-player, Descosteaux, both passionately fond of flowers, as the supposed originals of the “lover of flowers.”
[691] This lover of fruit was the financier Rambouillet de la Sablière, who had a large garden in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. See also page [173], note 355.
[692] Four well-known antiquarians, the Duke dʼAumont, Vaillant, Le Nostre, and Father Menestrier, the latter author of an Histoire de Louis le grand par les médailles, have been supposed the originals of Diognetes.
[693] Several collectors of prints of the time have been named by the commentators as the original of Democedes.
[694] At the time La Bruyère wrote, the houses on the bridge called the “Petit-Pont” and those in the “Rue Neuve-Notre-Dame” were covered with hangings and adorned with common prints on the days when a procession was passing.
[695] Jacques Callot (1593-1655), a celebrated Lorraine artist and etcher.
[696] In the “Rue Vieille-du-Temple,” in Paris, there was, at the time our author wrote, a mansion erected by M. Amelot de Bisseuil, which was considered one of the curiosities of Paris.
[697] According to some “Keys,” this refers to the Hotel Lesdiguières; according to others, to the hotel of M. de Langlée. See page [188], note 392.
[698] In the original, il donne pension à un homme, antiquated in this sense.