[719] Libertin in the original. See page [161], note 319.
[720] It was two years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) that La Bruyère made these remarks about “pretended piety,” for since the influence of Madame de Maintenon over Louis XIV., all the courtiers were turning pious. See also page [207], note 431.
[721] Our author is careful to add in a note, “assumed piety.”
[722] Connaître le flanc is used by La Bruyère. Some of the commentators think this is a military term used purposely by our author.
[723] None of La Bruyèreʼs commentators have observed that the “unknown jargon” seems to refer to the mystic quietism taught by Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (1648-1717), who was at the height of her reputation when this paragraph was published for the first time in the eighth edition of the “Characters” in 1694. To our author has also been attributed “Dialogues sur le Quiétisme.”
[724] La Bruyère is always very careful when he uses the word “devout” or “pious,” in a bad sense, to add in a note, “assumed” or “false piety.” See also [§ 22].
[725] See page [43], note 121.
[726] This “devout courtier” was Paul de Beauvillier, Dulce de Saint-Aignan, peer of France, gouverneur des enfants de France. See also page [197], note 405.
[727] Sainte-Beuve, in his Histoire de Port Royal, justly observes that La Bruyère showed more courage in writing the character of Onuphrius than Molière displayed in bringing out his Tartuffe, for the latter comedy made its appearance in 1667, and Onuphrius in 1691, five years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when Louis XIV. was already under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, and had become devout.
[728] An allusion to the first words said by Tartuffe (act iii. scene 2) in Molièreʼs play of that name: “Laurent, serrez ma haire avec ma discipline.”