[765] The TT ... were the Theatine monks, who settled in France about 1644, built a splendid church, and tried to raise money by charging for seats, during service, which was held with full orchestral and vocal music, about ten years before our author first published this paragraph, in 1694, in the eighth edition of his book.
[766] Although this paragraph appeared when the “Characters” were first published in 1688, yet the great Bossuet went, five years later, out of his way to attack, in a sermon, Molière, the actor and playwright, although the latter had been dead more than twenty years.
[767] This paragraph reveals to us the quarrels raging between the secular and regular clergy, and seems to point out that, at the time our author wrote, the Barnabites were in vogue as confessors. The “monk” is supposed to have been a certain Father la Combe, the spiritual director of Madame Guyon. See page [393], note 723.
[768] Three parish priests have been named by the commentators as the originals of La Bruyèreʼs portrait, but our author was far more general in his application.
[769] Les fourrures in the original. See page [318], note 587.
[770] The original has the proper name Ambreville, a noted rogue and head of a band of robbers, who was publicly burned at the stake in 1686.
[771] The lady superior of an abbey was appointed by the king, but in a nunnery she was elected by the entire sisterhood; hence our authorʼs remarks about “a popular or a despotic rule.”
[772] When our author wrote, it was the fashion among the upper classes for a man never to be seen in public with his wife. Some years later people began even to be ashamed of being married, and if comedies hold the mirror up to nature, this may be observed in Le Philosophe marié (1727), by N. Destouches, and in Le Préjugé à la Mode (1735), by La Chaussée. For the Cours, see page [164], note 323.
[773] The author states in a note that by “making the most of oneʼs money” he means “lending it out on bills and notes of hand,” for which, according to the old French legislation and the old canonical law no interest could be charged, though some divines allowed trading companies to pay interest on borrowed monies.
[774] Several remarks had been made on this part of the above paragraph whilst La Bruyère was still alive, and a note of the ninth edition of the “Characters” (1696), published one month after the authorʼs death, explained that it only referred to monies deposited in the greffe or clerkʼs office of certain tribunals whilst a lawsuit was going on.