[244] Parny was born in the Île Bourbon.—T.
[245] I here omit some lines quoted from Parny.—T.
[246] Jacques Necker (1732-1804), Controller-General from 1776 to 1781, 1788 to 1789, and 1789 to 1790.—T.
[247] Ginguené was accredited as Ambassador of the French Republic at Turin in the early part of 1798. By affectation of simplicity, and also doubtless from economy, he caused his wife to be dispensed from appearing at the audiences in Court dress. He did not lose an hour before dispatching a special courier to carry the great piece of news to the Foreign Minister: the Citizeness Ambassadress had appeared in a pet-en-l'air! Within a very few days, Talleyrand had signed Ginguené's recall.—B.
A pet-en-l'air is a very vulgar term for a short morning gown.—T.
[248] The Décade philosophique, founded 10 Floréal Year II. (29 April 1794). Ginguené was its editor-in-chief. In 1804, after the Empire had been established, it changed its title to that of Revue philosophique, littéraire et politique. It ceased to appear in 1807.—B.
[249] Ponce Denis Escouchard Le Brun (1729-1807), nicknamed the French Pindar, a versatile poet and epigrammatist, who sang by turns, and with equal fervor, the Monarchy, the Republic, and the Empire. Ginguené edited and published his Collected Works in 1811.—T.
[250] For an account of this "classical supper," see the Recollections of Madame Vigée-Lebrun. Le Brun recited imitations of Anacreon, crowned with Pindar's laurels.—B.
[251] It is true that Le Brun wrote trenchant versus against Bonaparte, but he kept them to himself, and took care to publish those in which he extolled him. Bonaparte awarded him a pension of 6000 francs.—B.
[252] Chamfort was his adopted name. He never knew his real name nor that of his father.—T.