Part 9 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST REPUBLIC.
In Great Britain political changes have had comparatively little effect upon the development of art, whereas in France the great events of her history have left their impress deeply on her arts, and during the last hundred years especially, nearly every political convulsion (and there have been many) has been rapidly followed by some great change in the fas.h.i.+on of her book-plates. It therefore becomes absolutely necessary to refer to some of the leading features in French history in order properly to appreciate the ex-libris of the various periods.
For the antiquary, the prints produced in France before the Revolution must ever possess the greatest interest, indicating as they do so clearly the tastes, the vanity, the luxury of that _beau monde_ which was the France of those days when the lower orders counted for nothing, being but the hewers of wood, the drawers of water, and the _chair-a-canon_ with which her kings and marshals won glory.
No attempt was made to hide the corruption and immorality which prevailed at Court--the amours of the kings were openly acknowledged, the highest t.i.tles were bestowed upon their mistresses, and the royal arms of France were borne by their almost innumerable offspring.
Although some of these women were of the humblest origin they affected a taste for literature and art, and the names of Diane de Poitiers, d.u.c.h.esse de Valentinois; Gabrielle d'Estrees; Marie Touchet; la d.u.c.h.esse de la Valliere; la Marquise de Maintenon; Madame de Montespan; la Marquise de Pompadour; la Comtesse du Barry, with many others of lesser note, remind us that they formed extensive libraries. Books bearing their arms and ciphers on the bindings, or their book-plates, are still those most eagerly sought for by collectors of to-day. But what a _bagatelle_ was all this as compared with the vast sums these courtesans drained from the nation, and the degradation they inflicted upon the aristocracy into whose ranks they and their children were elevated.
Whilst on the other hand, the arrogance of the old n.o.bility, their selfishness, their cruelty to their dependants, and their refusal to forego any of their pay or privileges in the black days of famine and national bankruptcy towards the close of the eighteenth century, hastened their fall and that of the monarchy.
Sir Walter Scott states that at the outbreak of the Revolution there were about eighty thousand families enjoying all the rights and privileges of n.o.bility; and the order was divided into different cla.s.ses, which looked on each other with mutual jealousy and contempt.
On this point let us quote the reports of two acknowledged authorities.
M. de Saint-Allais, in his book ”L'Ancienne France,” observes: ”Nos historiens les plus accredites ont remarque qu'il existait en France, _avant la Revolution_, environ soixante dix mille fiefs, ou arriere-fiefs dont a peu pres 3,000 etaient eriges en d.u.c.h.es, marquisats, comtes, vicomtes et baronies, et qu'ils comptaient aussi en ce royaume environ 4,000 families d'ancienne n.o.blesse, c'est-a-dire de n.o.blesse chevaleresque et immemoriale, et environ 90,000 familles qui avaient acquis la n.o.blesse par l'exercice de charges de magistrature et de finances ou par le service militaire ou par des an.o.bliss.e.m.e.nts quelconques.” Whilst in his ”n.o.bles et Vilains,” M. Cha.s.sant states: ”Il y avait en France, en 1788, au moins 8,000 marquis, comtes, et barons, dont 2,000 au plus l'etaient legitimement, 4,000 bien dignes de l'etre, mais qui ne l'etaient que par tolerance abusive.”
From these statements it is evident that the number of n.o.bles, or soi-disant n.o.bles, was enormous; that their privileges (many of them grossly immoral) caused them to be extremely unpopular; that to keep up some kind of state and show made them exacting as landlords, whilst the etiquette of their rank prevented them from embarking in any kind of trade or business, so that employments in the Court, the Church, the Army, Law and the Civil Service, were almost entirely monopolized by this cla.s.s. These offices, though highly paid, were, of course, totally unproductive, and created still further burdens to fall on the shoulders of the overtaxed lower orders.
Nor were the n.o.bles themselves altogether to be envied--many of them were miserably poor, and were yet compelled to support the dignity of their rank, and to appear in state at a court, at once the most splendid and most improvident in the world.
They had not the resources possessed by the poorer scions of the British n.o.bility, who are free now to act as directors of public companies, stock-brokers, wine merchants, or railway managers; who may own collieries, or hansom cabs, or breed cattle without loss of caste or privilege.
As to the king, Louis XVI., he was a man of no decision of character, incapable of reading the signs of the times, or of realizing that the future of the monarchy, of France itself, depended on the reforms required in the State. So little did he appreciate the serious position that when, in 1788, his ministers were discussing where the Etats Generaux (n.o.bles, clergy, and tiers etats) should a.s.semble in the following May, Louis suddenly cut short all their arguments by exclaiming that they could only meet at Versailles because of the hunting (_a cause des cha.s.ses_).
”C'etait bien de cha.s.ser qu'alors il s'agissait.”
At length the storm, which had long been foreseen, burst over their heads, and in less than two years a decree was proposed (on June 20th, 1790) by Lameth, that the t.i.tles of duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier should be suppressed. This was carried by a large majority in the French a.s.sembly, and all armorial bearings were abolished at the same time.
When all around was in a state of turmoil and revolution, armorial book-plates became dangerous to their owners. Many were torn out and destroyed, others were altered and adapted to the feelings of the time by changing high-sounding t.i.tles into the simple style of a French citizen.
The ex-libris of the Citizen Boyveau-Laffecteur may be cited as an example. Before the Revolution he used an allegorical plate on which was shown a young calf drinking at a fountain (Boyveau); on his s.h.i.+eld he carried a stork, as an emblem of prudence and wisdom, and the whole was surmounted by the handsome coronet of a count. Now, Monsieur Boyveau-Laffecteur was a doctor of medicine, and the inventor of useful medical receipts, but whether he ever was a count, or ent.i.tled to carry the coronet of one, is more than doubtful. These are minor details, however, for when the Doctor found that coronets, and the heads that wore them, were going strangely out of fas.h.i.+on, he effaced the obnoxious emblem of n.o.bility, placing in its stead an enormous and aggressively prominent cap of liberty. This altered plate is found less frequently than the former; it may be that on the restoration of the monarchy he replaced the coronet, and re-elected himself a count.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE VICOMTE DE BOURBON BUSSET, 1788.]
Another altered plate is rather less striking in its political inconsistency: ”De la Bibliotheque de Nic. Franc. Jos. Richard, avocat en Parlement, President a St. Diez.” Simple and inoffensive as was this label, the owner thought it safer during the Revolution to cover it with another, thus: ”De la Bibliotheque de Nicholas Francois-Joseph RICHARD, _Citoyen de St. Die_.”
But a far more interesting souvenir of the Reign of Terror is the second book-plate of the Vicomte de Bourbon Busset.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF L. A. P. BOURBON BUSSET, 1793.]
The first, which is signed ”Fme. Jourdan sculp., 1788,” shows his armorial bearings surmounted by his coronet, whilst beneath are enumerated his t.i.tles and offices.
Over this plate is generally found pasted a much simpler design, showing how that the grand n.o.ble of 1788 under the monarchy had, in 1793, become plain Bourbon Busset, a French citizen.
Now the Vicomte de Bourbon Busset was an aristocrat (even if an illegitimate one), for on his first book-plate he bore the royal arms of France, (debruised by a baton), with the cross of Jerusalem in chief, and his two supporters the angels. .h.i.therto carried only by members of the royal family. Yet he managed to escape the horrors of the revolutionary period, and survived the Reign of Terror, probably by studying the signs of the times, and by casting his lot in with the _sans-culottes_. In any case, he lived in Paris until the 9th of February, 1802. The bindings on his books were stamped with the arms, as on his book-plate, but without the supporters.