Part 11 (2/2)
Bazot, Notaire Amiens, had an imitation of the old style of armorial plate, with a ribbon on which the dates 1548 and 1848 appear. There is no explanation known of the first date, 1548.
Milsan attempts a weak pun on his name, bank notes for 1,000 and 100 francs represent the words _Mille cent_. This is the kind of joke that even a virtuous man might make in the seclusion of his own family circle, but that any sane man should engrave, revise it, print it, and finally paste it in all his books is something which almost destroys our faith in human nature.
A member of the famous publis.h.i.+ng house, Mons. Ambroise Firmin-Didot (author of a ”History of Wood-Engraving”) had an original and very appropriate design printed in gold on red morocco. In allusion to the date of the foundation of his firm, and their ancient sign, it bore the device: _a la bible d'or_ 1698, and the inscription _Bibliotheca Ambrosii Firmini Didoti_, whilst in the centre was an open bible. This is just one of the few plates of this period, interesting for its owner's sake, and for its originality, which collectors would wish to have, but it is rather difficult to obtain.
R. C. G. de Pixerecourt is found on the book-plate of the prolific dramatic author whose real appellations were Rene Charles Guilbert. As he was born at Pixerecourt he enn.o.bled himself by calling himself _de Pixerecourt_, a piece of vanity which probably deceived no one. If the State were to tax all these a.s.sumptions of n.o.bility, a good addition would be made to the French revenue. In other respects his ex-libris was modest enough; he did not steal a coat-of-arms, but had the simple Cross of the Legion of Honour with two branches of oak, and for motto the last line of the following charming sonnet by Desbarreaux Bernard.
SONNET.
Mes livres sont ma joie! aussi sur eux je veille Comme veille l'avare aupres de son tresor; Et mon esprit charme, qui rarement sommeille, Les prend, les lit, les quitte et les reprend encor.
Ne menageant pour eux, ni prix, ni soins, ni veille, Toujours prompt, toujours pret a prendre mon essor; Aux timides conseils fermant surtout l'oreille, Nouveau Jason, je cours, ravir ma toison d'or!
Tout nous trompe ici-bas, les hommes et les choses, La vipere et le taon s'abritent sous les roses, Le peuple a la vertu ne crois plus desormais,
Le trompeur, le trompe, conspirent a portes closes, Du s.e.xe on sait la ruse et les metamorphoses, _Un livre est un ami qui ne trompe jamais_.
THE SECOND EMPIRE.
Owing to a variety of circ.u.mstances Louis Philippe became unpopular, and at length in 1848 there were serious disturbances in Paris. It is probable that a man of strong will might have put these down with some little bloodshed, but Louis Philippe was a kindly, peace-loving man, and rather than face the horrors of a civil war he abdicated, and the second Republic was proclaimed, to be quickly changed into the Second Empire, under Napoleon III.
Par le temps renverse, quand cet empire immense, Chef-d'uvre de genie autant que de puissance.
Un jour n'offrira plus aux siecles a venir Que de grandes lecons et qu'un grand souvenir.
These lines were written about the First Empire, but are still more appropriate to the Second, which is now, indeed, nothing more than a name connected with the saddest of souvenirs.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF MONSIEUR RISTON.
Engraved by D. Collin.]
Under the Second Empire book-plates began to have a distinctly personal character, more originality in conception, together with much greater freedom and _abandon_ in execution. Humorous designs also occasionally appear, where all had hitherto been formal, cold, pompous, or severe.
The simple heraldic plate falls into disfavour amongst those who are ent.i.tled to bear arms, though curiously enough the a.s.sumption of false arms and t.i.tles goes on exactly as before.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE VICOMTE BEUGNOT.]
In 1857 the Minister of Justice addressed a report on this topic to the emperor, a.s.serting ”que jamais peut-etre la tendance a sortir de sa position et a se parer de t.i.tres auxquels on n'a pas droit ne s'est manifeste d'une maniere plus regrettable que depuis ces dernieres annees.”
But the evil had existed, still exists, and will continue so long as the vanity of human nature prompts men to lay claim to ancient descent, and to a.s.sume arms and t.i.tles either stolen, ready made, or purchased at the _Bureaux de Genealogistes_ which abound in Paris as in London.
It is no new crime, this sn.o.bbism--Moliere jested at it two centuries ago:
”Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre, Qui n'ayant pour tout bien qu'un seul quartier de terre, Y fit tout a l'entour faire un fosse bourbeux, Et de Monsieur de l'Isle en prit le nom pompeux.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF M. LE COMTE LANJUINAIS.]
As for the real heraldry of the Second Empire, such as there was of it, the fas.h.i.+on of the First Empire was revived by Napoleon III., whose constant endeavour it was to make the French people recognize in him the nephew of his uncle, whilst they, on the other hand, would not seriously believe that he was even the son of his reputed father. ”Vous n'avez rien du grand Empereur Napoleon,” said his cousin Plon-plon to him one day. ”You are mistaken, I have all his poor relations,” replied the easy, good-natured Louis Napoleon, who was in addition hampered by the descendants of the courtiers of the first Napoleon.
<script>