Part 19 (2/2)
”Ces rubans, ces cordons, et ces chaines dorees: Des esclaves des rois ces pompeuses livrees, Ne sont que des hochets dont la vaine splendeur Deguise le neant d'une folle grandeur.”
M. de Neufchateau was a busy man and a versatile, writing on politics, social economy, history, and agriculture in turns, but it is as a _poet_ that he will be known to posterity through his book-plate, which collectors will ever prize as a monument of egregious vanity.
M. Francois de Neufchateau died in 1828.
There is a chapter in ”Ex-Libris Ana” (Paris, L. Joly) devoted to ma.n.u.script inscriptions of owners.h.i.+p in books; one is given, as having been commonly written in his books, by an author named Colle:
”A Colle ce livre apartint Auparavant qu'il te parvint.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF N. FRANcOIS DE NEUFCHATEAU.
Dans un siecle ou l'or seul fut un objet d'envie, De l'or je ne fus point epris.
J'aimai le bien public, j'y devouai ma vie, J'en ai recu le digne prix: Du plus grand des Heros l'estime peu commune M'a dote de cet ecusson; Honneur bien preferable aux dons de la fortune Il m'offre une double lecon.
L'agreable est ici figure par le Cygne, Et l'utile par les Epis: Trop heureux, en effet, qui serait juge digne De ces emblemes reunis!
O mes livres cheris! conservez cette image, Seul tresor que je laisserai; Et, long temps apres moi, rendez encore hommage A la main qui m'a decore!
Ce livre fait partie de la bibliotheque du Senateur Comte de l'Empire,
N. FRANcOIS DE NEUFCHATEAU,
Le premier des Presidens du Senat Conservateur, Grand Officier de la Legion d'Honneur, t.i.tulaire de la Senatorerie de Bruxelles, L'un des quarante de la Cla.s.se de l'Inst.i.tut qui succede a l'Academie Francaise, President de la Societe d'Agriculture de Paris pour la sixieme fois en 1811, etc.]
Contrasting with this schoolboy rhyme is the sad farewell to her children, written by Marie Antoinette in her prayer-book only a few hours before she went to the scaffold:
”Ce 16 Octobre, a 4 h. du matin. Mon Dieu! ayez pitie de moi! mes yeux n'ont plus de larmes pour prier pour vous, mes pauvres enfants. Adieu, adieu!
”Marie Antoinette.”
Scarcely does the world contain a more pathetic doc.u.ment.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF MARIE-ELISABETH-JOSEPH WEIGEL.]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XV.
BOOK-PLATES OF SOME FAMOUS MEN.
The name of Francois Rabelais, priest, doctor, wit, satirist, and philanthropist, eclipses all other early French writers. In ”Les Portraits de Rabelais” (1880), M. Georges d'Albenas a.s.serted that a certain Professor C. Cavalier possessed an Aldine Plato in which was a piquant ex-libris of the ill.u.s.trious Rabelais, of undoubted authenticity.
It is singular that such an a.s.sertion, made so long ago, should have received so little attention. Could it have been verified, the plate would certainly be one of the most precious relics in the world, not only as a personal souvenir of the creator of Gargantua and Pantagruel, but as the very earliest known French ex-libris.
As Rabelais died in 1553 his book-plate would necessarily be at least twenty years earlier than that of Alboise of Autun, which is dated 1574, and probably even some years older than that.
But in the earlier edition of this treatise, I remarked that it was scarcely credible that such a treasure as this could exist without having become generally known to collectors of literary curios, who would, long ere now, have fully described the book-plate of Francois Rabelais.
This paragraph was noted by several French collectors, and more particularly by Doctor L. Bouland, President of the French Society, who at once put himself in communication with M. Georges d'Albenas.
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