Part 21 (1/2)

”_Dulce_--Delightful, says the poet, _Est_--is it, and right well we know it, _Desipere_--to play the fool _In loco_--when we're out of school.”

M. Gueulette was a worthy disciple of Horace, for more than eighty years he enjoyed the work, the pleasures, and the success of life; he acc.u.mulated a large and valuable library, and his books were probably the first to be decorated with a book-plate bearing not only the arms of their owner, but also allegorical allusions to his tastes and literary labours.

M. Gueulette had a second and smaller plate, signed Bellanger; this was similar in its general features, but different in many of its details to the above.

The Abbe Joseph-Marie Terray, Controller-General of Finance under Louis XV., was one of those men who, by their cruel exactions, dissolute living, and reckless expenditure, were directly responsible for the ruin of French credit and for the great Revolution which ensued. Terray was born at Boen in 1715, and died in Paris in February, 1778, almost universally hated and despised. It is true that he had collected a handsome library, that his books were sumptuously bound, and that he had a reputation as a patron of art and letters. But holding many highly paid sinecure offices, and being the proprietor of rich ecclesiastical livings (not to mention the gross jobbery he exercised in the state finances), he could well afford to buy expensive books and to employ a few bookbinders. History records no other good trait in the character of this priestly financier, who was both physically and morally ugly, depraved, and rapacious.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE ABBe JOSEPH-MARIE TERRAY.]

Was it for him that this epitaph was written?--

”Ci-git un grand personnage, Qui fut d'un ill.u.s.tre lignage, Qui posseda mille vertus; Qui ne se trompa jamais, qui fut toujours fort sage; Je n'en dirai pas d'avantage, _C'est trop mentir pour cent ecus_.”

The game c.o.c.k was a favourite emblem with the ancient Greeks and Romans, on account of its courage and endurance. ”The gait of the c.o.c.k,” writes Pliny, ”is proud and commanding; he walks in a stately stride, with his head erect and elevated crest; alone, of all birds, he habitually looks up to the sky, raising at the same time his curved and graceful tail, and inspiring terror even in the lion himself, that most intrepid of animals.” He will fight to the death, and use his last breath to crow out a defiance, whilst the conqueror, standing over his vanquished rival, will flap his wings and loudly proclaim his victory.

For many ages the game c.o.c.k, as brave and n.o.ble a bird as any that lives, was the badge of our Gallic neighbours:

”Le coq francais est le coq de la gloire, Par les revers il n'est point abattu; Il chante fort lorsqu'il a la victoire, Encor plus fort quand il est bien battu.

Le coq francais est le coq de la gloire Toujours chanter est sa grande vertu.

Est il imprudent, est-il sage?

C'est ce qu'on ne peut definir: Mais qui ne perd jamais courage, Se rend maitre de l'avenir.”

Besides being a national emblem, many ancient and n.o.ble French houses bore a c.o.c.k on their s.h.i.+elds. There were c.o.c.ks ”cantant,” holding up their heads with opened beaks, as though they were crowing, and c.o.c.ks ”hardy,” which stood on one leg with the other aggressively uplifted.

Louis-Philippe, on being made King of the French, adopted the bird standing in this warlike att.i.tude, a circ.u.mstance which did not escape the attention of the Legitimist opponents of the bourgeois king. Shortly after his accession a biting satire was circulated in anti-Orleanist society. It set forth how the n.o.ble Gallic c.o.c.k, raking in the dunghill, had scratched up King Louis-Philippe, who, in exulting grat.i.tude, had placed the bird in the arms of France. Be this as it may, the Gallic c.o.c.k held his place on the escutcheon of the Orleanist dynasty until the events of 1848 compelled Louis-Philippe to escape to England under the a.s.sumed name of Mr. Smith.

M. Gambetta carried this bird, in the act of crowing, on his book-plate, with an equally gallant motto, ”Vouloir c'est Pouvoir,” but we seek in vain to learn of what was composed the library of Gambetta. This is a mystery! It may be readily surmised that he had not many of the tastes of a bibliophile, nor time in which to indulge them. As to the plate itself, the design was probably suggested by Poulet-Mala.s.sis, and it was engraved by M. Alphonse Legros about 1874, when that artist was commissioned by Sir Charles Dilke to go to Paris to procure a portrait of M. Leon Gambetta.

Proof impressions of the plate exist in four states, all very rare; but the curious feature about it is that M. Gambetta certified in 1882 that he had never made use of it as a book-plate, and when in May, 1895, Dr.

Bouland obtained the loan of the _original copper_ to publish in the ”Archives de la Societe Francaise,” he found it had scarcely been used.

So that the numerous copies of the Gambetta book-plate scattered about must be looked upon as forgeries.

The book-plate of another distinguished Frenchman, Victor Hugo, is also somewhat of a puzzle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF LeON GAMBETTA. (REDUCED.)]

It has been reproduced in nearly every ill.u.s.trated article that has been printed on French ex-libris, with its towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame illuminated by the flash of lightning carrying his name:

”Les tours de Notre-Dame etaient l'H. de son Nom!”

On what occasion can M. Aglaus Bouvenne have designed this celebrated book-plate, seeing that at the time of his death the library of Victor Hugo consisted of less than fifty volumes?

The history is a somewhat curious one.

As is well known, Victor Hugo was an implacable enemy of Napoleon III., and during his reign resided in Guernsey. Wis.h.i.+ng to pay his great countryman a compliment, Mons. Aglaus Bouvenne designed this plate, the towers of Notre Dame being introduced not only to remind Hugo of his beloved Paris, but also in allusion to his famous novel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF VICTOR HUGO.

By Aglaus Bouvenne.]